Here’s How Weed Can Support Your Immune System

If you’re looking for natural ways to increase your immunity this cold and flu season - or you need something to take the edge off your autoimmune disease symptoms - then you may want to consider adding smoking weed to your to-do list.

Research shows that weed can help improve your immune response, but the trick is to get the right dosing down. In this guide, we’ll explain how you can use weed to support your immune system response, including the correct dosing for optimal effectiveness.

How Does the Immune Response Work?

The immune system is made up of a group of cells, tissues, and organs - including white blood cells, antibodies, the lymphatic system, and bone marrow - that all work together to fight pathogens and foreign invaders, keeping you healthy and free from illness or infection.

You may become sick when your body does not properly fight off viruses or pathogenic compounds before they invade healthy cells. This can lead to infections like the flu.

Additionally, your immune system is also responsible for regulating the inflammatory response. Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mistakes its own tissues, cells, and organs as foreign invaders - and attacks them in a vicious inflammatory cycle.

In either case, cannabis has properties that can help keep you healthy in both situations.

For example, cannabis has powerful anti-inflammatory and immune-suppressing activities that can prevent the immune system from overreacting and attacking itself, thus reducing autoimmune symptoms.

Cannabis also has antimicrobial properties to help fight off viruses and bacteria that may cause the flu or other infections, including sinus and respiratory infections. We’ll provide specific examples below.

How Does Cannabis Support Immune Health?

Here are some ways you can use cannabis to support a healthy immune response and stay protected against some of the most problematic diseases:

1. Cannabis contains anti-microbial properties to fight infections

It has long been known that cannabis contains antimicrobial compounds that can help protect against infections. However, research shows that cannabis has ‘untapped potential’ when it comes to its anti-infective properties, and it may even be considered as an effective antibiotic prescribed by doctors one day to treat bacterial infections.

2. Cannabis controls inflammation response to regulate pain sensation

Cannabis has been shown to possess powerful anti-inflammatory properties that can suppress inflammation in the immune system to regulate the pain response.

Specifically, weed helps control the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. This is beneficial for pain management because pain is usually caused by inflammation, and cannabis can help regulate the response from your immune system to decrease the amount of pain you feel.

3. Cannabis reduces anxiety and promotes calmness

Reducing anxiety and promoting calmness is one of the many reasons why people flock to weed. But how does reducing anxiety help boost your immune system?

The answer has to do with how your brain and gut communicate. Cannabis helps regulate your nervous system to make you feel less stressed and anxious. When this happens, your brain communicates these feelings of relaxation to your gut through the vagus nerve, which is a nerve that runs along your spinal cord from your stomach to your brain.

When you are stressed, your gut sends distress signals to your brain and vice versa. However, when you’re in a good place mentally, it helps tame inflammation in the gut as well, which can support a healthy immune response.

Cannabis also helps reduce cortisol levels - otherwise known as the stress hormone. When cortisol levels are high, it suppresses your immune system and makes it easier for you to get sick or fight infections. Therefore, weed can also boost immunity by decreasing cortisol.

4. Cannabis regulates inflammation that may lead to cancer or dementia

Cannabis can help protect your immune system and fight off larger, more serious diseases, such as cancer, dementia, and even HIV infections.

Research shows that cannabis helps induce neurogenesis in the brain, which is a process that turns stem cells into neurons. This can help reduce neuroinflammation and promote blood flow in the brain to decrease the risk of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

Additionally, cannabis can help control inflammation and support immune health to decrease the risk of cancer. According to one study, cannabis is a promising anti-cancer drug that has several mechanisms of action - one of which includes supporting immune and inflammation regulation.

An older study found that both THC and CBD inhibited the DNA synthesis and growth of lung tumor cells in animal models. Similar results were seen in other studies and different types of cancers, including breast, pancreas, prostate, colon, lymphoma, and glioma (brain and spinal cord).

Many studies have found that weed is also a beneficial tool when it comes to controlling HIV symptoms and infections, and, again, it works by controlling the immune response.

According to one study, heavy cannabis use is linked to reductions among activated and inflammatory immune cells in people with HIV.

Cannabis is also extremely effective at reducing symptoms of cancer and HIV treatments and disease, including depression, nausea, vomiting, upset stomach, hot flashes, and more.

How Much Weed Should I Use to Boost Immune Health?

In larger doses, weed may have an immune-suppressing effect. This is beneficial if you are looking to reduce an overactive immune response, such as in the case of autoimmunity.

Larger doses may be beneficial if you have lupus, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, or ulcerative colitis.

However, if you are using weed for its anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties to help you get through cold and flu season, and you don’t have an autoimmune condition, then keep in mind that lower doses might be all you need.

Final Thoughts

You can use cannabis to support the immune and inflammatory response in your body. It has powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties to fight infections, which can help you make it through the cold and flu season relatively healthy.

You can also use cannabis in larger doses to help suppress the immune system to reduce the symptoms of an autoimmune disease, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis, or Crohn’s disease.

Have you ever used Cannabis while you were sick? Did it help? Have you medicated to relieve symptoms intentionally or otherwise? Do you have any stories of this happening? Please tell us in the comments below!