Vitamins, antioxidants and smoking marijuana

How to smoke your marijuana in the best possible way?

Ideally, you should always consume marijuana pure, ie without tobacco. If not, then you should try to use the best possible quality tobacco (100% additive-free, organic) and as little as possible. The rolling paper should contain no chlorine and be as thin as possible like the Greengo rolling papers .

A small sponge filter will retain some tar from combustion. Strains with the highest concentration of active ingredients (THC, CBD ...) should be promoted as we will use less plant material to obtain the desired effect.

Finally, a lighter filled with a gas containing no impurities will allow you to smoke without consuming gases every time you light the joint. These small improvements are important for our health, besides improving the quality of the flavour. For example, not a single conoisseur would ever light a good cigar with a fuel lighter!

What are free radicals and antioxidants?

Unfortunately, smoke produces numerous free radicals and unstable molecules that have one or more unpaired electrons, that is, they need to recover electrons on other molecules to be stabilized, thus creating new radicals. This chain reaction can be stopped only by the well-known antioxidants.

Each puff on a cigarette produces about a million billion free radicals; an effective way to limit the damage of smoke on the respiratory system and overall health is to consume a minimum of antioxidants on a daily basis to limit these damage.

Free radicals damage cells in our body, including its genetic material ( DNA), and are thus responsible for cell aging. There are some natural mechanisms that repair this damage, but these are also encoded within the DNA and may be damaged aswell, which may lead to the onset of degenerative diseases such as cancer.

What nutritional supplements do marijuana smokers need?

Antioxidants have the particularity to deactivate free radicals, thus making them totally harmless. Some antioxidants can simply be found in food, while others are more easily taken in the form of food supplements. The following are such examples:

• Vitamin C, soluble in water, to be released between morning and evening, or to use in slow release form. Our body eliminates this vitamin very quickly. In fact, most mammals are able to synthesise their own vitamin C, but humans are the victims of an ancient genetic accident (40 million years ago), which prevents us from synthesising our vitamin C as cats or dogs do (why don’t they get colds or flu in winter?), hence we should include it in our food every day . It is better to choose the natural form as it contains cofactors that enhance their effectiveness - such as bioflavonoids from citrus - as opposed to effervescent forms which should be avoided.

• Recommended dosage = 1000 to 2000 mg / day.

• Vitamin E, a fat-soluble, creates synergy with vitamin C (they recycle each other). A dosage of vitamin E - which unfortunately is not in the daily diet - ensures good protection, so we should take supplements. The natural form is more efficient

  

  Antoixidants synergythan the synthetic one, and contains the eight known types of tocopherols and tocotrienols (Gamma is the most effective way to protect against cancer). Recommended dosage = 200 to 400mg/day.

• N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC), this sulfonic acid is a precursor of glutathione, one of the most powerful antioxidants in the body. In fact, the mucus that protects the respiratory system is mainly made up of this amino acid, which is also the basis of many cough medicines (Exomuc, Mucomyst ...) Recommended dosage = about 500mg/day.

• Carotenoids: this family of fat-soluble antioxidants is very important. In fact, vitamin E only protects the upper fat layer, while carotenoids protect all lower layers. In this family there is alpha and beta carotene (carrot orange), but also lycopene (tomato red...), lutein (yellow corn...), astaxanthin (pink shrimp,...), the cryptoxanthin... As far as we know today, there are over 600 known carotenoids, some of which can be converted into vitamin A (retinol) by the body if necessary. In food supplements the best carotenoids are grouped as a complex.

  

Some minerals are also especially antioxidant, such as selenium (100 to 200 micrograms / day), but also zinc (15 to 30 mg

/ day) and magnesium (about 400mg/day). We can also mention the examples of antioxidant molecules that are easily found in the form of food supplements: alpha lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10 (Ubiquinol), pycnogenol (extract from the bark of maritime pine), romarinic acid or the large family of flavonoids (polyphenols) ... Taking a multivitamin complex at each meal will also be very beneficial (vitamins B1 to B12, D ...).

These multivitamin products also contain vitamins C, E and carotenoids, but their effectiveness is generally insufficient to ensure optimal protection against damage from smoke.

Which foods and drinks are richest in antioxidants?

Some foods (or drinks) also have potent antioxidant properties and can be easily consumed in everyday meals:

Green tea and green tea extracts (EGCG). The best form is a green tea powder called matcha from Japan, which is 130 times more antioxidant than ordinary green tea. Replacing the daily black coffee with green tea would be an excellent step forward for your health. Like marijuana, green tea deserves much more recognition.

Turmeric is an Indian spice with very potent anti-inflammatory, anti-carcinogenic and anti-oxidant properties (these three properties are generally associated). Its main antioxidant is curcumin, which gives it a gorgeous dazzling

yellow colour. This spice is used in many dishes and can be easily included in every day use, along with salt and pepper.

Pommegranate juice, cranberry and all other red fruits ... Pomegranate was the subject of numerous recent studies for its amazing anti-cancer properties and could be the most antioxidant fruit in the world.

• Black chocolate (at least 70% cocoa). Cocoa contains many powerful antioxidants, but avoid milk chocolate because that, unfortunately, substantially eliminates the assimilation of these antioxidants.

• The cabbage family, like broccoli for example. Cruciferous vegetables effectively contain numerous antioxidants containing sulforaphanes that have potent anticancer properties. Broccoli shoots contain, for example, a large proportion of them and are very easy to prepare and add to salads.

  

• Red wine contains many antioxidants (resveratrol ...), mainly from the skin and seeds of grapes. The most antioxidant wines are younger wines and from cooler regions, such as Pinot Noir. Obviously, you should always drink in moderation! (1-2 glasses per day). Fruits and vegetables are an excellent natural source of antioxidants, and it is advised to consume them as much as possible each day (preferably organic). Trying to have a wide variety of natural colours in your food will be an easy and pleasant way to ensure a good intake of antioxidants.

A very important fact is that antioxidants are always much more effective when taken together rather than separately,

because they act in synergy to recycle each other. Ingesting large amounts of a single type of antioxidants does not give good results. When one has neutralized a free radical, in fact, another type of antioxidant is needed to recycle it.

By diversifying your intake of antioxidants as much as possible, you will help your body to protect itself naturally from smoke-related damage. Finally, you should always think about drinking lots of water, because smoke greatly increases dehydration of cells. Choose water that is as rich as possible in Magnesium.

Dietary advices in this guide are obviously for nonsmokers as well.