Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Vaping?

Hey all I am an IBS sufferer going on 10 years. I suffer from diarrhea, severe cramping and abdominal pain regularly. I live in a non legal state and have been on and off a lot of different medications for years. I have been self medicating using herb and switched to vaping three years ago. I have found that vaping helps with relaxing my intestines, lowers abdominal pain, helps with stress and appetite. I have been talking with my doctor about the brain/intestine connection lately and thought I would see what other sufferers think regarding vaping with IBS.

I've had ibs for the last 17 years and been vaping to control the symptoms for the last 18 months. The result has been huge for me. Given that ibs is different for each person, the impact of vaping will be different for each of us. I find that vaping is very good at handling many of my symptoms. For me, I usually require higher temp vaping to get the impact I need. I use level 7 on the solo. If there is anything you want to ask or discuss, just pm and let me know. Vaping has made my gi tract manageable in a way it never has in my adult life. Much more so than smoking even did.

I have a weird stomach. Docs always say IBS, but I am not so sure. Either way, I find vaping does help alot. When I am low on herb, I definitely notice the symptoms more than when I am using regularly.

From my understanding, IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion. As long as they have done sufficient testing of the bowels for other issues(through scopes, etc), they can say that it is not from other disorders or diseases. That is when they say it is "IBS". Or if it is more in the stomach they say "functional dyspepsia". So from my understanding from the multiple GI docs I have seen, if they say IBS they probably don't know the cause. However, they know several ways to alleviate most people's symptoms. Starting with general GI tract health recommendations that would help anyone, including increasing exercise and fibre, reduce stress and anxiety. For others it is a bacteria issue and bacteria like acidophilus helps.

bellas said:

Hey all I am an IBS sufferer going on 10 years. I suffer from diarrhea, severe cramping and abdominal pain regularly. I live in a non legal state and have been on and off a lot of different medications for years. I have been self medicating using herb and switched to vaping three years ago. I have found that vaping helps with relaxing my intestines, lowers abdominal pain, helps with stress and appetite. I have been talking with my doctor about the brain/intestine connection lately and thought I would see what other sufferers think regarding vaping with IBS.

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I have Crohn's disease, but it sounds like we have a lot of the same symptoms. For me, mmj is the difference between being able to work and live my life and not being able to leave the house. I take a ton of meds, but the one that brings the most comfort doesn't come from Pfizer.

I have done all the different diets, had misdiagnosis such as pancreatic cancer, MS ect. I have increased exercise the last few years. Not all that easy on some of the meds. Even ran my first half marathon. I took so much Imodium I should have been a spokesman for Imodium. I have found that when I vape I am more likely to relax and stop sweating the small things in life. I too am on a host of different meds but find that I do better when I don't ingest herbs or other items as it irritates my intestinal tract. Tried a couple times not recommended!
The Doc's tested me for the bacteria issues. Wasn't helpful. I am inclined to think it's more mind/intestine connected. I am trying slowing down, calming and finding a healthy diet with exercise is ideal. In the summer I can donate time to this but it's back to work come September. Then it gets a lot more difficult.

fluffhead said:

From my understanding, IBS is a diagnosis of exclusion. As long as they have done sufficient testing of the bowels for other issues(through scopes, etc), they can say that it is not from other disorders or diseases. That is when they say it is "IBS".

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Bellas I had the same experience with testing and misdiagnoses. The consensus was that I had IBS. Then my gall bladder started to rot, and had to be removed. Then my pancreas sort of died. All this time my intestinal complaints persisted. My third colonoscopy showed terrible inflammation and necrotic tissue. It was only then that I was diagnosed with Crohn's. The pharmacy meds are a goddamn nightmare. If it wasn't for honey oil I would not be able to tolerate the treatments.
I wish I could say errl was the magic cure for me, but it doesn't fix anything. It does make it possible for me to tolerate my symptoms and the treatments.

