Vaporizing is the best medicine for sinus/respiratory issues, nothing is better!.

[Nosferatu]

I have found there is no better medicine for asthma and related respiratory/sinus issues, or simply just to clear your sinuses/restore sense of smell, than vaporizing potent medical cannabis(especially through water)!

I have suffered for years from the worst sinus issues you can imagine(allergies/stuffy nose/asthma, nasal polyps, loss of smell, post nasal drip, deviated septum) and the only substance I know of for effective relief is vaporizing cannabis. I have noticed over the past 5 years of being a heavy vape enthusiast(owned 15+ and tried all manner of rigs/setups) that vaping cannabis is the one and only substance I have yet tried that actually can cure my completely inflamed and fucked up sinuses is in a matter of minutes and just 1 or two big hits held in and exhaled through nose. I can and have gone for months of being unable to smell and 1 vapexhale cloud session fixes that in 5 minutes, remarkably so, I would say it reduces my symptoms by 80% immediately and noticeably.

Now smoking CAN offer these effects but I feel it is too short acting and if done daily or often the irritants in the smoke end up cancelling out or reducing the expectorant effect of the cannabis to not nearly effective enough levels per amount of carcinogens inhaled and leaving one with a "smokers cough". Eating potent edibles gives me similar effects as vaporizing but not as fast acting.

I feel vaporizers can be just like an inhaler, probably more effective especially as design and tech furthers along. I hope all other asthma/sinus/respiratory illness sufferers look to some potent top shelf indoor buds with a high THC level and use it through an effective vaporizer with a clean waterpipe, rather than resorting to pharmaceutical medications for the more common problems at least.

 

[j-bug]

I'm having a hard time figuring out how one would vape through one's nose, could you explain how you do that? And perhaps your recommendations for attempting to vape that way?

 

[uhranium]

I guess it is breathing vape out of the nose?

 

[KidFated.]

I found exhaling vapor out my nose resulted in dry nasal passages and a split nostril. Lots of fun! YMMV

 

[CarolKing]

Low temperature vaporizing with a mild tasting strain of cannabis helps me with chest congestion. It helps to break things up when I have a chest cold. I don't have asthma.

 

[Enchantre]

I do have asthma, and lost my sense of smell in 2001. It's coming back, a little more and more, since cannabis.

I tend to exhale through my nose, also, as I love to smell & taste it, and that works better.

This is highly impressive when you can pull it off at a dab bar.

 

[Derrrpp]

I have asthma, and I've found that some strains are good at opening up the airways and others not so much... I wish my state was more cannabis friendly so I could have a selection of strains and pick out the ones that help the most.

It's luck of the draw for now...

@Nosferatu that's interesting to hear that cannabis helps your nose so much. I have some of those same nasal problems, but it never crossed my mind to try exhaling through my nose. I'll have to give it a go and see if it helps me as well! Thanks for suggesting it!

 

[Aimless Ryan]

Disclaimer: I want to apologize right away if I sound preachy in this post. I'm not preaching. Just trying to share some information I consider very valuable, even though I know most people will probably dismiss what I have to say as kooky.

Several years ago I had a sinus infection. Took two courses of antibiotics and the shit hit the fan. I couldn't have known anything like this at the time, but I'm almost positive this sinus infection was actually fungal, not bacterial, which means antibiotics only made it worse, while making everything else worse, too.

Months of unbelievable misery followed. Digestive issues, anxiety, unreasonable depression, teeth pain, jaw pain, head pain, neck pain, and about 20 other forms of endless misery. Also, my sinuses felt like cold, bone-dry wind tunnels.

After feeling this way for a few months, looking everywhere for no answer, I finally read something about yeast overgrowth (or Candida overgrowth). The concept may be difficult to understand, but it actually made total sense to me specifically because I have a long history of pizza geekdom.

I started a very strict anti-Candida diet immediately. Meaning I did not cheat on the diet. At all.

Less than a week later, I felt better than I had felt in years.

