Post-COVID Nicotine Hypersensitivity

[woodsroad]

I seem to have developed a much reduced tolerance for both alcohol and nicotine after my last bout of COVID.

My alcohol tolerance is now just one glass of wine or a 12 oz beer. After that, it really isn't very enjoyable, and get groggy and feel like I took a few cyclobenzaprines. I can feel that one drink the next day, as if I didn't sleep well. It takes a couple days to get back to full normal. I used to have a tremendous tolerance for alcohol (which may explain why alcoholism ran in my father's family), and would metabolize alcohol very quickly. I never had a bad hangover. Also lately I've been getting some nasty nic hits from mainstream blends like Embarcadero. I'd had nicotine reactions only twice previously, once while freight train taste-testing prototype versions of War Horse on an empty stomach, and once while lost in thought on an oversized bowl of Brown Bogie. Now it happens on a regular basis.

Has anyone else here been experiencing similar post-COVID changes?
I've had three symptomatic COVID episodes, and received the first vaccine and booster.

 

[Zero]

I received the second vaccine, but caught it a year later. It took me months to feel normal, but I stayed pretty much drunk through the rise and peak of my bout with COVID, giving it the middle finger. But I didn't smoke during that time, so my nicotine tolerance dropped some. Once I got back on schedule, my tolerance returned to normal. Hope you can recalibrate.

 

[anotherbob]

I seem to have developed a much reduced tolerance for both alcohol and nicotine after my last bout of COVID.

My alcohol tolerance is now just one glass of wine or a 12 oz beer. After that, it really isn't very enjoyable, and get groggy and feel like I took a few cyclobenzaprines. I can feel that one drink the next day, as if I didn't sleep well. It takes a couple days to get back to full normal. I used to have a tremendous tolerance for alcohol (which may explain why alcoholism ran in my father's family), and would metabolize alcohol very quickly. I never had a bad hangover. Also lately I've been getting some nasty nic hits from mainstream blends like Embarcadero. I'd had nicotine reactions only twice previously, once while freight train taste-testing prototype versions of War Horse on an empty stomach, and once while lost in thought on an oversized bowl of Brown Bogie. Now it happens on a regular basis.

Has anyone else here been experiencing similar post-COVID changes?
I've had three symptomatic COVID episodes, and received the first vaccine and booster.

had it twice and different each time. But any chill out thing like alcohol, kava, chamomile tea would knock me out for a while, even tiny amounts.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Were it not for my daughter coming home from school with a note and test kits for the corona virus after her class mate was diagnosed with it, we'd never have known we had it. No symptoms but no vaccinations. Experienced no loss of taste or smell and didn't diminish nicotine tolerance. Maybe severity of symptoms translates to reduction of tolerance or as Zero mentioned above lack of indulgence reduced it.

 

[peteguy]

I had a strange blurred edge to my peripheral site after my third bout. It went away for the most part but I notice if not enough sleep it creeps back. Lots of tests to rule out anything else but covid or I guess something still to be determined.

 

[Ahi Ka]

@woodsroad I’ve been in the same boat for two years now. I gave up alcohol entirely, however in the last month I have tired having a glass of wine with food. My head can now handle one, But also will feel it in my body the next day.

As for smoking, I have had my arse kicked a bit this week. For me it doesn’t matter about the tobacco strength, as ironically it has been lightweight aromatics that got me and not my ropes. I think it has more to do with post-exertial malaise - mental or physical - and the tobacco has just enhanced what was going on already.

As for other post/long covid symptoms. One of my funniest is that until recently I had lost the ability to do addition, without writing the numbers down. This was even for basic single digit shit. I couldn’t help the kids with their spelling either as wouldn’t be able to remember the letters they had already said.

Hang in there, laugh a lot, accept your current normal and know that this all leads to a greater sense of joy…eventually?

 

[woodsroad]

Hang in there, laugh a lot, accept your current normal and know that this all leads to a greater sense of joy…eventually?

All of your comments are much appreciated. I'm not alone in this. I've also noted some post-COVID cognitive issues, but to a large degree, they have been mitigated by recent sinus surgery to enhance drainage and eliminate chronic sinusitis. That has been a f'n Godsend, as if someone threw the switch for the huge overhead stadium lights.

Either way, post-COVID weirdness is a real thing. I hope it dissipates, as I don't want to give up the pipe. I had a late-afternoon full bowl of John Cotton's House Mix on the ride home yesterday, to no ill effect. I'd had some breakfast, but no lunch, and it didn't kick me.

Fingers crossed for a recovery.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Was put down for over a month in ‘21. A year later smell/taste finally all the way back. Nothing cognitive but physically it took several months to feel “back” - summer heat was an issue for two summers - never had a problem before. I did lose 30 or so pounds and kept it off and that rapid weight loss and being almost spindly again probably had a lot to do with the physical side but ‘23 was great and I’m looking forward to good weather and all things outdoors this spring/summer. Hang in there - the effects are so variable and individual - seems like time is your ally but for many it takes a lot of time. Definitely frustrating!

 

[chilllucky]

Last time my wife and I had it - for a couple weeks after symptoms abated, I was super sensitive to salt and she to sweet. Neither of us smoked much during that time.

 

[sablebrush52]

Hope that any lingering symptoms go away soon!

 

[Sobrbiker]

Everyone I know that effects beyond usual clingy flu malaise had been vacc’d.

No one I know that didn’t get vacc’d lost taste/smell, or developed sensitivities as described.

 

[kola]

The new default....everything now is a post covid issue. How many boosters are needed now? I lost track. I got the Big C in 2020, full recovery, I have natural immunity and the anitbodies and I chose and still choose to avoid any and all injections associated with it. What a damn shame so many people were forced to get them when they didn't want them at all. BTW I never lost my sense of taste, I hope yours returns. I do lose my sense of taste and smell when I get the common cold though.