I was having intestinal troubles off and on for years and finally discovered it was from eating raw almonds. It wasn't the almonds themselves, but the skin of the almond that was causing the problem. They were blocking off areas which allowed infection. I now soak my almonds in water for 24 hours and then the skin peals right off. They double in size, turn white and crunch like baby carrots. Have had no problems since doing that. Not convinced that all fiber is necessarily good. I soak pecans and walnuts before eating them too. I now soak and remove the skin from beans before cooking them as well.
The thing that I found the most helpful was eating the seeds from a papaya. They taste very bad with a strong radish flavor. I have eaten them raw before but now dehydrate them so I can crush them up before ingesting. Still tastes very bad but you don't have to chew it. I take about a teaspoon a day until the symptoms are gone. I ate all the seeds from a papaya one time with good results. A papaya, aloe vera juice, and yogurt smoothie always did wonders too. I try to avoid sugar if at all possible. It seems like throwing gas on a fire.
Vaporizing definitely makes symptoms better. Hopefully, it will become more accessible to more people in the future.

Alan said:

The thing that I found the most helpful was eating the seeds from a papaya.

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I have tried papaya (no help), but never the seeds. Cool tip! I have a super limited diet now, but nuts and seeds are ok in moderation.

Alan said:

Vaporizing definitely makes symptoms better. Hopefully, it will become more accessible to more people in the future.

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Thanks to you!!! I just found your HI thread this morning! I hope to purchase my very own soon!!

Ive dealt with IBS for most my life - for me diet and exercise are key.

Quite new to diagnosed IBS , about half a year now. Have had problems since I was a child but only last year it became unbearable, to the point where I had nausea and trouble breathing ... lost lots of weight until it was halfway clear what I could eat.
Sticking to FODMAP diet now that helps a lot and of course the Herb.

My Psoriasis seems to be interlinked to this problems too, at least it seems to be less of a rash itching and sloooowly improving when the gut is halfway ok.

Was hoping to help my guts by digesting some...but turned out the other way.
I do get lot of symptoms when trying to digest the Herb in any way, with oil dilution or straight... anybody got a suggestion what to do to prevent this?
Planning on some kief oil capsules to leave the rest of the plant out of the equation, anybody with IBS got experiences on that?

Edit: spelling and grammar

vakedcow said:

Was hoping to help my guts by digesting some...but turned out the other way.
I do get lot of symptoms when trying to digest the Herb in any way, with oil dilution or straight... anybody got a suggestion what to do to prevent this?

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I would make hash (joke). In all seriousness, I have given up on eating my weed because the necessary fats are too much to handle. I have heard that toasting the herb before tincturing helps, but it is not worth the risk of a major outbreak of symptoms to test the theory given that every time I cook weed I get mad sick.
I honestly find oils and waxes to work the very best to control my pain and nausea, and help me eat at least a little food.

Patrick Hughes said:

...
I honestly find oils and waxes to work the very best to control my pain and nausea, and help me eat at least a little food.

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Yes vaping those can be very relieving for me too in "peak phases" of symptoms or do you ingest them?

vakedcow said:

Yes vaping those can be very relieving for me too in "peak phases" of symptoms or do you ingest them?

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I did mean vaping, but I have heard that you can eat them without oil or cooking because the THC has already been converted to an ingestible form. I will say that I once melted a half-gram of press hash into my oatmeal and I got so high I missed my flight. It gave me unbelievable diarrhea and cramping. I will not be trying it again, and I would not recommend that anyone else do so either.
I get great results from my vaporizers, and it is very easy and convenient to control my dosage.

