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.
yes it is not bullshit but also its not severe vomiting at all more like a sever gag reflex leading to vomiting its also linked to mental health problems u probably aquired from smoking (anxiety depresion that sort of thing) so much due to breathing more heavily when u breath more u tend to yawn and this brings on the severe vomting for anyone who has this drink a tiny bit of oj or juice any liquid really and it stopped the gagging 99% of the time for me
guys dont bullshit yourself and say canabis doesnt harm u im TELLING YOU IT DOES i smoked for fifteen years had manic depresion and anxiety i couldnt even go out the house thats how bad it got stop while u can if u smoke regular enough ove a long period of timeit messes with your body and mind !!!
i smoked cannabis for nearly ten years that article is not bullshit at all i had severe vomiting attacks (more like a gag reflex) when i met my gf i stopped smoking around 6 months after i found out she was prgnant and the vomiting stopped just a FYI for u guys saying its bullshit ITS NOT
The attitude that these reportings are bull shit automatically is extremely immature. People have not heard about this for a couple of reasons. The first and foremost being we do not have a complete understanding of how the brain works, particularly in relation to cannabanoid receptors and how they affect the hypothalamus (the part that regulates temperature and digestion). Another reason is that there is another well known illness that has pretty similar symptoms called Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. The illness causes episodic vomiting much like CHS but usually appears prior to puberty and has triggers such as stress. If we truly want to understand Marijuana (which all users should want to) it is important that we don’t automatically reject every piece of negative evidence against it. About three months ago I had my second episode of extreme vomiting. I too had been smoking heavily for about a year, so when my gastroenterologist told me about CHS it made sense. I’m not saying that I definitively have it, but I am in my 3rd month of cannabis abstinence in an attempt to figure out exactly what I have. Let me emphasize again… it is NOT okay to simply reject every piece of evidence that comes up pointing to any possible negative effect of Marijuana. Let the research continue… and toke on for me.
sad but true
Hi Beth, it is a long road giving up and it seems weird that people take it up again but it is a real trap. Giving up has its own real hell attached to it that drug & alcohol advisers don’t really understand as yet but they were great as a support anyway. Really, good luck with it and make sure he gets sleep, most important and hard to get while giving up… Tell a doctor to get help with the nervous system and meds etc too, help and support is really important. Good luck to you both, it CAN BE DONE, no more throwing up is simply the BEST…
Josh-
My son is a very heavy smoker and has been hospitalized with these exact symptoms which went undiagnosed. He spent a whole week in the hospital for it one time. He starts vomiting and can not stop. He can not keep anything down for days. I am glad to learn that to stop smoking may cure him. I never related the two before and would not have believed it either. I was concerned he had something much more serious and I hope he heeds the advice to stop or only use it occasionally.
Thanks Kirsty. I only wish I was making this up.
Josh, most people who do this are chronic smokers @ 4g a day smokers like I was. Last I heard marijuana is addictive so you say they would just give up if they felt sick? Well kiddo, not so easy to do. And you say it makes you sick so you use alcohol “medically”, wow!! aren’t you the supreme idiot excusing alcoholism as a medical band aid to cure yourself when your drug addict side of yourself makes you feel a little woozy. Shit you must be also getting on the paranoid side just slightly by using the phrase “they” as if there is some sort of conspiracy on this site trying to creep into your head and convince YOU to give up???? These people on here are desperate and trying to work out what the fuck is going on with their bodies. Genuine, ill people who love the stuff but are facing the wall with really no choice but having to quit. You are quite the self proclaimed genius and must be far better than the average man from the sound of the way you talk on here. Good for you, a lucky bastard who has nothing better to do than to knock people on this site who have no choice like you do!
Hi James, yep I have had that chronic pain so bad that I couldn’t stand up straight and the hot showers or hot baths relieved the pain somewhat but didn’t make it go away. So to answer your question i had the exact same symptoms that you are describing and the pain killers had to get stronger each ER visit and the drugs to stop the throwing up just extended the hospital stay. The amount of bile that can exit my body amazed me. I filled a bath full of the stuff and my bath is a two person bath so it is really big and was full of water. The whole thing was a fluro yellow color and this was after I had thrown a lot of bile up already in the toilet prior to managing to stumble into the bath. I gave up the mj and never puked again. HONEST TO GOD. However, my digestive system has been rank ever since and I stick to really clean foods only now and I don’t seem to handle any type of fat at all well, it turns to diorrhea (can’t spell), so nothing processed, fruit veges and a little meat maybe once a week, no coffee or soft drinks no alcohol and I had to quit cigarettes recently cos they affect me worse than they ever have done in the past too in an allergic type of way now (never used to before this syndrome started). Basically James I feel like my whole immune system and my liver/bile duct tract has been compromised or educated to fight new things since this reaction to dope I had 2 years ago now. Recently because I had inflammation all over my body the doctor gave me cortizone tablets which I have never had before. Amazingly once I finished this course there was a very weird sensation on the left side of my upper abdominal area after I ate for the 2 days when I finished the tablets. It gurgled and it felt like there was bile moving through tubes. My body has never felt this before EVER. It actually felt like a relief in a way, I started testing eating a bit of fat here and there and things seem to be a little better now. There is such a thing as a warped bile duct as well but I checked out ok with this, I still think though there was some type of problem with the flow of bile and no wonder considering the violent type of wretching and moaning that goes on with the canabinoid hyper emmesis syndrome you and I know all too well. Good luck, give up the dope, it really is the root of the problem. I hope your system settles down eventually. Some people on here seem to give it up and are fine. I really am not completely fine but I never want to throw up bile again if I can help it (much worse than a regular throw up as you know). Good luck and best of health in your future.