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Marijuana Benefits

Autoimmune Disorders & Medical Marijuana

 

Autoimmune diseases are characterized by an inappropriate immune system response.  The body identifies foreign substances and its own tissues as invaders requiring attack.  The result is that the immune system is directed to attack,  causing a myriad of serious physical problems characterized by pain, inflammation and cellular damage.

 

Medical Marijuana research suggests efficacy in nearly all of the more than eighty types of Autoimmune disease.    Cannabinoids have been found to modulate or balance both the function and secretion of regulatory proteins that cause immune cells to do what they do.

 

Symptoms associated with AD include; pain, inflammation, rashes, muscular problems, skeletal deformities and organ dysfunction. In combination with its pain killing properties, Medical Cannabis offers relief of symptoms and a potentially for AD.

 

"Studies of habitual cannabis smokers provided much evidence for immunomodulatory [modifying or regulating the immune system] effects of cannabis in humans...Therefore, cannabinoids may be considered for treatment of inflammatory disease."

--Cannabinoids and the Immune System: The Journal of Neuroimmunology.

 

Medical Marijuana is increasingly prescribed by Medical Doctors to treat autoimmune disorders. Too often, traditional immunosuppressive drugs are not effective in the long run and have serious side effects. Now that Medical Marijuana is legal in California, physicians increasingly prefer to prescribe Cannabis and Cannabinoids (rather than pharmaceutical drugs) to treat AD of all kinds; because patients experience better results with fewer side effects.

 

 

Facts and Figures about AD

•  About 23 million Americans suffer from AD in 2013

•  AD is one of the top 10 causes of death in Americans in 2013

•  $100 billion yearly  US direct healthcare costs in 2012

•  $832 million allocated for research of AD in 2015 (NIH)

-- The National Institutes of Health. AARD

 

 

Doctor Quotes on  Cannabis and Autoimmune Disorders

"Medical Marijuana significantly reduced neuropathic pain intensity in HIV-associated … polyneuropathy compared to placebo, when added to stable concomitant analgesics.  Mood disturbance, physical disability, and quality of life all improved significantly during study treatment.”

--  Researchers, Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, 2008

 

"The profile of cannabinoid drug effects suggests that they are promising for treating wasting syndrome in AIDS patients.  Nausea, appetite loss, pain, and anxiety are all afflictions of wasting, and all can be mitigated by Marijuana.”

--  Institute of Medicine (US), Marijuana and Medicine:: Assessing the Science Base

 

"The effectiveness of cannabis for treating symptoms related to HIV/AIDS is widely recognized.  Its value as an antiemetic and analgesic has been proven in numerous studies and has been recognized by several comprehensive, government-sponsored reviews"

--  Institute of Medicine (IOM)

 

 

Research Breakthroughs

Study 1: How Medical Cannabis (THC) Works in Autoimmune Disorders - Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2014

Researchers discovered a new pathway that leads THC to modify immune response and suppress inflammation.

 

Summary

  • Marijuana and THC have immunomodulatory activity
  • There is a whole body, genome-wide change in immune cells treated with THC
  • THC alters T-cell response
  • These new finding indicate that THC regulated genes, affecting immune response.

In other words, THC is actively involved in the root cause of AD, as all of the bodies immune cells are affected.  THC and other Cannabinoids therefore offer potential treatment in all forms of the disease.

 

Study 2:  Science/Animal: Cannabinoids Block Activation of Mediator of Inflammation - Journal of Neuroscience

This study essentially found that components of Medical Cannabis can block the root cause of inflammation.

"these results help to explain the effectiveness of Cannabinoids in blocking the malaise generated by TNF-releasing disease processes."

Researchers from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center found that Cannabinoids, which interact with the CB1 receptor, reduced The tumour necrosis factor (TNF) in the brainstem. A proinflammatory protein (cytokine) TNF is released and activates the immune system in response to infection, leukaemia, autoimmune disorders, and radiation sickness.

 

In this study, it was found that the symptoms of nausea, emesis, and anorexia, common in these disorders are effectively reduced by Cannabinoids.

 

 

Further Reading - Research Breakthroughs

 

Autoimmune Symptoms & Treatment

Cannabis use in HIV for pain and other medical symptoms.

Woolridge E, Barton S, Samuel J, Osorio J, Dougherty A, Holdcroft A.

J Pain Symptom Manage. 2005 Apr;29(4):358-67.

 

Medical Cannabis Experiments

Human studies of cannabinoids and medicinal cannabis.

Robson P.

Handb Exp Pharmacol. 2005;(168):719-56. Review.

 

Cannabis Treatment of Pain in AD

Cannabis in painful HIV-associated sensory neuropathy: a randomized placebo-controlled trial.

Abrams DI, Jay CA, Shade SB, Vizoso H, Reda H, Press S, Kelly ME, Rowbotham MC, Petersen KL.

Neurology. 2007 Feb 13;68(7):515-21.

 

Cannabis for chronic pain: case series and implications for clinicians

Ware MA, Gamsa A, Persson J, Fitzcharles MA.

Pain Res Manag. 2002 Summer;7(2):95-9.

 

Medical Cannabis Dose: How much?

Medicinal cannabis: rational guidelines for dosing.

Carter GT, Weydt P, Kyashna-Tocha M, Abrams DI.

IDrugs. 2004 May;7(5):464-70. Review.

 

AD suppressed in Clinical Trials

Clinical improvement and reduction of immunosuppressive drug therapy in cannabis treated patients with crohn's disease

Society of Cannabis Clinicians / California Cannabis Research Medical Group PO Box 9143 Berkeley, CA 94709 USA

 

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