Chronic Marijuana Abuse Leads to Severe Vomiting Attacks
Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 5:08 pm | By: Radical Russ
OK, now I’ve heard everything. From Australia we get this report about Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which allegedly means that too much pot smoking will make you vomit:
This obscure clinical manifestation of severe vomiting sickness due to chronic abuse of marijuana, recognized by Dr. Sontineni and his colleagues at the Creighton University of Omaha, NE, was published on March 14, 2009 World Journal of Gastroenterology.
That abstract from the journal:
Cannabis is a common drug of abuse that is associated with various long-term and short-term adverse effects. The nature of its association with vomiting after chronic abuse is obscure and is underrecognised by clinicians. In some patients this vomiting can take on a pattern similar to cyclic vomiting syndrome with a peculiar compulsive hot bathing pattern, which relieves intense feelings of nausea and accompanying symptoms. In this case report, we describe a twenty-two year-old-male with a history of chronic cannabis abuse presenting with recurrent vomiting, intense nausea and abdominal pain. In addition, the patient reported that the hot baths improved his symptoms during these episodes. Abstinence from cannabis led to resolution of the vomiting symptoms and abdominal pain. We conclude that in the setting of chronic cannabis abuse, patients presenting with chronic severe nausea and vomiting that can sometimes be accompanied by abdominal pain and compulsive hot bathing behaviour, in the absence of other obvious causes, a diagnosis of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome should be considered.
The medical news site continues:
According to Dr. Sontineni, doctors and health care workers currently under recognize the syndrome leading to delayed diagnosis and expensive diagnostic investigations. Increasing consistent use of marijuana among United States populations, particularly young people, over several years will see a steady rise in the number of cases diagnosed each year.
The syndrome was first recognized in Australia around the Adelaide hills. The exact mechanism leading to generation of these symptoms, why it appears only after several years of marijuana abuse and why compulsive hot showering behavior relieves the symptoms is still under scientific investigation.
The recognition of this novel syndrome and increasing physician awareness is supported by the Department of Medicine at Creighton University Medical Center. Similarly, scientists and doctors at other institutions worldwide are beginning to identify more cases with this new syndrome as a result of chronic marijuana abuse among populations.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone vomiting because of marijuana, instead of using marijuana because of vomiting. You’d think in the forty-plus years of serious marijuana use in America, we’d have heard of some cases of Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome by now. You’d think somebody would know somebody who had to give up his or her regular bong habit because they couldn’t stop throwing up.
You can be sure Dr. Earleywine and I will cover this on Wednesday.
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It disgusts me to admit this but im starting to believe it. I was just diagnosed with Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. I also have my medical cannabis card. I have “smoked habitually” for about 7 years. I love it. I dont drink i just love my weed. Im born and raised in norcal so what do you expect? Recently i have been having excrutiatingly horrible bouts of nausea and have subsequently spent a few weeks in the hospital this year. Every anti-nausea pill in existence has been tried. Zofran, Decadron, Atavan, Halidol, and so many others i cant even remembe the names. Marijuana does help to an extent but once i get to the hospital stage it no longer works. I have even been given Maridol tablets in the E.r. But for my less intense nausea marijuana does relieve. I also have Irritable Bowel Syndrome which gives me diarrhea and cramping and stomach aches daily. and nothing works as good as a bowl for that. But i am now starting to believe that though marijuana does help to relieve my stomach problems, it may also be causing them. After years of being an advocate it hurts me to say anything negative about my favorite plant in the world but i believe that for a small percentage of habitual smokers this disorder can come. because it has for me and im the last person in the world who would of thought that would happen to. But dont get me wrong. I am not intending on stopping. i do not know for assurity that it is being caused by marijuana but i do see that there are many others with identical stories out there. and for the idiots who are talking about smoking making you puke like from getting too high or coughing. that is not what we are talking about. this is a disorder. you dont even need to be smoking at the time of an outbreak. in fact i am never high or smoking at the time of an outbreak so that is why i am still suspicious. but i would really like to talk to some of you out there like me. i need more info before i am ever going to make any for sure decisions. -stephanie
