Cigarette's or Weed? which is worse for the lungs??
- Thread starter DrSooS
- Start date
Silicity
Well-Known Member
" Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. In 2009, 16.7 million Americans ages 12 and older reported using marijuana at least once in the month prior to being surveyed. In addition, since 1996, 16 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the medical use of marijuana to help manage the symptoms of many diseases, including cancer, AIDS and glaucoma."With marijuana use increasing and large numbers of people who have been and continue to be exposed, knowing whether it causes lasting damage to lung function is important for public-health messaging and medical use of marijuana," says the study's senior author, University of Alabama at Birmingham associate professor Stefan Kertesz, M.D.Kertesz, of the UAB Division of Preventive Medicine and the Center for Surgical, Medical and Acute Care Research and Transitions at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Birmingham, says it's long been known that marijuana smoke has many irritant chemicals found in tobacco smoke and can cause lung irritation, wheezing and cough immediately after use; however, the research on long-term effects on lung function have inconsistencies.Using a large national database, the research team compared the lung function of marijuana and tobacco smokers during a 20-year period. The data revealed that tobacco smoke had exactly the effect shown in all prior studies -- increasing a person's cumulative exposure to cigarettes results in loss of air flow and lung volumes; the opposite was true for marijuana smoke."At levels of marijuana exposure commonly seen in Americans, occasional marijuana use was associated with increases in lung air flow rates and increases in lung capacity," Kertesz says. "Those increases were not large, but they were statistically significant. And the data showed that even up to moderately high-use levels -- one joint a day for seven years -- there is no evidence of decreased air-flow rates or lung volumes."Kertesz cautions that smoking marijuana is not an avenue to better lung health."It's not enough of an increase that would make you feel better," he says "Healthy adults can blow out 3 to 4 liters of air in one second. The amount of gain, on average, from marijuana is small, 50 ccs or roughly a fifth of a can of coke. So it's not something that would be noticeable."Also, Kertesz says, the increase does not hold steadfast over time."The relationship changes for people who get to high levels of lifetime exposure," he says. "At that point, the data suggests there is a decline in lung air-flow rate. There also may be other damaging effects that don't manifest until extremely high levels of exposure; we did not have enough very heavy marijuana smokers in this study to determine this."To perform their analysis, Kertesz and a research team from other universities looked at data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study. CARDIA, funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, is a long-term research project involving more than 5,000 black and white men and women from Birmingham, Chicago, Minneapolis and Oakland, designed to examine the development and determinants of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. Participants were recruited when they were ages 18-30 and followed from 1985 to 2006.The researchers looked closely at the reported use of both marijuana and tobacco and asked participants repeatedly during years of follow-up about their use of these substances. Marijuana and tobacco use were both commonly reported -- 37 percent said they used marijuana at some point during the study. This is similar, the researchers say, to what many Americans have said in other national surveys.As part of the CARDIA protocol, participants' lung function was measured for air flow and lung volume at years 0, 2, 5, 10 and 20 using standard pulmonary function tests. The air flow measure is the amount of air you can blow out of your lungs in one second after taking the deepest breath possible. The volume measure is the total amount of air you can blow out after taking the deepest breath possible.Lead author, Mark J. Pletcher, M.D., of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who led the statistical analysis, says what sets this study apart from any others is both the number of participants and duration of the study."This is not the first study to show that marijuana has a complicated relationship with lung function. However, the size of the study and the long duration of follow-up help us to paint a clearer picture of the ways in which the relationship changes over time," he says.As a final note, Kertesz clarified that the study did not examine other ways in which smoking marijuana could affect a person's health and insisted this study does not advocate the use of marijuana."Marijuana is still an illegal drug, and it has many complicated effects on the human body and its function," he says. "In our findings we see hints of harm in pulmonary function with heavy use, and other studies have shown that marijuana use increases a user's likelihood of a heart attack, according to the American Heart Association, and impairs the immune system's ability to fight disease, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse."The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Heart Lung Blood Institute.Study co-authors include Eric Vittinghoff, Ph.D. and Feng Lin, M.S., Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco; Ravi Kalhan, M.D., M.S., Asthma-COPD Program, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Joshua Richman, M.D., Ph.D., UAB Department of Surgery and Center for Surgical, Medical and Acute Care Research and Transitions, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham; Monika Safford, M.D., UAB Division of Preventive Medicine; and Stephen Sidney, M.D., Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, Oakland, Calif."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120110163444.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120110163444.htm
the night owl
Active Member
This is just speculation on my part, but cigs are definitely worse. I've never had weed clog my lungs to a point where I can't breathe 8 hours after smoking. Hell, I use weed to "un-clog" my lungs.
