,
Bees are singing. Birds are buzzing. The world is waking up like a slow and angry teenager. It’s spring in New Mexico, and that means allergy season is here.
Allergies are the result of an overactive immune response to a benign element in the environment. When an allergen like pollen or pet dander triggers the response, the body produces antibodies that bind to a type of white blood cell known as a mast cell. When enough of these antibodies are produced, they force the mast cells to release histamines and cytokines. The histamines and cytokines cause itchy eyes and runny noses as a means to force the perceived invader out.
The Good News
While most of it is anecdotal, there is some evidence that weed can help with allergy symptoms like these.
There haven’t been a ton of studies examining marijuana as a specific allergy treatment, but the drug has been shown to reduce histamine and cytokine production and its anti-inflammatory properties are well-known.
Weed has also been shown to help treat asthma attacks by opening the body’s airways, making breathing easier—an issue that many who suffer from allergies endure. It can also suppress the immune system, weakening the inappropriate immune response.
Certain terpenes found in weed may also help. Terpenes are chemicals found in many plants and fruit, including cannabis, which produce scents and flavors. These chemicals are also known to have various therapeutic effects. The terpenes limonene, linalool, terpinolene and borneol have all been associated with anti-inflammatory and immune-regulating effects.
When it comes to skin allergies, there has been some research on the subject. Scientists from the University of Bonn in Germany accidentally found that THC had an anti-inflammatory effect while conducting a brain study on mice in 2007.
As part of a study published in the journal Science, researchers created mutant mice that were missing two proteins that respond to THC and the equivalent endocannabinoid produced by the body.
After a while, the mice began scratching at the metal tags the scientists used to identify them, causing skin irritation and sores. The mice that still had their cannabinoid-recognizing proteins didn’t have the same reaction.
When the scientists switched tag brands, the sores went away and the mice stopped scratching. The researchers looked into it and realized that the first set of tags contained nickel while the second set was made of non-allergic brass. This meant that the genetically-modified mice were allergic to nickel while the unmodified mice were not.
The researchers had discovered that endogenous THC played some role in preventing allergic reactions.
To test the theory out, the researchers applied THC externally to the skin of some of the mice before exposing them to a chemical that’s known to cause an allergic response on the skin. The mice that were treated with THC had a diminished allergic response, with about 50 percent less swelling, compared to the control group.
In 2013, a study published in the journal Allergy found similar results when researchers tested topically applied THC on mice suffering from allergic contact dermatitis. The THC reduced swelling even in mice that were engineered to have a cannabinoid receptor deficiency (meaning it was harder for their bodies to process THC).
And if THC has this powerful of an effect when used topically, it likely has a similar effect when used internally, meaning weed treatments for inflammation and allergic responses is more than a hopeful theory.
This is all good news, but weed still won’t completely cure your allergies—just help make symptoms more bearable. And there are a few caveats.
The Bad News
One big problem with using weed to treat allergies is that smoking or vaping can actually irritate the throat and nose, possibly making allergic reactions even worse.
And some people are actually allergic to weed itself—no matter what time of year. Symptoms of cannabis allergies are similar to hay fever: Runny nose, itchy eyes, congestion, sneezing and sinus pressure. According to a 2015 paper published in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, these are reactions to cannabis pollen.
And before you ask, red eyes and coughing are normal reactions to weed and not a sign that you have an allergy.
In extremely rare cases, cross-reactivity with other allergens can occur. Proteins from marijuana plants can sometimes resemble those of an allergen to certain immune systems. When that happens, those immune systems will react to the proteins the same way that they would if they were allergens.
People who are allergic to foods like almonds, chestnuts, hazelnuts, apples, bananas, eggplant, grapefruit, peaches and tomatoes or suffer from hay fever may encounter this problem.
But before you start panicking, this reaction is incredibly rare.
Meanwhile, there’s an even rarer condition called cannabis hyperemesis, which is associated with excessive vomiting and persistent nausea from heavy weed use. While it’s not an allergic reaction (there’s no histamine response to a foreign invader), anyone who suffers from this awful condition has to stay away from weed or risk severe pain and discomfort.
For anyone with an honest-to-goodness weed allergy, one workaround is using as pure a hash oil as you can get your hands on. The negative reaction is a response to the plant proteins in weed smoke, and the process of making cannabis oil removes those proteins, leaving just the cannabinoids.
The Ugly News
So maybe weed can ease some of the woes of allergy season. The jury is still out. At the very least, it doesn’t look like it will hurt the vast majority of users, so you can get high on your pile of tissues while you ride out the sniffling, sneezing, stuffy head months.