Check Out Can you Smoke Cannabis if you Have a Cold?
Can you Smoke Cannabis if you Have a Cold? Is it recommendable that you smoke weed while having a cold? We dig deeper into the facts.
Everyone has a chance to go down with flu, which can happen frequently. Sometimes, it knocks you right off your feet, although it usually occurs as a mild convenience.
Most times, you won't have to administer medication on flu since it isn't treatable using antibiotics. Technically, viruses – which are resistant to antibiotics – cause it, and typical antibiotics have no impact because it only works against bacteria.
Nonetheless, you can use diverse methods to treat flu and alleviate the symptoms. Treating flu using over-the-counter and cabinet medicine is conventional for relief and comfort to most people. But even so, cannabis seems a viable treatment choice for some reprieve. This sought-after natural herb is synonymous with numerous medicinal properties, but can it help with flu?
This article examines the impact of smoking weed if you have a cold and whether or not it can make things even better.
Colds, Cannabis, and Immunity
Your body has to stay pure and healthy, which means blocking every pathogen already inside or about to enter. These pathogens in their different forms can induce inflammation – a prompted response by your immune system to wage war on the invaders. Usually, your immune system releases chemicals called cytokines, which act as the signals for white blood cells to act and neutralize the infection immediately.
However, the cytokines released usually leave a trail of effects, with inflammation, redness, pain, and swelling on the area affected are the aftermaths. Usually, these viruses gain access into the body by entering through the respiratory tract, causing inflammation in that area. That leads to the following symptoms.
· Headaches
· Fever
· Aches and pain
· Sore throat
· Runny nose (sometimes blocked)
· Sinus swelling
At this juncture, weed, as a remedy, integrates seamlessly since it usually helps with inflammation by alleviating pain. That makes it a viable go-to treatment option since it can relieve cold symptoms just as similar. Although there are no direct co-relations between marijuana and pain, existing research documents its impact in alleviating pain.
The compounds found in cannabis seemingly act on the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which effortlessly induces pain relief. That's at least the theory that scientists work with, but they're still likely to figure out how marijuana influences immunity and counters inflammation.
The ECS – a collection of receptors on your body cell surfaces – bind with endocannabinoids, which are compounds that your body produces and play varied roles essential to your body's biological functions.
And since marijuana contains some phytocannabinoids, they work in an essentially similar way as your body's endocannabinoids. They have the affinity to bind with the receptors in your ECS and are therefore highly impactful in the human body. Alternatively, your body's immunity relies on CB2 receptors, which are a specific kind of receptors involved.
These particular receptors are essentially prevalent in the immune system but usually found throughout your body. Cannabinoids usually modulate pro-inflammatory cytokine release when they bind with the ECS's receptors, making them appear like they're dampening the immune system. That reduces inflammation, and your cold will start to recede.
Alternatively, another herb, the echinacea, contains CB2 receptors that boost your immunity and work similarly to marijuana's cannabinoids. Nonetheless, there are more gaps for research needing some filling up to properly document the immediate impact this herb has as with marijuana.
How Smoking Weed Could Alleviate Your Cold Symptoms
Weed can relieve the most irritating cold symptoms since it contains cannabinoids that bind with CB2 receptors. That modulates the immune system offering relief to your most profound adversity. Besides, cannabinoids also improve your cognitive capacity and can be perfect in increasing your sharpness and alertness. Nonetheless, the benefits of marijuana for flu and colds include the following:
· Pain relief
· Improvement of sleep
· Reduced inflammation
Cannabis also can relax your airways and make your breathing more effortless in the short term. Usually, your nasal canals block or constrict due to inflammation and can pose difficulty breathing. Therefore, a puff of cannabis (or twice more) can offer you a much-needed reprieve.
Reducing Inflammation
Marijuana also contains flavonoids and terpenes believed to have anti-inflammatory properties, in addition to cannabinoids that act on CB2 receptors in the ECS. These compounds work independently or collaboratively to reduce inflammation and counter the cold symptoms for some needed reprieve. Inflammation along the respiratory tract can cause discomfort, which would totally put you off. However, your long-anticipated relief could only be a few puffs away.
Pain Relief
The cannabis compounds that reduce inflammation also help alleviate pain and aches resulting from flu and colds. The cannabinoids present usually bind with the CB2 receptors in the ECS, which helps counter pain resulting from virus infection in the respiratory tract. Besides, it relieves headaches, sore throats, and sinusitis, making it reasonably comfortable to cruise through the sickness.
Improving Sleep
The interaction between weed cannabinoids and the ECS helps improve sleep, which helps you recover quickly through resting. Sleeping with a cold can be damning and aggravate the next day when you wake up. Especially so, it can put you under the weather if you don't have a remedy to alleviate the symptoms. Fair enough, cold and flu are viral diseases and won't need treatment. But having something to treat the symptoms can be a worthy choice.
Relaxing the Airways for Eased Breathing
You can get some relief from smoking weed, which research suggests that it opens up your airways. That allows enough air to your lungs in a process called bronchodilation. Nevertheless, as it's common knowledge, long-term smoking is damaging to the lungs, which triggers the concern of whether or not smoking weed with a cold is worthwhile.
Can Smoking Weed Make Your Cold Worse?
