Marijuana related headaches

weedzors wrote:

Guest wrote:

I smoked a joint and then a bowl or so (out of a bong) with my friend 2 days ago. I've had this horrible headache since then. At first, I thought it was the bowl we used. We used a socket wrench head, and I thought maybe there was something in it before that was really bad. I'm 14 by the way, and it was my first time smoking. But I still have this headache, mainly on the left side of my head. I'm not sure if I should tell my parents or what, and I'm kinda scared. If anyone could give me advice, that would be great.

I had the same thing the last two times i smoked.
I'm 16, and I first starting smoking weed when i was 12.
I smoked heavily, to a point where it was a half ounce a day.

The second last time I smoked, I had the same thing happen.. sort of.

I had just finished up 4-6 poppers, using stronger bud. I bent over to pick up my bag, and when I came back I felt an UNBELIEVABLE body buzz. But that quickly deteriorated and I started to feel woozy. I started to walk out of my spot. When I got a terrible head ache, like my brain was expanding and pushing against my skull. As I walked I started to experience vertigo, and tunnel vision. My heart rate picked up to 3-4 times its normal rate, and I started sweating. The tunnel vision crept in and eventually I almost blacked out, but before I did, I sat down. And started to recover, but I still had a headache, as well as a very dry mouth. I was having trouble understanding what was happening.

After that, I decided that it was a bad trip, so I smoked again the following day, but the same thing happened, but not as bad. As I was watching how much I smoked. That was the last time I smoked. (First week of December 07)

I felt headaches, and light headed for a week straight after that.. and to this day, I still feel light headed, and faint at times almost every day.

Anyway, I talked to my doctor about it, and he said I suffered a stroke.

If you're experiencing any of those symptoms, go see a doctor NOW.
You don't have to tell your parents, just let them know you're feeling really weird. You can ask the doctor to sign a secrecy oath, so s/he won't tell your parents.

good luck.

I have that same feeling in my brain.I just feel stuck sometimes and my jaw and neck gets stiff.Shortness of breath too.I have bad anxiety from too much marijuana and i have daily headaches.I have to suddenly move or something because My brain would freeze up.What were the treatment for your stroke?

Just going to throw an obvious one out there...

pick out the seeds and stems?

it sometimes causes headaches.

- While your high.

Id think that the weed had other chemicals in it if you have headaches spanning a few days or longer.

just my input.

Guest wrote:

weedzors wrote:

Guest wrote:

I smoked a joint and then a bowl or so (out of a bong) with my friend 2 days ago. I've had this horrible headache since then. At first, I thought it was the bowl we used. We used a socket wrench head, and I thought maybe there was something in it before that was really bad. I'm 14 by the way, and it was my first time smoking. But I still have this headache, mainly on the left side of my head. I'm not sure if I should tell my parents or what, and I'm kinda scared. If anyone could give me advice, that would be great.

I had the same thing the last two times i smoked.
I'm 16, and I first starting smoking weed when i was 12.
I smoked heavily, to a point where it was a half ounce a day.

The second last time I smoked, I had the same thing happen.. sort of.

I had just finished up 4-6 poppers, using stronger bud. I bent over to pick up my bag, and when I came back I felt an UNBELIEVABLE body buzz. But that quickly deteriorated and I started to feel woozy. I started to walk out of my spot. When I got a terrible head ache, like my brain was expanding and pushing against my skull. As I walked I started to experience vertigo, and tunnel vision. My heart rate picked up to 3-4 times its normal rate, and I started sweating. The tunnel vision crept in and eventually I almost blacked out, but before I did, I sat down. And started to recover, but I still had a headache, as well as a very dry mouth. I was having trouble understanding what was happening.

After that, I decided that it was a bad trip, so I smoked again the following day, but the same thing happened, but not as bad. As I was watching how much I smoked. That was the last time I smoked. (First week of December 07)

I felt headaches, and light headed for a week straight after that.. and to this day, I still feel light headed, and faint at times almost every day.

Anyway, I talked to my doctor about it, and he said I suffered a stroke.

If you're experiencing any of those symptoms, go see a doctor NOW.
You don't have to tell your parents, just let them know you're feeling really weird. You can ask the doctor to sign a secrecy oath, so s/he won't tell your parents.

good luck.

