by Chris Conrad
The heart and circulatory system combined make up the cardiovascular system; the core of inner vitality and the flow of life. Fresh blood leaves the heart in a surge, and returns to it through miles of vessels that range in size from large arteries to minute capillaries. Blood continuously flows out into the body through the arteries and then returns back to the heart through the veins. Along this route, blood cells feed oxygen, nutrients, and medicinal compounds to the body’s other cells as they pick up waste materials that will be disposed through the liver into urine or fecal matter. Pressure to drive the hard-working blood on its commute through the vascular system comes from rhythmic cardiac contractions—the steady pumping of the heart. This life-giving cadence causes the pulse to beat at a measurable rate.
One of the most consistent physical effects of consuming resinous cannabis, whether it is smoked or eaten, is an increase in the pulse rate. This change is sufficiently dose-related and reproducible with both the natural herb and pure THC to stand as an objective measurement of cannabis’s overall effect.2 Reported increases have ranged from 10 to 40 beats per minute in response to THC doses ranging from 2 to 70 mg.3 After using this herb a few times, the patient becomes familiar with the stimulant effect and soon learns to accept or even look forward to it. The pulse effect diminishes in regular herb smokers over the course of a few weeks, showing that a low level of tolerance has developed. It continues to occur, however, regardless of the patient’s experience with marijuana. Oral doses of clonidine, taken three hours before consuming cannabis, suppressed this cardiovascular response without reducing the herb’s psychoactive effects.4 However, the massive doses of resin consumed for religious purposes in India were reported to significantly slow the heartbeats of ascetics.5 Extreme doses of cannabis tincture were found to slow the breath rate considerably, and enormous amounts have been given to animals without causing a lethal effect.6
Consuming cannabis stimulates cardiovascular activity by speeding up the heart rate while expanding the blood vessels. It acts as a vasodilator, meaning the compounds in the resin open up the blood vessels.7 This facilitates blood flow throughout the vascular system, which may lower the blood pressure and help reduce stress. The patient’s overall body temperature remains essentially unchanged or may be slightly lowered, and a noticeable cooling of the digits and extremities is not uncommon. This is probably why cannabis is so often recommended to lower a patient’s fever in classical medical literature. Certain THC analogs may also prove quite valuable for treating high blood pressure and uncontrollable fevers.8 Such benefits are temporary, lasting only as long as the active compounds are in the blood stream, but would often be sufficient to get the patient safely through a crisis situation.
STRESS REDUCTION
Many social users say that they use marijuana to unwind, and quite a few have confided that there have been situations when smoking some cannabis kept them from blowing their stack. Cannabis aids psychological perspective, which helps to make the little nuisances of life just that much less irritating. The importance of this function is often underrated, for high stress can kill. A high tension lifestyle carries its own price tag in terms of heart disease and social interaction. Hostile people are about twice as likely to suffer from heart disease and to die from any cause. “People who are hostile are at risk of getting divorced, more likely to be alone, less likely to take care of their health, and more likely to be heavy drinkers,” said Todd Q. Miller, assistant professor of preventive medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas. He suggested that “reprogramming” one’s outlook could be as effective a prevention tool as exercising, avoiding cigarettes, and eating right. The findings come from a statistical analysis of forty-five reports linking heart disease and death to hostility. Now, it appears, their psychological profile also makes them more likely to become ill and die. Cannabis offers such high-strung personalities a relatively safe way to unwind before their situation hits a crisis point. Furthermore, the pattern of deep breathing plus breath control that is associated with smoking cannabis may serve as a form of relaxation therapy that reduces stress and generates a sublime sense of well-being.
