does marijuana cause back pain?

I am 46 and have smoked since I was 16 but now I am having swelling and bloating plus my stomach hurts straight thru to my back and after sitting when I stand up I have worse pain off to my left side I have had a enoscopy scoping and they found mild gas in my stomach but severe ulcerations in my right colon. My eyes also are puffy worse after I smoke. My question is have you found anymore info on whats the best way to smoke and the best kind that doesnt cause pain. Never felt this way out of all the yrs I have smoked just weed. I also had my lungs x-ray and they said my lungs was clear

I, too, get pain from smoking cannabis. I get what feels like a deep bone pain in my lower back and neck. I also feel very 'acidic' throughout my body and have to drink a ton of water and pee all the time. I've also gotten the tremors from time to time. All in all, these are the reasons I stopped smoking.

I smoke everyday and have no back pain. & I even had a sports injury involing my back, back in the middle school days. FYI ive been smoking since 6th grade, smoking heavy since 12th grade.

My two cents... I think there is truth in most of the theories stated in this thread. I don't have scientific articles to prove my statement, but I have read (also in this thread) and experienced a great deal to dare to post this.

(I am dutch, so please ingore any poor spelling/grammar)

I am Peter, 36 years old and live in the Netherlands. I have been a moderate evening smoker for 15 years, stopped for a year, started again half a year ago and stopped two weeks ago. Most of the times I sit in front of a computer for work and for pleasure. Last couple of years I suffered from several problems with my neck, upper back and lower back. Thats why I started exercising in the form of walking and table tennis. The last half year I developed pain and instability of my lower back and groin. The problems with my body, the worries about it in combination with not finding any comfort anymore in smoking (I experienced the opposite effect) made me stop the habit.

1. The last couple of weeks that I smoked, I became much more conscious of certain pains and therefore got more anxious too. Any fear of what is going on in certain area's of my body gets magnified and makes me uncomfortable. I cannot say that smoking ever directly reduced any pains, although doing other activities more focussed could have drawn attention away from pain. However, when you can't distract yourself any longer from pain or worrying, it can work the opposite way; pain gets worse. (see also point 4).

2. When smoking, my abdomen was noticably restless and bloated. An osteopath stated that my small intestine and the junction to the large intestine were having problems. Indeed after having smoked in the evening, most of the times I had fluid stool in the morning, later on in the day it was normal. The times that I did not smoke, most of the time I had normal stool. The osteopath further stated that there is a strong connection between backpain and problems in the intestines. My knowledge however is too small to be able to go into details. Another thing I noticed is that now I have stopped smoking I have to make sure that I do not eat sugary products, as it makes my abdomen restless and I feel like I have no energy at all for an hour or so. I am very interested to see if this will persist after the last THC, CBD or CBN (don't know which one may be harming my intestines) molecules have left my body. I never stopped smoking tobacco by the way. Also smoking weed  might have influenced my bad diet too.

3. My problems with my body are at least partly to blame by my lifestyle and posture. As smoking reduces muscle tone, it did more harm than good to my posture. Also smoking weed made me very passive. As soon as I stopped, I took the initiative to start physical activities. My body had a hard time to pick up but after half a year it started to cope and the exercise gave me pleasure. Some physical problems went away (less back pain) and I had more energy. The problems I am now experiencing are probably due to starting smoking again combined with physical problems that I had anyway.

4. Emotions are known to be able to give all sorts of problems with your body. For example, a person I know was so worried about her partners health problems that she developed a scoliosis of her back and lots of pain. A specialist released her emotions and her back was straightened in a matter of minutes and her pain was gone. When you're worried and you smoke, emotions get stronger and this can f**k up your muscoskeletal system  (see also point 1)

5. I experienced that in the first 15 years THC levels rised and CBD levels dropped significantly in the weed that you could buy in Holland. I think this happened too in other countries, as growers focussed on elevating the amount of THC. Why? In the last years of smoking I started to experience more feelings of discomfort and I even had my much priced chesthair shaved to have my heart function checked out as it started to give me chest pains.  This discomfort made me stop in the end. However, a year later I started to grow my own MJ (autoflowers, low in THC, high in CBD) as I was looking for a hobby :). The first weeks I smoked a little, but as time progressed I found myself smoking more and more and problems as I described above started to become more prominent.  Finally I decided that I could not find the comfort any longer that I used to get from smoking weed.

