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Marijuana seems to help my asthma!

Si Dread

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 29, 2002
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3,226
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In the mid noughties my mum died from pnuemonia. She'd had COPD (Emphesema) for many years (lifelong tobacco smoker) & had been admitted to hospital with a chest infection. She'd made significant progress before being poisoned by a turkey sandwiche in hospital, contracted a nasty case of food poisoning & was too weak to fight it. She died of pnuemonia within a week of eating the sandwiche.

But that's another story. After she died I got to thinking about my dope smoking & decided out of respect for her I would try to cut my habit significanty, if not quit entirely. At the time I was smoking around a 8th of an ounce (or about 3.5grms) of superb skunks per week. So, I cut my habit to one small joint before bed, & occassionaly using valium to sleep & skipping the smoking altogether. During this period, the southern UK was under some slightly unusual weather conidtions, resulting from very hot air temperatures & increased pollution, & sudden, powerful thunderstorms. It later turned out that these conditions had caused quite a large increase in hospital admissions for heart & lung problems. Apparently, the storms were washing particulates that are normally high enough in the atmosphere not to cause health problems, but the very heavy rain was splashing off pavement & vapourising pollutants at ground level where they could be more easilly inhaled.

I was very surprised to find my asthma becoming considerably & progressivaly worse during the period that I spent reducing my marijuana intake. I'd spend the days struggling to breathe, despite upping the dosage of my preventative inhalers as well as using twice the amount of Salbutamol that I usually do... I found that once I got home in the evening & smoked my miniscule spliff, the asthma would ease immediately & this wave of relief & relaxation would wash over me. During this time I was probably smoking an 8th a MONTH, rather than every week, but that evening spliff was an absolute Godsend.

Since then (5 yrs ago now) I have deliberately experimented with my lung health by cutting down or reducing my herb intake deliberately to coincide with bad air-quality-days here in SW London. I recieve a text message from my local council on days when local pollution levels may affect asthmatics so I know when the best time for a "test" has come along. On almost every occassion (at least three times on top of my first try) my asthma has become more difficult to control when I reduce my intake on high pollution days.

So, I have a theory, purely laymans of course, that perhaps the oils from cannabis are coating my bronchia in such a way as to prevent the miniscule particulate allergens from reaching deep enough into my lungs to increase my asthma & that reducing the amount I smoke allows greater amounts of these allergens to reach deeper into my lungs, causing asthmatic effects.

Am I crazy? Am I just trying to justify my usage of a drug I'm dependent on? Or is my theory remotely possible. I found an online document related to the beneficial use of marijuana in asthmatics which seemed to corroborate my theory, at least in part, so I'll try find it again.

I should add that I do not now, nor have I EVER smoked tobacco, either on it's own or with my marijuana. Also, that my parents moved me to Zimbabwe as a kid, on the recomendation of a doctor, who suggested the dry air & high altitude would ease my very severe symptoms as a child. Unfortunately this failed & I was admitted many, many times to A&E in Zimbabwe as a kid. However, at the age of 19 I had not had a severe asthma attack or been admitted to hospital for at least 6 years & it was thought I'd "grown our of it". At 19 I returned to live in Greater London & within a year had already been admitted to A&E twice with asthma &/or chest infections. I should also add that I'm very physically fit, have a job that keeps me very active & feel that, provided I smoke a small amount of weed, keep up with my inhalers, avoid vigorous excercise during high pollution days, & manage any chest infections cafefully, that my asthma is better controlled now than at any time during the 23 years I've lived in greater London.

I also have a very low marijuana habit now, smoking no more than 2 or 2.5 grams per week, of weak, imported Thai & African weed. This means my daily intake of active ingredient has probably dropped by around 70% since before my mum died. I'm a light user but rely on marijuana for my appetite & to help me sleep. Oh, & I'm a musician, DJ & drummer & quite simply, I love to get a little stoned & play or listen to music =D

Thanks for reading, any input positive or otherwise greatly appreciated. Thank you!

PS Mods, I'm planning to put this in Advanced Drug Discussion too, please feel free to delete or merge these threads, if it suits you...

