Top 20 diseases in the prevention and treatment of which hemp is an important medicine! (Part 2)
In the previous part we told you about the list of diseases which effective treatment by marijuana had been proven. Despite the fact that a lot of populism, myths and conjectures prevail around this topic today, we tried to separate the wheat from the chaff and give only the most significant examples and references to research. As the list of the diseases and disorders is quite wide, it is difficult to fit them all in the one article format, so we offer you the second part of our long but confirmed by authoritative studies list.
1. Parkinson’s disease.
Israeli scientists have found that smoking marijuana had significantly reduced pain and tremor, and improved sleep in Parkinson’s disease patients. Moreover, the study showed what few people had thought: patients’ fine motor skills had been noticeably improved.
There are known cases when patients completely disconnected devices for deep electrostimulation of the brain allowing to decrease the disease symptoms, when switching to treatment by cannabis, and far better results were shown than the results of conventional prophylaxis.
2. Diabetes mellitus (type II)
In May 2013, the American Journal of Medicine published the study data by three authors at once that cannabis had played a key role in controlling blood sugar level. 4,657 people had been tested. The tested people using THC in the treatment, had lower sugar level by 16%. According to the results of the study, the medical drug GW42004 had been created for Diabetes mellitus type 2 patients.
3. Post-traumatic syndrome
In 2014, the Colorado Department of Public Health invested $2 million to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies to examine the marijuana potential in treating people with post-traumatic stress disorder. At the moment, the study is still ongoing, and you can follow it via this link.
The Department’s interest is not accidental in this case, as it has already been known that THC would assist in regulating a system that causes fear and anxiety in the body and brain. The relaxing effect reduces aggressiveness and nervousness, and also gives a positive perception of the surrounding world through the interaction of tetrahydrocannabinol and anandamide, the cannabioid neurotransmitter contained in our brain. Though the studies of the THC effect on the post-traumatic syndrome are still ongoing, there is no doubt about their positive outcome.
4. Apoplectic attack.
Studies in rats and monkeys at the University of Nottingham show that marijuana can help protect the brain from damage caused by apoplectic attack by reducing the area size affected by the disease.
5. Alcoholism.
Californian scientists of Scripps Research Institute have found that cannabidiol (CBD), a substance found in a cannabis plant, helps alcoholics get rid of their addiction.
In any case, this had been shown by experiments conducted on rats. A gel containing CBD was applied on the skin of animals, which had previously been given alcohol, and after that their addiction to opiates was reduced. Moreover, gel with CBD treatment significantly reduces the risk of relapse under the influence of stress. The effect was quite long – the results were still visible even after five months.
Thus, scientists have concluded that the CBD had more advantages than other medicines having aimed at fighting against alcohol and drug addiction, because it prevented relapse.
6. Osteoporosis.
Israeli researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem found out that using marijuana would have been helped to preserve calcium in the body. According to the data, the composition of THC includes substances retaining calcium in bone tissue.
Based on the research, there was created a prototype of medicine against osteoporosis, a disease often found in older people that infects bone tissue making bones fragile and brittle. An article about the new drug was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the American scientific journal.
7. Schizo-affective psychosis.
While marijuana itself can sometimes cause a schizophrenic-like effect, THC substance, cannabidiol (CBD) treats it. In 2012, the study results were published in the Translational Psychiatry journal. They argued that the CBD substance had a positive effect on the schizo-affective psychosis treatment, and the second phase of clinical trials had already begun. The study involved 39 patients, and 20 of them received a dose of CBD, and 19 patients received amisulpride. The treatment results were positive in both cases, but those patients who received a dose of CBD had fewer adverse effects.
8. Asthma.
Studies showed that one type of THC could have bronchodilating properties, i.e. it could help people easier to breathe with asthma.
Tetrahydrocannabinol contained in medical cannabis relaxes and expands the respiratory passages and lets more oxygen pass freely through them. Besides, THC helps eliminate fear and anxiety that accompany asthma symptoms, by relaxing and calming the brain.
9. Anorexia, bulimia and psychogenic overeating.
In 2011, scientists from Belgium presented a study showing that the cannabinoid treatment development may be therapeutically valuable in the treatment of these disorders. Their conclusions were confirmed in 2014 when European neurologists conducted relevant studies on animals. Anorexic sufferers lose the ability to find pleasure in activities, especially in food. The study authors found that the way in which THC had activated the CB1 receptor of the endocannabinoid system (one of the two receptors identified) would have increased the pleasure of eating by increasing sensitivity to odors and taste.
10. HIV.
Based on the tests results, American scientists say that the components contained in marijuana protect the immune system from human immunodeficiency virus. During the study, scientists conducted experiments on monkeys and found that the chronic use of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) contained in marijuana, which is its main psychoactive component, had protected immune cells located in the intestine.
Experts note that the marijuana components are at least able to slow the disease progression. Scientists plan to use a modification of THC in the future for fighting against human immunodeficiency virus.
Having read the materials of these two articles, some readers may ask: “Another panacea for all deseases?”, and then, with incredulous eyebrows, answer to themselves “Well, yes, we have already heard this!” And they will be right – there is no universal medicine, as well as there is no universal secret of success. Hemp treats only some of the diseases from this list, and some can be treated in the future (for example, oncology); but in most cases it simply has a positive therapeutic effect when controlling disease symptoms or relieving them (for example, Dravet syndrome, or epilepsy) by entering into natural biological and chemical reactions with our body. Today there is no information demonstrating that THC can completely defeat, for example, epilepsy, so you should not hope against hope. However, in no case should the essential medical importance of cannabis be diminished, neither should its further study be prevented. For, for example, cancer can be really successfully treated by it in the future.
No one proves that smoking marijuana is a good thing. Studies that have been conducted for decades had proved that smoking marijuana causes a number of diseases of the cardiovascular system, respiratory organs and the nervous system.
But the fact that cannabis-derived substances cure many diseases radically changes the attitude to this plant. Obviously, hemp grows on our planet for a reason. And we must take out of it all that will be possible!