Sunbiz1
Well-Known Member
I only compete with myself, but the cardio is my method of cleaning mostly pollution from my lungs. THC was once sold in liquid form as a treatment for asthma, as I'm sure you know it's a natural expectorant. Funny how most people think it's the smoke that makes you cough, when it's actually your alveoli expanding from THC.
racerboy71
bud bootlegger
where on earth are you from that a blunt doesn't mean smoking a blunt?? or what's popular now, blunt wraps, but still the same principle, a tobacco leaf..
i've never heard of smoking a blunt meaning anything other then smoking a blunt..
and the term blunt comes from philly, a phillies blunt, ie, a shit cigar wrapped in shit tobacco leaf, dumping out the baccy to be replaced with weed and rolled back up in the leaf..
racerboy71
bud bootlegger
but back to the op.. i think cigs are way worse for the lungs than weed.. look at the paper cigs are rolled in.. see all those funny looking lines that go around a cig?? those are chemicals applied to the papers to make the cigs burn straight, ie, not boat, like you get with a hand rolled joint..
plus i know in my state at least that they're no applying chemicals to exstingish smokes after so long.. i have no clue what these new chems are, but i hate them as my smoke now goes out around 2xs per cig if i'm not constantly puffing on it, and usually once if i am..
you can see the letters fsc now on the pack of cigs by the barcode denoting the new fire safe cigs..
plus no one has mentioned the fact that most cig smokers tend to smoke about a pack a day, or 20 plus cigs a day, when the average pot smoker surely doesn't smoke any where near 20 plus joints in a day.. i'm sure there are a few, but for the most part i'd say weed smokers smoke much less weed than baccy smokers..
plus i know in my state at least that they're no applying chemicals to exstingish smokes after so long.. i have no clue what these new chems are, but i hate them as my smoke now goes out around 2xs per cig if i'm not constantly puffing on it, and usually once if i am..
you can see the letters fsc now on the pack of cigs by the barcode denoting the new fire safe cigs..plus no one has mentioned the fact that most cig smokers tend to smoke about a pack a day, or 20 plus cigs a day, when the average pot smoker surely doesn't smoke any where near 20 plus joints in a day.. i'm sure there are a few, but for the most part i'd say weed smokers smoke much less weed than baccy smokers..
bigbillyrocka
Well-Known Member
I re-wrap mine as well and found that after grinding my herb i can tightly pack between 2.7-3.2 grams in em. Also like the flavored wraps from ZigZag brand. mmm mmm mmm Deliciosowhere on earth are you from that a blunt doesn't mean smoking a blunt?? or what's popular now, blunt wraps, but still the same principle, a tobacco leaf..
i've never heard of smoking a blunt meaning anything other then smoking a blunt..
and the term blunt comes from philly, a phillies blunt, ie, a shit cigar wrapped in shit tobacco leaf, dumping out the baccy to be replaced with weed and rolled back up in the leaf..
racerboy71
bud bootlegger
anything that is smoked is obviously going to effect the lungs...
not according to discovery newsanything that is smoked is obviously going to effect the lungs...
ganjames
Well-Known Member
I was watching some discovery the other day. Did you know dinosaurs are extinct?not according to discovery news
Nobody ever told me that before, I thought they were in Africa and Asia.
DrSooS
Member
LMAO I hear ya. Yer prolly not gonna stay thin with yer head stuck in the fridge all the time.
DrSooS
Member
This is the main reason I started this thread. I too just recently quit smoking cigs (18 lonnnnggggg days ago to be exact) I just quit "cold turkey" put my last one out and never lit up again. However I have found myself smoking more weed I guess to compensate. I just wanted to know if quitting the cigs is better even though I smoke more bud now. I know one thing for sure.. I sure do feel a hell of a lot better. Not hacking and coughing for 10 min when I wake up in the morning.
The Milk
Active Member
Congrats broham,keep your head strong and you'll be fine, the first two weeks after I quit smoking tobacco I used the "E-cigs" After that straight MJ. Like you said, It's nice waking up and not coughing up green shit every morning. Good luck.
bluntmassa1
Well-Known Member
I hope your joking. lol have you been living under a rock your whole life in fear of a giant t-rex that can swallow you whole. lol
imchucky666
Well-Known Member
I think filtered or non-filtered also has a lot to do with the answers you get
Personally, I think cigs., but I smoke filtered. (menthol, which somebody once told me 'if you smoke menthol, then smoke weed, it makes your lungs drip blood') LOL
imchucky666
Well-Known Member
Also affects the spelling LOL
imchucky666
Well-Known Member
Me too, I've only heard 'Blunt' referring to as you said, and only by those who also smoke 'Chocolate Phillies'where on earth are you from that a blunt doesn't mean smoking a blunt?? or what's popular now, blunt wraps, but still the same principle, a tobacco leaf..
i've never heard of smoking a blunt meaning anything other then smoking a blunt..
and the term blunt comes from philly, a phillies blunt, ie, a shit cigar wrapped in shit tobacco leaf, dumping out the baccy to be replaced with weed and rolled back up in the leaf..