Apparently THC produces little or no electrocardiographic abnormalities or changes in circulation rate. Reports on the effects of a wide range of dosages on blood pressure are inconsistent. Some investigators using pure THC have reported slight decreases in blood pressure, while others reported minor increases. Still others have been unable to demonstrate any significant effect, using smoked or oral preparations. L. E. Hollister analyzed blood and urine samples subsequent to oral administration of either THC or synhexyl.9 Total white blood cell count increased and overall redness of the fluid decreased, but no significant changes were found in platelet serotonin content, plasma cortisol level, or urinary catecholamine excretion. These findings indicate that cannabis has no major effect on these common physical measures of stress. Other studies looked at possible blood chemistry changes, using from 7.5 mg to 75 mg THC equivalent.10 They found no changes in total white blood cell count, red blood cell structure or number, or the ratio between the two. Furthermore, no significant change was detected in platelet count; reticulocyte count; blood urea nitrogen; concentration of sodium, potassium, chloride, bicarbonate, calcium, or phosphorous; liver function tests; protein electrophoresis; or uric acid concentration.
The accelerated heartbeat has been mentioned as a possible contraindication against the use of cannabis drugs by people with heart conditions, although there is no empirical data to support that concern. From a practical viewpoint, the most common negative effect is when people who are unfamiliar with this effect become aware of their speeded up heartbeat and start to worry about it. Their concern causes emotional tension, which increases the heartbeat again. That response compounds their fear and anxiety, which increases the heartbeat yet again and that pattern could ultimately trigger a brief, but unpleasant, panic attack. This does not pose any physical danger to a healthy individual. Many people have briefly experienced this without any harmful consequences, and there is no cause for serious concern. The best remedy is to calm down. Sit back, breathe deeply, relax, and talk to someone you feel comfortable with or do something to take your mind off your heartbeat while you wait for the anxiety to pass.
Remember, a vigorous heartbeat is a good sign. It means you’re alive.
AIR PASSAGES AND ASTHMA
Cannabis smoke is an excellent dilator of the tiny air tubes in the lungs called the bronchi and the bronchioles, opening them up to allow more oxygen into the blood.11 These air passages attach to the alveoli, the roughly 400 million tiny air sacs in the lungs where the oxygen exchange takes place. The amount of oxygen the blood can carry is at its maximum at around age fifty. After that, the lungs gradually lose elasticity and the alveoli thicken, impeding the passage of gases across the membranes. Ultimately, more air has to be breathed to properly oxygenate the blood, and overall breathing capacity is diminished by up to 40 percent by age seventy.12 Research into the lungs’ oxygen transfer mechanism suggests that, since cannabis smoke is a bronchodilator, the shallowness of breath, headaches, chest pains, and other symptoms of exposure to heavy smog might be somewhat alleviated by moderate use of cannabis. It is conceivable that regular cannabis smoking could slow the aging process of the lungs themselves.
Asthma is a pulmonary condition characterized by attacks of breathlessness and wheezing, caused by constriction of the bronchioles. About ten million Americans have asthma, and it kills more than four thousand in a typical year. The five thousand deaths attributed to it in 1995 represent a 44 percent increase since 1983. It starts when a simple inhalation picks up any of a number of irritants, such as pollen, dust, feathers, or animal hair and dander. This sets off allergic reactions, which are aggravated by cold air, infections, exercise, and air pollution. The muscles surrounding the bronchial tubes contract and squeeze the flow of air. The linings of the bronchioles swell and become inflamed. The air passages become
even narrower. They fill with phlegm, and muscle spasms trigger coughing fits. Eventually a chronic cough may develop. In severe cases, a combination of steroids and bronchodilators may be prescribed.
