Can Cannabis Help Your Cold or Flu Symptoms?

Your throat is sore, your body’s aching like crazy, and you’re just plain exhausted. You’ve got a cold— or, worse, maybe even the flu! There are a lot of home remedies out there that can help you feel a bit better while your immune system works hard to beat that nasty cold or flu. Everybody knows that tea, soup, lozenges, and certain over-the-counter medications can help ease those awful symptoms during cold and flu season. But there’s another remedy that may be able to help your cold and flu symptoms: cannabis.

Wondering how cannabis can help you feel better when you have a cold or flu? Read on to see our top tips on using cannabis to ease your cold or flu symptoms, complete with recommendations for cannabis products that may help ease symptoms like a sore throat, body aches, and clogged sinuses.

Medicinal vs. Recreational Use: Yes to Cannabis, No to Smoking

The key to using cannabis to ease illness symptoms is to use it strategically. If you’ve used cannabis before, you probably know that the cannabinoids in marijuana can help relieve pain, help you relax, and help with nausea. But if you’re sick, you don’t want to use cannabis in the exact same ways you might if you were well. For example, many people enjoy smoking weed recreationally. But we generally recommend that you stay away from smoking when you’re sick and that you opt for another way of consuming cannabis.

Why stay away from smoking when you’re sick? Any kind of smoke can be very irritating to your respiratory system, including cannabis smoke. And when you’re sick, your respiratory system may already be going through a lot, so you don’t want to further irritate it with smoke. If you already have a runny nose, a stuffy nose, a sore throat, a cough, sneezing, phlegm, or painful sinus pressure, you don’t want to add insult to injury by adding smoke to the equation.

Luckily for those who still want to consume cannabis while they’re sick, there are plenty of other ways to take cannabis that don’t involve smoking weed. You can try a cannabis edible, a cannabis tincture, a cannabis topical, or a cannabis vape to get a dose of cannabis without lighting up a joint or hitting a bong.

Cannabis and Soothing Cold or Flu Symptoms

So, there are plenty of cannabis products you can take if you want to ease symptoms of a flu or cold. But how exactly can marijuana use help with illness symptoms?

First, we want to say that you should always consult with a doctor before using cannabis products to treat any type of medical condition. We all react to cannabis differently, so you want to make sure that cannabis doesn’t negatively interact with any other medications you’re taking. With that said, we’ll share some ways our customers have used cannabis to soothe cold or flu symptoms!

How to Use Cannabis to Ease Symptoms

Lessen Pain: A cold, flu, or other type of viral infection can cause many different types of pain, like throat pain, sinus pain, and body aches. Cannabis can help reduce acute or chronic pain symptoms, helping you deal with acute pain while your immune system works hard to recover when you’re sick.
Reduce Nausea: Many medical cannabis users use cannabis to help fight nausea. And as these patients know, cannabis is great at alleviating many types of nausea. Reducing nausea can help you feel less miserable when you’re sick, as well as help you eat and drink water so your body has what it needs to fight your illness.
Get Some Rest: If you’ve had a bad cold or flu, you know that it can keep you up at night. Being sick can be just plain miserable and, even if you’re exhausted, sometimes the pains, body aches, and nausea that come with an illness can keep you up at night. But cannabis can help you relax (both mentally and physically) and soothe troublesome flu or cold symptoms, helping you drift off and get some much needed sleep.
Ease Inflammation: When we’re sick, inflammation plays a role in a number of nasty symptoms, like sore throats, swollen nasal passageways, and fevers. But there is some scientific research that suggests cannabis has anti-inflammatory properties, which could give your body a much-needed boost when you’re experiencing inflammation.

Our Recommendations: The Best Cannabis Products to Ease Cold and Flu Symptoms

Now that you know what types of symptoms cannabis can soothe, let’s get into our specific product recommendations! Below, we’ll highlight our five favorite types of products for easing cold and flu symptoms, then give some specific recommendations within each category.

1.- Cannabis Honey

Tea is a time-tested home remedy for the common cold or the flu. Drinking tea while you’re sick can help soothe your throat and sinuses, and help you stay hydrated. Then, opting for an herbal tea can give you some extra health benefits. Some great tea options when you’re sick include green tea, mint tea, chamomile tea, ginger tea, and echinacea tea.

While tea is a great cold or flu remedy on it’s own, you can amp up your tea with another remedy: cannabis honey, which can make any tea a cannabis tea. One of our favorite cannabis honeys is Cannabella THC Honey. The cannabinoids in this honey (which include tetrahydrocannabinol, aka THC) can help with pain relief and provide and anti-inflammatory boost. Then, Cannabella is also made with a high quality raw honey, which means it contains valuable vitamins, minerals, and enzymes. Cannabella TCH Honey contains about 10 mg of THC per teaspoon, so add this honey to your tea accordingly.

2.- Flower Strains

Sometimes, the aches, pain, congestion, and nausea from a cold/flu are more than you can handle. The following strains may help:

Connor’s Comfort – a 1:1 THC-CBD strain that might be ideal for daytime pain and anxiety relief.
Blue Frost – a 60-40 indica-sativa hybrid that can help with flu-related nausea and insomnia.
Strawberry Cough and Sour Diesel – these sativas can help treat nausea.
Black Afghan and White OG – both of these strains are heavy indicas that will put you into an intense state of relaxation and help you get some shut-eye.

Like we said earlier, if you’re going to use flower, we recommend vaping it instead of smoking it.

3.- CBD Edibles

Want to get the positive effects of cannabis but don’t want to experience THC’s psychoactive effects? Try a cannabidiol (CBD)-dominant edible product that can be used to treat pain and inflammation. Here are a couple of great CBD edible products that can give your endocannabinoid system a natural boost:

Highly Edible CBD Pucks (10:1 CBD-THC ratio). These gummies, in addition to tasting delicious, are so CBD heavy, there’s a good chance you won’t feel any THC-related effects.
Desert Grown Extracts CBD Capsules (50:2 CBD-THC ratio) – The amount of CBD in these capsules far exceeds what’s in the Highly Edible CBD Pucks, so if you’re experiencing severe pain, these might be the way to go.

4.- Topical Relief

Got achy joints and/or muscles? Target sore or tender areas with a topical cannabis product, like one of these excellent options:

Dixie Muscle Relief Lotion – Rub this is on the affected area for 30-60 seconds for relief.

Dixie Synergy Relief Balm – Contains a 1:1 THC-CBD ratio. Rub it into your muscles and joints. If you have sinus problems, you can try applying it to your face, as the aroma of this THC and CBD oil may help provide some additional relief.

5.- THC Bath Soak

A dip in a hot bath can do wonders for your aching muscles and clogged sinuses. Consider bumping up the power of your bath with a cannabis bath soak. One great option is the Dixie THC Bath Soak. In addition to THC, it also contains rosemary, lavender, and cedarwood (which all contain powerful aromatic terpenes) to help enhance your relaxation experience.

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If you’re interested in purchasing any of these products, visit the menu pages of our three locations:

Henderson

Tropicana West

Las Vegas Strip

Or you can text your order to us, and we’ll have it ready for you to pick up!

Remember, you should always consult with a doctor before using cannabis products to treat any type of medical condition.

Get well soon!