Sproggs

A few months back I was talking to my therapist about marijuana and his opinions on it and what not. One of the "facts" he brought up was (my memory is a bit foggy) how it somehow damaged or depleted your white blood cell count, therefore reducing your body's defense against sickness.

Now, my therapist is a pretty well reknown man throughout Iowa (my home state) and certainly well respected. I don't "doubt" his alleged fact, but I've never heard this before.

Can anyone confirm or deny this?




Oh, and here's his business page incase you're curious about the man.
wadle-everest.com - Bruce Buchanan

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"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered...by the prohibition law...nothing is more destructive of respect for the...law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced...the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."- A. Einstein on Hemp

Texas Toker's Wife

There are studies which link the smoking of marijuana to immune response and increased lung disorders. I think it's largely because of the method of ingestion rather than the marijuana itself - smoking cigarettes has the same effects. The studies suggest marijuana is good for inflammatory conditions but bad for people with chronic infectious diseases.

Normally, I find, that when the pro tokers say it's not bad for you and the non pro tokers say it is, there haven't been enough studies to really answer the question yet.

For example, I don't find a definitive study on marijuana's effect on the immune system. I can find several definitive studies on its effect on fertility.

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--facta, non verba

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5drive

My immune system has improved greatly in the past 6-8 years, due to living a healthier lifestyle (much better nutrition w/regular exercise, quitting cigarettes). I rarely even catch a cold, and if I do come down with something, I recover from it in a flash-much quicker than I ever did previously. My herb consumption has not changed, other than switching from smoke to vapor a few years ago. And that only impacted by cardio vascular system, not my immune system.

So just from my own personal experience, I'd be inclined to attribute this 'depleting your white cell count' to more anti-marijuana propaganda. Even if it does lower your count, it's not the 'end all' of your resistence to disease.

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LiveForMusic1827

Well the fact that you smoke out of a vap would decrease your risk for any potential side effects just because your only getting THC and none of the other chemicals. Whether you smoke it or not in reality it prolly neither hurts you nor improves your immune system.

cj117

Marijuana does not "DAMAGE" your immune system, it suppresses it. Right now there's no evidence that this is a *bad* thing, either. It's just a scary phrase.

Interestingly, when you use a bong, this effect does not happen.
Joints and pipes [may] suppress the immune system, but when filtered using a bong or water pipe, this doesn't happen.

I remember reading an article about how this group did a study to see if water filtered out any tar or contaminants from cannabis. The only interesting result they found was written above, because it turns out that with bongs, the removal of tars and contaminants was only slightly better than using a pipe.

Short answer, smoke out of a bong if you fear this happening.

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MrMikesName

I smoke A LOT of ganja and I never get sick. When I say smoke, though, I mean 90% vaporizer and 10% bowls/joints/blunts. I was the sole survivor when my workplace was assaulted by the flu. Also, I've noticed that right after I smoke a joint/blunt is the ONLY time I ever end up with upper respiratory infections.

Cosmic_Smoke

Its not the actual drug that damages your immune system, its the fact that your inhaling smoke. It doesn't do permanent damage, but the smoke can damage your airway and you wont be able to filter out bacteria and viruses as well. Of course that can be overcome by using a bong, bubbler, or vaporizer, even a dry pipe cools the smoke enough so that it does little damage.

SenorSmokesALot

I've heard from a few sources that your immune system becomes suppressed when you smoke but a mutivitamin can counteract it I'm sure.