well i started using cannabis pretty early in highschool, purely for recreational purposes. Got pretty heavy around the age of 15.
I remember as a kid i would always spend a lot of time in the bathroom, just general problems there. A lot of stomach upset and pain as well as a lot of diarrhea. I've always been a pretty skinny dude, in shape, but on the slim side for sure.
I think i only really noticed how much cannabis had been helping with these sorts of problems when i took a couple months off the stuff and had excruciating pain and diarrhea non stop, almost every day. So i got it checked out, got tests done, tried cutting out dairy, all sorts of different eating schemes. Anyways, i was diagnosed with IBS (which is a cop out, as its only diagnosed by ruling other things out). Could be a food allergy, but it seems to be fine one week and terrible the next, even if i eat the same food.
So my one friend who also was told he had ibs said that he used cannabis during his flare ups. Gave it a try and wow, most effective medication so far. I've tried 3 medications so far for my ibs and non of which seem to work with any consistency. Plus i dont like the idea of taking 3 pills a day for the rest of my life when i dont have problems all the time.
Cannabis is really the only thing that helps my IBS or whatever it may be. 1. its fast. You cant beat how quickly it works. If you take a pill it takes a least 30 - 40 minutes to kick in, but with cannabis a couple puffs and within a minute its at peak levels. This is the main reason i use it. 2. After i have an ibs attack i get a huge loss of appetite. Nothing more unappealing than eating after having an attack because of simply putting food in your stomach. So it works wonders there too, i just have to be careful to eat healthy when i got the munchies hehe. 3. Because the actives in cannabis stick around in your system for a while, it seems to maintain relief for the rest of the day or at least a good chunk of it.
Ive done a good amount of research and found other IBS sufferers have been helped by cannabis as well. Personally, id love it if they isolated some cannabinoid specific drug that didnt intoxicate while it helped, but i dont mind hehe.
Because your gut is coated with endocannibinoid receptor sites when you smoke it actually acts as a muscle relaxant. This has been demonstrated in rats, where they stimulate the intestinal muscles into spasm and then drop pure thc onto the muscle, and voila, instantly contractions stop. IBS is thought to be a spastic colon, or your colon and lower gut squeezing unnecessarily.
Unfortunately none of my doctors seem to want to even exercise the idea that cannabis has helped me. Neither have even been willing to talk about it really. Dismiss it instantly. All i want is a confirmation of diagnosis so i can get it a bit more legitimately, from one of the compassion clubs around here. Kind of sad seeing as i have to buy my medicine illegaly and risk incarceration for the only thing that has helped me so far, but if thats what i must do, then i will.
So even though most of the time i use it recreactionally, even when iam doing this, cannabis is helping me to be more comfortable.
