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To spit, or to swallow? That is the question

I post this question here because I'm deferring to those with more medical knowledge than me... Which isn't hard. Now, I don't need to see your medical degree, I just hope you're somewhat medically knowledgeable.



What I'm wondering is whether it's healthier to spit or swallow the phlegm I cough up after smoking. Are these thick salty loogies something my body is naturally rejecting for good reason, or am I spitting out the resin I just smoked, or the beneficial mucus I've heard our systems are lined with?



Instinctively, I spit when I cough, because I feel like if I swallow, I'll just cough it up again.



What do you med students think?
 

pumpkinpie eyes

Member
Veteran
when mucus risez from the lungz into the throat, the body is likely trying to remove it. Spitting it out is healthier than swallowing it. unless you have tb.
 

St. Phatty

Active member
about 40 years ago a comedian did his best Reagan impersonation at an SF nightclub, then started taking questions from the audience.

my brother yelled out, "does Nancy swallow ?"

the comedian went off on a tangent about the swallows (i.e. birds) of San Juan Capistrano.
 

star crash

We Will Get By ... We Will Survive
ICMag Donor
Veteran
I would think you would want to get rid of it ...your body just spent all that work trying to get it out ..
so spit it out ...
 

Babbabud

Bodhisattva of the Earth
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Just from the point of grossness who would want to swallow it ?
 

Koondense

Well-known member
Veteran
Most of the mucus gets swallowed actually, it's a way to recover the liquids of the body. However the "after smoke" mucus should be expelled via sputum. Possibly with elegance :)

Cheers
 

Bud Green

I dig dirt
Veteran
Most of the mucus gets swallowed actually, it's a way to recover the liquids of the body. However the "after smoke" mucus should be expelled via sputum. Possibly with elegance :)

Cheers

When you say "...with elegance.",
do you mean like the way I've practiced for over 50 years to spit a fat loogey at a chain-link fence, hoping to hit one of the wires and watch it spin around?

And if I'm lucky, watch it spin with such force that it stretches and catches another wire, and spins around that one...:biggrin:

PS.. by the way, in answer to the OP's question; spit it out one way or another...
it won't kill you to swallow it, but why put it back through your body for another cycle, this time through the digestive system?
It's not gonna get you higher by swallowing it...
..
 

star crash

We Will Get By ... We Will Survive
ICMag Donor
Veteran
When you say "...with elegance.",
do you mean like he way I've practiced for over 50 years to spit a fat loogey at a chain-link fence, hoping to hit one of the wires and watch it spin around?

And if I'm lucky, watch it spin with such force that it stretches and catches another wire, and spins around that one...:biggrin:

PS.. by the way, in answer to the OP's question; spit it out one way or another...
it won't kill you to swallow it, but why put it back through your body for another cycle, this time through the digestive system?
It's not gonna get you higher by swallowing it...
..
Actually Bud there are certain substances (Like ketamine for example ... >>> if it was a salt-based synthesis & extraction) which secretes themselves through the mucous membranes and you can actually get high off it again if you re-consume it...If you are in tune with your own body system and are inclined to do so...I don’t do it personally...but I have noticed that it can be done..
 

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
I love the feeling of hacking up some sticky crap from my lungs. Of course it gets spit out, hopefully onto the sink so I can evaluate what my lungs have rejected. No pinkish color, or bright green - good sign. Chunks of blackish tars and oil from smoking dope for decades, also good. Dust, pollen, dander come out also.

Vaping off the terps has allowed my lungs to loosen and reject that kind of crap, so now the spit is sticky and clear. Lungs feel lighter, if that makes sense.
 
Ha, thanks for the input fellas!



I try to be as elegant as possible with it, and have gotten pretty decent at discreetly getting it into a widemouth bottle from couch level lol


I do spit it out, and my lungs are probably thankful for it...I was just thinking "What if I'm just spitting out the hits I'm taking, wasting my herb?"



Ah, the thoughts that bounce around the stoned mind...
 

MindEater

Member
It doesn't go back into your airways when you swallow it. You guys know there's an air hole and a not-air hole right?

I bet all these spitters never blow their nose, they just suck their snot in, which is why you got shit coming up your throat, enough to spit out? That ain't normal.
 

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
The proper technique is to cause suction in your throat and suck the snot from your sinuses through the drain holes into the throat - then consolodate, and honk a loogie.