I'm not trying to say what happened to me is anything like what has been discussed here, but some things I've read here reminded me of that ordeal. And if anyone else around here happens to be going through what I went through, I hope this post may be a trigger for them to do what their body needs them to do, like the trigger that helped me do what my body needed me to do.

From those experiences and experiences since then, I now view sickness and healing in a much different way than I used to. (I was a faithfully brainwashed follower of the modern medical religion until then.) For one, I'm inclined to believe almost all chronic illness results at least partly from chronic fungal overgrowth. Which is probably caused mostly by the standard American diet and antibiotics. In most cases, antibiotics do much more harm than good.

Because of that experience, I pay a lot more attention to my sinuses than I used to. On the rare occasion that I have any sinus issues now, I consider it a sign that I need to treat myself better, beginning with what I eat. I also know how to stop it before it gets bad; without causing any horrible, permanent side effects (or any side effects).

I'm now going to pay more attention to how vaping may affect my sinuses. Thanks.

 

[DabDiva]

Hmm crazy how the human body is. In my experiences medicine has always triggered my symptoms. My nose always starts to run and i cough up lots of mucus.

Even only vaporizing triggers my symptoms significantly. Dabbing is even worse. And then dont get me started on when i was back into combustion. Pretty positive thats what caused the issues

 

[seaofgreens]

I was just going to say... I have fairly sensitive nasal passages. I use flonase off and on throughout the year as needed. Definitely find vapor regularly inflames my allergic responses if I don't use flonase and don't practice breathing the vapor out mainly through my mouth. A couple days of laxing, and I get pretty miserable, like the vapor has left sticky deposits on the hairs in my nasal passage for allergens to cling to.

This is my experience anyways, which is completely different than yours.

Vaporizing has made most chest-congestion/asthma symptoms subside for me however. So on that side of things, I agree, the proof is in the pudding.

 

[CarolKing]

I think we all need to decide for ourselves to see what works best. None of us are doctors that I know of we are just relaying what may or may not work.

They are suggestions and should be treated as such. No one is saying stop the pharmaceuticals and just vaporize your ails away.

I think some of us have had bad reactions and health problems from what our doctors have perscribed. That has been my situation. My doctors told be to use ibuprofen for many years and it weakened my kidneys.

Folks can die from asthma so be careful stopping any medicine.

 

[Enchantre]

@CarolKing is right. .. and we are all different.
Anecdotal evidence only apples to the person with it. It can offer ideas, maybe options to consider,

My doctor knows what I'm doing. ... and i get labs done often enough.

I'm not a doctor. .. but I am my own final authority when it comes to my health.

Never do something "because i read it on the net. .." it must be reasonable, beneficial, and it must resonate. Flip side is that having more info to consider is always better. You are the best judge of what works for you.

Fungal makes a lot of sense, @Aimless Ryan ... in a lot of ways. ... i have done the yeast protocol and that wasn't it for me. ... but it did not hurt me at all to try it!

 

[GetLeft]

Your experience is anecdotal and not based on science even though it is very interesting.

I've posted this before. Don't want to slam medical science, but it's important for folks with medical issues to be open minded and able to think outside the box. In my experience, there's nothing wrong with 'anecdotal' evidence. When you have a network of folks reporting health issues and solutions to those issues that are not endorsed by big pharma (= traditional doctors), there's usually a reason for that, and the reason is usually not that the anecdotal evidence is wrong. Big pharma (and all of its doctors--you know, the ones who go to the computer to look for which drug their practice is selling that day for your particular ailment?) likes scientific studies. They help sell their drugs (without getting into the whole business of how those studies make it into publication--the track record does not suggest that a whole lot of these studies have a whole lot of top-shelf research on their side.) And they allow big pharma to dis any anecdotal evidence (which usually points to low cost natural remedies rather than big dollar mass-manufactured drugs). If anecdotal evidence suggests that better cures lie outside of big pharma, then the old call that 'there's no scientific evidence' starts to rear its head. When my child had some health concerns when younger, I was all about traditional doctors. Until I found how inept they were in the diagnosis of my child's problem (which is not at all an uncommon one in today's world of shitty modified mass produced foods--like @Aimless Ryan suggests, what we put into our bodies matters lots). We found help not through traditional medicine. To the contrary, what was being recommended by more than one traditional practitioner were toxic drugs that as far as we could determine were not even created for the purpose of treating the issues we were observing. We found remedies through the hundreds of bits and pieces (and some times truck loads) of anecdotal evidence that we were able to find, yes, on the internet. Which led us also to non big pharma, non-traditional, environmental style doctors. More and more of these non traditional practitioners are out there as each day passes. Any wonder? Or any wonder why food makers have started to cut out so much crap out of their foods?

