TB + MJ?

February 10, 2006 10:24 PM

A friend of mine got diagnosed with tuberculosis. The medication is making her fill ill all the time. Will marijuana help?

She was prescribed medication, and the health department (in Houston) is insisting on administering the drugs under their supervision. Though the prescription calls for taking the pills at 8-hour intervals, the health department is giving her the whole day's worth all at once. This makes her feel ill and unable to eat. She's under 90 lbs now. (She started abnormally thin, but dropped even more weight.)

I know that some people use marijuana to boost their appetite when taking some kinds of medicine. I don't know exactly what kinds of pills she's taking, but I understand TB treatment is fairly standard, so probably nearly everybody with TB takes the same thing.

So does anybody know if marijuana would be likely to help with the side effects of TB mediation?

posted by iconjack to health & fitness (23 comments total)

If the tuberculosis is in her lungs, I'm not so sure smoking anything is a good idea.
posted by pmbuko at 10:39 PM on February 10, 2006

If the tuberculosis is in her lungs, I'm not so sure smoking anything is a good idea.

Agreed, but there are plenty of other ways to ingest marijuana.

It seems like some marijuana butter would be a worthwhile experiment. The worst case scenario (assuming you know how to procure it) is that she's one of the people who gets paranoid while high, and she has an unenjoyable day.
posted by I Love Tacos at 10:58 PM on February 10, 2006

IANAD. I have to stongly agree with pmbuko. Tuberculosis is a disease of the lungs, with, not to be gross, pus actually forming in the lungs. It would not be advisable for your friend to smoke anything. You have to remember that Tuberculosis is a very serious disease. While most people in developed nations don't die of it now, (in fact, it's quite rare to even get it nowadays, curious as to how she was exposed to it), it still can kill you if not treated with care. If she's having troubles with nausea, she should discuss it with the doctor. There are several very good anti-nausea medications (some are even OTC) available and they could possibly recommend something. It could also be helped with diet, by choosing to eat only very bland foods that are easy on the stomach. Ever heard of the BRAT diet? It's commonly prescribed by doctors who have patients experiencing nausea whether due to medication or illness. Basically, you just eat nothing except bananas, rice, apple juice, and toast. It does help.
posted by katyggls at 11:01 PM on February 10, 2006

Basically, you just eat nothing except bananas

Wha? My friend has TB and was told to avoid potasium. Aren't bananas rich in potasium?
posted by Manhasset at 11:13 PM on February 10, 2006

katyggls: TB is making a bit of a comeback because some people no longer automatically vaccinate their kids. Thanks, anti-vaccinators! You've been a great help!

iconjack: If your friend is feeling nauseous, a little mj would probably help with that. I don't know exactly what feeling "ill" constitutes, but marijuana does seem to help people specifically with nausea.

Remember that there may be legal issues as well, depending on location. Whether it is worth the risk is up to your friend.
posted by Justinian at 11:14 PM on February 10, 2006

That seems like a really strange question. I've never had TB and I've only smoked pot a few times, so really I have no idea from personal experience.

I agree that smoking something while you have have a lung illness could be bad -- I really have no idea, it would be better to try injesting it.

It might make her more comfortable, though if she were to eat special brownies or something. Not only will it help with the nausia, she'll also be High.
posted by delmoi at 11:28 PM on February 10, 2006

AFAIK there is no vaccine for TB, which is bacterial. The problems with taking large doses of antibiotics are that it kills the gut flora you need to digest food easily and well. I had the same problems when I had Lyme disease and I suggest trying probiotics and live culture yogurts and avoiding spices, rice, beans, salty food, fatty food and raw fruit or veggies as they are harder to digest. Baby food is good, or anything that you might prepare for young children.

Pot might stimulate the appetite but it won't fix the underlying problem.
posted by fshgrl at 11:29 PM on February 10, 2006

Justinian, as much as I dislike parents who think they can skate by on herd immunity and not vaccinate their kids, TB isn't part of the childhood vaccination schedule in the US.

It's making a comeback because those most commonly afflicted (drug users, etc) don't live the most regular lives and often don't take a full course of medication, which has led to the development of drug resistant strains. This has forced a stricter public health regime, which is probably why iconjack's friend has to take the meds under heath department monitoring.

