Hello all. Long-time smoker, 35, male. Anything and everything but edibles. Mostly legit. Some D8 in a pinch but nowhere near the majority.
For the last four months, about once every two weeks, I’ll wake up, take a shower, walk into my living room, have a sip of water, and then run back into my bathroom, where I will vomit until the bile comes out and writhe on the floor, onto the bed, holding my stomach for 6-12 hours, screaming for God or Satan, whoever shows up first.
I’ve been in the hospital three times over the last month over it and only on the last visit was I asked if I used marijuana. There is nothing on any CT scan I’ve done, ultrasound, kidneys, liver, pancreas, appendix.
“Well I’ve never heard of this gobbledygook and I also have no idea how to search for stuff!”
Apparently, had you the genetic disposition, cannabinoids can bind to your stomach, and the sphincters to and from it, altering the timeframe it takes for your stomach to empty and the lagging or simply disabling entirely of the functions of the bottom of your esophagus until it’s over. You’ll be screaming in pain for around 8 hours. Buckle up.
Do I believe Cannabis is solely responsible?
The disease is rare and only shows up in people (usually men) who smoke daily for two or more years. I’ve been smoking daily for ten.
(Obligatory) Psyop?
If it were, I’d expect a little more than a matter-of-fact “quit and you’ll be ok”. Usually money or some type of group wants your attention from such things. I’m more leaning to this being a legitimate disease, and peers are kind-of agreeing on it. Multiple sources seem to be finding the same conclusions and I haven’t met a Doctor yet who hasn’t heard of it in some capacity.
I’m open to bribes, though.
I don’t blame cannabis. I smoked it. It didn’t jump in my mouth and light itself. I don’t blame anyone else. I am unlucky, genetically speaking. You may never get it. You may never have a single symptom, or you might. If weed works for you, fantastic. It worked for me for years, until it wanted to kill me one morning, such is the diceroll of living.
Edit: I’ll answer everyone after 4:30pm est. At work.
ER nurse here. Yes, this is a real thing. Usually, the first symptom is a steadfast denial that cannabis is the cause, so props to you for acknowledging it is likely the cause of your pain nausea and emesis. It was tough to provide care for people twice a week who would refuse to believe cannabis was causing their symptoms. That said, it looks miserable so I was always bummed someone was going through it. It would often last longer than when they tried to quit too which feels a bit unfair and contributes to the denial. There is usually a distinct retching sound people make that would out them as CHS; it is not subtle. Two things that can help fairly reliably are 1) A hot shower and 2) capsaicin topical cream rubbed on the torso. Test the capsaicin cream on a small part of your forearm first to see if you are ok with it before you lather your chest. Something about that warming sensation made folks feel much better. YMMV. Best of luck to you and others that have CHS.
Just wanted to mention that my dad had this and it doesn’t get enough attention, imo. He was a daily smoker since his 20’s. It wasn’t until his early 60’s when it started affecting him, though. Due to unrelated medical issues, he started losing a lot of weight at that time and the cannabinoids that were stored in his fat cells started getting released into his bloodstream. Unfortunately, it took a year or more before his doctor happened to hear about this syndrome and put it together. During that time, he was pretty miserable and it really restricted him from going out. But taking a break of a few months and then limiting his usage afterwards was enough to make a full recovery.
When weed enthusiasts say that cannabis has no medical downsides, I think it hurts people who are negatively affected by real, debilitating medical issues like this. Especially when the treatment is so simple and doesn’t even have to involve fully quitting, it almost makes weed look worse by not acknowledging it’s existence.
Interesting, this is the first I’ve heard of CHS possibly having a catalyst. Up to this point my experience with CHS has been through friends, one extremely heavy smoker a little younger than I, and one very light smoker only a generation older than myself. It’s almost seen as an allergic reaction, however the release of excess THC stored in fat actually makes a lot of sense, much more than you suddenly being allergic to something you’ve been ingesting for decades.
Not that it’s impossible or anything, this is how allergies occur all the time. It’s just interesting to look at different avenues, there’s still so little we know thanks to a lack of research. For what it’s worth, a majority of reports of CHS come from daily extended smokers, so it doesn’t seem like moderation or even light excess is something that commonly causes it. With what you mentioned about your father’s case in mind, it seems to align with that idea as well. I mean, more people are smoking weed than ever but CHS hasn’t exponentially grown in cases.