It's how we are made. Gets rid of dust and pollen.
 
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Douglas.Curtis

Autistic Diplomat in Training
I think you need cleaner cannabis, or fewer mucus producing foods in your diet? All it takes is one indoor run with high-micron air filtration. I've never seen anyone go back to growing coughy-cannabis as their preference.

Clean cannabis does not make you cough unless you're greedy and take too big of a hit. Should you be hacking up phlem after toking, your diet, environment or health issue is creating excess mucus.

Out of all the oils used in processing food these days, only a few are 'ok' for people to digest easily. Many of these seem to be loosened up or expelled when cannabis is used. How many of you have to blow your nose a few minutes after toking? Ever watch a happy, perky baby drink a bottle of cow's milk... and be snotty and crabby and whining 10 minutes later? Only the B blood type can handle dairy like a pro. ;)

Spit it out. lol
 

roybart

Member
Back in the day, one of the tokers we hung out with in Durban (South Africa) had COPD. In the old day everything was URTI, Asthma or Bronchitis. He could not walk 50 yards without getting out of breath. He was always last on the soapstone Chillum as he had a tendency to cough and not get the chillum out of the way in time. This created meteor shower of burning Durban Poison and sometimes a hot backstop was launched.
However the second go round with a reload, he was fine, he could walk at a slow pace when he was high. he said DP helped open up his lungs a bit.
We smoked weed from Malawi, Kenya and Swaziland he had the same result, so it was not DP specific.
@ Doug some weed makes my nose run, so you are saying its not the weed,its my diet? FYI I am hitting 70 and I dont recall getting a runny nose after smoking way back when???
 
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I think you need cleaner cannabis, or fewer mucus producing foods in your diet? All it takes is one indoor run with high-micron air filtration. I've never seen anyone go back to growing coughy-cannabis as their preference....


Cleaner? Possibly, but my girl used to suffer from CHS, so what goes in and on the plants is minimal to start. Nothing but a light-ish dose of Megacrop, pH down, and calcium hypochlorite pool shock for sterility. No sprays other than water if necessary either...
But I'll admit I haven't installed the Merv13 filters over the intake vents yet. I'll have to do that, and see how different it ends up!

I think my lungs are just sensitive, maybe greedy at times, after years of cigarettes and weed smoke. Thankfully I quit the cigs a little over a year ago, so they just have to deal with the weed now. Once I find a good edible recipe though, I'll be slowing down the puffing too.
 

flylowgethigh

Non-growing Lurker
ICMag Donor
Roybart, think about how nasty bongs and pipes get. That same oily smoke is coating the lungs. Terps are natural solvents and can loosen the stuff. Hot fresh solvents...

I notice that if I exhale some of the stuff I vape, out through my sinuses, I will sneeze.

Maybe the flowers do have dirt, because when I make butter from the ABV, the water is pretty darn nasty brownish.

As for dirt...Taking care of land, breathing pollen and dust... that is the reason I had N95 masks already. My dawgs and I track in a lot of dust, to where the vacuum fills 3 times in one session. My environment is always "dirty". And there is a lot ofmold around here. Spray ag is on 3 sides of my property, with whatever they are spraying.

Someone suggested putting one of these in-line on a whip:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000MT94OM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I used to have one of those on a car. They are not too big. 20 micron.
 
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aridbud

automeister
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Back in the day, one of the tokers we hung out with in Durban (South Africa) had COPD. In the old day everything was URTI, Asthma or Bronchitis. He could not walk 50 yards without getting out of breath. He was always last on the soapstone Chillum as he had a tendency to cough and not get the chillum out of the way in time. This created meteor shower of burning Durban Poison and sometimes a hot backstop was launched.
However the second go round with a reload, he was fine, he could walk at a slow pace when he was high. he said DP helped open up his lungs a bit.
We smoked weed from Malawi, Kenya and Swaziland he had the same result, so it was not DP specific.
@ Doug some weed makes my nose run, so you are saying its not the weed,its my diet? FYI I am hitting 70 and I dont recall getting a runny nose after smoking way back when???

Yikers! Soap stone??? It has asbestos in it. Used to make pipes with soap stone until I found out it contained asbestos.

https://juxtamorph.com/is-carving-soapstone-dangerous/
 
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