Does Weed Help with Nausea?

Constantly feeling nauseous is about the worst thing out there. If you always feel nauseous, you can’t possibly enjoy your day. Of course, there are many possible causes of nausea, and a variety of solutions as well. There are many anti-nausea medications that may indeed help to prevent or relieve your nausea and its related symptoms.

That said, these may not always work for you, depending on the specific circumstance. However, one substance that people are starting to use more and more to help treat their nausea and related symptoms is weed or cannabis. Yet, many people still wonder whether or not weed helps with nausea.

So, does weed help with nausea? Can weed help prevent nausea or relieve nausea? Are there advantages and disadvantages to using weed to help treat nausea? These questions and more are answered directly below, so let’s figure out whether or not weed is an ideal treatment to help relieve your nausea.

Key Takeaways

• Although more research is required, there are indications that THC and CBD may have benefits in terms of nausea and vomiting relief.
• High doses of THC combined with lower doses of CBD appear to be most effective at relieving nausea.
• It may be the case that THC works as a better anti-emetic for people undergoing chemotherapy treatment that select other medications, although this does depend on specific use cases.

What is Nausea and its Symptoms?

In simplest terms, nausea is the urge to vomit or the sensation of having to vomit. It’s when you feel sick to your stomach. Some people may also experience stomach pains and dizziness when they feel nauseous, and in many people, it eventually leads to vomiting.

There are various possible causes of nausea including suffering a brain injury, having gallbladder issues, being pregnant, having an infection, motion sickness, chemotherapy, and many other conditions too.

However, for today’s purposes, the causes of the nausea are not as relevant as the feeling itself, which is simply that you feel like you need to vomit.

Does Weed Help with Nausea?

Yes, there are indications that weed does help with nausea. However, exactly how weed or cannabis helps reduce or prevent nausea from occurring is somewhat unclear.

It is thought that weed, both THC and CBD, may interact with your CB1 receptors in such a way that it prevents or relieves symptoms of nausea. Even HHC may be able to help with these symptoms.

How Does Weed Help with Nausea?

Exactly how weed helps with nausea is not known yet. There is more research required on this front. However, there is some preliminary evidence that shows that THC may activate CB1 receptors in such a way that they may be able to help prevent nausea and vomiting from occurring.

Higher doses of THC activate the CB1 receptors in the dorsal vagus complex, which is the nerve in your brain that is responsible for controlling vomiting, otherwise known as emesis.

Within a limited range, CBD or cannabidiol may be able to help prevent nausea and vomiting as well. Although it has not yet been confirmed, this may have to do with the effect that CBD has on gastrointestinal motility.

It is thought that CBD may be able to help decrease gastrointestinal motility, which may lead to a decrease in nausea. This Botany Farms Live Resin CBD Tincture might be just what you need!

Research Studies on Weed and Nausea

There are indeed a few research studies that have been performed on weed and nausea. Let’s take a quick look at some of the main studies and what they say about weed and nausea.

First and foremost, there is one defining study here. This study is entitled The Effectiveness of Common Cannabis Products for the Treatment of Nausea.

This study confirms that within one hour of consuming cannabis products, either a cannabis Sativa or a hybrid product, up to 96.4% of people experienced nausea relief. On a scale of zero to 10, most people had an intensity reduction of 3.85, which is quite significant.

This study also showed that people started feeling relief within just five minutes of consuming the cannabis products. This study also showed that the best cannabis products to relieve nausea featured very high THC levels combined with fairly low cannabinoid levels.

Although exactly how it is not known, there is another study that was performed on rats, which showed that cannabinoid antagonists, specifically Delta-9 THC, help to suppress condition gaping reactions, otherwise known as nausea in rats. This same study also stated that CBD may be related to the reduction of the release of G-HT in the terminal forebrain, which may also be associated with nausea relief.

Let’s not forget that there are also indications that cannabinoids, specifically synthetic THC, also help to prevent vomiting and nausea in those undergoing chemotherapy. There are currently three different cannabinoids available on the market that are being used as treatments for chemotherapy-induced vomiting and nausea.

There is also some evidence that THC or cannabis in general may be able to help prevent motion sickness after receiving anesthesia. It may be the case that cannabis increases various endocannabinoids in the human body, which may be able to help relieve motion sickness. However, let’s keep in mind that this study was performed on animals, not people.

However, there are also indications that long-term use of high levels of THC may cause what is known as CHS or cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. Exactly why high doses of THC over a prolonged period of time caused this is not known.

However, CHS is characterized by very severe and repeated bouts of nausea and vomiting, and it generally only occurs in people who use high levels of THC for long periods of time. If you’d like to give it a try, check out these awesome Botany Farms CBD Gummies.

