Photo: Jeff Standley
Unlike other substances, smoking weed actually does make you cool. Literally. Don’t let yourself roast in your AC-deficient apartment, just get baked and you’ll find it helps you stay cool when you most need to. That’s right, getting high lowers your body temperature.
Did you know hot drinks cool you down and cold drinks heat you up? Some remedies for the heat don’t seem to make sense, but others, like cannabis, are downright unexpected. You read that right, hot drinks cool you down. The heat from a hot cup of tea or coffee activates special receptors on you tongue that detect heat. These TRPV1 receptors communicate with the rest of your body and activate a cooling response from the inside out. This cooling response lowers you body temperature more than the hot drink heats it up. In a similar way chili peppers also activate TRPV1 receptors and cause the same cooling response.
For this reason hot drinks must have become popular in tropical climates like India where people drink cup after cup of hot tea and eat some of the spiciest foods in the world. Guess what other substance is also quite popular in India: cannabis.
Cannabis seems to have a role in regulating body temperature by acting on the hypothalamus, though it may also influence body temperature by activating TRPV receptors in a similar way to chili peppers and hot drinks.
Lower body temperature has often been considered one of the “classic tetrad” effects of cannabis on mice, and similar effects have been observed in humans. Some research even indicates that THC, the active component of cannabis, may even prevent MDMA-induced neurotoxicity and hyperthermia. THC acts as a sort of neural antioxidant that protects against MDMA’s damaging action on the brain, as well as lowering the core body temperature, which helps prevent further injury to brain and the rest of the body.
If you’re feeling too hot the first thing you should do is drink some water, which should preferably be at room temperature. Cold water can actually cause a small rise in body temperature due to the work you body has to do to heat it up before assimilating it into the stomach and intestines.
Hot drinks cool your body but don’t drink them too hot; the World Health Organization has recently released a statement saying that very hot drinks (hotter than 149 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than most people drink them anyway) may cause esophageal cancer. Try some spicy food as well, it should cause you to sweat helping you beat the heat.
Last but not least, get baked. Do a few dabs, rip the bong, hit the vape or eat an edible. The higher you get, the cooler you’ll feel. Turn off the air conditioner to save your wallet, and the environment. All you need to do is get extra ripped; trust me, I think you’ll enjoy it, anyway.
Credits: Buds from Capital City Cannabis Company; photo by CannaBusinessWA’s Jeff Standley
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I can attest to this. At first, I did not connect the dots between cannabis intake and feeling cooler during hot weather. One day, voila!
It is no exaggeration to claim that this effect is also environmentally friendly simply because being able to lower the thermostat reduces energy consumption, not to mention lower monthly energy costs = more money available for cannabis!
Fuck man these edibles are saving me from sun poisoning as we speak. I was going to call an ambulance but this edible is bringing me back to life. I’m so grateful