Marijuana & Skin Conditions

[amber_dawn]

Okay, this may sound a little wacky but hear me out first.

I recently had to cut WAY back on the amount of weed I smoke. Reason number one is purely financial-- I smoke about an 1/8 a week, and since I've been living in Virginia the only place I know to get decent weed is *NO PRICES* and you can't buy smaller bags. So that combined with the fact that I just feel I need to cut back led me to try and quit this daily habit and just smoke on the weekends/with friends.

I've pretty much smoked at least once a day for the past seven years. There's been a few days where I haven't, but for the most part, I've smoked every day.

I've always had a mild skin condition called Seborrheic Dermatitis. Suddenly in the past week, I've had an explosion of it--across my FACE of all places. It's not even the way it looks, but the fact that it's dry, rough, itchy, and generally annoying. I can't even wear make-up over it because the make-up just flakes off.

I normally wouldn't associate smoking weed with a change in skin conditions, but on a whim I decided to google it. And lo and behold, something actually came up:

http://www.marijuana.com/medicinal-marijuana/10249-marijuana-seborrheic-dermatitis.html

I was pretty surprised, but my recent decline in marijuana use seems to coincide with this horrible flare-up of Seborrheic Dermatitis across my cheeks and in all the normal spots too.

Has anyone else experienced ANYTHING of the sort--it doesn't have to be Dermatitis, it can be any sort of skin condition. Have you noticed your weed usage affecting it? I never had, but then again I smoked every day--and my dermatitis was very minimal!!

What do you guys think?

EDIT: I don't think people are understanding what I'm trying to say. Not saying weed CAUSED the outbreak, I'm saying it was acting as a medicine for it. I'm asking if anyone here has had a skin condition that they felt was improved by the use of weed.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I also have Seborrheic Dermatitis.

When I've smoked herb, eaten it, or vaporized it I did not notice any sort of increased breakouts of the SD but they didn't really decrease either.

Mine gets worse in the winter when there's less sunlight and it's cold outside with lots of snow and ice. In the summer and spring it's not as bad but I get sunlight and go outside but I don't tan or burn my skin.

I found that using Cetaphil brand soap and using Selsun Blue shampoo and sometimes neutrogena T-Gel shampoo can help. I tried Head and shoulders and that worked well for awhile but then it stopped working and made the SD worse.

I also use shampoos that aren't really scented and I also brush my scalp and facial hair.
I went to a dermatologist once and they gave me some good shampoo that was basically the same stuff you find in Selsun blue or Nizoral shampoo but it was in a higher concentration. I went to a different dermatologist and she just told me to use Selsun blue or other shampoos that I listed and put it on the areas where the SD is.

Drinking more water can help and so can drinking more green tea and red tea (rooibos) since they're good for your skin. A friend of mine who also has SD he would drink aloe juice that you can find at Asian supermarkets and I tried that and it helped some.

A friend of mine has Psoriasis pretty bad and he hasn't noticed any break outs when he uses herb.

 

[J. G. Wentworth]

Dr. House would dismiss it even though he does not like coincidences.

FYI: Dermatitis is an all encompassing term for skin rashes. I have never seen any relevant data that connects cannabis with dermatitis outbreaks spontaneously. If you had an allergy to it, it would have appeared before now.

 

[amber_dawn]

@PriestTheyCalledHim ... Thanks infinitely for your tips

bluntsmoka -- I'm actually a very clean, very girly girl who bathes quite often. Seborrhoeic Dermatitis is a genetic condition. It is a response to "fungal" infection, but the "fungus" is just yeast that lives naturally on everyone's body. You have the same yeast covering your entire body as well. My body is just freaking out about it, basically, because of my genetics. The condition is quite common actually.

J.G. Wentworth-- please reread my post. I am talking about Seborrhoeic Dermatitis which is not the same as just "dermatitis". I was just using shorthand in the end. I am not saying the weed caused the outbreak, I am saying that stopping smoking weed did, because the weed was an inadvertent medicine for it.

 

[amber_dawn]

bluntsmoka....
if you're not joking, then you're long past any help i can give you.
&yes your entire body has bacteria & certain fungus (yeast) all over it and inside it. you need it there to survive.

 

[Vader]

Inappropriate posts unapproved, poster warned. amber_dawn, if you want it closed/deleted again just PM me, but I think that this is a good thread. Any further insulting posts will earn infractions.

 

[BlueSmoke]

Maybe when u smoke less you eat less fat food and candy and therefor get less greasy skin...? Well just a thought, probably not true.

 

[amber_dawn]

blue smoke ~~ thanks for the thought, i don't think that's it, but it could be diet related (i'm trying to make changes to my diet, i don't eat fatty foods or candy but i do eat tons of carbs). thanks anyway thou

kitchen one ~~ oh wow, thanks so much!! good to know that cannabis helps inflammatory conditions. i wonder how i could make an ointment out of it. I know that cannabis is actually a common ingredient in a lot of lotions, but it would be way better to have a natural and fresh one.

I didn't know that about burned food! But it makes sense. And I know smoking is bad for you but I do enjoy smoking so much--i've already cut back though, and I usually smoke out of glass bowl so at least I'm not inhaling burnt paper. I think this summer I'll experiment with teas & making ointment--i'll be living where I know some growers so i'll see if i can get some trimmings from them. Think that would work?

anyway, thanks to everyone who's replied!

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

And I know smoking is bad for you but I do enjoy smoking so much--i've already cut back though, and I usually smoke out of glass bowl so at least I'm not inhaling burnt paper.

Maybe get a vaporizer? I don't smoke anymore I just vaporize and I enjoy it, and you can use the vaped bud to cook with.

Something else that helps is using tea tree oil either in soaps or in some sort of extract. It can be expensive though.

Putting hydrocortizone that has aloe in it on the areas where I have the skin condition helps.

 

[slaDe_79]

Hi all,

I stumbled across this forum looking for information re marijuana use and skin. I am 32 but most people don't think I'm over 25. It's strange because I have injested my fair share of drugs and alcohol. Alcohol being the most abused, marijuana being the most recent.

I am wondering if my marijuana use has much effect on my looking younger. I am one of those people that only smoke little bits at a time (like a cone max) but do it quite often. When I am binging probably daily. If anything I would have thought my 'drug' use (esp alcohol) would have me looking older.

More readings are starting to say contrary things. Hmmm...

 

[Foreigner]

Your skin is one of several toxic channels in the body, along with the liver, kidneys, bowels, and lungs to a certain degree. There is a connection between the lungs and the skin that is not yet fully understood. For instance, children with asthma have a much higher chance of growing up to develop skin conditions like eczema. It likely has something to do with the effectiveness of their immune system. (Both the lungs and skin can have the same allergy triggers.)

Tar in the lungs increases macrophage activity there, and the byproducts have to be dealt with by the liver. In general, once the liver has reached saturation, people will tend to have more skin signs. Some people have metabolic benefits from regular cannabis intake, while others need to take breaks to let their lungs recover. It all depends on the person.

You can help out your liver by eating more fresh greens, but especially foods high in glutathione. Beets, milk thistle, goats milk (unpasteurized), fresh eggs, tumeric, whey, and meats raw or closer to being raw (like sushi). Glutathione is the "master anti-oxidant" in the body, employed by the liver. If you can get your liver cleaner then skin conditions tend to clear up.