What About CBD, Does CBD Help with Nausea?

CBD may also help with nausea, although it is generally believed that THC is much more effective on this front. That said, CBD may be able to help relax and calm down your intestinal lining and stomach lining. There are of course endocannabinoid receptors located in your gastrointestinal tract.

As discussed above, CBD may reduce gastrointestinal mobility, and may also help reduce inflammation of the gastrointestinal lining. There is therefore potential for nausea relief for people suffering from various conditions such as Crohn’s disease or irritable bowel syndrome. Although it is not 100% confirmed, there is some promise here.

It may also be the case that CBD could help to reduce nausea and vomiting due to how it reacts with the serotonin receptors in your brain. It may increase levels of serotonin, with the result being an overall better sense of well-being.

Simply put, CBD might increase serotonin levels, which in turn just makes you feel a little bit better. Our own Botany Farms Sugar Queen CBD Pre-Rolls might be just what you need!

What Are the Pros and Cons of Treating Nausea with Weed?

There are of course both pros and cons of using weed to treat nausea, let’s take a quick look at what these might be.

Pros of Weed for Nausea

• Weed, both THC and CBD, may be able to help reduce stress and anxiety, which could help to relieve nausea and vomiting caused by your mental state.
• In some cases, weed, especially high doses of THC, may be more effective at preventing or relieving symptoms of nausea and vomiting caused by undergoing chemotherapy treatment.
• It may be the case that both THC and CBD might be effective treatments for people suffering from nausea and vomiting due to various conditions related to the gastrointestinal tract, such as Crohn’s disease.
• Another benefit of using CBD or THC to treat nausea, especially CBD, are that there are generally minimal side effects. When compared to many clinical medications designed to help treat nausea, both CBD and THC generally have far fewer and milder side effects.
• Due to the effect that THC and CBD may have on hunger hormones, we may also be able to help increase appetite. This would appear to be especially beneficial for people who have a lack of appetite, such as those going through chemotherapy. Here are some great strains that increase appetite.

Cons of Weed for Nausea

• Long-term use of THC may lead to what is known as CHS or cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, characterized by intense and frequent vomiting.
• Both THC and CBD may have negative interactions with various other medications and alcohol. These substances may also not be ideal for people who are pregnant or suffering from various health conditions.
• Cannabis does also sometimes have some side effects, which may include slight anxiety and paranoia, dry mouth, red eyes, tiredness, dizziness, and headaches.
• Some forms of weed, particularly strong concentrates contained in oils, may upset some people’s stomachs and cause diarrhea.
• Besides a few cases, such as those FDA-approved medications to prevent chemotherapy-related nausea, the FDA has not approved the use of cannabis for the treatment of nausea in most cases.

What Methods of Consumption Work Best?

Generally speaking, if what you are looking for is immediate relief from nausea and vomiting, smoking or vaporizing is considered best. This is because when you smoke or vaporize cannabis, those cannabinoids enter your bloodstream through your lungs.

This happens within a matter of mere seconds. This is why many people prefer smoking and vaping, because they feel the effects more or less immediately, and this goes for nausea relief just like for feeling high in general. If this sounds right for you, check out our own CBD Blueberry Kush.

However, some people also choose to ingest their cannabis products orally for the purposes of nausea relief. Remember that cannabinoids tend to be much stronger, or get much stronger when they are processed by the liver. The metabolites that THC breaks down to once processed by the liver are very strong.

This is why many people prefer cannabis edibles because they end up producing a much stronger high and lasting for much longer than when cannabis is smoked or vaporized.

It would therefore serve to reason that ingesting cannabis orally may have increased anti-nausea effects, especially over a longer time, than smoking or vaping.

The tradeoff is of course that the effects take up to two hours for you to notice, as opposed to smoking or vaping which is rather immediate. On a side note, cannabis Sativa and hybrid strains are generally more effective than Indica strains on this front.

Can Weed Also Cause Nausea?

As discussed above, frequent use of high-potency cannabis strains with plenty of THC may cause CHS or cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. This is characterized by severe nausea and vomiting.

However, exactly why this happens is not known. Some people may even experience nausea when taking extremely high doses of THC at once. However, it takes quite a bit of THC for this to occur.

Final Thoughts: Does Weed Help with Nausea?

The bottom line here is that yes, weed should help with nausea, and this is true in various cases. It may help with nausea related to your nerves and your mental state, with nausea related to motion sickness caused by anesthesia, nausea caused by various irritable bowel diseases, and nausea caused by chemotherapy.

That said, there is still more research required on this front, especially to determine exactly how THC and CBD prevent nausea. However, at the end of the day, there are very strong indications that weed is an excellent treatment for nausea and vomiting.