Anyway, I have digressed too far. Peace Not trying to start a controversy. Please feel free everyone to slam my position. 'Tis the season after all.

To stay on topic, my anecdotal evidence is that mj does indeed provide me with 100% unadulterated stress relief and psychic acuity. Not sure about anything else.

 

[Aimless Ryan]

I didn't share my whole story.

My horrible antibiotics/Candida experience happened between February and summer of 2009. I stayed on the anti-Candida diet for a few months, though I allowed myself a few treats here and there after I felt better.

On February 14, 2010, I stepped into the Pacific Ocean beside the Santa Monica Pier and started walking east. I walked for 211 days, until I reached another ocean, at Coney Island, NYC. 3,463 miles.

A couple weeks after finishing my walk, I began to feel lingering pain in my buttocks. Soon that pain turned into pain and numbness from my buttocks to my feet. I thought it was just a natural, temporary effect of punishing your body how I did, and that I just needed some time to heal.

It never healed. It only got worse. Much worse. I have multiple sclerosis, and I can no longer walk more than a step or two, or do much of anything.

Candida overgrowth; multiple sclerosis; most other unexplained illnesses and illnesses of the immune system. All the same thing.

This is what can happen to you when you spend your life eating shit that is not actually food (like I did), as well as believing the modern medical model fixes medical issues (like I did). Going on a special diet for a week or a month does not erase decades of building yourself out of the wrong building materials. It didn't for me, nor will it for anyone else.

When I was on the Terry Wahls diet (modified paleo), strictly, for five months a few years ago, I think I actually improved some. Not just felt better, but improved. In a lot of different ways. Which does not happen, except with people who change their lifestyle in this way.

It's hard to follow that kind of diet. The only way I could do it was by consuming two huge green smoothies every day. Which gets really old.

I have no choice, though. If I begin eating the way I was eating a few months ago, I will die or I will get seriously injured. An occasional fall might not seem like a big deal to most people. But if I fall, I can't react in time to fall the right way. It's only a matter of time until I fall and hit my head on something (like the 8" chef knife I use every day).

When I don't eat that way, my body falls apart even more. I am not on the diet right now, but I do follow some elements of it, and I try not to put too much bad shit in my body, beginning with sugar.

I think if I was able to change my lifestyle, including following the Terry Wahls diet 100%, I would get better. Not because I am a gullible believer in pseudoscience, but because building yourself out of materials that humans are supposed to be made of makes you more human.

Here's one thing I know: The modern medical establishment has never cured anyone's MS, nor has it made anyone better. No one. Ever. Even though almost everyone chooses that route.

Also, the Terry Wahls diet is very similar to the anti-Candida diet, yet completely unrelated. And it helps people with all kinds of different diseases, not just MS. This happens for a reason. (And the reason is most certainly not because there is an invisible man in the sky.)

Whenever I start feeling pain in my sinuses or the top of my throat (which most people seem to refer to as the back of the throat), I take a nice big shot of Bragg apple cider vinegar. That alone usually does the trick, instantly. If it doesn't, I do nasal irrigation with salt water. Whenever something like this happens, it provides a clear wake-up call for me, telling me I need to make my body and immune system stronger. Which means eating more like Terry Wahls eats.

Sorry I keep writing such long posts. Again, I don't mean to preach. Sorry if I sound like I'm preaching. If my posts here are annoying or unwanted, someone please bluntly inform me.

