Asthma, Acid Reflux + Cannabis

I've had seasonal asthma (during the springtime) for many years now, and I've always been able to stop taking albuterol and other allergy pills when the spring ended.

About 1 or 2 months ago, I noticed that I felt like I wasn't getting a full lung of air, and I had ungodly amounts of mucus just glued to my throat that was difficult to bring up. ( I would cough, hack, grunt, snort, etc. )

I got it checked out many times and was prescribed antibiotics, then later allergy medicine, and different steroids to help loosen the mucus. I had a hard time breathing 2 months ago and it's still the same way.

Earlier today I felt as though I could barely breathe and I suppose I hyperventilated. I've had panic attacks before but this one sucked. Every time I would take in a breath of air, I would feel a pretty shitty pain in my chest that made it difficult to breathe. Anyway, I went to the E.R., and had it all checked out. The doctor informed me that I just hyperventilated. I told him I that I haven't been able to get a full breath of air in 2 months. I was informed that I was getting a full lung of air, but excess mucus in my throat made it hard.

I told him I was pretty sure I had acid reflux disease, or GERD, whatever it was. He said with the combination of allergies, asthma and GERD, I should quit smoking cigarettes.

So I decided to quit smoking butts, and work on my diet while taking Prilosec.

My main question is: Will I still be able to smoke bud as often as I do ( or at all?? ) Perhaps one solution would be to get a vaporizer? I'd never want to stop smoking blunts, j's, bowls and bongs though! Does anyone else have similar problems?

Appreciate the help in advance guys. :jointsmile:

Hi There! A vaporizer is a very good idea, even though they can be so expensive. I think you will start to feel a big difference after quitting smoking cigarettes as well, I did. I have asthma and bad allergies and stupidly I smoked cigarettes as well. I quit over a year ago and have been breathing so much better ever since. Smoking weed doesn't cause any of the problems that cigs did. Good luck and I hope you are feeling better soon!

Try a break from bud and see if it helps your particular symptoms. Everyone's different, and while you may be likely to hear from other members assuring you with numerous abstracts from research studies (which you won't be able to read the real study data behind) that cannabis is nothing but beneficial for asthma or GERD, the truth is whole cannabis smoke isn't good for your lungs or your esophagus. It's an irritant to your airways and probably to your esophagus, too. In this report I link below, synthetic marijuana-like compounds seemed to ease relaxations of the lower esophageal sphincter in animals, meaning they had a positive effect on GERD in mice, but those compounds aren't the same thing as real whole, inhaled cannabis smoke and they weren't human studies. So we can't say how it affects humans. Same thing with what other abstracts may say because the abstracts you're likely to see nearly always address how THC or CBDs, the isolated active compounds, affect study subjects (like mice), not whole cannabis smoke.
Studies Uncover Mind-Gut Connection in Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Assess Marijuana’s Possible E

I had lots of extra asthma trouble when I smoked and also found it an aggravator of heartburn and acid indigestion. I always produced more mucus and had worse allergic trouble, too, after smoking, but I dealt with that with low doses of Benadryl. When I return to cannabis use someday, I'lll vape. My older sister had a terrible time with GERD during her cannabis-using phase, too, but she had a burned, ulcerated esophagus from chemotherapy and we couldn't ever really know how much of that was chemo and how much was cannabis. Quitting smoking did seem to improve her digestive irritation, though. At least for a time. But she also quit the chemo at about the same time, so we'll never really know.

^^ The poor thing. I remember that burning pain she had. I think the smoking probably just took a bad situation from Bess's chemo and made it slightly worse.

So BG and Dave.....would you think eating, the capsules or vaping would help with the acid-reflux....I've got the same issue as well and whille it DID occur to me about the smoking (and coughing) I've since quite smoking cigerettes and only smoke about 1/3 of the mj I used to...now mostly eat but still seem to have alot of reflux issues.

I'm betting capsules or vaped cannabis would likely have a much more beneficial effect on GERD. It'd be interesting to try it as an experiment. For one thing, if its active ingredients do the good things for human insides that they do in small mouse studies, that'd be a great thing to experience first-hand. And I'm betting even do-it-yourself cannabis eating might have a positive outcome, too. Eaten cannabis contains fiber, which is good for GERD. The one hitch would be in avoiding eating cannabis in traditional fatty, sugary things like cookies or brownies or firecrackers. High-fat content foods and chocolate are known to be GERD aggravators. I suspect sugar can be, too, but that's just my guess.

This is all just my speculation, but everything I've read leads me to suspect that a non-smoked way of ingesting cannabis would probably be more likely than not to have a positive effect on GERD.

I have acid reflux disease, but smoking weed doesn't seem to bother it. The worst thing for it (for me) is going to sleep right after eating a big greasy meal. Cigs really bother it too. And spicy food. Also alcohol, especially hard liquor.

You could experiment with making edibles, or green dragon, and see if that helps.

^^^ That's good to know!

Everything used to bother mine. Eating anything but especially meat or chicken or fried things. Eating too late at night. Smoke. Allergies. Alcohol. Certain medicines. Probably even pet dander. And pregnancy was the absolute worst of all. There are few advantages to having had my insides surgically rearranged after a ruptured appendix and peritonitis, but this is one of them. Hardly any trouble whatsoever with GERD anymore.

I didn't even consider the grease aspect.....thanks for the info BG. :thumbsup:

I have GERD, I take two 100mg Zantac a day. With in time it will heal, like it helped me with the burning when I burped and it is gone now.

I appreciate all the advice from fellow smokers. Talking to my buddies today, it seems as though GERD might be common for smokers because many of my pals have been experiencing the same problems. I'm hoping mine will improve with daily protonix and a diet change. :)