6. The theory that I have nothing personal to add to is the one about the body that suddenly become intolerant of certain substances that are in weed (THC, CBD, CBN?). As this can happen with any substance, I certainly do believe this can happen to anyone. The substances in weed do get in your blood and can therefore reach any cell in your body. It doesn't matter if you smoke, vaporize or eat it. Besides your lungs are trying to clean themselves and much of the phlegm that comes up will be swallowed subconsciously anyway. This together with swallowing smoke occasionaly will get it in your guts directly. So it does not matter how you consume it, one way or the other the subsances will reach area's that potentially get irritated or even start processes of intoxication if you are prone to it.

7. Moreover, I can imagine that if someone already has an injury that is on the brink of giving way, the lowered muscle tone could give it the last push. A joint that is on the brink of luxation, but doesn't because of the surrounding muscles keeping it in place, could suddenly luxate from smoking cannabis. For example, if you develop scoliosis in your back, it can slowly (sub)luxate certain joints that can suddenly give way. You might end up with a protruding collar bone when you wake up in the morning. A-traumatic (sub)luxations are not uncommon if you search the internet.

8. Last thing I want to add. In my case there could not have been any contamination in my cannabis, as I grew it myself from seeds with only biological nutrients. However it could be that the stuff you are smoking is contaminated with metals to enlarge the weight, non-biological nutrients that are not really meant for consumption or toxic pesticides. The consequenses could be devastating for your health. Try to get some from a more reliable source to see if it changes things for you.

so in short I see the following possible mechanisms that can appear when someone smokes weed:

... -> lowered muscle tone  -> worse posture / imbalanced back -> back problems / pain that will persist

... -> more awareness of pain -> experiencing more pain during use

... -> increased worries -> increased back problems / pain due to emotional stress during use that will persist

... -> irritated intestines (from substances in cannabis or from bad diet) or even intoxication -> back problems / pain that will persist

... -> passivity -> worse physical condition -> body less able to cope with activity -> back problems / pain that will persist

... -> lowered muscle tone combined with already existing joint on brink of luxation -> loss of muscle support -> (sub)luxation / pain

smoking contaminated weed -> one can only speculate....

 

Ofcourse these mechanisms will not apply to a lot of people. Most people won't get irritated intestines and their posture will not get affected a lot. Also not everyone is prone to anxiety/worries at the same level or get too passive.

In my experience, medical specialists do not see much physical harm in smoking. I think that in the majority of cases they are right, but as with most drugs/medicines, some people experience bad physical effects that are caused directly or indirectly by cannabis. This is without considering the possible psychological effects. There are plenty of threads covering that subject.

If you do not really need to smoke and suspect it to cause the problems as described above, try to quit and see if in time your problems dissappear, maybe with the help of physicians and psychologists. If you find it too hard, try to change to a healthier diet and start exercising, see if it helps. If it doesn't, give quitting a try. For all other people that have no problems, I envy you :)

Please feel free to react to my statements. Be aware that I symphatize with Cartman if it comes to hippies who feel threatend by anyone daring to criticize their precious MJ and are only able to post things like "you're full of it, because I and my friends smoke all the time and don't have problems"... ofcourse, the majority of people don't experience any problems. The above is my vision on things and if you don't like it, try to use valid arguments to convince me otherwise. Other people could benefit from a thread like this.

Oops, I forgot an important one (maybe the most important?), which was covered already in this thread. Cannabis messes up your hydration levels. Maybe directly, don't know, can't find any evidence of that, but it can indirectly by drinking too little or drinking mainly sugar rich soda's or alcohol. Also it could dehydrate as a result from 'more fluent' stool when you get irritated intestines. Moreover smoking tobacco is said to dehydrate and if you smoke a lot it also make your stool more fluent. Whatever the reason, it could dehydrate you...

... -> dehydration -> muscle soreness -> back pain

... -> dehydration -> 'dryer' cartilage / shrunken intervertebral discs -> painfull joints / irritated or pinched nerves -> (back) pain

So another thing you could try is elevating your water intake when smoking and see if it helps. It did not help for me but maybe you are lucky and it is that simple.

Don't know if direct dehydration occurs when eating your MJ. Last time I did it however (years ago), I ended up with a crushing headache the next day... I can't remember however how much I drank during that experiment :)  I am not a fan of eating btw, because it is less predictable, more difficult to dose and the effect takes a long time to go away.

 

Put me down for another person that has back and (especially) neck pain caused by Marijuana.  I've had major back and neck problems all my life and oddly, they weren't caused by any injury or anything.  They just started happening.  Anyway, I've smoked nightly for the past year and a half or so and up until about two and half months ago, I always felt great after I smoked.  But then, out of no where, the marijuana started accentuating my back and neck pain.  And also, I started having pain in my shoulders and shoulder blades, which had never occurred before.

