COPD and vaporizing

You will have to excuse me, I skipped all of the comments to your thread. I am going to premise this by saying that I am a Respiratory Therapist and have been practicing in an acute care hospital for 13 years. What I am about to tell you shouldnt be constituted as medical advice as I have never met you nor examined you in order to determine your medical needs.

According to recent studies published by the Royal College of Physicians vaping is 95% safer than smoking(in relation to e-cigs vs regular cigs but could also apply to marijuana). That being said, the 5% in which vaping is not safe is due to sensitivities to the chemicals being vaped. You see most of the damage from smoking comes in two forms the heat from the combustion of organic material and the chemicals released during combustion. By vaping you are eliminating a majority of the heat and a majority of the chemicals involved in smoking.

I am going to be honest with you, you probably should be putting anything else into your lungs except air. COPD is progressive, meaning it only continues to get worse. Doing anything you can to prevent the disease from progressing faster is your best option at this point. People get confused about this because at first they find out that they have COPD through an exacerbation(an acute worsening) then they go back to their baseline they feel much better. Your baseline will continue to worsen and each subsequent exacerbation will be worse.

I am sorry to sound like a downer but this is the reality of the disease. I would suggest switching to edibles, there are many different tutorials on this site and others that can help you get started on making your own.
 
Ohh and btw you might want to see a different doctor just because your lung function increased post brochodialator doesnt mean you have a definitive diagnosis. Adult onset asthma is very rare, and is usually associated with severe allergies. If you have smoked your whole life you dont develop asthma you develop emphysema. Good luck my friend.
 
mk1903a3 said:
do you ever wonder what that sticky resin that builds up in the bag and room walls and fabrics does in your lungs??
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I did, just now, whilst reading your post. I'm sure it is not an insignificant thing. On the other hand, one gets much the same through smoking (combusting) cannabis - and with the addition of particulate solids and the chemical changes inherent in burning a thing (vs. merely heating it to a relatively low temperature).

If the to-be-vaporized substance's carrier is completely non-toxic at the temperatures involved, AND if the dosage amounts are comparable, I would guess that vaporizing cannabis is always going to be less harmful to the lungs than smoking it. However, it would seem to be somewhat problematic to make the same assumption if, for example, one ends up vaporizing significantly greater amounts than one would when smoking (to achieve the same affects/results). At that point, you're dealing with multiple variables, and one would probably need to perform some actual experimentations using scientific method (as opposed to merely relying on anecdotal evidence), IMHO.

Unfortunately, it's not like monitoring urine output vs. fluid intake. One cannot really determine how much of what one inhales... is then exhaled. IOW, how much (and what, exactly) gets left behind in the lungs.

I do not know the exact rates in regards to smoking cannabis vs. smoking cigarettes (and I suspect that it'll be some years before there are even much in the way of statistics of vaporizing cannabis and cannabis extracts vs. smoking cigarettes), but I seem to recall that the incidence of lung cancer among heavy cannabis smokers is less than that of heavy cigarette smokers - and that the incidence of lung cancer for those who are heavy smokers of both might even be less than that of those who only smoke cigarettes. But I haven't really decided whether this is because (smoking) cannabis is just basically less harmful than cigarettes, or if there is one or more components in the smoked cannabis that provide some sort of protective and/or healing effect on the lungs. IF I am remembering correctly about the combination of cannabis and cigarette smoking having a lower incidence of lung cancer than cigarettes alone, then I would strongly suspect the latter - and, therefore, I wish someone would figure out how to isolate that/those particular component(s). Because my lungs are shot from a combination of things throughout my life (including exploring damp caves as a child, working in an environment that was FULL of airborne silica dust / various acids / "industrial" paints / methyl ethyl ketone / other noxious chemicals, smoking a great many Kools (and, later, cheaper "generic" menthols) every day from years before I was of legal age to do so until relatively recently for a total of nearly four decades of smoking, <COUGH>sins of a misspent youth<COUGH>, et cetera), all of which have been said to be harmful to one's lungs. I really shouldn't smoke OR vaporize anything, ever again, but...

BtW, I'm as against whaling on your kids - and other people's, lol - as the next person, but if you see a kid smoking, and you kick the living snot out of them for it, and that gets you thrown in jail, well... It will be worth the punishment you receive if it gets him/her to QUIT smoking before it becomes so addicting that person later finds their self wondering if they'll have to die to quit. IMHO. Pop eventually (but when I was still a minor) discovered that I was smoking, and only griped about it a few times and told me that I should stop. I wish he'd have beaten me bloody, instead.
 