I have that same feeling in my brain.I just feel stuck sometimes and my jaw and neck gets stiff.Shortness of breath too.I have bad anxiety from too much marijuana and i have daily headaches.I have to suddenly move or something because My brain would freeze up.What were the treatment for your stroke?

Establishing a regulated diet for a month or so, to sorta detox your body.
providing your body with the essential nutrients it needs is important.
also, QUIT weed.
i suffered one more minor stroke after 5 months of being clean.
it was randomly timed, but related to my marijuana use.
i spoke to my doctor and he said it was normal for someone who has suffered a stroke.

so.
quit weed
and become as healthy as possible!

I 15, and ive smoked for around a year, when i first started it was kinda light, i probably only did it 3 or 4 times and then i quit for a while. then i got back onto it again and id smoke every other weekend, and somtimes a few times a week, but it wouldnt be all the time, around a mounth ago i experanced nothing like i ever have when i got high before. im a vary big light weight. i allways smoked bowls in my party pipe. 1 bowl would pretty much f**k me up. thats how light i am. well about a mounth ago i was with my girl and i had allways smoked the same weed with her before. and she had smoked longer then i have. one night i smoked a bowl and i felt this wierd fealing like i was baked. and then i felt everything in my body. this is vary hard to explain....and after a while i felt the normal stoned fealing, but then the only way i can really explain this is that i felt somthing like a a little pill shaped thing going through some tube in the middle right side of my head above the ear. but in deeper in my brain. and i was told to suck on the stem before smoking, and this is the first time i had done so. and i did that ever scense. well that same night that pill shaped thing running through the tube in my head it stoped. i have no idea as to what it would be. and ever scense that night id feal a little numbness in the right side of my head. and then here latly its started to hurt quite a bit. not only that, my right ear feals plugged up. and the pain seems to run from that spot in my brain to my ear down past my jaw, and to the right side of my neck. i dono what the hell is going on with my. but ive had a history of being vary alergic to plants, witch would make me itch and and feal a numb fealing, i somtimes feal a numb fealing on the top right side of my head, along with an occasional itch. and im vary conserned for my health. could someone here help me out!?

I have smoked for about 8 years now and for probably 6 of them was close to once a day. Probably the last 10 times I have smoked I have felt very irregular compared to how i felt in the past. It caused massive paranoia and anxiety and dizziness. Over the last 6 months I have cut down drastically to maybe 2-3 times a week, if that, kind of more "testing the waters" so to speak but I have decided to quit all together. I have also felt many of the similar symptoms over the past few months here that people have been speaking of. I wouldnt necessarily say I'm getting headaches but more like odd sensations near my temple and sometimes on the top of my head. TBH I really never get headaches and cant recall the last time I did this is something different. I'm considering getting an mri done but am going to just give it a week or so of no marijuana first. Did quitting smoking altogether help these types of symptoms go away for some people?

not in cali it isn't

and i get headachs when i smoke/drink alot as well

i think its just that im not drinking enough water or eating enough food, and this inbalance leads all the THC to the brain. just an idea.

advil or ibprofin should work. o and a small sunday with hot hot fudge helps too

You know nothing about marijuana! Get your facts straight before preaching. It is not physically addicting in any way. It is habituating, but you will never experience withdrawal symptoms from using it. Your headaches are probably unrelated. Try drinking water when you have a very bad headache, you might be dehydrated. Marijuana also has no known negative effects on your brain. Any psychotic reaction to marijuana is just an exaggerated pre-existing condition, and it is only suspected to have these effects. 23 is no magic age, that is absolute BS. I hope you plan to research these things in a more intellectual way than just listening to one person on a forum. Don't even take everything I say at face value...look it up. This is a fascinating movie about marijuana, and it will clear up the misconceptions you have that you have probably only heard your friends saying. ****

**edited by moderator** **web addresses are not allowed**

I guess ill just put in what i have found out here. If i smoke once a day it doesnt matter what, even if i get stoned the next day im fine but if i smoke twice a day just like one bowl then 6 hours after another bowl i get a headache the next day.

Hey I had a few questions.. Not about problems im having but one of my friends... accualy no like.. alot of my friends. I just started smoking, which has led me to become friends with other stoners... I have noticed that alot of my "new friends" have problems with there mottoes skills such as un steady hand/finger movements, studdering, and twitching around the face normally when speaking, "around the mouth and eyes". Not something that alot of people notice but its Just enough to make me notice for im very observant. Why dose this twitching acure?

