Doctors are not botanists

[melodious fellow]

Did you know it can lower your blood pressure too?

Not to mention ocular pressure..

Good lookin' out bro. I was afraid I was going to have to be the first to post in this direction and then get eaten alive...

It's a funny picture in my head to try to think of doctors with file cabinets full of cannabis studies, or even really waste their precious time looking in to that, after all there was a thread on here the other day where some neuroscience guy said erb was a rather boring thing to study in the lab..

But I went to this really cool doctor when I got bad bronchitis this year, and he told me smoking weed was not any big deal... did not even tell me I needed to stop with bronchitis. He said, well it is a slight irritant, but no big deal or anything. You could make brownies if you are worried about it"

And after all, one should never question their doctor's education

But the kinda strange part (not to stereotype but...) he had bibles and christian stuff in the waiting room and on the walls... and this is the bible belt... so yeah.

And weed lowers my blood pressure. I am a vegetarian and I pump iron (he he, chicas?) so I have naturally low blood pressure. But after a nice joint, it drops down to about 100/50 and that is after walking around in wal mart for a half hour(I always check with their nifty robot cuff in the pharmacy section)

Sober it is around 110-115/60-65

But each individual's body is unique and there are oh so many other variables in this.

peace

melodious fellow Reviewed by melodious fellow on 02-28-2008. Doctors are not botanists my doctor told me today that my blood pressure was a bit higher than the last time i was there... she asked if i smoked cigarettes, and i told her I didn't, but that i occasionally (lol yea right) smoked pot. she said that what is in pot is worse than what is in cigarettes, but the quantity that is smoked of pot is less than cigarettes, almost making it less of a threat.... so there's a big debate whether or not marijuana can cause lung cancer, there are no proven deaths, etc... Rating: 5

[Coelho]

Well... i only vaporize hash oil, so i inhale almost no smoke, and ive noticed that weed indeed lowers my (already low) pressure... i was going to say that there was differences between the smoke effects and the THC effects, but Birdgirls post explains it far better than i ever would... so, listen to her.

[birdgirl73]

I got my Blood Pressure taken exactly a week after I'd stopped smoking. Could a higher blood pressure be my body's reaction to it being cut off from cannabis? Im not talking about "addiction" or anything. But if Cannabis CAN reduce blood pressure, does that mean that weaning off of cannabis (i guess weaning is the wrong term since i stopped cold-turkey) does that mean that the lack of its use would bring it back up?

I think that could very easily be something that would happen. If cannabis, particularly an Indica or Indica-dominant strain, were acting as a strong vasodilator for someone with hypertension, then certainly to stop that vasodilation "medication," particularly if someone had been using it regularly, could easily cause a spike in BP. I'm pretty sure that's been noted as a symptom, in fact, with the cessation of regular cannabis use, as has agitation, jumpiness, etc. A rebound spike in BP is very common after cessation of certain other cardiovascular meds, so it makes sense to me the same thing could happen upon cessation of cannabis.

Now whether or not that's the very case with you is hard to tell. If someone had been checking your BP before and after smoking, then after quitting, too, we'd have a much better idea.