This is especially troubling because, over the past few years, I have been severely depressed and smoking was one of the only activities that I enjoyed.  Which is why I haven't stopped smoking yet.  I can't accept that the back/neck pain isn't going away.  I suppose I'm going to quit after I run out of the stuff I currently have, but once that day comes, that's just one less thing that I enjoy doing.

try a chiropractor before quiting. I have smoked since I was 14. Heavier after my kids left the home. I thought my pain was due to smoking, but it was not. Thought I was going to have to quit too. But didn't and my pain is managed through chiropractic care. Enjoy.

Grerub,

I had terrible neck/upper back problems too. Manual therapist couldn't help me. I got it under control by triggerpoint massage that I did myself. Look it up, it isn't mysterious, not difficult and it is a skill you and your loved ones can benefit from your whole life. Also I greatly benefited from a therapist who searched for 'disturbances' in the meridians and put pressure on them with her fingers. A bit weird to us westerners, but when regular healthcare can't solve problems, as often is the case with this kind of problems, look for alternative ones. Also chiro's and osteopaths can often solve problems, that regular healthcare givers cannot as they tend to focus on the problem area only, because they overlook the whole body (joints, muscles, organs, food etc.)

Maybe a long shot, but look on the internet for 'triggerpoints + scaleni'. In short, look for painful locations in your neck muscles that can cause the pains you describe. The scaleni-triggerpoints are reknowned for setting fire to your shoulders, arms, inside of shoulderblades, chest.... and in those affected area's, other triggerpoints can appear (you notice the domino effect?). You can treat them yourselves after reading how to do it effectively and safely, or find a massage therapist that knows trigger point therapy. Oh, it is no hocus-pocus, it is a scientifically proven method (look for Travell & Simons, myofascial pain and dysfunction.). Any time I get pains in my upper body, the first thing I do is search my neck muscles and almost every time I find one or two triggerpoints. I treat them by a simple massage and often it takes away all the pains I had. Triggerpoints are known to be negatively influenced by smoking tobacco. That is why I am also thinking very seriously about quitting that habit too.

I too used to think that I needed the cannabis to prevent myself from getting more depressed. I now learned that I never would get my general mood elevated by smoking as it puts you in a vicious circle. Exercising, exploring activities (as long as it isn't growing MJ as I did :) ) and meeting people will give you the energy to break the cycle. I know, easily said as I don't know your personal problems in detail. I sincerely hope though that you find the proverbial key in managing your pain and depression.

Good Luck, Peter

I've been smoking for 12+ years ,and two years ago injured my back lifting, didnt hurt til next day! I have often wondered if my pain was related to smokin herb. I will try not smoking for a few days a then reconvein on the matter. Ihave noticed in the past year or so not having as much pain when not smoking for that day!

I've been smoking for over 15 years now and only recently have I had the terrible lower back pain every time I smoke. I had surgery to my lower back, a fusion to my L3, L4, and L5, about 3 years ago. After surgery I smoked with no problem. Only recently when I re-injured my lower back that is gonna require surgery again that it hurts every time I smoke.Not even the narcotic pain killers I take helps any. Gonna run this by my neurosurgeon when I see him in a couple of days. I'll keep you guys posted.

Thank you so much for this review!! I'm having exactly the same problems and this is the most helpful insight into these mj related issues. I've also been a long term user, maybe ten years or so with years of daily use. It finally got to me to the point that I was suspecting more serious health issues. I'm a casual smoker these days as I was suspecting they are related (at least my back pain obviously)

My problems: severe back pain & chest pain especially on the left side even with some feeling of pain in my left arm joints. Being bloated and having irritated intestines.
Thankfully now I can be 99% sure of the cause and stop for good. My body is not taking mj kindly anymore.
Thanks again and good luck!

Hi,  Smoking weed doesn't cure back pain. It also doesn't create it. There are some pretty silly theories out there. What I believe happens is the cannabinoids wake up receptors for pain that were previously dulled by a lack of signal going from your brain to your back through your spinal cord. This is caused by looking down more than we should. (Ie: School work, phones, lap tops...etc) Over the years, the cord becomes partially pinched. Your brain's signal to heal is only partially getting through and so the pain receptors have never actually gotten the signal to know there is pain. And so, they have never responded to the pain you didn't know you have. But now a strain of marijuana you smoked has awakened those receptors to notice your back pain. Marijuana is definitely not the cause of the back pain, but only the cause of your bodies proper function. If you had been notified long ago when your back started hurting, you would have been able to prevent or fix it so that this would not be happening now.Ive studied for 13 years. Smoking pot has never really been a great "cure" for pain. Anxiety and stress yes, pain, only minimal. Especially if you are chronic. Your tolerance is so high it will never work by smoking. To relieve your pain, (use the marijuana as a pain killer and anti inflammatory. Bake or cook with it. When you smoke it, it is burning far too hot for the cannabinoids that treat pain to make it into your body. You have to heat it slowly and convert the cannabinoids slowly. If you want to get a buzz too, you can do this by decarboxylating the marijuana first before making a concentrated butter, oil or alcohol. if you don't want much of the buzz, make a butter on the stove without decarboxylating.Here's an awesome link to a cooking show for people who don't want to kill their liver's with acetaminophen's like Tylenol and stomachs with Ibuprofen's like Advil: 