Iv only seen this in half of my friends, however there alot younger then me and started smoking at a much younger age... like around 14... And I jsut started smoking in May 08.

Quote:

i have found this

"By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The case of a young man who suffered a stroke more than once after smoking marijuana adds to evidence that the drug can, in rare cases, have such serious consequences, according to researchers.

On three separate occasions, the 36-year-old man suffered a stroke shortly after smoking a large amount of marijuana. He had no known risk factors for stroke and no signs of atherosclerosis, a narrowing and hardening of the arteries over time that can lead to a heart attack or stroke.

Instead, the timing of the strokes points to the patient's marijuana use -- and possibly his habit of combining it with alcohol -- as the culprit, according to his doctors.

"Marijuana seems to be a risk factor for stroke," said Dr. Juan Carlos Garcia-Monco of the Hospital de Galdacano in Vizcaya, Spain. The risk, albeit low, may be higher when marijuana is used along with alcohol or other drugs, he told Reuters Health.

Garcia-Monco and his colleagues report on the case in the March issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Marijuana is known to have a number of short-term effects on the cardiovascular system, including speeding the heart rate, raising or lowering blood pressure, and even elevating the risk of heart attack in the hour after use. But only rarely has the drug been linked to stroke; one recent report described the cases of three teenage boys who suffered strokes after smoking marijuana, two of whom died.

This latest case, Garcia-Monco said, is different in that the patient had a stroke on three separate occasions, with each following a bout of heavy marijuana use.

In the first instance, the man lost his ability to speak and suffered a seizure after smoking marijuana and having a few drinks at a party. One year later, he again became unable to speak and suffered weakness on one side of his body after smoking pot at another party.

The third incident came roughly a year later, when the man had some hearing loss after an episode of heavy marijuana use and drinking. Each time, doctors found tissue damage in the brain.

It's not entirely clear how marijuana may cause a stroke, which occurs when blood flow to the brain is cut off and brain tissue begins to die. A sudden constriction of the arteries after smoking the drug may be to blame, according to Garcia-Monco, but that's not yet certain.

Some past research has found that marijuana users may develop changes in blood flow to the brain that makes it harder for blood to diffuse through the small vessels in the brain.

"We believe that marijuana-related stroke must be infrequent, since marijuana use is so frequent and this association is only rarely reported," Garcia-Monco said. However, he added, even if the side effect is rare, it is a serious one.

This case and others show that marijuana is not as innocuous as many think, according to an editorial published with the report.

"In that recreational cannabis use appears not to be as harmless as was thought," writes Dr. Dominique Deplanque of the University of Lille in France, "there is a need to improve public information."

Better recognition of marijuana-related stroke, he notes, could allow for larger studies to see whether some people may have an inherited predisposition to the complication.

Garcia-Monco suggested that doctors screen for the presence of marijuana and other drugs whenever a young person inexplicably suffers a stroke.

SOURCE: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, March 2005."

"
Scientists have found CB receptors in many organs including the brain, heart, liver, kidney, and spleen. In this study, researchers investigated if persistent heavy MJ use might be associated with changes in different blood proteins in order to check if the abnormalities in the identified proteins might be related to other side-effects of marijuana. The study was conducted with 18 long term heavy MJ users and 24 non-drug using volunteers.

People with major medical and psychiatric illnesses, hypertension, head injury, HIV positive, alcohol dependency and other drug usage, were excluded from the study. Blood proteins were measured in both control volunteers and MJ users using a new method (protein chip) that has the potential to identify several new target proteins. That approach showed that apolipoprotein C-III (apoC-III) showed significant increases in MJ abusers.

ApoC-III belongs to a large family of proteins that interact with lipids and helps lipids to move into and out of cells. ApoC-III is involved in transport of triglycerides and delays the breakdown of triglycerides. Increases in apoC-III levels in the blood occur in parallel with increases in triglyceride levels.

