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.
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.
however the release of excess THC stored in fat actually makes a lot of sense
This also ties in perfectly with the anecdotal evidence shared in this post that extremely hot showers provide (immediate) help. Brown adipose tissue, or brown fat, is an extremely crucial part of maintaining body heat and regulating blood temperature - in fact, that’s its primary purpose.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24015-brown-fat#:~:text=Brown fat is responsible for,glucose)%20and%20molecules%20of%20fat.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_adipose_tissue
Together with the mentions of sudden weight loss, it really sounds like some change in the affected people’s bodies leads to a higher metabolic rate of fat burning, and when most of the white fat is reduced and the body turns to brown fat, stored THC enters the blood stream and ruins their day.
This would also explain why only people who have been smokey frequently for years develop this disease - it takes time and a lot of weed to get all this excess THC into the fat in the first place.
Edit: well well well, would you look at this paper from 2011: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3576702/
THC accumulates largely within body fat which serves as a long-term storage site for the drug [20,22]. This characteristic partially explains its prolonged elimination half-life. A large reservoir of stored THC in fat tissue may produce a “reintoxication effect” secondary to increased lipolysis during times of increased stress or food deprivation [23]. These characteristics of THC may have implications in Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome as these patients are chronic users of cannabis who likely have large lipid stores making them susceptible to increased cannabinoid levels in the plasma during times of stress.
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.
Exactly. Just because a ton outright propaganda was spread for decades, that doesn’t mean every downside is “fake”. Particularly now that some of the stigma is going away, making all this actually feasible to do research on.
Can I ask do you think maybe retrospectively, were there any milder symptoms that you noticed in months or years leading up to the illness that could have been a sign that it was to come?
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.
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.
Cannabis can have very different effects on different people. For me when i smoke i get the normal euphoria, BUT the next day i get an equally DEPRESSED mood.
For a few years i was smoking regularly. I’d get high and feel fantastic, then the next day I’d be depressed, and the day after that I’d be extremely depressed, so I’d smoke again to get rid of my depression and feel great again! But then I’d be depressed the next day, and the cycle repeated over and over. Then i stopped smoking weed just to take a break, and within a couple of weeks i reached a relatively steady middle mood. I wouldn’t get the euphoria from smoking, but the horrible depression went away too. It’s been years since and it’s still the same, if i smoke one day then I’ll get euphoric, but the next day I’ll be horribly depressed.
Most people don’t seem to have this effect from weed, but I do. So it’s very easy to believe that weed causes you to vomit, even though it doesn’t do that to most people.
What was your daily use like (amount and approximate potency)?
Have you ceased use, if so how long ago, and how have your symptoms changed?
I wish you the best of luck, a close friends brother just went through the same and it sounds absolutely awful. I’ve heard hot baths help a ton!
Any chance of it happening again is unacceptable to me now that I have experienced it. I can’t let a personal vice tilt on a maybe, and while I kinda expected Delta 8 to be a target. Many classic flower users get it who never put a cart to their lips.
I will do anything to avoid ever feeling that sick again.
I’ve heard people are conducting studies to see if this is related to pestacides used in flower growing as some researchers felt the amount of uptick in cases of this disease wasn’t sufficient explained by the amount of rise in daily marijuana users.
I believe it’s a combo of pesticides plus the extremely high THC that weed has now compared to the past few decades.
The medial science revolves around cannabinoids getting where cannabinoids shouldn’t be. What appears to be untested is if you can moderate and avoid CHS.
For instance, were I a monthly smoker… or became a monthly smoker.
Doctors thought my sister was experiencing this the first several times she ended up in the hospital, turns out she actually has abdominal migraines. Though why it took so many visits to realize it persisted for days after cessation of use (from being in the hospital) is beyond my ability to understand.
You haven’t mentioned anything about how you smoke it. Could it be something in the specific papers or instruments of choice? Have you tried real vaporizers (not pens, but like a plastic bag that blows vapor into it), you said not edibles, so have you considered trying them? What about alcohol tinctures or smoking hash?
Easy. Usually I use a glass one-hitter and I kept whatever Delta 8 vape I could find on me when out in public. I had a bong I’d use on occasion but usually not that often. I do have a few dry herb vapes like my arizer air but it didn’t get much use really.
I’m not considering trying anything. Not smoking weed isn’t a problem… it’s just not preferred.
Had you thirty minutes with this shit, it would scare and traumatize the living hell out of you. It is not a good time. There’s sick and then there’s this. 8 hours, non-stop, pain. I have legitimate nightmares.
I personally believe the disease reacts to cannabinoids in your system. How they get there is irrelevant.
I had episodes of this so badly I had to go to the hospital because I couldn’t even drink water without throwing it back up and needed IV fluids. The stomach spasms are among if not the worst pains ive ever felt. It would take days for me to feel ready to eat actual meals again. Changed my whole diet, dropepd nicotine, caffeine, weed, everything. Picked weed back up after my stomach was clean for a bit and its been years since, no issue. Im hoping you can eventually smoke again, at least if you want to.
