Anyone have any information about weed and cancer?
The figure most doctors throw around is that any amount of weed smoked is equivalent to smoking 10 to 20 times as much tobacco in terms of lung damage/cancer. Mouth and throat cancer, stroke, and heart disease risks are not included in that figure.
The reason weed is considered way more noxious is that it is smoked unfiltered, it contains "woody" substances such as stems and seeds, and it usually contains unregulated amounts of pesticides and other contaminants. But it must be remembered that people smoke much less amounts of weed than cigarettes: a few hits vs hundreds of drags a day.
Also, a funny thing to know is that weed is a main culprit in man-boobs and can even cause milk to come out of them. I pasted a couple articles below.
* Ian Sample, science correspondent
* The Guardian,
* Tuesday July 31 2007
* Article history
A single cannabis joint may cause as much damage to the lungs as five chain-smoked cigarettes, research has found. Medical examinations of cannabis and cigarette smokers found the drug increased specific lung problems, including obstructed airways and hyperinflation, a condition where too much air remains in the lungs when a person exhales.
Smoking one cannabis joint caused damage equivalent to smoking 2.5 to five cigarettes in rapid succession, researchers at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand found. Doctors who carried out the study believe the damage is linked to the difference in the way cannabis is usually smoked, with users inhaling hard, holding their breath for longer and failing to use filters.
The report follows a flurry of confessions from ministers who admitted having used the illegal drug and comes days after a review of cannabis research, published in the Lancet medical journal, revealed that cannabis use may be to blame for 800 cases of serious psychosis in Britain.
The scientists set out to investigate whether smoking cannabis put users at greater risk of developing emphysema, a progressive and potentially fatal lung disease.
A group of 339 volunteers aged 18 to 70 were divided into four groups according to whether they smoked only cannabis, only tobacco, both, or were non-smokers. Each volunteer was then subjected to lung function tests and x-ray scans of their chests to assess the level of damage to their lungs and airways.
In the study, published in the journal Thorax, all smokers complained of coughs and wheezing, while only tobacco smokers showed signs of emphysema. Coughing was reduced among people who smoked cannabis and tobacco, possibly because these people smoked pure cannabis joints and so less tobacco leaf.
The extent of lung damage was directly related to the number of joints smoked. "The most important finding was that one joint of cannabis was similar to 2.5 to five tobacco cigarettes in terms of causing airflow obstruction," the authors write. "This pattern is likely to relate to the different characteristics of the cannabis joint and the way in which it is smoked. Cannabis is usually smoked without a filter and to a shorter butt length, and the smoke is a higher temperature," they add.
from the AA of Family Physicians:
Galactorrhea: What You Should Know About It
What is galactorrhea?
Sometimes a woman's breasts make milk even though she is not pregnant or breastfeeding. This condition is called galactorrhea (say: guh-lack-tuh-ree-ah). The milk may come from one or both breasts. It may leak on its own or only when the breasts are touched. Men can have galactorrhea, too, but it is more common in women.
What causes galactorrhea?
Galactorrhea has many causes, although sometimes a cause cannot be found. Here are some possible causes:
* Some medicines, like hormones, birth control pills, antidepressants, and blood pressure medicine
* Herbal medicines, such as nettle, fennel, blessed thistle, anise, and fenugreek seed
* Street drugs, like marijuana and opiates
* Hormone imbalances
* Clothes that irritate the breasts, like scratchy shirts or bras that don't fit well
* Too frequent breast self-exams (daily exams)
* Stimulating the breasts during sex
* Tumors of the pituitary (say: pih-too-ih-terry) gland in the brain. These tumors are rare. They usually are not serious.
* In newborn babies, hormones from the mother are passed on to the baby during birth.
* Thyroid disease
* Kidney failure
Topic: Feeling anixous all the time due to smoking too much weed? (Read 4414 times)