Chest Pain After Smoking Weed

When you are smoking weed, the effects can vary from person to person. Some people feel relaxed, or in other words, they are “high.” While some experienced anxiety or chest pain and dizziness after smoking weed. Paranoids and chest pain may be due to the higher potency of marijuana.

Regular use of weed can cause an increased risk of depression and loss of motivation. You might lose the ability to grasp the concepts quickly, and you can feel dopey on the drug.

Does smoking weed cause chest pain? If you are feeling a stabbing pain in the chest after smoking weed, what is the reason behind it? The team of Healthyrex.com has answered all the burning questions in the article which pop in your mind.

Why Might Smoking Weed Hurt?

Do you need to be familiar with the anatomy of the chest to understand why you feel sharp chest pain after smoking weed? The heart and lungs are the crucial organs of your chest. These are surrounded by the rib cage, which protects these organs from trauma and external damage.

Small muscles known as intercostal muscles intersperse the ribs, which allows your ribcage to move in and out when you breathe. The trachea is the tube that connects your mouth and nose with the lungs. It is further divided into two smaller tubes known as bronchi. Bronchi are divided into bronchioles which have tiny air sacs known as alveolus. They have a vast surface area that allows oxygen to diffuse into the bloodstream, where it is transported to the heart.

Blood enters your heart through the pulmonary vein. It exits through the aorta while traveling through chambers of the heart. This supplies oxygenated blood through arteries around the body. Once the oxygen is supplied to all the tissues and organs, blood returns to the heart through veins.

When you smoke weed, your lungs, heart, and blood vessels can be affected, which can lead to chest pain.

Causes of Non-Marijuana Related Chest Pain

It is hard to find out what is causing your chest pain, especially if the chest pain is after not smoking weed. Most people consider or jump to the conclusion that it is a heart attack. Although there are many reasons which may result in tightness in your chest. You should contact your physician or consider going to an emergency if:

• Is severe
• Sudden onset
• Last longer than 15 minutes
• Spreads to your jaw, upper arm, and neck
• Happens during an exercise
• Is accompanied by nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, sweating and palpitations

If you have chest pain, but it does not fall in this criteria. It is still better to get yourself checked properly, especially if you have a family history of heart disease. Panic attacks pull muscles, and lung infections can also cause sudden chest pain.

How Smoking Weed Affects The Heart

Cannabis, the actual name of weed, is filled with cannabinoids. One cannabinoid causes the psychoactive effects a person feels when they smoke marijuana. Cannabinoids increase your heart rate and make your heart pump faster. Smoking weed majorly affects the heart in three ways.

• Cannabis arteritis:

High doses of weed can cause inflammation of your arteries, reduce the blood flow to the organs, and damage blood vessel walls.

• Cannabis-induced vasospasms:

When the muscular wall of the artery contracts, it results in vasospasms. It causes the narrowing of your arteries and reduces the amount of blood that can go through it.

• Aggregation of platelets:

Clots are formed when tiny blood cells known as platelets clump together. This blocks the blood vessels and reduces the blood flow.

Is Chest Pain From Smoking Weed a Real Thing?

It is a fact that smoking is bad for your lungs. But you might be surprised to know that smoking pot can be worse and health-hazardous than tobacco. Most people do not know that cannabis contains many harmful chemicals when compared to smoking a cigarette.

Weed is entirely illegal in most countries, so it does not undergo any quality testing. This means that bacteria, mold, and pesticides can contaminate the pot very easily. The most common contaminant is aspergillus mold, which leads to severe lung infections if you inhale.

These types of infections are a common cause of chest pain and pneumonia. If left untreated, it can lead to death. Another reason which can cause chest pain is the way it is smoked. When you smoke weed, you inhale 66% longer and 33% deeper than tobacco smokers. And you hold your smoke up to four times longer.

According to some clinical studies, it is estimated that a single joint of weed can cause as much damage as 3-5 cigarettes. Smoking weed not only causes chest pain, but it also causes inflammation and irritation in your airways.

If you use it more frequently, you can increase your risk of bronchitis and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). People under the age of 45 have a higher risk of pneumothorax (collapsed lungs). Coughing fits due to cannabis can also lead to chest pain as it puts pressure on the intercostal muscles between the ribs.

How does Smoking Weed Affects The Brain?

When you are smoking weed, the pleasure center of the brain is stimulated in the same manner as with heroin, alcohol, and cocaine. It also depends on the quality, quantity, and method of consumption. Smoking weed causes euphoria; in other words, you are high by stimulating brain cells to release dopamine.

The feeling of euphoria is immediate, whether you inhale or smoke. If you ingest food, it takes longer for the drug to signal the brain to release dopamine. You might also feel relaxed after smoking.

Sometimes, there is heightened sensory perception in which colors appear more vivid, and noise is louder than usual. It can also increase your appetite, and you can have more cravings for the food.

