I've been thinking alot about health issues and weed usage, so I got home and did a little research. Try and read everything, I think it's worth everyone's while. Considering these points, is it wrong to think that by exercising we help our lungs take more THC per drag? If I'm right, and I realise I have no way of proving it, you can save alot of weed as a light/medium smoker by exercising. If your smoking extremely expensive/good bud, then this may even be a even more valuable method. Some may think this isn't a weighty pay off for the extra time and effort needed to exercise, but consider everything else that comes with exercise... This is the EXACT thing that weed inhibits chemically. If it's true that the hippocampus is really effected over the long-term by weed, then this is promising evidence that exercise does help the toker. Oh, i'm not done yet, i've got lots to cover... A strong and healthy heart pumps more blood with each contraction and is working efficiently. Therefore, it does not have to contract as often. This increased efficiency results in a lower resting heart rate, a greater working capacity, and a lower blood pressure. If the effect of marijuana on the brain increases blood flow due to narrowing of veins then exercise seems like it helps exclusively. This could mean more THC in larger amounts could reach your brainand body fasted. I can't prove this however, so it's only hopeful speculation. Note the last part of the second quote, on the increase of brain chemicals: Dopamine: THC signal cells to release the hormone dopamine. If exercise increase dopamine levels, would exercise increase the release of dopamine during smoking sessions? I fso, this may help weed resistance among heavy smokers. Glutamate: I quote and bold the important stuff, "Glutamate is the most abundant swift excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian nervous system. At chemical synapses, glutamate is stored in vesicles. Nerve impulses trigger release of glutamate from the pre-synaptic cell. In the opposing post-synaptic cell, glutamate receptors, such as the NMDA receptor, bind glutamate and are activated. Because of its role in synaptic plasticity, it is believed that glutamic acid is involved in cognitive functions like learning and memory in the brain. Norepinephrine: Nore benefits are mostly due through dopamine. Serotonin: The psychedelic drugs psilocin/psilocybin, DMT, mescaline, and LSD mimick the action of serotonin at 5-HT2A receptors. The empathogen MDMA (ecstasy) releases serotonin from synaptic vesicles of neurons. Essentially by exercising your raising the levels of serotonin, which is the same exact chemical released during those drugs. Finally.. Personally, i'm always studying my own health. I love weed and positive effects it brings to my life. I don't like the side effects however, and i'm not going to simple accept them as an inevitability. Maybe I don't have to, maybe there are ways of curbing the negative effects of weed. There certainly are MANY benefits to the casual smoker, some known and some not so known. Exercise is a well-known way of getting half-life THC from the system quicker. It helps muscles burn fat, prime holders of our beloved chemical, and flush it from our system. Effects of exercise help the single system that delivers THC to us, the cardiovascular system. It's the same system that gets wrecked by the smoke/carcinogens that come with weed smoking. Although I imagine many of us take for granted the skill of breathing...until we can't. The brain is also extremely important. Exercise not only helps the brain function better, but also created new neurons and chemicals. Those same neurons are activated during different drug usage, including the subject of this study. A better, healthier brain can't be a silly effect of the burdensome activity of exercise. It's the single reason why you feel what you feel when you get high. Neglect it and your bound to suffer in more ways then one. But consider the benefits, the growth of those very same hormones that are released during smoking. If exercise truely helps with the release during bong hits, how can we avoid exercise? I believe it's entirely to our benefit. I would like to point out that this was research done in the process of two hours. I'm not a doctor, scientist, or student of either. This whole article shouldn't be taken as fact, but it should be considered. I hope by reading this you can search deeper into this subject, maybe find something I missed or stated falsely, and even help the cause. This cause, which is the foundation of all my arguments, is the clear and concise effort to legalize pot through intelligent litigation. I don't believe it will be legalized without it.
Great report! I've noticed that on days I excersise I get higher that night. I think I'm gonna start excercising more. from what I know marijuana has nothing to do with dopamine tho, maybe im wrong. maybe excercise is the key to lessening tolerance
I found various websites from reputable sources conflicting on that point. The majority of them seem to think theres a link, i'l be researching this further for sure. Edit: Since it's such a conflicting issue, i'll retract it for now. I will leave it in the main article though.
Nice post dude. I remember back in the days of the overgrow.com forum we started this thread about increasing acetylcholine in the brain through supplementing with CDP-Choline or Alpha-GPC and about 30 people reported having less tolerance after a few weeks... a lot of others didn't notice anything though, so it could have been a placebo effect. Also, I think most of those studies were about aerobic exercise as opposed to weightlifting...especially the one claiming benefits for the brain. By the way, vaporizing the weed puts a lot less particulates in your lungs. Also, does anyone know why weed causes the heart to beat faster? And does weed constrict or enlarge blood vessels?
Yes, I really should have stated aerobic exercise as it was my intention only to focus on that aspect.
false. thc boosts the dopamine level. i've stopped using weed because of my heart rate. if i wait for my HR to get lower by exercising can I start to use weed again (edibles)?