The most apparent reason weed can be harmful is that it affects your lungs since it's usually smoked. Although marijuana can work out your cold symptoms and alleviate them, the negative impact it has may be daunting. However, these effects may occur incrementally and, therefore, easily dismissable. The cumulative impact can bring you to your senses in the long run, which often becomes apparent later on.
There's an incredible chance that regular marijuana use can induce lung problems such as chronic bronchitis when you mix it with tobacco. Besides, it aggravates your throat and lung irritation and worsens existing symptoms, including coughs. That puts your respiratory tract on the line and your entire respiratory system at risk.
Similarly, smoking marijuana with a cold causes your blood pressure to fall alarmingly, making you feel dizzy. That means if you're already experiencing dizziness as a symptom of the cold, it could only be worse. That makes it unsuitable for beginner smokers since they're highly vulnerable to this effect while fighting off a cold.
Another far-fetched marijuana effect is that it causes stomach upsets or nausea that can only make things worse if you're already ravaged by a cold. That's especially true for most cannabis edibles which won't be suitable if you already can't take more of a cold or flu symptoms. When down with a cold, the least you'd want is having something that adds to your misery, and that makes this herb pretty unfavorable.
Most significantly, there's a tremendous chance that you'll pass the viruses to a friend as you share your joint. As they press it against their lips and puff in a load, they're likely to suck an infection, too, since it's highly contagious. Although they may thank you for being generous, they won't say the same a week later when a cold or flu knocks them right off their feet.
Here is a brief of the pros and cons of smoking weed with a cold:
Pros
· Cannabis can act as a bronchodilator in the short term, which can help relax your airways and make your breathing more seamless.
· Marijuana offers some relief on pains and aches
· Cannabis can improve your sleep
· Marijuana reduces inflammation and calms the immune system
Cons
· Cannabis can induce dizziness in some people, which could be worse if you have a nagging cold.
· There's a potential risk of cross-infection when sharing a smoke with other people, and it can be worse on their part if you're the one having a cold or flu.
· Smoking weed can aggravate coughing by irritating your lungs, making it reasonably uncomfortable.
· Cannabis, especially the edibles, can upset your stomach, causing nausea that can last long enough to feel irritating.
Smoking weed with a cold can be concerning. However, numerous other ways to benefit from using marijuana exist without irritating your lungs. These ways of using marijuana help get rid of the impact of smoke that reaches your lungs directly. Instead, most would channel cannabis into your body orally or through vapors.
The Best Ways of Taking Weed When you Have a Cold
Vaporizers are thoughtful and much safer ways of consuming cannabis compared to smoking, especially if you're under the weather. Besides, any regular smoker can shift to vaporizers since it reduces the acute effects of continuous smoking. Nonetheless, it's always prudent to use high-end vaporizers since they usually don't contain chemicals that jeopardize your health. While low-quality vaporizers are the more prevalent type, they usually pose a potential risk to your health and are therefore not suitable.
Edibles are still a viable option as well. Instead of taking marijuana as vapor or burning it into smoke, you can prepare a cup of soothing cannabis tea. Besides, you can use its oil extracts as good edibles to take a break from the smoke when you have a cold. Worth mentioning, however, is the perfect way to prepare your cannabis tea. To savor your drink, you could drop in a spoonful of honey or fresh ginger. If it feels okay for you, turmeric can be a viable addition to your savory drink.
However, one other way that may seemingly be helpful to some is adding some ground-up bud to hot water before inhaling the steam. It's a pretty convenient method of taking marijuana, and you'll only inhale harmless steam filled with tons of marijuana's cannabinoids.
Can you Smoke Marijuana and Take Cold Medicines Together?
It's typical to wonder whether taking cold medicine and marijuana together is viable as you look at alleviating your cold symptoms. Technically, you may have a doctor's prescription to help you ease the inflammatory effect of cold and flu or counter other symptoms. Or, you may be under a dose from over-the-counter medicine as you seek some relief.
Ideally, it would be best to be cautious when combining over-the-counter medicines and marijuana, although there are no known interactions between them. Also, you should choose to use either of the two since their combined impact can be overwhelming. Keep in mind that both marijuana and medications can cause drowsiness, and combining them can impact you threefold.
Choosing between either of them should be driven by the best time of day or the tasks you're bound to work on afterward. Remember, some lines of work won’t allow you to use marijuana before getting down to business and medications can be your go-to option. And if medications don’t work for you, then a couple of seed puffs could be your healing in waiting.
Smoking Weed with a Cold: Final Thoughts
Marijuana can help relieve a cold and get you back healthy and kicking. Fair to say, the remarks people make about the healing property of this herb are actual. Marijuana has analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects to help you avoid aggravating cold symptoms. Perhaps, a week later, they might fall sick and lay on their beds, something they'd hate happening.
However, it's prudent to choose alternative methods to deal with the general cold since smoking while sick isn't a pretty idea. It could potentially aggravate the symptom and worsen, which can be overly nagging. In this regard, you must find out which methods best fit you or which among them is more comfortable or enjoyable as you fight off the cold.
If by any chance you’ve used marijuana with a cold, please comment below and inform us about it and what you think. Is it recommendable that you smoke weed with a cold? We would love to get your take on it! Can you Smoke Cannabis if you Have a Cold?
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