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The other pain killing option is to buy an expensive vaporizer and vaporize the ganja into a dome. Then scrape the dome and put the oil in a capsule and swallow it.

To permanently fix the issue, see a caring, good chiropractor. The issue will indeed get worse year after year if you do not align your spine correctly. Im 31 and my back is rough. I finally started chiropractics (which I used to think was bogus) and Im finally begining to heal. If you find a good chiropractor he/she will explain all of this to you better than I can. Your body was built to heal itself, but it can't if the signal from your brain isn't reaching the area that is in need of fixing. Thank God pot is miraculous and it got your receptors working while you're still young enough to prevent major damage like I ended up with.

another silly theory then... :)

After lots of research I think everything has to do with stress/anxiety, caused/aggravated by smoking for some people. Ever heard of a stiff neck or stomach pain or diarrhea caused by stress or anxiety? Well, why would this only be limited to those areas? It can strike at all locations in your body, back pain included. It can be seen as a method of your mind to distract you from those feelings, by decreasing oxygen to certain area's or by creating muscle spasms (trigger points). Your mind will often create pain in locations that seem logic, as your mind's strategy is to not let you find out that it is simply a distraction. A chiropractor, in my opinion, in most cases gives you temporary relieve by increasing blood flow to certain area's, loosening trigger points or simply by placebo. "hey, I heard something pop and the chiro says that it should be okay now.... hey, he is right....it's a miracle". Often you have to come back some day in time, because the stress/anxiety thing struck again, giving you the same pain or a new pain at a different location. The only way to get rid of this pain is decreasing the anxiety/stress/rage in you mind, by acknowledging that it is your mind causing (real!) pain and by stopping what is causing the anxiety/stress/rage (for example smoking weed or your personal way of handling situations). If you want to learn more about this mechanism, search for MBS or TMS. A famous person that got rid of his years of back pain (and his OCD) this way is Howard Stern, maybe this fact helps you to convince yourself that it might be a valid theory instead of a silly one.

If you are convinced that weed relieves stress and anxiety, then read further. If you smoke it for relieving it, you already admit that you have stress and anxiety. Something must therefore be feeding it. In a lot of cases the things that feed the stress/anxiety is the smoking itself, not being able to smoke in certain places for certain periods, the nagging feeling that the people around you suffer from your habit, the inability to stop this habit, the feeling you lack at your work/study etc.etc.. Given time you will hit a wall because you apply a mechanism of trying to relieve stress/anxiety with something that is causing and feeding this stress/anxiety. The only way to stop this is either quitting weed or, if you are lucky, cutting out other factors that give you stress/anxiety. For example quitting a relationship that isn't working, getting a job that puts less pressure on you, whatever applies to you...

The idea of a spinal cord becoming partially pinched is 'silly' to say the least... the only thing in your story that I think is correct is that the body is built to heal itself. The only thing you forget is that the mind is (probably the most important) part of that body and it won't heal if you keep feeding it with stress and anxiety. So, your first statement "Smoking weed doesn't cure back pain. It also doesn't create it" is just not true in my opinion. Be real honest to yourself and really consider what I wrote, don't let the addict part of your brain reject it right away...

I have been smoking pot on a weekend basis for 3 years. I am now smoking it every evening.

In the last year I have had a lot of stress and lost my job. I was out of work for 6 months and started to gain weight. I have gained a stone and a half (due to the munchies and quite heavy drinking )and am now a size 12.

I have now found that I am depressed, anxious and feel 'muddled' quite alot. In addition to this my back seems to totally seize at the lower section and I can bearly move. Reaching my feet to put socks on is quite a task and generally walking is difficult and quite painful, but I push through it and go to work regardless.

Up until I started smoking it daily I was still very flexible, enegetic and athletic and found it helped my stress levels. Now I don't think it does anymore as I seem to have so many other problems that I have never had before. Was going to go to the doctor but after reading this site I think I will try giving it up and see if it makes any differnce.

If you want some inspiration, google "most amazing inspirational transformation" and watch the video.
Take care and good luck