What Does Weed Do To Your Lungs? Is It Safe?

Byking_adm on August 8, 2021

You might’ve heard that smoking tobacco can be fairly harmful to your lungs after repeated exposure to the various chemicals and carcinogens in cigarettes. Marijuana smoke is much different than tobacco, and because of that, it helps to do a little more research into the effects that weed can have on your lungs. What does weed do to your lungs?

There are millions of people around the world that smoke weed, and many of those people are probably curious about weed and lungs and what it can do to them. Science isn’t completely sure about what weed can do to your lungs. There is a bit of research that claims that weed can do damage to the lungs, but then you see a bunch of other studies saying that it involves combustion.

Lung Health

Your lungs are one of the most important organs in your body. You wouldn’t go very far if you didn’t have a set of lungs in your body. Lungs contain flexible tissue that will inflate like a balloon when you breathe in. Most people take their lungs for granted. They go about their day-to-day lives without giving their lungs a second thought.

The lungs are able to breathe in nearly 14 pints of air per minute. If you took out your lungs and stretched them flat on a tennis court, they could cover nearly the entire court. The diaphragm contracts when you breathe in air. This is a muscle that’s shaped like a dome and is located below your lungs. It produces somewhat of a vacuum and pulls in the air as you breathe.

The lungs are crucial to survival, and because of that, you’ll want to be keeping your lungs in good condition. There are a variety of things that you can do to keep your lungs in good health:

• Develop an exercise routine
• Get rid of any pollutants in your home
• Laugh as much as you can
• Prevent air pollution
• Refrain from smoking

If you’re currently reading this while smoking a joint, you might want to finish it before continuing. In a nutshell, breathing in smoke can cause damage to the lungs, but the amount of damage you’re doing also boils down to what you’re smoking.

Cannabis Vs Tobacco

Breathing in any type of smoke isn’t exactly good for the lungs. It doesn’t matter if the smoke is from tobacco, from the bonfire you’re standing in front of, or from the joint you’re smoking. Combustion causes toxins and carcinogens to be released and if you’re constantly breathing in these products, your chance of getting certain types of respiratory illnesses is increased.

Cigarettes Effects

Cigarettes contain a number of toxic chemicals that are very bad for the body, and that’s why they include a warning on every single box that is sold to smokers. Tobacco smoke contains upwards of 7,000 different chemicals, and 250 of those chemicals are harmful to the body. Some of the harmful chemicals are:

• Arsenic
• Cadmium
• Benzene
• Chromium
• Nickel
• Formaldehyde

Exposing yourself to these chemicals is harmful to pretty much all of the different organs throughout your body. This can result in things like:

• Oxidative stress
• Inflammation
• Changes in DNA
• Certain types of cancers
• Heart diseases
• Aneurysm
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• Diabetes
• Arthritis

No matter how many warning labels inform people that they could develop these issues, they continue to smoke. Nicotine is the product in tobacco that gets people addicted to smoking. Nicotine is addictive mentally and physically, so people are craving it not only in their minds but also in their bodies.

Cannabis Effects

A lot of cannabis users will vehemently deny the harmful effects that cannabis smoke can have on your lungs. You’ll hear them telling you that it’s completely natural and all sorts of other claims. While cannabis users might wish this to be the case, a lot of these claims don’t hold any scientific weight.

Smoking weed also contains chemicals that are dangerous to the body. Because cannabis users breathe in cannabis smoke to a fairly deep level, their lungs are getting infiltrated with deeper levels of tar.

The smoke from cannabis has links to bronchitis and can result in damage to your cell linings. Cannabis smoke also heightens the risk of tiny air pockets that can potentially develop in between your lungs and your chest wall.

Another thing that some people don’t think about is where their cannabis is coming from. Cannabis that isn’t grown in a regulated environment can be prone to developing fungi, and this can infect the lungs. Cannabis smoke has benzopyrene and benzanthracene in it, and these carcinogens aren’t good for the lungs.

Even though cannabis smoke isn’t exactly good for the lungs, it’s still known to be less harmful than cigarette smoke.

Scientists On Cannabis Smoke

Cannabis and tobacco have widely different products in them. Cannabis doesn’t come loaded with nicotine but has a number of terpenes and cannabinoids in it. Cannabinoids consist of THC and CBD and many other ones that many people use for medicinal and recreational benefits. THC is the cannabinoid that will get you high, and CBD is the one that is known to produce more relaxing effects in the body.

There is a research indicating that cannabinoids can actually provide a certain level of protection from the harmful effects of smoking. One study mentioned that cannabis is nowhere near the same carcinogenic level as tobacco smoke. The study said that smoke from both cannabis and tobacco is harmful, but that THC prevents the body from turning the smoke into a carcinogenic substance.

This means that THC is offering a certain degree of protection for the lungs and the body, whereas tobacco doesn’t do that because it doesn’t contain THC.

There was another study that was conducted that wanted to figure out the link between consuming weed and cancer. The first hypothesis they came to was that smoking weed could possibly be linked to developing a risk of cancer. The second hypothesis noted that the cannabinoids produced a protective measure that offsets the harmful effects. The third hypothesis noted that the cannabinoids in weed lowered the risk of developing cancer.

Regular Cannabis Use

Some of the research indicates that frequent use can lead to more lung issues. the same goes for cigarettes. If you’re using cannabis on rare occasions, then your lung function typically won’t be affected as much as someone that smokes weed numerous times a day.

A weed smoker’s lungs will most likely be healthier than a tobacco smoker’s lungs, but researchers say that people should be using cannabis in moderation if they want to keep their lungs as healthy as they can be.

What Are Some Alternatives To Smoking Weed?

No one wants to be dealing with respiratory illness at any point in their lives, and there are a couple of alternatives that people can keep in mind if they want to prevent those risks.

Vaping

Vaping weed has been growing in popularity over the course of the past few years. This involved breathing in the vapor from cannabis instead of combusting the cannabis plant matter. These days there are plenty of weed vape pens to choose from.

Edibles

With edibles, you’re not breathing in anything at all. THC will absorb into your bloodstream through your digestive system without even affecting your lungs. It takes a little longer to experience the psychoactive effects from edibles, and the effects are also known to last quite a bit longer than other methods.