Hello all. Long-time smoker, 35, male. Anything and everything but edibles. Mostly legit. Some D8 in a pinch but nowhere near the majority.
For the last four months, about once every two weeks, I’ll wake up, take a shower, walk into my living room, have a sip of water, and then run back into my bathroom, where I will vomit until the bile comes out and writhe on the floor, onto the bed, holding my stomach for 6-12 hours, screaming for God or Satan, whoever shows up first.
I’ve been in the hospital three times over the last month over it and only on the last visit was I asked if I used marijuana. There is nothing on any CT scan I’ve done, ultrasound, kidneys, liver, pancreas, appendix.
“Well I’ve never heard of this gobbledygook and I also have no idea how to search for stuff!”
Apparently, had you the genetic disposition, cannabinoids can bind to your stomach, and the sphincters to and from it, altering the timeframe it takes for your stomach to empty and the lagging or simply disabling entirely of the functions of the bottom of your esophagus until it’s over. You’ll be screaming in pain for around 8 hours. Buckle up.
Do I believe Cannabis is solely responsible?
The disease is rare and only shows up in people (usually men) who smoke daily for two or more years. I’ve been smoking daily for ten.
(Obligatory) Psyop?
If it were, I’d expect a little more than a matter-of-fact “quit and you’ll be ok”. Usually money or some type of group wants your attention from such things. I’m more leaning to this being a legitimate disease, and peers are kind-of agreeing on it. Multiple sources seem to be finding the same conclusions and I haven’t met a Doctor yet who hasn’t heard of it in some capacity.
I’m open to bribes, though.
I don’t blame cannabis. I smoked it. It didn’t jump in my mouth and light itself. I don’t blame anyone else. I am unlucky, genetically speaking. You may never get it. You may never have a single symptom, or you might. If weed works for you, fantastic. It worked for me for years, until it wanted to kill me one morning, such is the diceroll of living.
Edit: I’ll answer everyone after 4:30pm est. At work.
I’ve heard people are conducting studies to see if this is related to pestacides used in flower growing as some researchers felt the amount of uptick in cases of this disease wasn’t sufficient explained by the amount of rise in daily marijuana users.
I believe it’s a combo of pesticides plus the extremely high THC that weed has now compared to the past few decades.
The medial science revolves around cannabinoids getting where cannabinoids shouldn’t be. What appears to be untested is if you can moderate and avoid CHS.
For instance, were I a monthly smoker… or became a monthly smoker.
I have experienced much more mild CHS than what you’ve described. Mainly nausea and occasional vomiting spells, but usually just happens in the morning and I’m fine in the afternoon.
I’ve been self regulating for about 2 years by limiting my intake and switching strains often (and just avoiding certain ones). I did take a solid 6 months off after diagnosis and started introducing it back slowly.
I’ve found that I can still smoke daily, but not all day. I can smoke up to an ounce of a single strain before that specific strain starts to trigger symptoms and switching to a “different enough” strain will avoid further symptoms. Some strains just hit me wrong and will cause symptoms (ghost train haze) but others seem to be pretty safe and are a go to (member berry).
When symptoms come on quickly I just take a few days - a week off smoking and am usually good to start again with a different strain. I start to get heart burn / mild nausea in the morning and that’s when I know I need to change strains.
I haven’t tried the same strain from different dispensaries to see if there is a different factor like pesticides or nutrient solution that is actually the problem. I doubt the same strain from two dispensaries would be scientifically close enough to make it a worthwhile test. What confuses me is that while I am experiencing symptoms from a strain my body has turned on, I can fire up a bowl from a safe strain and it does a pretty good job of stopping the symptoms, which to me says either pot is a great anti nausea or that the level of THC in my system isn’t the issue but instead the level of a certain cannabinoid or terpene.