 

[zor]

If I have any kind of chest or sinus congestion vaping almost always makes it worse for me Rougher coughing fits, nasal passage inflammation, and increase mucous production seem to be the reliable symptoms that are exacerbated when I vape....that said, I haven't really tried starting at a much lower temp than I usually do, so I will try that next time I am infected.

I've had a cough since before thanksgiving (and was sick then, too) and it amazes me how much more crap my throat produces in the midst of a vape session.

 

[Enchantre]

If I have any kind of chest or sinus congestion vaping almost always makes it worse for me Rougher coughing fits, nasal passage inflammation, and increase mucous production seem to be the reliable symptoms that are exacerbated when I vape....that said, I haven't really tried starting at a much lower temp than I usually do, so I will try that next time I am infected.

I've had a cough since before thanksgiving (and was sick then, too) and it amazes me how much more crap my throat produces in the midst of a vape session.

Is it possible that the cannabis is trying to force out the allergens/virii/toxins that are there?
I did have an increase in symptoms for several minutes, but then felt better. Do you feel better?
If not, then of course, Do Not Vape! but, if you do, maybe it will pass when it's done its job.

YMMV

 

[zor]

Force out? From where? Not sure what you mean.

I haven't found much scientific discourse on cannabis and the immune system but what I have found suggests that it reduces immune system capability:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16596782
"Marijuana and other exogenous cannabinoids alter immune function and decrease host resistance to microbial infections in experimental animal models and in vitro."

More appropriate / better designed studies need to be conducted, for sure, but I want to take this post to urge a bit of caution when considering weed/thc/etc as a panacea.

 

[CarolKing]

By all means if cannabis makes you feel worse don't do it. You are the only one that knows what works for you. Cannabis has been known to be an expectorant and no it's not a panacea for good health.

I know I feel better since I don't combust any longer. I don't get sick very often.

 

[GetLeft]

I'm sitting in the meds office (traditional sort) right now. I've had head stuffiness / dizziness for around a month. Went through a round of antibiotics a few weeks ago but still have the symptoms. Starting to consider the possibilty that it's the magic weed I love so mch? Weakened immune system? Say it ain't so, doc! Please!!

EDIT So I have a stuffy left side of my head and dizziness. Diagnosis: benign positional vertigo. I've had that before and had it suggested as my problem recently, but I'm not convinced (I've done the fix-it maneuvers to no avail). And what about the congestion? No correlation was suggested where in my mind they def are. So I'll follow up with the bpv as recommended. Then start monitoring my diet (eliminating suspected offenders one by one) and start figuring out what's going on...where the congestion is coming from.

 

[CarolKing]

Rick Simpson claims that cannabis cured his cancer.

 

[hibeam]

I am very careful about using a neti pot correctly. However, since I started "waterboarding" as my husband calls it, since 2001, I have had no seasonal allergies or infected head colds, which used to plague me constantly. Perhaps it is the water tool and not the herb vaped?

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/249460.php link for neti safety.

 

[j-bug]

So I was having a bit of sinus congestion from a change of environment, whenever I travel or the seasons change my sinuses always get blocked up and yesterday I did a dab for the first time and the main benefit I saw over dry herb vaporization was how completely that cleared out my sinuses. Now if only where I lived most of the year had dab bars in the dispensaries with a free dab when you buy meds there. Cause most of the time I don't see myself as needing dabs for my various issues.

 

[Aimless Ryan]

I finally remembered to exhale through the nose. Can't say it did anything but make me sneeze.

 

[GetLeft]

Thanks @hibeam . I used a neti pot the other day and used tap water. Didn't know that was dangerous. Duh. We treat our well water with an ultraviolet light but I'm guessing it doesn't get everything.

Well, after finally getting the technique down I got the crystal thingies in my ear back to where they belong. Dizziness gone. Phew. Big relief because the next step was a break from the vape. I was kind of dreading that.

 

[hibeam]

My other go to remedy for upper respiratory trouble is some mega dose of a probiotic without inulin, and a megadose of psyllium seed with plenty of fluid. I am constantly amazed at the connection between ear nose throat issues and dysbiosis.