Hey Vape Fans! Today I’d like to talk about an issue that I am asked about all the time; “What nicotine strength should I use once I have decided to switch from smoking cigarettes to vaping? And when do I start to wean myself off to a lower strength?”
This is definitely an important question when it comes to vaping, especially for a newbie vaper. Getting the wrong nicotine strength is a good way to fail in your attempt to switch. Too much nicotine makes you sick and leary to continue vaping. Too little nicotine can leave you still craving a cigarette, making you fail to make the switch. The secret lies in finding the right level and sticking with it. I have given it a good thinking over and have come to some conclusions that I would like to share with you.
When I first started vaping, I was very concerned that I wouldn’t get the nicotine I craved during the day. I told the guy at the B&M I went to in order to purchase my first e-cig that I wanted the strongest nicotine strength he had available. I asked, and I received. The juice I was given was a 24mg tobacco flavor. Now I can’t blame the store owner because in my eyes he gave me what I asked for. To be honest, I couldn’t hold myself at blame either. I had no idea that the juice was going to be so strong that I couldn’t even take a good drag off of my e-cig. Long story short, my e-cig was shelved and I continued smoking, all the time having that bad experience in the back of my head. Let’s fast forward to the beginning of my career with MBV, and find out how I finally found my niche.
The beauty of working in a vape store is that you get to test out lots of different combos of flavors, hardware and nicotine levels. This gave me an opportunity to really get a grasp on which flavors I liked and didn’t like, and which nicotine strength worked best for me. After a short time of trying all the different strengths, I found that 12mg juice gave me the best results. I found that it provided the right amount of throat hit for me and that it didn’t make me dizzy or my throat sore. Once I coupled that with the right device, I quit smoking overnight. It really was that easy with the right amount of nicotine. But as I’ve said, it took me a while to get there.
One day, I got it into my head that I needed to decrease the amount I vaped in any given day. I figured, “if I raise my nicotine level, I won’t take so many puffs off of my e-cig.” How wrong I was in this type of thinking.
Just like any other substance, nicotine causes long term users to develop a tolerance to the chemical. Most users settle into a comfortable level and rate at which they ingest nicotine and don’t adjust to a higher rate of use when smoking cigarettes. What happens when you go from a lower nicotine strength to a higher one is that your body becomes tolerant to the higher nicotine e-juice. In other words, going to a higher nicotine strength to reduce the frequency that you vape will only normalize you to your new nicotine level, not make you vape less. My best advice to someone who is thinking about trying this: don’t, unless the goal is to require more nicotine.
Dropping your nicotine levels can be just as detrimental to your success with switching to vaping, unless you do it properly. If you are a 24mg vaper, dropping down to 6mg is almost guaranteed to not satisfy your craving and may make you want a cigarette. Dropping your nicotine must be a gradual process of systematically lowering the nicotine content of your juice. The best way to do this is to go by threes, meaning that you drop your nicotine strength 3mgs every three weeks. This allows your body to comfortably adjust to the changes you are making with your habits, as well as provide a nice, smooth transition into a lower strength e-juice. You may not always find a certain strength that you want when using the “threes” method, so you may need to buy a bottle of two different strengths and mix them to your desired strength.
Personally, I am quite happy with my 12mg juice and have had no desire to go up or down. If your goal isn’t to totally quit vaping and smoking, then there isn’t ever a reason to change your strength. Stick with what works for you if you are happy with it. If your plan is to quit vaping after you switch from cigarettes, hopefully this information helps.
You know what they say “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”.