Contrary to what one might expect, smoking cannabis can actually relieve asthma by relaxing the bronchial muscles and expanding the bronchioles. This facilitates the exchange of gases within the lungs and increases the total oxygen flow. The smoke acts very quickly, and a few puffs can bring fast relief to an asthmatic attack. A study by Dr. Donald Tashkin showed that both natural cannabis and THC improved the flow of air into the lungs, and that while certain pharmaceutical bronchodilators worked faster with a stronger peak effect, the effect of THC lasted longer and had fewer side effects.13
Joe Pinson is a lifelong asthma patient. His mother, Regina, and his grandmother, Amy Paterson, can testify to the time they spent taking care of Joe as a child. They recount the many times they had to rush him to the hospital as he was turning gray, because he could not breathe due to his severe, life-threatening bouts with asthma. He missed so much school one year that he was held back a grade, and his family got him a private tutor to work at home. Drug after pharmaceutical drug failed to help much. Then, at age eighteen, his episodes suddenly and mysteriously stopped. For the first time, he could breathe and lead a normal life. His family was so relieved that he had finally grown out of his asthma. What his family didn’t know was that Joe had discovered that smoking resinous cannabis could stop an asthma attack in its tracks. He could go from gasping for breath to relatively normal breathing with just a few puffs of the pungent smoke. He kept this a secret, and decided that the best way to keep anyone from finding out would be to stop buying cannabis on the street. Federal agents began to investigate Joe in 1991 after he bought some indoor gardening equipment, and they later found marijuana plants in his attic. He was given a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for growing his own medicine. In prison, Joe is deprived of the natural medicine that has proven the most effective for controlling his asthma. Instead, he is given hard drugs, such as steroids, with known harmful side effects.14
LUNG IRRITATION AND BRONCHITIS
Cannabis smoke contains components that cause small, temporary lesions in the lining of the lungs, which heal quickly with no demonstrated long-term effect. There is no evidence that such damage has ever led to lung cancer; however, common sense dictates caution, and heavy smoking has been repeatedly shown to increase the likelihood of contracting bronchitis. This risk is greater in areas with more polluted air. If this happens to you, the treatment is simple: Stop smoking, and the problem will go away. What superficial damage cannabis smoke does to the human lung is limited to the large air passage, not the more fragile bronchi and alveoli. If a patient has bronchitis, emphysema, or any other lung problem, however, it is probably not a good idea to smoke anything—not even cannabis. In an attempt to eliminate this problem, THC was isolated and administered to asthma patients in an aerosol form to relax bronchospasms. Unfortunately the aerosols themselves proved to be irritating, and fell into disuse. A new inhalation device, known as a vaporizer, heats the cannabis to the point where its essence is released in a vapor before the plant matter begins to burn. This offers exciting new possibilities in treatment.
When cannabis is legal prices will drop significantly, and people will be able to afford more potent strains, to take shorter inhalations, and to use vaporizers, water pipes, and other systems that minimize possible damage. In the meantime, for safer consumption, the patient should try not to inhale so deeply when smoking, and should take in more fresh air and exhale sooner. Due to the efficiency of the THC transfer through smoking, most medical benefits are received almost instantly, and any loss of effects from not holding the smoke in will be minimal compared to the reduced health risk.
While much ado has been made of the possible risks of the smoking process, the amount of research on this aspect of cannabis use is skewed and misleading; it has been exaggerated in an effort to rationalize drug policies against cannabis. And don’t forget that in most cases cannabis need not be smoked at all. Although smoking cannabis is a much faster and more efficient way of getting relief, most of the benefits can be enjoyed by eating it as well. If it is eaten, there is no negative effect on the respiratory tissues.
OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF CANNABIS SMOKE
Jamaican and Costa Rican studies looked at very heavy, regular cannabis smokers and found no significant difference in respiratory health to distinguish them from the non-smoking control group. Researchers using electron microscopic methods were able to detect damage in the pulmonary tree of tobacco smokers, but found no such damage among short- or even long-term cannabis smokers.15
On the other hand, cannabis smoke is an expectorant that helps the patient break up and expel phlegm and clear out congested air passages. Cannabis resin is also helpful in suppressing coughs. It was reported in the 1920s that cannabis tincture is “one of the best additions to cough mixtures that we possess, as it quiets that tickling in the throat, and yet does not constipate nor depress the system as does morphine.”16
Dryness of the mouth and throat are typical symptoms of cannabis consumption. Oral dehydration occurs whether the cannabis is smoked or eaten, but the effect is most pronounced when smoked. The use of throat lozenges or chewing gum moistens the patient’s palate, but shortly afterwards the dryness returns. Drinking water has relatively little effect in reducing this dryness. It is possible that the oily smoke may coat the surface of the mouth with a sticky, resinous film that temporarily prevents saliva from replenishing the surface moisture in the mouth. On the other hand, the herb’s diuretic action may actually be siphoning off the saliva to flush out the body. Apart from being a minor inconvenience, the only notable negative effects of oral dehydration, commonly known as “cotton mouth,” are dry kisses and the need to take a drink before speaking.
