Contributor: Missy Matheny
The media has been promoting a new illness that has supposedly been recently discovered. There is no real data on the prevalence of this new illness, but there is a list of symptoms, along with a couple faulty studies, leading to the discovery of what has been dubbed: Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome.
What is CHS?
Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, or CHS, is an illness that has been related to heavy, long-term, marijuana users. It is characterized as repeated severe bouts of vomiting (Source: Cedars-sinai.org). The theory is that some of the substances in cannabis bind to the digestive tract, changing how heavy marijuana users digest food.
A Detailed Look At The Phenomenon Known As “Cannabis Sickness”
This is only one theory, and it’s based on faulty science, in a group study of just nine people, where the long-term outcomes of those in the study is unknown. The only thing the medical community can agree on with CHS, is the repeated bouts of severe vomiting that comes and goes, and since there is already a clinical vomiting syndrome that is recognized in medicine, defining the difference between it and CHS can be difficult (Source:ncbi.nim.nih.gov). And most cases of CHS are thought to be misdiagnosed as clinical vomiting syndrome.
The Symptoms
Besides bouts of severe vomiting, there are other symptoms that were present in some of the cases thought to be CHS. Those include:
- Abdominal pain and/or discomfort
- A fear of vomiting
- Early morning nausea
- Labs that show inconclusive results
- Some patients only find relief through taking repeated very hot showers (or baths)
These bouts usually only last a few days, with symptoms disappearing after that, followed by patients going into a recovery phase (Source: ncbi.nim.nih.gov). The biggest concern with these symptoms is dehydration. The human body will shut down, and kidney failure (and death) are possible from dehydration.
Treatment
Hot showers are very common among patients believed to have CHS, and Caspian cream seems to offer some patients relief from the abdominal discomfort that is sometimes associated with CHS. The only real treatment offered, however, is to completely abstain from using marijuana entirely. This is where the studies done on CHS are lacking in information.
Faulty Science Leads to the Discovery of CHS
The original discovery of CHS happened in 2004, in Australia, with a group of nine people, all showcasing symptoms of severe repeated bouts of vomiting, and all were heavy cannabis users (Source: ncbi.nim.nih.gov). All nine patients, at least briefly, stopped using marijuana, and seven of those patients saw at least a brief end to their symptoms.
The study then declared they had discovered a new illness related directly to heavy marijuana use. There are no follow-up studies on the long-term prognosis of the original patients, or any discussion on the two patients that did not get better after stopping their cannabis use. Only a declaration of the new illness.
In 2004, South Australia was leading the world with its more liberal views towards marijuana use, and any negatives of the newly-reformed cannabis laws that have been slowing taking hold across the world, were snatched up by the media and put forth as fact. The problem is, like with most things that are believed to be facts about the marijuana plant and its effects, information is limited – at best.
The reason why? The studies just haven’t been done. As long as the federal government continues to classify cannabis as a Schedule One drug, officially “declaring” it has no medical value, no real research on the marijuana plant can be done (Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov).
This leads to complications with declaring the existence of a newly-discovered illness. There are only limited documented studies available, including the one of nine people that discovered the illness, several individual case studies, and another other study done by the Mayo clinic.
This study was done in 2012, and out of over 1500 hundred patients believed to have the illness, the clinic only found 98 total subjects for the study. In this study, there were major problems, including relying on patients to self-report information, and only having follow-up data on 10% of the original 98 patients.
Of those ten people, seven reported completely stopping their marijuana use, and of those seven patients, six reported complete resolution of their symptoms (Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). There is also the problem with bias. This study was conducted, not with the idea of studying if the illness existed, but rather that it did, and it didn’t go into any other possible causes for the illness, including biological and genetic issues of the patients. They were only looking to see if they had a cure. And, with only ten patients reporting follow-up history out of 98 original subjects, any data from this study is automatically faulty.
Other studies rely on individual cases, where they, themselves, rely on self-reporting, or on articles written about CHS, or self-reporting questionnaires in clinics and emergency rooms (Source: Onlinelibrary.wiley.com). Unfortunately, until marijuana is reclassified, there will be no real, reliable studies done on anything related to marijuana, and this is a huge problem.
If there are possible illnesses related to marijuana use, no matter how rare they might be, then the general public should know. Having an informed choice is part of what the cannabis community promotes, with education about marijuana ( it’s benefits and risks), being paramount to the way the movement for legalization has been since its founding (Source: NORML.com).
Other Theories
Although marijuana has only recently become legal to use in some areas of the world, millions of people across the U.S., and millions more throughout the world, have been using marijuana. In fact, humans have been using cannabis for at least 2,500 years (Source: api.nationalgeographic.com). It is considered one of the most prevalent substances used around the world (Source: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). And, if marijuana is well documented to have been used for thousands of years by humans. This begs the question, why is CHS only now being discovered?
The first theory is misdiagnosis. However, with extremely limited information on CHS, and even less information on its possible prevalence in the population, this theory only carries weight if CHS is a newly-discovered illness.
With the legalization of medical cannabis in 1996 in California, followed by the legalization of recreational use in Colorado in 2012, there was a demand for marijuana on a legal market. To meet this demand, companies began cultivation on a massive, industrial scale. With this, came the downsides of large industrial farming, mainly in regards to pesticides and chemicals.
An article online discusses the possibility that cannabis grown with pesticides is affecting people in various ways. This isn’t a new idea in the least, with major companies, like Monsanto, losing lawsuits as recently as 2019, because they knew for decades that their chemicals caused major health problems in the general population, and did nothing to stop it (Source: NYTimes.com). With large companies now growing marijuana, and the history corporations have with public safety in the U.S., the idea that these same companies are risking the health of their customers to make a few bucks isn’t really a stretch in modern society.
Long-term Consequences
Any person who suffers from prolonged vomiting, be it from food poisoning, the flu, or any other illness, runs the risk of dehydration. If a person has severe vomiting for more than 4 hours, the person should be taken to a doctor. Complications from dehydration were the cause of death in both fatalities thought to be related to CHS (Source: Wikipedia.com). There was also a report of a person burning their skin while taking a hot shower, she was trying to get relief from the severe vomiting thought to be CHS.
More Studies Need to be Done
Marijuana is a very misunderstood plant. Government restrictions have almost completely halted any real research into the benefits and consequences of marijuana consumption. If CHS is a real illness, then research needs to be done as to what causes it, and if marijuana is causing the illness, the public needs to know that.
The studies that have been done on everything related to cannabis are limited and flawed, at best. Humans have been using marijuana as a medicine for thousands of years, so the idea that a new illness would suddenly appear related to using it seems somewhat unlikely. Even the flawed studies that have been done admit that CHS is extremely rare, with an estimated prevalence of less than a half of a percent of the general population in the U.S. possibly being affected by CHS.
Excess of Anything Can be Bad
Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome is attributed to heavy cannabis users. However, large amounts of anything foreign to the human body, especially over long periods of time, are usually detrimental. If a person drinks too much alcohol in one setting, they might vomit, or get alcohol poisoning. If the heavy drinking continues over time, the liver will shut down. But this is also true of things that are considered “good” for the body. Too much exercise can damage the body physically, and if continued, it can permanently injure the person, as well. The best idea would be to take everything in moderation.
