People Are Vaping Vitamins Now. But Are There Any Real Benefits?



Yes, you can (supposedly) inhale your vitamins now. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

What Are Vitamin Vapes?

Derived from nicotine vaping—which allows people to inhale nicotine sans the tobacco—vitamin vaping is the act of inhaling vitamins and other supplements, like herbs and essential oils, via a vaping device, which can look like a cigarette or a fountain pen, among other things.

Vaping was invented as a way to help people stop smoking cigarettes, but it has now caught on as a popular trend. Vitamin and other wellness companies are marketing vaping products that are supposedly aimed at improving nutrient status and boosting wellness. But is there actual research to back this? Not so much.

Even so, let’s consider the claims that vitamin vaping companies are making, with some reality-check facts.

Vitamin Vape Claims

Companies marketing vitamin vapes say that vaping nutrients can give you a bigger nutrient boost than getting similar vitamin shots. But vitamin vaping is such a new practice that there are no studies to determine if they’re safe, let alone actually providing nutrients.

Take vitamin B12, for example, which is popular in wellness circles for being injected to get a bigger boost, especially since this nutrient is found mostly in animal products. Vegetarians and vegans rely on B12 supplements and shots, but might also turn to vaping to get this nutrient.

This company claims that their vitamin B12 vape will provide ten times what you would get in a B12 injection. Other companies claim you can breathe “enhanced” air, as if it’s somehow not possible to get the nutrients we need from diet alone. Vitamin vape companies proclaim their products to be superior to pills and injections, but that’s literally just their opinion. They don’t have facts or research, or even the backing of the medical community, to support it.

Ultimately, vitamin vapes are being marketed as a way to be healthy—but you can get nutrients from the food you eat, and if necessary, from dietary supplements and be well on your way. You do not need to inhale your vitamins.

Are Vitamin Vapes Safe?

Generally speaking, vitamin vapes might not have immediate symptoms of trouble, so most would say they’re safe. But long-term research doesn’t exist to prove that they’re safe, so the answer truly is: no one really knows. Are you willing to take a risk on something that could turn out to be very unsafe?

Even though vitamin vapes don’t contain nicotine, the liquids that are vaped are heated to produce a vapor. When ingredients are heated, it can change their chemical makeup as well as the benefits they offer. So the vaping liquid might not even contain the same nutrients once it’s heated.

Consider that the FDA doesn’t regulate vitamin vaping (or supplements) and that the claims made by vaping companies are not backed by research.

Beyond that, the lungs are designed for one thing: to breathe in clean oxygenated air and to exhale carbon dioxide. How might they respond to breathing in vapor that is laced with particles that aren’t meant to be there? Even good things in the wrong place can be bad things, and since vitamins belong in the digestive tract or the bloodstream, we really don’t know that they have a positive impact on the body when taken in by the lungs. For the body to make use of them, nutrients need to be eaten, digested, and absorbed via the small intestine, or in some cases, injected so that they enter the bloodstream. There’s no proof that inhaling nutrients will do anything to increase health at all.

Finally, as with many supplements, even those taken by mouth, there is a good chance that many of them are used without benefit or with a placebo effect—which we might never know because the type of extensive research to vet every single supplement simply doesn’t exist. Many nutrients have been thoroughly tested, but usually when taken by mouth or injection. The research that applies to them cannot be applied to vaporized and inhaled nutrients because they simply aren’t absorbed in the same way.


Bottom Line

Vitamin vapes claim to be an easy way to inhale your nutrients. But they haven’t been studied or proven, and could potentially cause respiratory or other harm—or at the very least, be a complete waste of money. If you want to boost your nutrient intake, it has been proven by research to be possible by dietary intake and by select supplements.

With so many legitimate ways to get your nutrients, we say give vitamin vaping a pass, and reach for a nourishing meal packed with natural vitamins and minerals instead.

Read This Next: 5 Popular Wellness Trends You’ll Want To Think Twice About