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Alternative Methods of Therapy Prove Promising
The use of marijuana for medical purposes has a history that goes back thousands of years-- the herb has been used for all sorts of aliments such as a stress reliever in India, to subsiding child birth pains. Its uses can be traced all throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Medical research recently has also unearthed in the past decade marijuana's effects on various kinds of pains. These range from damaged nerves in people that have HIV, diabetic treatment, and spinal injuries--marijuana has also shown promise to patients with cancer and Multiple Sclerosis.
Medical marijuana has been theorized to help with nausea related to symptoms induced by chemotherapy, and with severe loss of appetite as with patients with AIDS wasting syndrome.
Marijuana is effective with these actions due to the active ingredients of tetrahydro cannabinol (THC) and some 60 other cannabinoids, which mimic the action of chemicals that are known as endogenous cannabinoids, and exist naturally in the brain. Those cannabinoids activate receptors in our nerves, triggering physiological responses.
The only legal extract of THC currently available is Marinol however the results are not evn close to the effects of naturally smoked medical marijuana. Taken orally, its absorption is highly variable and unpredictable and often delayed, says Dr. Igor Grant, a UC San Diego psychiatrist who directs the university's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. "Smoking is a very efficient way to deliver THC," he mentions.
The consequences of marijuana being considered federally as a illegal drug, limits is use to specified clinics and to patients in states like Colorado that have created laws that allow marijuana for personal medical use.
The only research regarding medical marijuana, comes from the US government issued marijuana cigarettes that come in varying strengths and are supplied to the NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse).
The UC Center for Medicinal Marijuana Research in California helps aid in the clinical studies to determine the safety and effectiveness of medicinal marijuana and they have found studies related to neuropathic pain, Multiple sclerosis, and nausea.
About the Author For the 30 years, Dr. Julian Reindhurst has studies the medicinal benefits of marijuana. He currently has a blog that gives the historical perspective of how nirvana seeds benefited other ancient civilizations. He maintainsa site that looks at the medicinal benefits of the nirvana seeds.
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