Hey Bellas, That sucks I suffer from chrons which is kinda similar just some different symptoms added in, and I also live in a non medical state so I know it can get pretty tough and some days are crappy

Theres some interesting stuff out there on the brain/intestine connection I was first made aware of it from a book I bought called listen to your gut. It is a really interesting read and pretty much advises that all ibs and ibd can be controlled with diet, Food as medication. It is a pretty good read and I am pretty sure you can pick up a pdf of it online. That goes into a little detail on the brain gut connection and gives dietry and some natural healing advice. (http://www.listentoyourgut.com/why-ltyg.html)

Theres even been a new fields created called neurogastroenterology

Also there is the SCD diet which is pretty much the same principle and has a lot of biology/science behind it. I think the first half of the book is like a huge science lesson before they get to the point making sure you understand why it works.

Myself, I haven't really tried to manage my chrons by diet, So I cant really tell you it will work for you but there are good results out there on the forums and I do plan on giving it a good shot when I am.. stronger? Smoking doesn't help my chrons one bit, infact it makes it significantly worse I believe and I reckon it is part of the reason why I have chrons now who knows?But when I am strong enough I will be a full time vaper and manage my chrons by diet im 100% certain

Patrick Hughes said:

I have Crohn's disease, but it sounds like we have a lot of the same symptoms. For me, mmj is the difference between being able to work and live my life and not being able to leave the house. I take a ton of meds, but the one that brings the most comfort doesn't come from Pfizer.

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I was wondering, from other people who suffer with IBS and IBD who smoked before vaping did it help you a little more? Or were the symptoms for you still just as bad?

rebelxd said:

Ive dealt with IBS for most my life - for me diet and exercise are key.

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Interested to know if you follow a specific diet? or have you found out what your stomach can and cant take over the years?

I've had stomach problems since a kid and I was diagnosed with IBS two years ago.

I've recently found that a strain high in CBD (in particular, harlequin) is much more effective at relieving my symptoms than one with just high thc levels.

I acquired I.B.D. (inflammatory bowl disease) from taking an acne medication as a teen. It progressively got worse over the years. It started with mid-night 'knife in the gut' type pains, then became routine stomach pains in the mornings. Eventually I lost my ability to eat without consuming cannabis first. Diarrhea was a given if I hadnt vaped in 36 hours. I eventually went to an intestine specialist, and made the mistake of mentioning my belief that this medication had caused these problems. As soon as the word 'Acutane' came out of my mouth, his expression changed, and he started asking me about other symptoms unrelated to bowels, coincidentally he was asking me if I had other symptoms known to be caused by past use of Acutane (dry eyes,peeling skin, swollen painful joints,etc)

He played dumb regarding the acutane lawsuits, and treated me like scum from that moment on. Wouldnt even look at me. Before I mentioned Acutane he was cracking jokes, laughing, smiling. I scheduled a colonoscopy, which the same specialist preformed. He would not say a word to me, and had an disgruntled demeanor. He wouldnt even acknowledge the person who's butt he is shoving a camera in. The procedure seemed a little too routine to me. It was "hurry up and get this done so we can say we did it" No notes, no stop and looks, just in and out. He seemed to be simply going through the motions, not looking for any evidence of what could be causing my stomach pains and constant diarrhea.

Now, I've always been the conspiracy theorist type and despised western medicine,but this was the breaking point. Whether anyone reading this wants to believe that doctors follow orders from corporate sponsors,etc, I can tell you without a doubt that I had all the signs of Krohns disease and this doctor would not offer me a bit of help. I saw this specialist after my general physician told me I was too young to be sick, and told me any problem I have at my age is my own fault. (bad diet,lifestyle,etc)

You may regard the following as a lie, or a miracle, coincidence or something else,but here's what I did. I started consuming ridiculous amounts of edibles. Almost everything I ate was pot-infused. I continued to vape large amounts of cannabis during these few weeks also, more than average which says a lot. I had so much cannabinoids being fed into my body that unstoppable, amazing original songs were playing in my head 24/7. And my bowel movements smelt amazing!

Since then I have stopped cannabis use for as long as 35 days. Guess what? No stomach pains, no diarrhea, and I have the appetite of a horse. I also managed to lose 60lbs with no exercise.