Even though we still don't understand how heavy MJ use might cause increases in apoC-III levels, this protein might be one of the reasons why some MJ users have increased risks of heart attack and strokes.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Journal reference:

S Jayanthi1, S Buie1, S Moore, RI Herning, W Better, NM Wilson, C Contoreggi, JL Cadet. Heavy Marijuana Users show Increased Serum Apolipoprotein C-III levels: Evidence from proteomic analyses. Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication 13 May 2008"

I am having this pain in the back of my head, and stiffnes on my neck. I also had some dizziness yesterday. I think the same mechanism that leads marijuana to cause stroke, causes this lighter effects like headaches. i will try to quit it for, like a month. maybe my brain fixes.

the headaches are probably just due to the vasodilation caused by the THC.

naw i completely agree with that article dude. i smoked pot and went numb on one side of my body and my muscles drew up and my mouth turned like inside out, i couldn't talk or anything... it was totally a stroke. the doctors couldn't decide if it was a stroke or a seizure but im pretty sure it was a stroke. but yeah the possibility is definitely real. this happened over 3 years ago, i haven't smoked since. there's no way in hell im risking THAT happening again. the scariest thing ever.

Did you get all the seeds out?
If you smoke the seeds they can give you TERRIBLE headaches.

I'm a 22 year old who has smoked weed heavily (2x a day getting rip-roarin' -retarded) from 17 until 21. After I got arrested (had nothing to do with drugs, lol) I had to stop dead for a while. Now I'm smoking maybe once every two months and very little each time. Along with this, I started to get headaches.

I've found that there are a few reasons for this, with easy ways to prevent them.
1. Low THC content weed (bad weed) will hurt more.
2. Any stems, seeds, etc. will hurt more.
3. Weed with a bad oxygen mix hurts more. Invest in a good grinder.
4. Stale weed hurts more.
5. Stale smoke (blunt or a joint) hurts more than bowl packs. Bongs hurt very little (the water cleans it out). Try using warm water (best cleaning of the smoke) and ice if you have an ice catcher on it (cools smoke down for your lungs). Using a hookah hurts the least.
6. Weed changes your senses. Watching TV hurts, because of the high frequency sounds that TVs, computer monitors, and other electronics give off. Try listening to music outside (not too loud, though). The fresh air can't hurt, either.
7. Don't smoke if you have a cold or your allergies are acting up. Marijuana changes your body chemistry and, often, you wind up producing more mucus (aka sinus pressure).
8. DEHYDRATION! Drink plenty of water. Then drink more water. If you're going to drink a beer - even one - drink plenty more water. If you're going to have an energy drink or 5-hour energy or anything, you should be drinking around a Poland Spring bottle every hour.

Also, if you smoke cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, hookah, or anything else, try to wait at least half an hour (I know it's hard not to light up a cigarette right afterwards).

If the headache hits you, try sitting outside with a lot of water. Read a good book, maybe (if you can focus on the words on the page, lol).

if you're a frequent users and you go back to sobriety then yeah you will experience some with-drawl symptoms. you're in for some brutal depression combined with anxiety, boredom, sleeplessness. you have to be prepared for it, what you're going to have to do is really mentally and physically burn it out of your system. go on a sobering camping trip for a few weeks and only consume water and natural products while getting lots of sun and exercise like swimming to clean you out. you need to keep busy, busy busy with your friends and family. you need to learn how to replace the time you smoke with friends and yourself with something healthy and satisfying to you soul. pot is filling the gap for you in some way, so once you find out what that void is then you won't feel the need to smoke at all, or maybe the odd vacation, trip or occasion. I would say that for a person to stay mentally healthy and not have to deal with repercussions you should only smoke about 3-4 times a year. like pick out 4 days a year to let loose but don't over indulge because you'll pay for it in general mentally anxiety/irritation. if you have a few days to recover and sleep off then you'll be fine the rest of your life.

As for headaches, I take a hot shower, take a nap, go for a walk, have a tea, coffee anything steamy. I find a humidifier helps as well. the common theme you've probably noticed is steaming out your sinuses and clearing blocked passages. the caffeine in tea and coffee also seems to alleviate some of my pain. I take an aspirin or tylenol may be once or twice a year if its really bad but I try to only take natural omega 3, and multivitamins from natural food stores. I know it sounds dumb that I am going through all of this just to get high, but I find pot helps with my creativity and concentration, not even for the high or laughing, I tend to smoke and read very deeply. If there's anything else on this planet that would help me improve my concentration or mental stamina and hopefully not damaging my body at all. People say 'oh take 'x' for concentration' but natural herbs (aside from marijuana) are too weak in potency or effectiveness and I don't like taking Ritalin or pharmaceutical grade drugs that chemically alter my brain. I don't trust it and i have experienced severe nausea and tiredness...I felt like a zombie or it didn't work at all.