There are several therapeutic applications of this phenomenon. One is to dry the mouth in order to facilitate a particular medical process, such as visiting the dentist—a situation in which cannabis’s analgesic and relaxing properties may also help. Cotton mouth also encourages one to drink more liquids, thereby flushing out one’s entire system. Another use is to dry out the mucus linings of the nasal cavity when one has a runny nose. This is achieved by inhaling the smoke up through the nose to dehydrate the mucus membranes, and it may also have a local anti-inflammatory effect.
Your body is a temple. Don’t be afraid to burn a little incense.
Chapter 10
Reproduction, Metabolism, and Topical Applications
REPRODUCTION AND CHILDBIRTH
An early warning about cannabis and childbirth comes from a European explorer’s note that some Ugandan superstitions forbade married women to smoke cannabis because of the effect it could have upon either her or her child, “should she be about to become a mother.”1 Modern studies have found little to worry about in this regard—concentrations of inert THC cannabinoids in the testes and ovaries of cannabis smokers are among the lowest measured in any body organs.2 Nonetheless, most orthodox physicians discourage pregnant women from smoking cannabis. Cannabinoids cross the placenta, and conventional wisdom dictates that a pregnant woman take extraordinary care not to expose her unborn child to any perceived risks.
Traditionally, however, cannabis flowers were an important part of the midwife’s basket of remedies, used to ease labor. Cannabis has long been used to control the nausea of morning sickness. A fourth-century tomb near Jerusalem yielded physical evidence that cannabis was used in the birthing process. Israeli archaeologists stumbled upon a 1600-year-old tragedy—the remains of a narrow-hipped, teenage woman still bearing the skeleton of a full-term fetus in her abdomen. In the chamber with her was a dish of gray ashes that contained charred cannabis seeds and traces of THC.3 Could it be that her midwife had administered the plant in a desperate effort to bring on labor and ease the pain? If so, it would not have been unusual. The plant’s resin was valu
ed in ancient Persia for treating miscarriages. The Sotho women of Africa traditionally smoke the herb during childbirth to speed up their labor, and their children are fed ground-up seed with bread or mealy-pap for weaning.4 The Chinese Pen T’sao Kang Mu also prescribed the use of hempseed for such things as an aid in sterility and miscarriage. It cited a passage from the older work, Ri Hua or The Essence of Daily Life, that called for hempseed remedies in the following circumstances. “It will bring benefit in every and all types of malignancy. . . . It will increase the flow of mother’s milk for the suckling of infants. It has the capacity to quench thirst. It can be used to hasten childbirth, where the delivery is troubled with complications, or overdue.”5
Use of resinous cannabis extracts continued to be important throughout the nineteenth century in treating women and mothers-to-be. The United States Dispensatory of 1854 noted its value for treating uterine hemorrhage. It added that it had the properties of “hastening and increasing the contractions of the uterus in delivery. . . . [I]t acts very quickly, and without anesthetic effect.”6 Cannabis extract was also described in the British Medical Journal for controlling menorrhagia (excessive menstrual bleeding) as “a valuable aid to diagnosis in cases in which it is uncertain whether an early abortion may or may not have occurred.”7 Its common use in the past encouraged an anonymous modern-day couple to have a hemp childbirth, including plenty of hempseed essential fatty acids in the diet and hempseed oil massages to lubricate the vaginal opening and keep the skin moisturized as it stretched for the birth. The mother ate some cannabis to relax her uterine muscles and in the last moments smoked to ease the pain of the contractions. The couple was very satisfied with the results of their home birthing experiment, and the child is healthy, bright, happy, and growing up well.