i am son happy that i found this information for the past two days i have been puking my guts out and i thought maybe it was just food poisoning but the weird thing is it got better today and then i smoked weed and sure enough the sever nausea and vomiting came back. Without seeing any of this information i was already thinking it was the weed. the weird part though was that i have been smoking out of the same sack for the past 2 weeks and yesterday out of no where it started. its horrible and if i continue like this i am definitely quitting. no high on this earth is worth all the crap i have went through in the past two days. i havent felt the need to take hot showers cuz honestly my face feels like its on fire and cold rags seem to feel better to me. no other symptoms just a hot face and severe nausea….shit im scared to smoke again…
My husband smokes pot every day, at least 2 blunts between 5-10 during the week and on sat and sundays 2-3…….Hes got a weird personality due to the pot, hot one minute cold the next.I dont want him smoking pot anymore , I know it makes him depressed and sooo irratable, and we have 2 small children…He is also throwing up almost every morning violently….I strongly feel its the pot, when you smoke pot all night and stay up til 12:30…and have to get up at 7am, of course your going to be sick…Eveyone thinks he throws up because of anxiety, well now thanks to this article…I know its a combo of pot and anxiety ! I cant take it anymore, I WANT HIM TO STOP SOOO BAD!!!! He cant admit its a problem!
i’ve been a chronic marijuana smoker for about 10 years now nd for the last 3 or 4 years I’ve had problems with vomitting. it can happen every few months of a few times a month and I usually vomit 1-5 times whrn these episodes occur. I am curious about the showering aspect though because I do not have hot showers to relieve my symptoms and I usually find that smoking a joint makes me feel better. Can anyone help me are these symptoms of CVS or cannabinoid hypermesis?
I dont doubt that some peoplemay be affected by this however, my symptoms are releived by cannabis use and I know for a fact that when you buy weed off the black market (or the canadian government) it is more than likely contaminated with alot of poisonous substances? Why, because our government has decided to give control of the market to criminals? If all of these relatives that everyone talks about was to only smoke only properly flushed, organically grown marijuana IMHO this is the problem!
has anyone tried using a vaporizer? maybe its the smoke that bothers the stomach.
I believe this finding to be true ! My husband has had this condition for 23 years he is 42 it took the doctors 15 years to diagnose with CVS and they told us there was no cure for CVS and he would have to take theses medication for the rest of his life , well the medications helped a little but it did not make it go away. He had been using marijuana since he was 13 and as he got older became a heavier user ,it was when he was 21 when he had his first attack , it put him in the hospital for days and he finally stopped vomiting , the doctors had no clue what was wrong with him . He would get these attacks about every 10 weeks and he would throw up about every 20 minutes for the first day and then every hour on the second day , every 2 hours by the third day , and so on until he was done with this cycle . Along with taking up to 20 or 30 showers a day , but he would go from very hot to very cold showers, and he is only does this during these attacks , he is a normal guy any other day. We all ways thought he would take the showers because it would take is mind off of throwing up for a little while or it was soothing.
So when they diagnosed him with CVS it sounded like what he had , seeing there is no blood test or other test to say you have CVS , they done more that $200,000 dollars worth of testing in 15 years , but there is nothing about the shower thing with CVS. So about two years a go I asked him to stop smoking and he did and during that time he didn’t get sick. Then he started sneaking it with his friends on the weekend and he wasn’t getting sick but it finally caught up with him, when he became a regular user again and this time he was sick for 3 weeks . Losing a lot weight and again I asked him to stop smoking and he hasn’t been sick since , before I even knew about this Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome. I told him it was the pot that was making him sick and he didn’t want to believe it, because he enjoyed smoking. But he didn’t like getting sick all the time . So like I said early he stopped and so did the vomiting . So today we went to his doctor for his yearly check up and I just asked if there was a cure yet for CVS and he replied “ No , but they did find out that marijuana would make CVS worse “ so it was like “I TOLD YOU SO” to my husband and he told the doctor that we had all ready figured that out for our self. So now that it is documented he seems to believe it and hopefully he wont be sneaking any with his so called friends. Because I’m tired of cleaning “throw up buckets” and washing towels. But at least there’s a cure “STOP SMOKING”
I also have took 6 years to realize it was myself getting me sick. Its crappy, i am about 100 percent sure that is caused by weed. never got sick before i started smoking, I was able to keep myself off it for 3 weeks, and feel way better… So far.