^ Didn't you start a thread about that? A misleading thread none the less! Great write-up OP, very informative, nothing beats going to the gym, hitting the sauna, then smoking some good bud
cool ideas and post, i like it ^^++^^ an well deserved anyways, to the weightlifting thing, i think it should be included or tested because when lifting weights, even no cardio, there is an effect called after burn or whatnot, and the report from my gym states it cause your body to burn fat faster than not working out for the whole next 1 or 2 weeks. ( i duno, not at the gym). Also, i would love to be part of a test which has us all (whoeever want to do it) become arobically active ( 1 sesh or 3 miles or so a day..something like this) and see if it causes lower tolerance, and a better high. of course there would be skewwed numbers cause yall are potheads and would forget to exercise some days (ME TOO)... but it would be a cool test if we all tried to stick to it, and were toking the same bud for the whol time (before exercise and afterish type thing) i duno, maybe
smoking weed effects dopamine or seratonin, i'm not sure... whichever one is always released when we do something we enjoy. who doesn't enjoy having a hit?
Ive been hitting the gym(weights) for 2 hours a day along with walking 5+ miles a day and I am living proof that it will get you higher and you will get more pussy. I worked out for a good part of my life then i started slacking for about a year and didnt really go much and started smoking more and more bud and it kept getting harder to get faded. There was times where id smoke a half 8th just to get high. Even thc breaks didnt really do much for me because I had so much built up in my system and I have a slow metabolism. Once I started working out again I noticed I needed to smoke less and less to get the same high. Benefits: 1. You get higher easier 2. You get in better shape 3. You save money by smoking less weed 4. You now have money to take out that sexy looking girl thats been eyeing you at the gym 5. People wont think of you as "that stoner guy" Drawbacks: 1. Youlll probably need to find a hotter girlfriend. Damn doesnt that suck... 2. You have to spend an hour or 2 a few days a week at the gym rather than sitting on your ass watching tv. But guess what! Most gyms nowadays have flatscreens in them that are nicer than whats in your house!
I used to play soccer everyday and run 2+ miles. Since november I haven't really exercised. I can tell it takes me much more bud to get high, and I don't feel as energetic. It's winter here, so I have an excuse, because I can only run outdoors. Once it's spring, I promise I'll start running again.
Good research but its pretty common sense stuff (to me at least). Anyways, I'd like to just point out that the chemicals released due to exercised are only released during the exercise, and a short period after (during your cool down). Just because you exercise, and then say you smoke 2-3 hours later, those same chemicals will not be released during your smoke session. But if you exercise (especially cardio) it will have its obvious health benefits. Exercising your lungs if your a smokers makes a difference. With moderation and exercise, you can be a pothead and make healthy lifestyle decisions.
this guy is the shit, man im on that same level, I used to play sports in high school but smoked alot and non school days i would be stoned almost all day and your tolerance would be so shitty that you would smoke just to smoke and not gain any high whatsoever, then in college i started liftin weights heavily and i would realize i felt better mentally and physically and my body was in much better shape, i need much less to be high and you respect each bowl that much more. Now i lift 6 days a week for more than an hour a day and about a year ago i quit smoking durin the day all together, and only smoke at night within an hour or 2 of going to bed. I feel really good with alot more energy and instead of thinkin about doin things all the time i just do it. It feels so much more rewarding to wait for that 1 smoke and with my tripple chamber bong(only thing i smoke from) its so smooth on my lungs and the high feels great. This is coming from a guy who used to smoke a quarter a week of dank my senior year down to a fat rip every night
Hell yeah man you said it. I workout for 2 hours a day 5 days a week and I hit the sauna right after every workout. Follow that up with a few bong rips when I get home and I feel fucking amazing afterwards. MJ is great for recovery
THC actually doesn't affect your dopamine levels, whatever you do while high may. THC is taken in through the cannabinoid receptors and bypasses the dopamine cycle.
Wow this thread is pretty awesome If only the government would realize that even though we smoke cannabis we are responsible and still looking out for our health! -StayInTheClouds
Its not about THC and the receptors it targets, its about how the brain reacts to the entire cocktail of cannabinoids: Cannabis and prefrontal cortical dopamine function Dopamine is released by brain cells as a reaction to the presence of cannabinoids. This contributes to tolerance buildup in heavy users as a portion of the "high" is attributable to dopamine release which is built up slowly over time and can be depleted by heavy use. The rise in heart rate, noted earlier, is likely related to the overall increase in blood pressure which is a result of vasoconstriction that THC causes. When I was running daily my heart would go kind of haywire when I got stoned, I could feel it "fluttering". It was uncomfortable. The stuff I had then was lower quality, possibly mexican ditch weed which might have something to do with it. I also think the strenuousness of full on running is a lot for anyone's circulatory system. Now I bike constantly, still smoke every day, and the heart "flutter" almost never happens, whereas with running I was noticing it at least once a week. I've also noticed that on uphill endurance rides, being a bit stoned actually helps me tune into my ideal breathing pace, and ignore the burning in my legs so I can just push through.