How it really is never too late to stop: Snoop Dogg quitting smoking at 52 can expect a higher IQ and better memory
Rap megastar Snoop Dogg, a long-time marijuana enthusiast, shocked the public with his announcement that he would quit smoking the drug.
Snoop, who reportedly had a dedicated member of his team roll between 75 and 150 joints a day for him, cited the need to put his health first in order to be a better grandfather.
His love for the drug has translated into a variety of business ventures, including a media company and a venture capital firm that funds cannabis startups.
Quitting smoking, especially after decades of continuous use, as in Snoop’s case, has a range of promising health benefits, including increased energy and concentration, better memory and higher IQ, and healthier respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
Whether Snoop will also give up marijuana in other forms, such as edibles and vapes, remains unknown, but it will likely cause withdrawal symptoms including anxiety, irritability and restlessness.
Snoop Dogg says he’s quitting smoking – after it was once claimed the cannabis-loving rapper rolled 75-150 joints for him every 24 hours
‘The end of an era’: Fans quickly reacted with shock on Twitter when they heard the news
“I’m quitting smoking,” the rapper – born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. – claimed. – in a social media post.
It continued: ‘After much discussion with my family, I have decided to quit smoking. Please respect my privacy at this time.”
However, the audience was skeptical, wondering if he was serious and would stick to the resolution, or if it was serious at all.
Snoop has said in the past that marijuana boosts his creativity and helps him produce award-winning music. But his constant use comes at some major cost to his health.
Smoking involves inhaling a mixture of toxins and chemicals. Marijuana smoke has even been shown to contain it some of the same toxinsirritants and carcinogens such as tobacco smoke.
Because marijuana smokers tend to inhale more strongly and retain the smoke longer, this leads to greater exposure per breath to chemicals.
A 2013 report in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society Because smoke causes ‘visible and microscopic damage’ to the lungs, there is a consistently higher risk of developing chronic bronchitis.
Another study published in the Expert review of respiratory medicine In 2011, it was reported that chronic marijuana use damages the cells that line the large airways, which researchers say could explain why smoking can cause chronic coughing, mucus production, wheezing and severe bronchitis.
And in 2015, researchers reported in the European Respiratory Journal the symptoms most strongly linked to cannabis were coughing and a build-up of mucus.
These two symptoms also showed the greatest declines among people who stopped frequent smoking.
Those who frequently stopped using cannabis did not have a higher prevalence of cough or phlegm than non-users, while frequent cannabis use was associated with an increase in these symptoms
Only one study has looked at the impact of changing cannabis use and repairing damage to the lung system.
That study, conducted by researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, reported symptoms of bronchitis improves after someone stops smoking.
Smoking weed, especially on a daily basis, can negatively impact cognitive function in the long term and people can develop brain fog, as well as learning and attention problems
In March, Snoop told DailyMail.com that his personal use came under scrutiny after eldest child Cordé became father to son Zion in 2015.
“Being a grandfather has changed me in many ways,” he said.
He added: “The most important way is to be concerned about how I live, how I move, the kind of people I interact with, because I want to see my grandchildren grow old. The only way I can do that is to take precautions in terms of how I move, who I hang out with, where I go out, my intake, what do I take in?’
Smoking marijuana, especially on a daily basis, can also negatively impact cognitive function in the long term and people may develop brain fog and learning and attention problems.
Marijuana has also been shown to impair cognitive functions on a number of levels – from basic motor coordination to more complex executive tasks, such as the ability to plan, organize, problem solve, make decisions, remember and control emotions and behavior ‘. , according to a 2011 report in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.
Meanwhile, a recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry examined more than 1,000 New Zealanders born in the 1970s and followed until age 45, assessing their cannabis use at ages 18, 21, 26, 32, 38 and 45.
Researchers also took measurements of their IQ during childhood and again at age 45.
Long-term cannabis use has been shown to cause a 5.5 point drop in people’s IQ, as well as reduced learning and processing speed and memory problems.
The question remains whether that lost cognitive ability can be restored.
An Australian researcher said in 1995 Results from a study of long-term cannabis users suggested partial recovery of functioning, but the past duration of cannabis use continued to have a negative effect on the ability to effectively reject complex irrelevant information.
‘There was no evidence of improvement as the duration of abstinence increased.’
A 2018 study from Massachusetts General Hospital was more steadfast in his findings.
Researchers there enrolled 88 participants aged 16 to 25 from the Boston area, all of whom acknowledged using cannabis at least once a week. Researchers compared the weekly cognitive performance of a group of young users who agreed to quit for 30 days and a group who continued to use cannabis.
Cognitive tests showed that memory – specifically the ability to learn and remember new information – improved in the participants who stopped using cannabis, and this improvement occurred largely during the first week of abstinence.