Sounds exactly my husband… glad you posted..
hopefully they will get the message. Good luck.
My brother has been a chronic pot smoker (multiple times a day) for 35 years. About 25 years ago he started experiecing the exact symptoms described: Periodic bouts of Chronic vomiting relived by hot showers. He has been to countless doctors, therapy, missed significant time from work and is frankly not a very happy or productive human being. At one point after several weeks of vomiting he had a severe seizure due to dehydration and nearly died. He has Ben hospitalized several times. I believe he has fessed up to his pot smoking with his doctors but not sure to what extent. His illness has never been diagnosed. Four months ago, when this article was publised, a friend sent him a article. Apparently, he has quit smoking and has remained illness free (though he is reportedly an angry and cranky bastard).
one of our moderators at the grow report has recently found out that hyperemesis is the cause of over ten years of hospitalisation and severe illness ..please feel free to contact esse.b at the grow report ,i can assure you this illness is very real ,and he will testify to the fact ,also he`ll be able to tell you the full symptoms and story behind this illness
Ok, just left the hospital after another episode of vomiting!!after fluids and Zofran, I felt better, I used cannabis at an early age from 10 to 24 every day I am now 43 and I started using it again Oct. 2008, On Dec 9th 2008 I started vomiting (only sympton)it didn’t stop until Dec 26th 2008, I continued to smoke and on May 29th I felt sick again and started vomiting non-stop..admitted to the hospital twice, so last night a Dr at MGH Boston brought the article to my attention and I think I will be not smoking to see if it goes away!!!
My friend’s son has suffered from these symptoms for years and after many, many hospital visits and much agony they have finally figured out that this is what he has. It is a relief to finally know, though whether he can kick the addiction remains to be seen
I do think pot should be legalized. So pot has toxicity for some, so does alcohol. I don’t think it makes sense to try and discount real problems that can arise from smoking pot. It is an enormous relief to be able to find out what is wrong when one has a chronic condition.
I found this site because almost every morning while I’m getting ready for work I vomit…unless I have a hit. If I have something to smoke I may vomit from coughing too hard, but when I’m out… I vomit. Someone else said I may have some other health issue going on, but weed takes care of the nausea that’s for sure! Also, everyone (including the government)knows that as soon as big business can figure out a way to control the growth & use of marijiauna for THEIR profit, it will be legalized. Pretty sad when you get more time in prison for using or selling weed than you do for murder.
Ive smoked some mexican weed that made me wana barf (only from the taste).
I have smoked daily since my early teens,now being in my mid 30’s (bout 3gr a day) I only smoke quality buds and have never wanted to ralph.
So my quiestion is WHUT WHERE THEY SMOKING?
Schwag most likely.
I SMOKE THE FINEST 50%THC HASH IT HAPPENED TO ME WHEN I WOULD SMOKE 15 TO 20 GRAMS A DAY FOR YEARS TILL I CUT BACK FOR A MONTH OR SO.
Intense.
I only stumbled upon this article because I just threw up while smoking haha. But i’m at high risk for throwin up man. I’m always sick, and i cough a lot, and by a lot i mean a lot…and i was smoking a lot, and coughed a lot, and it was some nasty weed, and then i threw up. Not that intense of a situation
very understandable. Now i’m eating soup and just happily high.
