rew
Olympian
- Joined
- May 18, 2016
- Messages
- 38,644
Small update - I had assumed I had just (for some reason) become intolerant to all vaping - VG worse than PG, but even PG gives some mucus.
However, then the same thing (2 hour attack of thick mucus) has happened after eating a couple of times in the last 3-4 days now. Which got me thinking - this is more like I've just become more generally allergic to things that hit my throat, rather than just vaping alone.
I scratched my head and thought what had changed recently in my diet/lifestyle, and the only thing new is creatine supplementation, which I started 3 or so weeks ago.
Did a bit of Googling, and lo and behold, creatine is implicated in multiple studies as exacerbating allergic responses in the airways:
Effect of Creatine Supplementation on the Airways of Youth Elite Soccer Players
Owing to its well-established ergogenic potential, creatine is a highly popular food supplement in sports. As an oral supplement, creatine is considered safe and ethical. However, no data exist on the safety of creatine on lung function in athletes. The ...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.govCreatine Supplementation Augments Chronic Allergic Airway Inflammation and Remodelling: from Mice to Human Evidence
Creatine supplementation exacerbates asthma phenotype, but the cellular mechanisms involved in this response are unknown. Forty-Eight C57Bl/6 male mice (n = 2 x 6 mice/group) were distributed into Control (Co), Creatine (Cr), Ovalbumin (OVA) and Ovalbumin+Creatine (OVA+Cr) groups. A chronic...erj.ersjournals.com
I also found a number of anecdotal reports on Reddit of people saying they started experiencing thick mucus after supplementing with creatine.
At the moment, this is just a hunch, but it's quite a big coincidence and there is evidence to support it.
I'll stop taking creatine today and monitor the situation - it can take 4-8 weeks to clear out the additional creatine from your body after supplementation however, so I'll have to wait a while before I can know one way or the other.
Fingers crossed you have found the source.