Glossary
The terms that show up over and over when you start looking into quitting vapes — explained in plain English, without the marketing spin or the medical jargon.
- Nicotine
- A naturally occurring alkaloid in the tobacco plant. Acts as a stimulant. The half-life in blood is roughly 2 hours, which is why vape devices end up being used continuously across the day rather than in discrete sessions.
- Nicotine salts (salt nic)
- Nicotine combined with an acid (commonly benzoic acid) to lower its pH. Salt nic absorbs through the mouth and lungs much faster and at much higher concentrations than freebase nicotine without the throat burn. This is the formulation in most disposables and pod systems, and it's the main reason quitting vapes is harder than quitting cigarettes.
- Freebase nicotine
- The older, higher-pH form used in traditional e-liquids and refillable mods. Harsher to inhale at high strengths, which historically capped how much nicotine vapers could absorb per puff.
- mg/mL strength
- How much nicotine is dissolved per milliliter of e-liquid. Common values: 3, 6, 12, 18 (older freebase), and 35 or 50 (salt nic). A 5% disposable means roughly 50 mg/mL.
- Cotinine
- The main metabolite of nicotine. Where nicotine itself has a 2-hour half-life, cotinine lasts roughly 16 hours. It's what blood and urine tests actually measure to determine recent nicotine exposure. Clears in 3 to 10 days for most quitters.
- Half-life
- The time it takes for half of a substance to leave your body. Nicotine has a half-life of about 2 hours. After about 5 half-lives (roughly 10 hours), the substance is functionally gone — which is why nicotine withdrawal starts overnight for heavy users.
- Withdrawal
- The physical and psychological symptoms that follow stopping a substance your body has adapted to. For vaping: irritability, anxiety, brain fog, cravings, sometimes mild headache. Peaks at day 2 to 3, mostly resolved by day 7 to 10.
- Cravings
- Short bursts of urge to vape. Two kinds: chemical (driven by falling nicotine levels) and cue-driven (driven by a place, time, or emotional state your brain associates with vaping). The first fades inside a week. The second fades over months.
- Cilia
- Microscopic hair-like structures in your airways that sweep out mucus and trapped particles. Vaping aerosol paralyzes them. They start regrowing within days of quitting, which is why some quitters cough more in week one — that's cilia waking up, not damage.
- PG / VG
- Propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin, the two main carriers in e-liquid. PG carries flavor and gives a throat hit. VG produces vapor clouds. Some people have mild allergic-style reactions to PG, which is one of the more common reasons vapers report quitting feels physically better immediately.
- Disposable
- A pre-filled, pre-charged vape designed to be thrown away when empty. Modern disposables hold 5,000 to 15,000 puffs and high-strength salt nic, packing a much heavier nicotine dose than older pod systems.
- Pod system
- A small refillable or replaceable-cartridge vape. The original wave of high-nicotine vapes (Juul, etc.) were pod systems before disposables dominated.
- Nic sick
- Acute nicotine overdose: nausea, dizziness, sweating, headache. Common with first-time disposable users or vapers who switch to a much higher strength than they're used to.
- Cold turkey
- Quitting completely from one moment to the next, with no taper, NRT, or substitute. Harder first week, shorter total withdrawal, no ongoing decision-making about how much to use today.
- Tapering
- Stepping down nicotine strength or frequency over weeks or months. Works for some heavy users at very high strengths, but requires real discipline because it's easy to just normalize a lower dose without ever quitting.
- Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)
- Patches, gum, lozenges, and pouches that deliver nicotine without the inhalation. Designed to break the hand-to-mouth habit while you wean off the chemical. Effectiveness varies; many vapers find gum and pouches more useful than patches because of the on-demand delivery.
- Chaser effect
- The intense cravings that follow a slip-up. Even one puff after a long quit triggers a cascade of reward signaling that can drive multi-day relapse. Most catastrophic relapses are not from the initial slip but from the chaser binge that follows.
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