Thursday, June 5, 2014

Whole Tobacco Alkaloids (WTAs)

Remember in my first post when I had stated that I thought that there must be something in cigarettes other then nicotine that is addictive?  Apparently I was on to something!  There were so many smoker-turned-vapers that were complaining of having cravings that traditional nicotine only e-juice couldn't satisfy that researchers have developed a new type of e-juice that contains more of the alkaloids contained in tobacco (and by new, I mean within the past few years, it just hasn't been widely available).  Where regular e-juice focuses on just the nicotine alkaloid, Whole Tobacco Alkaloid (or WTA) e-juice uses a special chemical process to isolate and extract the other minor alkaloids in tobacco.  The end result is an e-juice that more closely mimics the calming effects experienced through smoking that is missing for some vapers.  I have seen the extraction process reported as being somewhat dangerous and it needs to be overseen by an experienced chemist.

I have been searching to try to find out just what these alkaloids are and what they might do.  One vendor of WTA e-juice, Mothers Milk WTA, lists their product as containing, besides nicotine,  Nornicotine, Anabasine, and Anatabine; all alkaloids (naturally occurring organics that contain nitrogen) of tobacco.  The minor alkaloids are said to create a synergy with nicotine and are indeed different metabolites of the substance.  The difference between these other alkaloids and Nicotine is that once ingested, nicotine has a half life of 1-2 hours while  the minor alkaloids have a half life of 4-12 hours (dependent on an individual's body chemistry).  The minor alkaloids are less present in tobacco then nicotine is, however, the levels build up in a regular user's system much faster then nicotine due to their longer half life.

Although WTA liquids do contain chemical in them that are not present in other e-juices, it is important to remember that these compounds are contained in tobacco smoke and are being ingested in smokers anyway.  If you are a smoker becoming a vaper, this does not make a difference and the WTA e-juice may help to make the transition period smother.  Non-smokers new to vaping should probably stay away from WTA liquid as there is no need to take in unnecessary extra chemicals.

I am curious about WTA e-liquid and am playing around with the idea of ordering some to test it out.  I will certainly do this if I begin to have trouble adjusting to vaping only once I am weened off of cigarettes.  I have still been having success with the quitting plan laid out for me be my LIVESTRONG MyQuit app, though I am going to have to adjust it.  I want Saturday, June 14th to be my last day to smoke a cigarette and no matter how many times I redo my plan with that day in mind, the app keeps on setting my date for 0 cigarettes before that.  The last time I adjusted it I accidentally deleted all my data, so I'm not going to keep trying to change it.  I'm going to do 2 more days of 3 cigarettes, then I'll drop to 2.  I am at least happy to know that others had the same problem that I once experienced and that someone out there came up with a solution!

Some online vendors of WTA e-juice:

Aroma eJuice
Mothers Milk WTA
Vapelicious
WholeCig

**Please note, at the time of this post, I have not had experience dealing with any of these listed vendors and cannot comment on quality or service!**

________________________________________________________________________________

1 comment:

  1. Are you looking for the best e juice? Of course you are! Whether you’re just learning the ropes with e cigs or you’re a coil building cloud chaser, everybody needs e juice. But finding quality, delicious e juice at a fair price from a vendor you can trust can be tough sometimes.

    ReplyDelete