I wish I had some ideas to help with the nausea, besides taking it up with her doctor.
posted by Good Brain at 11:30 PM on February 10, 2006

"AFAIK there is no vaccine for TB, which is bacterial."

Yes there is a vaccine. I had it at 13 years old as did every other New Zealander my age. Bacterial has nothing to do with it - you can be vaccinated against any microorganism which your body can form antibodies for. This is not an answer to the OP, but bullshit needs to be contradicted.

(We stopped the TB vaccination programme a decade or two ago, but now that we have a substantional immigrant population from places where it's common, I suspect we might be reintroducing it before long).
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 11:59 PM on February 10, 2006

Woah nelly!

She was prescribed medication, and the health department (in Houston) is insisting on administering the drugs under their supervision.

This is often standard practice. It's known at DOT (direct observation therapy), and recommended and practiced by health departments because of the risk of deveoping multi-drug resistant TB, as TB is very contagious and infectious.

Tuberculosis is a disease of the lungs

Actually, TB can go pretty much anywhere. It's more common in the lungs, but especially in HIV patients, can be anywhere.

TB is making a bit of a comeback because some people no longer automatically vaccinate their kids.

Anti-vaccinators can be blamed for some recurrences, but not TB. Few if any people in the US (adults or children) are vaccinated against TB with the TB vaccine, known as BCG, because of the vaccine's low efficacy and the relatively low prevalence in the US. In other countries where prevalence is higher, the vaccine is often standard of care.

Your friend should really see a doctor about her nausea, or talk with the public health dept that's administering the doses. There are plenty of legal anti-nausea meds out there as well.
posted by gramcracker at 12:01 AM on February 11, 2006

This may be pertinent: Was she diagnosed with active TB or is she just carrying it? Active TB (versus just testing positive) is a whole different ballgame.

Also, gramcracker has it.
posted by drumcorpse at 12:11 AM on February 11, 2006

mj is probably a bad idea since smoking it might cause more problems, as far as eating it goes, how's she going to ingest a pot brownie if she can't stomach a regular brownie?

I also suggest she speak to her doctor. In the short term, have her pick up a bottle of emetrol at the drug store. It's an anti-nausea friend to tons of pregnant women with morning sickness. Also ginger is great for nausea. Drinking ginger tea or sucking on some crystallized ginger (or maybe even ginger altoids?) might help, too.
posted by necessitas at 8:01 AM on February 11, 2006

Marijuana can also be taken as a tea, or extracted into oil or butter and used in cooking other things besides brownies.

A little tea might be just the thing for nausea and lack of appetite.
posted by ottereroticist at 8:30 AM on February 11, 2006

Has your friend asked her doctor about anti-nausea medication? I'd go that route before adding uncontrolled substances to her daily cocktail.

There is a vaccine for TB, but many developed nations no longer routinely give it to children. Here in Canada, they only vaccinate infants from high risk groups. According to Immune.org.nz, even New Zealand -- which apparently still has major rates of infection -- only vaccinates high risk groups.
posted by acoutu at 8:35 AM on February 11, 2006

Echoing the sentiment about tea and brownies, although you've probably gotten that by now.

Would I reccommend pot? Hard to say since I don't know your friend. They might get paranoid and hate it. Lots of people can't stand pot.

However, if your friend likes pot, it may help them. I've found that when I'm sick, pot is a great "distractor," i.e. I still feel sick, but I don't notice it as much. If nothing else, it will make them happier, and they won't mind sitting around a bunch whilst they wait to recover.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:46 AM on February 11, 2006

Also, in lieu of the mj "smoke" problem, get yourself a volcanco vaporizer. Pricey, but simply divine.
posted by AllesKlar at 10:42 AM on February 11, 2006

If you go the tea route make sure to add some sort of fat (butter?) to the tea as it boils/steeps as the THC needs a fat to extract to. A better idea might be to make a strong "cannabutter" for your friend to spread on something she can eat - perhaps half an English muffin, or a small bread ball? I believe there are Hot Pot Chocolate recipies out there too, if chocolate is still at all tasty to your friend.
posted by jtron at 11:20 AM on February 11, 2006

