Marijuana and Your Immunity: All Questions Answered
How Does Marijuana Interact with Your Immune System?
Does Marijuana Reduce Immunity?
The Pros and Cons of Cannabis for the Immune System
Scientific research on medical marijuana use is increasing, and patients are choosing cannabis as a natural alternative to prescription meds.
Individuals with epilepsy, cancer, and HIV often take it—but does marijuana reduce immunity?
Below, we answer the burning questions surrounding cannabis and immunity and explore the pros and cons. Armed with this information, you can confidently buy those female marijuana seeds you’ve got your eye on.
How Does Marijuana Interact with Your Immune System?
When you consume marijuana, it affects your body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS), which closely connects to your immune system. The ECS acts as a protector of your immunity and helps prevent inflammatory responses. It also influences how your immune cells work.
THC and CBD—the two primary cannabinoids in weed—affect you and your immunity differently. The CB1 and CB2 endocannabinoid receptors in your body mediate how they interact with the immune system.
So, does smoking weed lower immune system function?
Does Marijuana Reduce Immunity?
There’s no doubt cannabis affects your immunity—but does marijuana weaken the immune system? Depending on the type of strain, consumption method, and immunity, cannabis can enhance or suppress your system.
If you’re a healthy person and consume marijuana, you’ll likely see weakened immunity. Suppose you have a cold and use cannabis; it could take longer for you to get better. Smoking weed does lower your immune system if you’re generally well.
How you consume your cannabis may also harm your immunity. Sharing bongs and joints is common in 420 circles, but it increases your risk of being exposed to viruses and infectious bacteria. Eating edibles is also less likely to make you ill than inhaling the smoke into your lungs.
Does smoking marijuana weaken your immune system when used for medicinal purposes?
Things differ if you have conditions that compromise your immunity, such as AIDs, HIV, and autoimmune diseases—like arthritis, celiacs, and IBS.
Immunocompromised people take regulated doses of weed, which helps them by stimulating the formation of immune cells. This process allows them to control their condition and live more comfortably.
The Pros and Cons of Cannabis for the Immune System
Marijuana does reduce immunity in some people, but it also provides excellent benefits to others in need.
Pros of Marijuana on the Immune System
Autoimmune diseases prompt your body to believe it’s under threat, causing the uncomfortable sensations you experience. Your immune system responds with an inflammatory response, which the ECS fights against.
Reports suggest marijuana helps your system balance itself again by boosting the ECS and acting as an anti-inflammatory.
In more severe cases, like individuals with HIV and cancer, the immune system dramatically reduces. More research is needed, but substantial anecdotal evidence supports the fact cannabis strengthens immunity in these circumstances.
Other research mentions how marijuana can help patients who’ve had a stroke, head injury, and tauopathy. Weed may modulate neurogenesis and neurodegeneration—essential functions in these individuals.
Cons of Marijuana on the Immune System
Unfortunately, in healthy individuals, smoking weed does lower immune system functions. Inflammation is natural in your body and is beneficial in certain ways. It helps trap harmful pathogens or isolate areas that are damaged.
If you started to consume cannabis every time you felt slight inflammation, your body would start to expect it every time—which isn’t always healthy.
Smoking marijuana also slows down the rate at which you recover from an illness. A common cold, the flu, or other viruses last longer when you consume weed.
Wrapping Up
To avoid getting ill in the first place, consume edibles or keep your bong clean and for personal use only.
If you’re feeling sick but aren’t considered immunocompromised, put the joints down for a few days. Marijuana does weaken the immune system if you’re healthy and you want to get back to feeling yourself again.
If you have a condition that compromises your immunity, buy seeds and start growing cannabis at home. A constant, regulated dose of marijuana may help you control your illness.
Certain strains are better than others—depending on your condition. Check out the top online seed banks for more information on the different cultivars to choose the best option for you and your immune system.
Cortney Bennett
Cortney Bennett, a pharmacist at I49 Seed Bank, with 5+ years in the pharmacy field regarding cannabis. Cortney constantly upgrades her knowledge and skills in the weed industry. She has learned the characteristics of the different marijuana types and their effects on the human body in detail. Her constant thirst for knowledge allows her to stay up to date with all the latest research and discoveries in the cannabis field.