Research or no research, I just think it’s awful that no one ever comes in here and tells us that a certain ‘strain’ is really helping with their breathing problems. That’s what we’d like to know, right? Well, are some strains better than others for helping/healing lungs? God only knows, because nobody ever talks about it here. Maybe, God forbid, cannabis simply ignores the lungs and only helps other parts of the body?
 
tszasz4u said:
I have been recently diagnosed with COPD from the VA (I urge anyone who thinks socialized medicine to be the best course for providing "adequate" healthcare to more Americans, to think again!), so I haven't been given any further medical elaboration or further tests to narrow down the disease and its possible cause. Anyway, I had only been smoking weed-maybe upwards of two joints a day-for only three or four years, on and off, and have never touched alcohol. I stopped cold turkey several months ago.
However, my recent harvest-a crop I started before coming down with COPD symptoms-is now jarred and curing; and I haven't the heart-or chutzpah-to give it all away or to sell it; although the latter would help with some bills!
It seems that vaporizing Sunshine #2 has done well to alleviate some of my symptoms, certainly much of my anxiety, as my blabbing to my wife seems to attest.
Has anyone any information on the relative safety of vaporizing with lung disease? I don't hack after vaporizing (a gram at a time), and feel good for about an hour or two afterwards, with added relief from an inhalers. Is this then proof enough that no real harm comes from vaporizing? What of any anti-inflammatory properties of cannabis? Might CBN1 also have therapeutic properties for inflammed lung tissue?
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Friend, I witnessed some interesting facts while vaping with my younger brother while he was dying from heart/lung disease. First ,let me tell you , I feel he both extended his life by a few years and was given a good measure of relief from the suffering along the way, by using cannabis! He measured his blood oxygen saturation level. It was bad. He needed to put his oxygen back on! I have forgotten the actual numbers, sorry. We then took a couple deep pulls on a vape pen. After maybe two or three minutes he measured again. His blood oxygen level had risen by 4 or 5 points, as I remember, and was just above the level were he did not usually need oxygen! He demonstrated this several times before me, on different occasions over the next couple of years ,before he passed on. He said over and over that he got more relief from vaping than the rest of his meds combined! He lived longer than we or the doctor thought he could. He road his Harley up till a couple of months before his death. He enjoyed a lot of life in those last couple of years! I know he would not have enjoyed as many good times without the cannabis! Cigarettes killed him... Pot held him up and lightened his load!
 
Tennessee Tim said:
He measured his blood oxygen saturation level. It was bad. He needed to put his oxygen back on! I have forgotten the actual numbers, sorry. We then took a couple deep pulls on a vape pen. After maybe two or three minutes he measured again. His blood oxygen level had risen by 4 or 5 points, as I remember, and was just above the level were he did not usually need oxygen!
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Did you happen to compare those numbers against smoked cannabis, by chance?
 
I meant to tell you his words on why vaping helped. "It opens up my capillaries, and the bronchials can pick up and move more oxygen and get it to all the parts of my body better"" Nothing helps relieve my anxiety any better" "I just can't make myself eat without getting stoned" ---- I know this is not clinical proof of effectiveness, but it did help a real person in his struggles to live with some quality of life for as long as possible. Is it safe to vape with copd? I don't know. I use edibles/oil and smoke/vape to treat my RA, anxiety and digestive issues. They have all improved and I enjoy getting stoned! Smoking pot is the only one that I feel may be doing some harm as well as delivering pain relief. Cigarettes kill for sure, they are poison taken in small doses. At least smoking pot doesn't contain highly toxic poison,just some" tar". If you vape or use edibles, you can avoid the "tar", while getting the medicinal effects. Good Luck and keep a positive outlook, look for the good around you and live, love and laugh as much as you can!
 
TorturedSoul said:
Did you happen to compare those numbers against smoked cannabis, by chance?
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Yes, he demonstrated some increase in his oxygen level with a small puff or two. He liked the flavor and the high was better ,in his opinion. However the last year, he smoked less and vaped more often, up til the last two to three weeks were he smoked mostly up til two days before he died. We got stoned over a bowl of of good bud, he took some narcotics provided by the hospice service, went to bed for the last time.
 
BTW, Tortured Soul, I too smoked cigarettes for more than 40 years, before quitting October 9th, 2008. I smoked pot for all of my life since age 14. That damage is done and has resulted in "slight" impairment in lung function/capacity. Lucky to even still be here! One of the things you mentioned about cannabis having beneficial effects on healing ,struck a cord on me! My brother had a "mass" in the bottom of both lungs (not cancerous the doctor said) that could not be treated or removed. One of these was as large as a mans fist! His(my brother) theory of what they were makes one think! He was of the opinion that besides tar and "crap" that this mass contained masses of the dead cells of precancerous cells and used up lung cells , that the pot had caused to shed off the bronchial's. I would like to know what they really contained. Is it just possible he was at least partly right? Can it be that the combination of anti inflammatory, anti cancer cell activity, increased blood flow in the small capillaries,etc .all combined to fight off lung cancer, but the damages and wasted lung tissues that resulted from the battles eventually built up and got him, but not before giving him additional years of life, the cigarettes/cancer would have claimed otherwise? All speculation,but causes one to ponder, does it not? We are all going to die from something, pot will not make us immortal even if we do learn it can cure many diseases. Die a little younger but live a little more? Or live well and love and laugh as long as we live and it may help us live longer? Or live miserly and with fear and suffer a long time? I am just going to get stoned and go to bed and let tomorrow start another day with or without me!
 