Hypothesis: CHS is rare because its condition is triggered by an overabundance of THC with how the bodies process and metabolize it. For your father, the young friend and older friend of mine, each of them had weight loss and metabolic problems that began around the same time they started having problems.
I’d be curious to see cases where short term smokers have symptoms of CHS and what potential afflictions surround them.
Of course it’s important to mention, I’m no doctor or scientist, just a medically inclined stoner who has done a couple class studies in the field. My information is solely from public research, anecdotal sources, and assumptions based on my limited understanding.
Burning stuff stored in fat is one way to get toxic levels of stuff into your bloodstream, but I can’t imagine it’s the only way. It would just be hard to get sick off pot through normal use and not realize it.
I think you could get into a bad cycle with this if you didn’t have the information about what was causing it. Nausea makes you not want to eat, which makes your body burn fat. Not wanting to eat but knowing you have to might cause you to smoke more to treat the nausea. Nausea gets worse making it harder to eat, etc.
Glad your pa is ok. Yeah weed should not be underestimated. I smoked some very high THC weed which, coupled with a very unhealthy relationship with work, put me in the hospital after a 4 month long panic attack which was there 24/7. It took years for me to go back to my old self, I still have some aftershocks from whatever happened to my brain at that time. No doctor could tell me what was wrong other than that I had a very high white blood cell count. No other biomarkers were affected though, no infection, nothing. It was basically “just” 4 months of panic and around 5 years of moderate/low anxiety.
My wife is an ER doctor in California, and with the advent of legality, they started seeing this more and more. It’s not a huge percent of consumers, it’s not an epidemic, it’s not something that means all people should stop consuming…but it’s super important to spread awareness. I feel like for years, the medical conversation meant people painted weed as this magic harmless cure-all, and that’s just not the case, and as use has gone up for a lot of adults, we’re seeing the edge cases. Since so many people use weed to treat nausea/appetite, this is particularly rife for denial, which just prolongs the suffering.
Maybe it’s just correlation and it’s something with specific strains, cannibinoids, ingestion methods, or farming procedures. The point is, it’s a real thing and now that we’re seeing a bigger sample size (especially a bigger sample size of people willing to admit usage to their doctors now that it’s legal) it’s certainly a thing. Now that there are less restrictions on research because of legality, I have a feeling root cause will be uncovered. I think in like 2017 I posted to /r/trees about it because my wife was seeing it, and I got down-vote nuked to oblivion because people were sure weed couldn’t cause this cyclic vomiting. It’s important to talk about this and understand that for some people, weed as consumed just isn’t an option…and that’s ok.
I’ve heard that taking an EXTREMELY hot shower helps with the “attack”. Did you find it helps at all?
Also, does cessation from weed stop the issue completely?
That truly sucks. I’m sorry you’re going through that.
Just one thing real quick, though, just in case. My entire family has had similar issues, and for every one of us* it has been our gallbladder. Also for every one of us, they have refused to check our gallbladders. My mom was told ulcers, which she had none. Had to have emergency surgery when her gallbladder was on the verge of ruptured. My brother was told it was his drinking (±1 drink a week), quit drinking for two years with no improvement. When they finally removed his gallbladder it was so bad it literally fell apart inside him when they tried to remove it, and he was in the hospital for a week *I’m currently going through it, and they’re telling me it’s acid reflux.
The gallbladder is the medical bigfoot. Doctors refuse to believe it exists, I’m pretty sure.
I had a sporadic stabbing pain in my lower right abdomen for over a year, and already had acid reflux issues. We did lots of different investigation paths and tests, till they finally figured out the muscles in my gallbladder were barely functional and had it removed.
Side effect, it slows your digestion and now my activation time for an edible can take up to 6 hours sometimes
My fiancé had prodromal (pre-vomiting) CHS from November to January. The symptoms appeared as gallbladder hyperactivity, but the doctors wouldn’t commit to saying it was a gallbladder problem. His big break came after spending 2 nights in a hospital and apparently recovering, then getting worse after he came home. We connected it to cannabis use after he came home, and quitting cold-turkey alleviated all symptoms basically overnight.
Through the CT scans, I did have one doctor look at one stone that was high and ruled it out. One after told me “gallbladder looks good” so I shrugged it off. Sorry I didn’t mention it.
I am, however, going to a gastrointestinal specialist. They might find more than the ER did. Time will tell. I’m going full tilt on the issue, I’m not stopping at weed.