Take what you want from my post. I know Cannabis is for the healing of nations, the one thing the increasingly synthetic world will permit the remnant of nature-embracers to have, to get through life as society drifts farther and farther into a black hole.

Cannabis prohibition is cultural, spiritual, physical, & mental oppression.

I really do appreciate you sharing your story. It is sad but I have no faith in the medical system anymore. With my chrons it feels like they don't even know what they are doing anymore keep running the same test with no answers except you have chrons disease, have a cocktail of meds..... They will make things worse

The meds they give you are more likely to kill you than save you. I cant say I am not surprised about getting sick from a cream you were using to try and help yourself. It is just messed up what they sell..

One week from a colonoscopy at the moment and all my symptoms are back kicking pretty hard due to the procedure. Going to have to take the rest of the year off work because the symptoms are getting that bad and it even looks like I will be going back into hospital if no better soon. Sucks!

Im going to try and treat myself with higher dosages of cannabis soon and try to use the medical system as little as I have too.. Hopefully I can get near your vape dosages Also might be trying rso next year so fingers crossed.

Zookeeper said:

I know Cannabis is for the healing of nations, the one thing the increasingly synthetic world will permit the remnant of nature-embracers to have, to get through life as society drifts farther and farther into a black hole.

Cannabis prohibition is cultural, spiritual, physical, & mental oppression.

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You sound truly enlightened, couldn't have said it better.

Zookeeper said:

You may regard the following as a lie

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I definitely don't regard it a lie. I have Crohn's disease and it is a bitch man. Sorry for your troubles. I am interested that edibles work so well for you. They cause a massive inflammation of my symptoms for me. I am jealous of you because I love herbfood. I would rather have herb on my food than not at each and every instance that I eat if I lived in some perfect world.

thanks for sharing you story mate, totally agree on the medical system, it became corrupt long ago.. just to much money in it I guess...

I would also like to hear about some of your recipies, had problems so far with straight herbs, just tried some moderate kief which seemed to react much better but more testing needs to be done

I just came back from a G.E today and he says it's high probability that I have IBD or Crohn's. I have had a stomach and diarrhea issues so long I can't remember exactly when it started. I'm not sure if it is related but I have been dealing with a bit of stress at the job as of late. My stomach was a mess all of last week. I actually had to leave work today because the pain and diarrhea was pretty bad. Luckily I had the EVO to test out when I got home so that made the day a bit more bearable.

I have a colonoscopy and endoscopy scheduled in 2 weeks. Florida sucks in many ways and it is not a medical state. I'm really not looking forward to taking medication at all because I have seen many relatives suffer from adverse effects. I had access to a few strains from an Oakland dispensary through a friend but let's just say I can't get it anymore. The flowers I acquire now are decent but certainly nowhere near what I had access to just a few months ago.

It's good to know I'm not alone (also sucks to know other people deal with this as well).

Colonoscopy prep starts in a few hours. Should I just set up shop in the bathroom after downing the solution?

I think I will be very active on FC today!

Good luck ...I did both also..hope all goes well for you..

DrPiff said:

Colonoscopy prep starts in a few hours. Should I just set up shop in the bathroom after downing the solution?

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I had no choice. I was unable to finish the gallon of solution before I needed to ascend to the throne. Good luck is right.. the actual procedure is awful, but at least you are unconscious for that. When I picked up my "prep kit" from the pharmacy and learned that it was laxative pills that I had to chase with a gallon of laxative solution I could not believe it. Talk about unfair!

I have something called Prepopik. I'll only be drinking a total of 10oz of the solution in two intervals. I remember my mother had to drink a gallon of solution and she was miserable the whole day. I'm more distraught at the fact that I won't be eating anything today. Sundays are a traditionally a day filled with excellent food for me. Today will be filled with white tea, lemon italian ices, chicken broth, and THC.