My boyfriend isn’t a smoker. He knows how much I enjoy weed, but it’s just not for him, he’d rather be drunk …
his first time smoking, i gave him a small hit off of a bubbler, and he was extremely high for awhile and had a great time…
then he started puking and didnt stop til like 4am
now, dont get me wrong. i’m not blamin the weed.
my boyfriend has extreme motion sickness, and therefore anytime he gets dizzy at all, he starts throwing up. He got a little ‘too high’, and got what i like to call ‘time warp’.
this type of mental behavior in someone like him is definitely gonna end in blowin chunks :2thumb:
the moral of the story is…
is it possible for weed to make you puke?
definitely.
is it possible for chocolate cake to make you puke?
definitely.
theres nothin wrong with weed!!!!! theres somethin wrong with the fuckers pukin!!!! ie: ‘weed is a trigger of cvc’.
THIS IS TRUE!!!!! im living proof im on day 2 of quittting i was smoking an ounce every week easyily not even a week prob 5 days. and ill tell yah if i went too long without smoking id PAY for it big time! id have to stomach through the first 20 tokes from my blunt then the weed would demolish my nausea. but as soon as itd leave 6 hours later id smoke again and before you knew it i became A SLAVE TO MARIJUANA. so take what they say about using it and not abusing it seriously!! cause just like anything else too much just has to be no good. so for all of you who read this article with deaf ears reconsider. and your def not smokin enough to feel the effects of withdrawl orrr lol you havent even tried quitting yet still going strong for 5 years huh….. been there done that… all i can say is i wasted my life! but i do support marijuana for medical uses im totally behind that 100%
If it’s true…so what? Too much of anything will make you sick/vomit. Just look at people who drink too much water. Also notice the lack of people going into a frenzy when water is around. I don’t understand the point of some of these studies unless it helps the few with a condition understand it more. Otherwise it’s a waste of money for them to scramble for reasons to tell people to not smoke pot. My suggestion is if someone came up to anyone here with this “study” and says too much marijana can make you sick….tell them so can water.
Try living with a disease you can’t determine the cause of or the trigger of. If it can help but a few people what is so wrong. I love smoking weed but you don’t know the feeling that comes with finally finding an answer after 20 years. It doesn’t mean don’t smoke, but if you suffer with the symptoms and are a chronic smoker its something to think about.
I really doubt any of this is true. I’m sorry.
When I was around 12 I started having gastrological problems which led to constant, painful vomiting. I have recently learned that it is actually a manifestation of my severe panic disorder that causes my body to go into a sort of shock that stops my disgestive system from finishing it’s task, and the food that sits in my stomach of course comes up at some point. I didn’t TRY smoking until I was 16, and didn’t start smoking regularly until I was about 18. And for christ’s sake, smoking pot is genuinely the only thing that helps me return my life to normal and quit staring down the toilet bowl. I dont want to turn into a pilled up zombie like the majority of america, so I refuse to take any. Weed doesn’t cause nausea, it relieves it.
I thought this was BS too until my friend and her husband figured out that this is what she has been suffering from for about 3 years. She had been to gastro specialists who told who different things, like wheat gluten intolerance however her husband found info on it last year. My friend has been smoking for over 20 years and is now just ending a bout of the cyclic vomiting it causes. The only relief she said is sitting in a hot tub or a hot shower. Food and the smell of food wil make you vomit. Anti vomiting medicine doesn’t help either. None of the doctors ever asked her about pot usage in all of her trips to the hospital. She was making it worse too cuz every time she got sick, she’d want to smoke, hoping that it would help the nausea when in fact it was making her sicker. Usually she’d be ill for 2 weeks, this time she decided not to smoke, and has gotten over it in about 5 days. Needless to say as much as she loves to get high, she’s done with it.
I’m glad this isn’t happening to me. Just wanted to let you all know that unfortunately this is a true illness.
This is a real problem and i recently found out that my Father had the same symptoms 20 years ago. so for you who say it doesn’t exist is simply adding to the problem. I am a Medical Marijuana patient from Hawaii and i have been forced to stop recently by cronic vomitting… Trust me I am the biggest advocate for smoking and have spent thousands of dollars on toys to smoke with… Everyone I know smokes and doesn’t want to hear anything bad about it. It makes me sad that stoners would be just as closed minded as the rest of the population to hearing and accepting certain things about it….
