Okay! We all love to do it, even if sometimes we think it isn’t the best thing for us. When you’re feeling under the weather, is it all that bad to smoke a little weed?
We know it makes us feel a little bit better, but is it actually making us sicker or making it hard to recover? It’s time to bust this myth once and for all!
Weed as a treatment for sickness
Cannabis is often prescribed as a treatment for pain and inflammation, which seem like just the kinds of things you need to treat when you are sick. However, when it comes to the cold or flu things play out a little bit differently.
Smoking is the least desirable form of ingestion when experiencing a cold or flu. Smoking tends to make the mucus denser, making it harder for the body to expel it all. This can mean it takes much longer to recover from your cold or flu. This is less so when it comes to eating or vaping, but for other reasons it might still be a good idea to keep it light.
Cannabis suppresses the immune system
Earlier studies on cannabis suggest that cannabinoids can actually suppress the immune system. For this reason, people with autoimmune diseases react strongly to cannabis. In the process of fighting a cold or flu, the last thing you want to do is suppress your immune system.
None of this is to say that marijuana cannot have medicinal benefits when you have the cold or flu. However, it is important to keep it light so that it does not increase the amount of time you are sick for. If you do choose to use cannabis, you should vape it or eat it and keep the dosage really light.
