Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome: It Might be Time for a Detox

Let’s be honest, unless you are growing your own weed, there is a high risk that toxic chemicals have contaminated your medical or recreational marijuana. High demand, little oversight, toxic fungicides, toxic miticides, and greed have created a situation that immediately needs to be addressed.

Several states have seen chronic marijuana users in emergency rooms complaining of abdominal pain and intense vomiting. This condition has been labeled as cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS). Hyperemesis means “prolonged vomiting”, while syndrome means “a condition characterized by a set of associated symptoms.”

Doctors have a theory that CHS happens occurs due to regular, long-term use of marijuana. But is it? The clue may be in the vomiting.

“Vomiting is a natural reflex that often occurs as a form of protection,” says Dr. Joe Mercola, in an article on his website. “In the event you consume something that is contaminated or poisonous, vomiting is your body’s way of getting rid of it.”

When we compare the doctors’ theories about chronic cannabis users and what vomiting indicates, it sounds like CHS is the body’s attempt to try and rid itself of something contaminated or poisonous. So, are cannabinoids in the marijuana (which are noted for being non-toxic) the problem, or is it something else tagging along for the ride?

“The most likely cause is that people using marijuana frequently and in high doses have changes in the receptors in their body, and those receptors become dysregulated in some way, and it starts causing pain,” says Dr. Kennon Heard. In other words, doctors have no idea why this is occurring. The condition is treated with hot showers and baths, but most medical professionals also suggest reducing or eliminating the intake of marijuana.

However, I disagree with this theory.

Missing from these scenarios is a trend that has seen a dramatic increase in liver disease in the human population. Broken agricultural methods have led to a dramatic decrease in calcium and sulfur in the food supply. With this, comes a subsequent inability to conjugate toxins in the phase one and phase two detox pathways. The liver is designed to bind toxins to compounds to neutralize them for elimination in the bowel.

It only can only do this if it has the necessary ingredients to perform this function. Over the years, calcium—one of the most important parts of the phase 1 detox functionality—has been drastically reduced in the world’s vegetable supply, and along with the advent of processed food, it has been almost eliminated from the modern human diet. This depletion of calcium coincides with an increase in liver disease.

With this insight in mind, CHS may be exacerbated by both the condition of an increased toxic load in commercially grown cannabis, with all its pesticide residue, and toxins in the food supply as well. Unable to be removed by a non-functioning liver, toxins overload the body and lead to vomiting.

There are two problems occurring here. The first is that the liver is unable to detox due to mineral malnutrition creating the inability of the liver to perform glucuronidation. Glucuronidation is the body’s major phase two detoxification pathways in which hormones, foreign substances, and toxic chemicals—especially pesticides—are made harmless and eliminated. Many of these chemicals are potential carcinogens.

The second problem is that some gut bacteria produce an enzyme called β-glucuronidase that destroys the bond of toxins conjugated out of a functioning liver while in the bowel, which allows the toxin to be re-absorbed through the intestinal wall back into the blood stream.

This means that even if the liver was working, β-glucuronidase prevents toxins from being eliminated. In a non-functioning liver, some toxins never get eliminated, which leads to toxic overload, which leads to vomiting. My theory is that it’s not the cannabis itself that causes a person to vomit, it’s the toxic chemicals used to grow weed, the chronic toxicity of the modern world, and the depleted nutritional content of our food supply.

In the late 1990s, Dr. Walazek, a polish doctor working on cancer treatments with calcium salts, found that a derivative of broccoli and apples can suppress the enzyme β-glucuronidase, calcium d-glucarate. This is a critical part of a larger solution to CHS.

The first step is to get the liver working again, which requires calcium and sulfur to get toxins in a molecularly bonded neutralized form for elimination. Growing plants with gypsum or added minerals, such as a multi mineral complex from ocean water raises the calcium and sulfur levels in the food. Eating this high-sulfur and high-calcium food is then the fastest and easiest way to get the liver detox pathways working.

Organically grown yellow onions (the ones that make you tear when you cut them) provide sulfur, and kale and spinach can provide calcium. The second step is to use the calcium d-glucarate to suppress the enzyme so you can start getting rid of stored toxins.

The suggested solution by the doctors show that they do not know these parts of the puzzle. They say to reduce or eliminate marijuana.

This may not be possible if you are using cannabis for medical reasons, but it will tend to reduce some levels of toxic accumulation. Experts also suggest taking hot baths, which may cause an increase in blood flow and elimination of toxins by the kidneys to bypass the liver to reduce toxic levels.

CHS is an important condition to resolve. While I can’t prescribe anything specific, I have never personally experienced this problem, even with years of chronic cannabis use, because I go on a course of calcium d-glucarate once a year—60 capsules of 200 milligrams each evening at bedtime and in the morning for 30 days.

Calcium d-glucarate is proven to get rid of pesticides, aromatic hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and agricultural chemicals. It also reduces reactive oxygen species because it prevents gut bacteria from producing the bond-cutting enzyme, allowing toxins sent out of the liver the leave the body. Calcium d-glucarate breaks down to glucaric acid.

Apples are one of the best sources of glucaric acid. Here’s another way to look at it—an apple a day keeps the oncologist away.