5 Benefits of Regular Tolerance Breaks

What are tolerance breaks, and why might it be a good idea to take one? Here are 5 benefits of taking regular tolerance breaks.

What is a Tolerance Break?

Put simply, taking a tolerance break is a temporary and deliberate hiatus on consuming a substance or medication. For cannabis consumers, taking breaks to allow our bodies to reset themselves to the cannabinoid THC.

Similar to eating spicy food (capsaicin) and taking OTC pain medication, your body builds up a tolerance to a substance. This is true for cannabis, but in a different way, of course. Cannabinoids like THC that we put in our bodies interact with the endocannabinoid system or the ECS. The ECS is a complex, dynamic and responsive system that knows when it feels overwhelmed with THC.

To compensate for feeling overwhelmed, our ECS’s essentially become desensitized. As such, we require an increased potency of cannabis, or more frequent consumption to feel the same effects. The more cannabis we frequently consume, the higher our tolerance gets, generally speaking.

Who Should Take a Tolerance Break?

Patients who need their cannabis medicine daily might not be able to take tolerance breaks. That’s a different discussion entirely, one that you should have with your doctor. If they can do so, taking a tolerance break can ease the brain fog that can accompany chronic cannabis consumption. For this article, we’re focusing on who should be taking one, and the benefits of doing so.

"The ECS is a complex, dynamic and responsive system that 'knows' when it feels overwhelmed with THC."

Building up a tolerance to anything depends on the substance, and especially - the individual consumer. Researchers have yet to fully grasp the way our bodies adapt to tolerance breaks. Brain images from regular cannabis consumers indicate a decreased number of THC receptors in the brain. In similar studies done on rats, males tend to develop tolerance breaks faster. But such studies have yet to be replicated in humans.

With this in mind, who should take a tolerance break? Anyone who wants to reap these five benefits.

1. Saving Money

It’s simple economics. When you buy fewer products, you can save more money. Buying enough cannabis to support a daily habit can get quite expensive, especially if you live in a state with high taxes. This isn’t even taking into account money spent on cannabis accessories like lighters, hemp wicks, rolling papers, snacks, and so on. This can add up, as we all know.

2. Feeling Effects Faster After Breaks

When we end our tolerance breaks, we can feel the effects of cannabis faster than when our tolerance was high. We can feel how we want from one social tonic, instead of two, for example. We can achieve the desired effect with lower doses of cannabis, which can also lead to thanks and praise from our bank accounts.

Additionally, taking a tolerance break can allow us to benefit more from the healing properties of cannabis without the side effects of feeling impaired. This is achieved with lower doses. While many cannabis lovers would agree that the “high” of THC is a wonderful side effect, it is still a side effect, indeed.

3. More Time to Explore

While on a tolerance break, we can explore menus, articles, and social media content from our local dispensaries. Then hopefully, we can become better, more knowledgeable consumers. Check out our blog post on 7 Tips to Find Your Favorite Dispensary for more on how we like to find ours.

4. Not Contributing to the “Stoner Stereotype”

Building up a tolerance isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even in moderation, we can build up tolerances to just about anything. If our goal is to normalize cannabis consumption and shed the stoner stereotype, taking tolerance breaks can help with that. Taking a time off from cannabis indicates we don’t have to consume daily to get the full benefits of the plant medicine.

5. Regaining That Mental Clarity

Daily consumption of cannabis may lead to over-impairment and brain fog if we’re not careful. For some consumers, this never becomes an issue. For others, consuming daily may cause us to require mental clarity. Taking a tolerance break can help greatly for our mental clarity. Additionally, we can really learn to enjoy our experiences and look forward to them if they only happen, let’s say, weekly. Speaking of which…

How Long Should I Take My Tolerance Break?

We are so glad you asked!

In the upcoming part two of our series on taking tolerance breaks, we will explore how long to take a tolerance break. Days? Months? Years? It’s entirely up to you, but we have some suggestions that may help. Keep an eye out for that article, which will be dropping sometime this Fall.

Stay tuned to the HashDash blog for more educational content just like this.

Disclaimer:

The content on this page is provided by HashDash for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as medical advice or as a substitute for professional healthcare advice. Do not use this information to diagnose or treat any medical condition or ailment on your own. Always consult a physician or qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions about treatment. The information and products mentioned herein have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition.

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