Why spend out of pocket on pot or teas when there are dissolve under the tongue, nearly instant relief inducing meds for nausea, which your state will likely pay for if you're already qualifying for state care?
posted by onegreeneye at 12:30 PM on February 11, 2006

Indeed. If you're not smoking pot, there's little reason to use pot instead of anti-nausea medications. One of the tricks about why some people find pot more efficacious is because it's absorbed in the lungs much more rapidly than ingestion. But if it's going to be absorbed through ingestion anyhow, you're better off taking a stronger anti-nausea pill. There are even pills that contain derivatives of THC (they're approved for use in Canada, I don't know about their status in America). Something along those lines might help your friend out more than a joint.
posted by Pseudoephedrine at 12:44 PM on February 11, 2006

A friend of mine who had terrible asthma used to extract the pot into a little oil (heat the oil and a little leaf in a spoon) and add it to a yoghurt drink, a pretty small amount (less than half a teaspoon) was enough to get her giggly.

There are, of course, other less illegal herbal remedies for nausea - a herbalist or homeopath might be able to help out (I'm thinking nux vomica, though I don't know much about this stuff, and am sceptical at the best of times). The bonus of that would be that your friend could get advice from her doctors on whether it might interfere with her existing medication, without worrying that she could get in trouble with the law).
posted by featherboa at 3:43 PM on February 11, 2006

The anti-TB medications can have serious side-effects when taken as prescribed, including death from fulminant hepatic failure in the case of isoniazid.

Your friend needs to make the prescribing physician aware of the side effects she's having. Your friend needs to not dick around trying to mask those side effects with street drugs.

Hope this helps.
posted by ikkyu2 at 7:08 PM on February 11, 2006

Also, the recrudescence of TB and the so-called vaccine, called bacille Calmette-Guerin (bCG for short), make a more complex story than any of the posters to this thread are making it out to be.

TB's comeback has to do in part with the ascendance of AIDS; people infected with AIDS can harbor the bacterium and be asymptomatic reservoirs in the populace.

TB's comeback has also to do with aspects of urban life in the last couple of decades. Part of this happened in the U.S., when deinstitutionalization and economic policies created a large homeless urban population that was affected with many health problems, including alcoholism, which is TB's friend.

The other part of it happened in the developing world, where megacities like Bombay and Calcutta sprang up, with tens of millions of people crammed into relatively small places where modern health care couldn't cover them all. This sort of environment is excellent for the airborne transmission of bugs like T.B. Since such developing world cities tend to have large public hospitals, people could (and did) go to hospital to receive incomplete courses of antibiotics - enough to stabilize the patient and let them go home from the hospital with drug-resistant tubercle bacillus still infecting their lungs.

bCG is used in some developed countries with a fairly low prevalence of TB; its 88% (or thereabouts) protection rate is adequate, or thought possibly adequate, to prevent sporadic cases of T.B. from turning into full-fledged city-killing outbreaks.

However, bCG also turns the skin test for TB (tine test or, more lately, PPD test) positive. In areas of higher TB prevalence, screening and prophylactic treatment for screen-positive individuals is felt to be a more effective strategy in preventing epidemics. The trouble with bCG is that it renders it impossible to screen for TB infection, because it turns the skin test positive (false positive). The other trouble with bCG, as pointed out, is that 1 out of 8 people who receive it are still in danger of contracting active TB, because it is not a perfect vaccine. In a higher-prevalence area, those 12% would be at risk and there would be no strategy to catch them before they progressed to active (contagious) infection. This would result in outbreaks and great human suffering.

Each of these issues is complex, and highly politically and economically charged. It's not fair to lay the blame for this on any person or ideology; if you're going to blame something, blame the nasty, slippery bacteria that cause tuberculosis.
posted by ikkyu2 at 7:21 PM on February 11, 2006

I'd love to refer you to Overgrow, which had a knowledgable medical users community, fellows who took it seriously enough to develop methods of titrating the dose, such that one could get the beneficial naseau reduction, appetite boost without the psychological challenges of being stoned.

Alas, our stupid asses in the RCMP and/or government shut it down.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:39 PM on February 11, 2006