What they are trying to say is that certain individuals can possibly feel sick not directly from smoking, as the results can be with alcohol, but i have felt this first hand. It took a long time for it to develop and it also has led me to many sick days. I know many people are fearful of what is happening to them and this article could and does bring me some peace of mind as to what I am going through….I have seen many medical professionals and I do not take any other drugs or pharmacutical medications and was Hospitalized due to this!!!!! It is a real problem and maybe instead of being a lazy a**hole some of you people should figure out how to cure it so I can SMOKE MY WEED!!!
We’ve heard a lot of replies from people with this syndrome. Dr. Mitch and I will explore it further in a future episode.
Eight years of puking for yours truly…. been medicating with cannabis for decades…
FOUND a doctor who understands beyond what my exiguous experiences and readings in Miami. Dr Paul Canali, of the Evolutionary Healing Institute, worked on me for the month of May 09, and i have not puked…. this morning through focused breathing, relaxing, shower, and confidence…. i stopped a full blown episode attempt by this tramatized carcass i animate. Salivation, heart palpitation, profuse sweats, nausea from hell… and still with the skills that i learned from Dr. Paul, i confidently survived another attempt… and then today i RESPERATE again to learn the therapeudic breath again.
Thanking you
Paul
OOOPS, yes, medicate i DO A LOT>>>
Paul worked on me for the month of MARCH 09, not May….. DOH!!!! so therefor this medication really in the best
paul
F*** this corporate run, marijuana propaganda article. a good old joint never hurt anyone, and especially is not the cause of puking for day on end, I smoke everyday and i never puked, neither any stoner i know, don’t believe A word this article says…DON’T READ SMOKE WEED
I would like to clarify what I said earlier. This doctor, and a few others, are trying to link cannabis to a CVS(Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome) trigger. I have had CVS since I was a child, well before I ever started smoking cannabis. CVS was long known as a pediatric condition until now. It can start at any time, from 6 months to 50 years of age. I bet that if this young mans medical history were analyzed by a CVS expert, we would find that he has CVS and smokes cannabis as a way of self medicating. This is my situation. CVS is a very rare and serious condition and I would recommend those who are interested to get more information about it here : http://www.cvsaonline.org
Wow! Now that there really is some obscure reaction that happens in maybe one out of 50,000 people it’s time that it’s controlled by the government, taxed and regulated!
It happened to me when I was much younger with some Panama Red but that was only my second or third time toking.
I just realized THIS is what I have been suffering from for the past 5 years.
The docs diagnosed me with an inner ear disorder but I do not have the dizziness that normally goes with it. I do have all the exact symptoms of Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. Been a med activist for year and a heavy user.
I have never met anyone else with my symptoms though. Perhaps like some people being allergic to peanuts while the majority are fine…..some of us genetically are prone to develop marijuana oversensitivity while the majority do not.
It’s the truth!!!!!!!!!!! My husband is in the hospital as we speak and I just found that article that you speak of and my husband has all the symptoms mentioned. He is a chronic marijuana smoker and every couple of months he gets sick and starts throwing up out of the blue and must take excessive baths to feel better only to start throwing up again. The doctors ran all the tests they could but they all came back clean. 4 days after feeling better and getting out the hospital he started throwing up again, so surely it’s the weed. There is no other explanation for it but the fact that he smokes weed every single day maybe 2x a day. What affects some people might not affect others. I still think marijuana is not harmful to most but for some, moderation is key.
The study in Australia was 22 people by the way. Not that that is a much larger sample.
How could anyone suspect that a “report” like this is tainted by a long running, non-science based, anti pot propaganda campaign?
How could anyone (with eyes open) suspect otherwise?
I have never vomited from weed
but i have vomited from that one liquid poison that is legal what is it called….o yes alchol
this is a very real disorder, i have it. it might only affect a small % of 420 users, but it’s very real.