The impact of smoking weed can vary from person to person. Other effects of smoking weed may include:

• Feelings of panic and fear
• Problem in concentration
• Hallucinations
• Affects coordination which may decrease the ability to perform tasks
• Decrease interest when you are completing tasks

Users of marijuana are also referred to as stoners. If you are a teenager, the development of the brain can be affected. Which decreases brain activity and affects the hippocampus, which controls the learning and memory functions. There is a possible decrease in neurons, which may lead to schizophrenia later.

Is Vaping Better Than Smoking Weed?

Smoking weed can irritate, inflame, and irreversibly cause damage to our delicate respiratory system. Burning plants like cannabis release harmful toxins, tar, irritants, and various carcinogens. The smoke of weed contains fifty cancer-causing substances. Apart from the chest pain from THC vape, you might also experience these symptoms when smoking weed:

• Wheezing
• Smokers cough
• Sputum production
• Airway inflammation
• Difficulty in exhaling air

Vaping, on the other hand, is a bit different than smoking. A dry herb vaporizer brings marijuana to a temperature below its combustion point. Then it converts the active ingredients like cannabinoids, flavonoids, and terpenoids into a smokeless and inhalable vapor. It directly delivers the vapor in your mouth.

With vaping, you are less exposed to harmful compounds as compared to smoking. But this does not mean you are 100% safe as you are exposed to the byproducts. Chest pain from the vape is often commonly experienced.

How Does Smoking Weed Impact Your Health?

Besides causing addiction, smoking weed is more than you just think. Chest pain after smoking weed for the first time is commonly seen in youngsters. According to the research, it also affects the brain, which makes it difficult for you to stop smoking.

Let’s dig further to find what smoking weed does to your body.

• Blood Vessels Can be Damaged

Smoking pot can be attractive to you. But the truth is it can damage your blood vessels. This research has been carried out on rats who inhaled weed smoke for one minute. As a result, their arteries carry blood very slowly as it took ninety minutes as compared to cigarette smoke. Although this effect is temporary, these temporary effects can lead to long-lasting health problems. Hard and clogged arteries result when your blood vessels are damaged.

• Increase The Risk of Testicular Cancer

You have a high chance of getting testicular cancer if you use weed. According to the clinical studies, men who have testicular germ cell tumors might have a history of using marijuana previously compared to non-users.

• Short-Term Memory Is Affected

Pot smokers develop brain abnormalities in regions associated with short-term memory. Your memory-related tasks are affected the most. Furthermore, there are changes in the development of the brain, which can lead to schizophrenia.

• Triple Risk of Death Due to Hypertension

People who smoke weed, feel they are more calm and relaxed. But it is not the same as your blood pressure. There is a triple risk of death due to hypertension in people who use weed compared to those who do not smoke. You can also experience chest pain hours after smoking weed.

• May Affect Your Fertility

Smoking weed can also affect your fertility. It can interfere with the production of sperms in males and ovulation in females. If you are expecting a baby, cannabis may affect the brain development of the baby. Or your baby can be premature.

How to Stop Smoking Weed?

For you, maybe weed is fun and provides an escape from the tensions of life, but in the future, are the side effects worth it? The paranoia, the lack of concentration, and the feeling of not being okay without it. The negative impact on your physical and mental state can make you socially distant from the world.

The first step to overcoming any sort of addiction is to motivate yourself. This is the foremost hurdle if you have convinced yourself you can get rid of this addiction. Read on further to find out how to stop smoking weed.

Get Rid of it

The best way to stop smoking weed is to throw away or sell whatever you have. If you no longer have this addictive substance, it will be harder for you to smoke it. Whatever you decide to do, it will be a lot easier when you are certain; that there is no weed in the house.

Eat Healthily

To cleanse your body from toxins, you must eat a balanced diet. Not only weed, but all kinds of drugs rob your body of essential vitamins and minerals. These include Vitamin B complex, calcium, and magnesium. You should cook a balanced diet for yourself; this will also help to keep smoking off your mind.

Exercise Routine

Having a workout routine will help you to get rid of harmful toxins from your body along with a healthy diet. Exercise will also help to reduce your addiction cravings, and you will sweat the weed out. Additionally, exercise will also help to reduce your stress and anxiety.

Find Hobbies

Most people smoke weed because they are bored with their dull life. To get rid of this addiction, find all the activities you love. It can be anything from reading books and watching movies to connecting with your loved ones. Or maybe you can recall what you loved to do before you started smoking. So, get out and look around the world you have been missing.

Change Your Habit

Avoid all the places and people that increase your desire to smoke. If you have friends who smoke, it is better to maintain a distance from them. In short, refrain from everything which pushes you toward this addictive habit.

Find Counselling

If everything is falling for you, therapy can be a great tool to overcome the addiction. Cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational enhancement therapy, and contingency management are different types of mental treatments that are useful for getting rid of weed addiction.

Bottom Line

Smoking weed can exacerbate the diseases of the heart and lungs and can cause panic attacks. All of these factors can lead to chest pain after smoking black mild, which can be frightening if it is happening to you for the first time. You have a higher risk if you have heart or lung disease.

It is better to get rid of this addiction as soon as possible and fall into its charm trap. Smoking weed not only has harmful effects on your health, but it will also cut you from society. So, be wise and stay away from smoking weed.