Marijuana Benefits

Anorexia & Medical Marijuana

Anorexia is a very serious eating disorder that results in an unhealthy and sometimes life threatening low weight. Classic features of the disease include, a phobia of being fat, a strong desire to have a perfect figure, bizarre diet habits and restricted food intake. Clinically underweight Anorexia sufferers commonly lose the ability to perceive themselves normally and falsely believe they are fat, and often lose self-control in regard to eating and diet. 20% of Anorexia sufferers die from the disorder if left untreated.

Medical Marijuana is now routinely indicated in Anorexia by Cannabis Doctors and physicians. Researchers believe that Cannabinoids, components of Cannabis, tend to balance the activity of Brain receptors that moderate behavior. Many Anorexia sufferers agree that Medical Cannabis balanced their minds and helped restore healthy eating habits, resulting in a better appearance and more agreeable personality.

“I am forever engaged in a silent battle in my head over whether or not to lift the fork to my mouth, and when I talk myself into doing so, I taste only shame. I have an eating disorder.”

-- Jena Morrow, Hollow: An Unpolished Tale

“Kessa ran her fingers over her stomach. Flat. But was it flat enough? Not quite. She still had some way to go. Just to be safe, she told herself. Still, it was nice the way her pelvic bones rose like sharp hills on either side of her stomach. I love bones. Bones are beautiful.”

-- Steven Levenkron, The Best Little Girl in the World

Medical Marijuana Therapy - Why it Works

Anorexia and Bulimia origins are thought by many researchers and therapists to come from an imbalance in brain chemistry. A study published in Biological Psychiatry provided insight into the brain’s endogenous (own, natural) marijuana neurotransmitter system. Without a doubt, it was found that exogenous (drug) marijuana can certainly affects mood and eating behavior. At the heart of the matter, the normal function of the endocannabinoid system becomes impaired in people with either anorexia or bulimia. The value of this finding cannot be understated. Medical Marijuana's known beneficial effect for eating disorders now have a scientific foundation.

California Medical Doctor on Medical Cannabis and HIV / AIDS

“From working with AIDS and cancer patients, I repeatedly saw how marijuana could ameliorate a patient’s debilitating fatigue, restore appetite, diminish pain, remedy nausea, cure vomiting and curtail down-to-the-bone weight loss.

The federal obsession with a political agenda that keeps marijuana out of the hands of sick and dying people is appalling and irrational. Washington bureaucrats — far removed from the troubled bedsides of sick and dying patients — are ignoring what patients and doctors and health care workers are telling them about real world suffering. The federal refusal to honor public referendums like California’s voter-approved Medical Marijuana Initiative is as bewildering as it is ominous. Its refusal to listen to doctors groups like the California Medical Association that support compassionate use of Medical Marijuana is chilling.

In a society that has witnessed extensive positive experiences with medicinal Marijuana, as long as it is safe and not proven to be ineffective, why shouldn’t seriously ill patients have access to it? Why should an old woman be made to die a horrible death for a hollow political symbol?“

-- Kate Scannell, MD, Co-Director of the Kaiser-Permanente Northern California Ethics Department

Behavioral Symptoms

Restrictive food intake
Excessive exercise
Forced vomiting
Perfectionism
Psychosis

Behavioral Symptoms

Osteoporosis
Brittle hair / nails
Dry / yellowish skin
Growth of fine body hair
Anemia, muscle wasting, weakness
Constipation
Slowed breathing / pulse
Heart and Brain damage
Organ failure
Low body temperature
Lethargy, low energy
Infertility

Many researchers, doctors and patients testify that in their experience, Medical Marijuana has greatly reduced their Anorexia condition and symptoms.

Researchers Quotes - Cannabis and Alzheimer's

1% of women have severe anorexia
4% of teens and college women have anorexia.
Children don't often get Anorexia
Women outnumber men 10 to 1 in the incidence of Anorexia
90% of Anorexia and Bulimia sufferers are women under age 30
Western (obese) countries have double the rate of Anorexia as compared to Non-western countries
20% of Anorexia sufferers die without treatment
98% of Anorexia sufferers survive with treatment

-- Source

Efficacy of Medical Marijuana in Anorexia

Dronabinol, or Cannabidiol was given to Anorexia sufferers over a 2 month period. On average, the patients gained two pounds in contrast to the normal trend where Anorexia patients continue to lose weight. Most interestingly, one year after the study, the participants continued to improve their nutritional status without addiction or withdrawal effects, suggesting that Cannabidiol is safe to use in individuals with long-time Anorexia.

-- International Journal of Eating Disorders

Case Study - Medical Marijuana and a College Girl - Anorexia Phobia Defeated

Claire is a college student that credits Medical Marijuana for helping her kick a an eating disorder with obsessive calorie counting. After smoking Medical Cannabis, she got the munchies and chowed down. Claire found that she could not recall her calorie count the next day. This meant the drug interacted with a root cause of her particular disorder.

"I felt bad and guilty at first, but noticed I felt good physically and it also felt good to rebel against my harmful thoughts," Claire says. "Since I'd already lost track, I figured it couldn't hurt to go two days without counting, and so I started smoking more regularly and I haven't counted calories since."

-- Paraphrase of Cosmolitan Magazine article

Marijuana as Medicine: The Research in a Nutshell

Research reported in Psychology Today effectively summarizes the core science of Anorexia disorders.

Scientists discovered that the brain’s Cannabinoid neurotransmitter system was under active in women with Anorexia and Bulimia. The part of the brain (Insula) that is responsible to coordinate taste and emotional response was operating sub-optimally. In other words, these women could not fully experience the pleasure of food and developed unusual eating habits and responses.

This same brain region, the insula, was linked previously to other eating disorder studies.

These important scientific findings directly support and explain the efficacy of Medical Cannabis in the treatment of eating disorders.

-- Psychology Today, The Connection between Anorexia, Bulimia and Marijuana