37 years my last birthday (since about my 11th). Kools for the vast majority of those years, then cheaper and cheaper menthols. I tell myself that it's the menthol that makes it so hard to quit - and that's probably at least partly true, since I was a fiend for those Vick's Inhalers from the time I was old enough to walk. Plus, well, I've not had any trouble quitting the other drugs I've done (which is... most of them).

Seems even tougher to contemplate quitting at this point in time. Was my brother's birthday not too far back, so a friend and myself pooled our resources and found someone who'd sell us a gram of high-test. Went out to my brother's place... and after a couple hits off the bowl, I went outside to smoke a cigarette. Just don't seem to get much effect off cannabis any more. Lungs aren't... well, you know. And it's been a long time since eating it did me much good.

All that does wonderful things for my depression[/SARCASM].

But it was like the perfect birthday present for my brother (a lifetime of physical pain from getting almost killed by a drunk driver when he was on his way to Church when he was 10, no little emotional pain from the universe not being kind enough to grant the gift of unconsciousness while our older brother bleed out at his side in the same wreck, severe nerve damage, spinal stenosis, heart trouble, the normal everyday pain from living life (he can raise one arm over his head without dislocating that shoulder... much of the time) and he likes the buzz as well - which is no small thing in and of itself).

Pop smoked several packs of menthols per day until about two years before he died, when the doctor told him it was time to get his affairs in order because he might have a couple weeks left. He was 69 (and one month away from paying off their house - good thing he kept up that mortgage insurance[/MORE SARCASM]) when he died, and had lung cancer, asbestosis, lymphoma, bone cancer, and - at the end - pretty much everything cancer. But his father also smoked several packs of menthols per day (grudgingly switching to filters when they stopped making Kool Regulars) and died at 92. Yeah, that was cancer, too - but it was a brain tumor. Go figure...

Where I live, seems like most everyone gets cancer if they don't stagger out in front of a bus or something, whether they smoke or not. But a good chunk of us are real poor - and you go from barely surviving to having to retire and getting, what, half of that or so... and I don't suppose it matters much, anyway. Call it the local retirement plan. Try to scrape by... and then die.
 
I can relate very well with your narratives! I will need to die, within a couple years of not being able to work and supplement my meager SS checks! Or live under a bridge! I've been very fortunate to have not suffered more damage from the years of cigarettes and drugs/alcohol! Friend, even if you don't get high from edibles anymore, does not mean they are not helping. The subtle way my health conditions slowly improved was not immediately obvious! Of course, I still can smoke a bit (small puffs at a time) or vape/dab, unlike what it sounds like for you. I would not smoke anymore if I was more breathing impaired! Vaping is certainly better for your lungs than smoking! My brother reported feeling better from vaping /smoking /edibles up till 2 days before he died. That was with only a tiny percentage of lung function left and a dying heart muscle! But edibles help more than either, even in small doses that does not get you "high"! Anyway, you trust what feels right for you! I hope you can get some relief and improve your conditions, positive thinking/attitudes help just as much as about anything! Get the most out of the days, one at a time, be happy, love, live the best life you can, do as much as you can, stay as active as possible and did I say Love, enough? Love the sunshine, love the natural beauty of this world,love children and animals, love the good memories and you can get the best out of what time we have left!
 
Vaping or smoking cannabis, temporarily helped my brother increase his oxygen blood level, within just a few minutes, fact! Smoking cigarettes killed him, fact. Tobacco contains the highly deadly poison nicotine, fact. Pot contains the effective medicines(for many ailments) THC and CBD, fact. If you could eat enough grass(maybe a bushel?) it may hurt you, but nicotine only needs have less than a teaspoon to kill you from dermal exposure alone,fact. Most cigarette smokers ingest 10-30 cigarettes a day, supplying them a sub lethal dose of nicotine at anyone time,but still a considerably heavy dosage! Why would anyone think their exposure to Highly Toxic poison, on a daily basis not eventually, at least , kill them? Sure any smoke inhaled may contain some particulates and not be healthy for you to inhale large amounts daily. But also true, is that cannabis smoke contains medicines! I too, smoke and vape, also consume edibles and use topicals! I am reducing smoking for the concerns mentioned, but like it too much to abandon yet! Vaping is likely much safer without all of the tars. Albuterol is inhaled for relief of breathing/health issues, so is vaping cannabis! Besides increasing blood oxygen it also helps get it were it needs to go! It relieves anxiety for most, as well! We do not know how much it helps heal or fight lung diseases, yet. But it certainly helps manage many ailments, at the least. Eat, rub it on, smoke or vape and enjoy your medicine for a change!
 

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