PPS This isnt the article I read some months ago, cant find it... Short-term memory failure perhaps Lol but interesting for me, nontheless
Link---------------->
editted slightly from -
http://www.livestrong.com/article/23082-marijuana-treatment-asthma/

"The use of marijuana as a treatment for asthma has many advocates and opponents, because research on humans and lab animals shows possible benefits in some people but adverse effects in others. Marijuana has a tendency to intensify physical responses and psychological feelings, bringing about varied results among different people. There may be short-term benefits but long-term difficulties when asthmatics smoke marijuana. But many experts believe more research is necessary.

Eight people with asthma were induced with bronchial spasms through chemical inhalation in some sessions and bicycle exercise on other sessions, according to a study published in the American Review of Respiratory Disease in 1975. The subjects receiving placebo marijuana had a gradual recovery during 30 to 60 minutes. The people who received actual marijuana recovered immediately, reported the researchers from the Division of Pulmonary Disease, Department of Medicine, at the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

Smokers who use marijuana and tobacco are more than twice as likely than nonsmokers to get respiratory disease and almost three times more likely to contract COPD, according to a study published in the April 14, 2009, issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. However, the same study found that smoking only marijuana was not associated with an increased risk of respiratory symptoms or COPD. The team from the Vancouver Burden of Obstructive Lung Disease Research Group in British Columbia, Canada, studied a random sample of 878 people ages 40 and over living in Vancouver. They then compared their history of marijuana and tobacco intake with its relationship to respiratory disorders."
 
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I thought I read some time ago that THC actually protects your lungs from carcinogens to a certain degree, but like I said this could be rather false.
 
my room mate has asthma and he smokes like 5 spliffs a day everyday...

i read somewhere it has to do with weed relaxing your muscles and when you have an asthma attack its your muscles closing up right?
 
When I'm sick and I smoke, it relieves my cough for a hr or 2. If I'm not mistaken(probably am) its because your CB2 receptor blocks the signal from your brain telling you to cough when you smoke. If I am right I think this would apply to asthma too
 
back in the '70s peter tosh released "legalize it" and a line from that song says weed is "good for asthma." my kid had terrible asthma and allergies when he was little. after he started to burn a little, his asthma seems to have completely resolved.
sounds like you have experienced something very similar.
-izzy
 
Izzy makes a good point about the Peter tosh soung but THC or other cannabanoids are supposed to have bronchiodilatory effects. However, the smoke is a potenial trigger. I don't think the cilia are paralyzed like with tobacco smoking.
 
I would have thought smoking weed would have a negative impact on asthma. But then again I dont have asthma so I will have to take others word for it,
 
Weed helps my asthma in the same way that a room full of hot steam does.


I dunno, it's weird that way. Blunts tend to make me really short of breath by the end of a session, though.
 
THC is a bronchodilator. Puts those stupid pharms like Advair and inhalers in the toilet.

Vaporized/edibles are the best way to relieve asthma. You can also get a medical card here for asthma.
 
yea i had asthma when i was younger and it did help out my asthma. i felt i could breath more deeply and i would'nt get asthma when i played sports while high.
 
Right, I want a cannabis card :) Lol

Thanks for replies peeps, this post is in Advanced Drug too, for more info on this subject...
 
My best friend has asthma and he says it helps. I am pretty sure that there is some studies done on it.
 
i've heard this a few times too, but am skeptical.
Like a few have said, i get a real itchy, sometimes even wheezy cough after a big inhale/session. I do mix my smoke with tobacco though, which is a vasoconstrictor??
If it is true that it's a bronchodialator, is this consistant with edibles?
 
It is not in your head at all. Weed is an expectorant.

http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_health2.shtml

3) Not one case of lung cancer has ever been successfully
linked to marijuana use.
4) Cannabis, unlike tobacco, does not cause any narrowing of
the small air passageways in the lungs.
In fact, marijuana has been shown to be an expectorant and
actually dilates the air channels it comes in contact with. This
is why many asthma sufferers look to marijuana to provide relief.
Doctors have postulated that marijuana may, in this respect, be
more effective than all of the prescription drugs on the market.
Studies even show that due to marijuana's ability to clear
the lungs of smog, pollutants, and cigarette smoke, it may
actually reduce your risk of emphysema, bronchitis, and lung
cancer.

More info

The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.

The new findings "were against our expectations," said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.

"We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use," he said. "What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729.html


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6pBw0bgmgA
 
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