I have it too Please contact me amyrose2712@gmail.com. I don’t think people are understanding. I think it triggers Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome, not causes it. Many people suffer with CVS that do not smoke. It is under diagnosed because CVS is very hard and rarely diagnosed. For everyone’s information you don’t smoke and get sick from it. In the short term it may actually help the nausea. This is a long term cyclic occurrence.
I have this disorder also. I thought I was just weird about the whole shower thing when I got sick. I’ve had this hit me at least 6 times in the last year at a week at a time. And yes, I’ve been a heavy smoker for at least the last ten years.
Ive been smoking pot for about ten years and this has been happening to me for almost a year now.It sucks!I always salivate alot thats how i know im about to ralph..I should add that i havent been diagnosed but here i came looking for answers and this sounds very familiar.
I have an experience to add to this. I have never, ever felt nauseous after ingesting cannabis. However, my wife tried it once and had a bad experience. I have only known two people to have bad experiences. Perhaps she had too much for her first time. She is very sensitive to any substance, and has diagnosed clinical depression and anxiety with panic attacks. After she smoked, she felt like she “was going to die” and actually vomited. I was astonished and my brother and I felt very badly. This was not chronic smoking though. Just one acute event.
Never have puked from herbs but then agian,
I probably would if I had to smoke some of the mexican dirt weed Thats in the area thanks to the cartels that bring it across the border here to california.
Lucky for me & the seldom few I know we no longer smoke inferior herbs.
I recently did an article on this subject. While it appears the condition might *possibly* exist in a handful of people, the study is highly suspect.
http://www.showmethefacts.org/2009/03/22/chronic-cannabis-use-linked-to-vomiting-not-likely/
nope – never puked EVER! NOT ONCE! never while on cannabis hemp.
But this just in! Cannabis Hemp causes cyclic awesome syndrome. Do not attempt to partake in cannabis hemp, lest you become awesome!
This “finding” is complete nonsense.
I’ve smoked until I couldn’t feel my legs anymore but I’ve never once puked from it! Neither has any of my friends in all the years we’ve been “chronically abusing marijuana”.
Well, there you have it,folks. All of you who don’t know when to stop should just flush all that illegal weed and go back to using the government approved recreational inebriant, alcohol.
-ED
I saw this when it came out last week.
Thank god we have Russ, Mr Spof, and Justice
on top of these things.
I’m sure the good Dr. will set things aright.
‘The syndrome was first recognized in Australia around the Adelaide hills. ‘
I wonder what changed in that area?
Farming practices?
Nuke plant? concrete plant maybe?
new water plant?…
MMMmmmmm
I have heard of people vomiting from smoking too much. If you cough hard and long enough it can lead to vomitting, and if this guy was smoking marijuana pretty much constantly I could see why he might experience these symptoms, and why breathing in hot humid air while taking a bath would be beneficial. The supposed corroborations are probably anecdotal reports of people throwing up while smoking, which must be fairly common. It certainly has nothing to do with cannabinoids.
I have had my share of cough attacks from a puff of good buds. But no matter how long or hard i coughed i would never vomit, even if it felt as if i were going too.
I think some are misunderstanding the article. This is not someone “smoking until you puke”. What they are saying is that cannabis might trigger a conditioner where people periodically have “spells” of vomiting that last for days at a time. These spells can reoccur every few weeks or months.
progression of my feelings after reading this
Progression of my feelings after reading this
what was the dosage used in the expirement?
On what authority does the author base these claims on?
We can see the scope and range of this study’s sample size… a single 22 year old male:
In this case report, we describe a twenty-two year-old-male with a history of chronic cannabis abuse presenting with recurrent vomiting, intense nausea and abdominal pain. In addition, the patient reported that the hot baths improved his symptoms during these episodes. Abstinence from cannabis led to resolution of the vomiting symptoms and abdominal pain.
Furthermore, I read the actual case report at the journal of gastroenterology (they have scrubbed the page since), and mentions that the patient smoked marijuana once or twice an hour, all day every day. I have no idea what that would do to you, namely because I’ve never had that much weed..
I think I have it