 

[Non-Mentholated Black Man]

I seem to have developed a much reduced tolerance for both alcohol and nicotine after my last bout of COVID.

My alcohol tolerance is now just one glass of wine or a 12 oz beer. After that, it really isn't very enjoyable, and get groggy and feel like I took a few cyclobenzaprines. I can feel that one drink the next day, as if I didn't sleep well. It takes a couple days to get back to full normal. I used to have a tremendous tolerance for alcohol (which may explain why alcoholism ran in my father's family), and would metabolize alcohol very quickly. I never had a bad hangover. Also lately I've been getting some nasty nic hits from mainstream blends like Embarcadero. I'd had nicotine reactions only twice previously, once while freight train taste-testing prototype versions of War Horse on an empty stomach, and once while lost in thought on an oversized bowl of Brown Bogie. Now it happens on a regular basis.

Has anyone else here been experiencing similar post-COVID changes?
I've had three symptomatic COVID episodes, and received the first vaccine and booster.

I am not a doctor by any means but you should probably have a nice glass of wine or a cold one; then PM me, so we can exchange information/addresses.
Even though you no longer have any use for the pipes/tobaccos/lighters/et cetera that you have been acquiring all these years, I truly appreciate the gesture of gifting me those things and would not think (unless you insist) of allowing you to pay the postage.

 

[woodsroad]

I am not a doctor by any means but you should probably have a nice glass of wine or a cold one; then PM me, so we can exchange information/addresses.
Even though you no longer have any use for the pipes/tobaccos/lighters/et cetera that you have been acquiring all these years, I truly appreciate the gesture of gifting me those things and would not think (unless you insist) of allowing you to pay the postage.

So heartfelt and compassionate is your kind gesture that I must insist the you accept control over my trust fund, lest I be tempted to replenish my collections.

 

[Non-Mentholated Black Man]

So heartfelt and compassionate is your kind gesture that I must insist the you accept control over my trust fund, lest I be tempted to replenish my collections.

I did not know how to respond to your original post.
Somehow, clicking Like seems to be a little insensitive.

 

[gubbyduffer]

Covid has laid me quite low a couple of times, despite being vaccinated. Better than being on a ventilator or dead I suppose. Last bout kept me off work for two weeks. I didnt feel like a bowl of a pipe for a couple of months, but that's probably due to loss of habit. My sense of smell seemed to go for 3 to 4 weeks.

 

[Briar Lee]

My wife and I haven’t had Covid yet, that we know of. But let me tell you, when they offer a new shot for it we go get it, and quick.

My wife thinks being fully vaccinated is a civic duty for the privilege of living in America. To her it’s no different at all than registering for the draft, or to vote, or supporting a new bond issue for the local schools. And I sure can’t argue against all those noble sentiments. Good citizenship matters. Everyone should do their part to protect us all.

There are the photos of 42 boys who died in WW2 on the courthouse wall, and so far our county counts 61 official dead from Covid when they quit counting, although now and then even today, Covid still claims a soul or two.

I suppose I should get my shots because it’s my patriotic duty, to do my part.

But I can remember polio.

I get my shots because I’m afraid of me catching Covid, and dying on a ventilator like over sixty of my neighbors and friends have, not a one of which got even one shot.

And if you are on Medicare like I am, or have good health insurance, the young people at the local county health center give you free shots for diseases like shingles and RSV and the flu and tetanus boosters and other things I don’t want to catch, especially not at my age.

I admit I hate getting a shot and always have.

But I hate the alternatives worse.

 

[woodsroad]

COVID is a public health issue, but unfortunately has been turned into a political hot button, replete with the bleatings of the lunatic fringe on both sides of the aisle, where the woefully uninformed stake their claims and defend them to the hilt.

I just want to enjoy the pipe and a couple glasses of wine again!

 

[Briar Lee]

COVID is a public health issue, but unfortunately has been turned into a political hot button, replete with the bleatings of the lunatic fringe on both sides of the aisle, where the woefully uninformed stake their claims and defend them to the hilt.

I just want to enjoy the pipe and a couple glasses of wine again!

We just cannot know, today, how many of the almost eight billion souls on this earth have either caught the virus or have vaccine induced antibodies against it, or both.

A year and a half ago, over 96% of Americans had antibodies.

96% of Americans Have Some COVID-19 Immunity

CDC data show that between vaccinations and infections, antibodies in U.S. blood samples abound.

time.com

The last time anything remotely comparable to Covid happened to the world was the 1918 Spanish flu.

Many years later, scientists had to exhume bodies from the permafrost to find an example of that particular virus, although we still have influenza viruses.


When we are all dead, and the politics is not a concern, they’ll know more then.

 

[condorlover1]

@woodsroad: I stopped enjoying 'Oliver Reed' size servings of alcohol after having my thyroid removed since I could no longer process industrial amounts of beer, wine, port and mixed cocktails. In fact if I tried to replicate anything like that level of consumption today it would take me about 2 days to recover! I had the first two shots of the COVID-19 vaccination but there after I decided that the flu shot was sufficient but YMMV. I had COVID earlier this year. I had been sneezing like crazy and felt like I had a cold accompanied by an upset stomach and extreme gas. I tested positive and then the symptoms passed after about three days. Strangely I did not notice any change in my tobacco tolerance by I lost all interest in drinking beer which was one of the few alcohol groups I could still reasonably tolerate and enjoy. I think Dan you may find with the return of the warmer weather and your recent sinus surgery things will improved. A lot of taste sensations are hard wired to your sense of smell, or so I am informed by medical professionals. Hope you recover soon as we are due for lunch soon!