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 marijuana that exist today is known as Marinol but the drug is by no means the replicated answer of the natural 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 states.
Medical marijuana is considered illegal under federal laws, so its only available is selected clinics in states such as California where they have passed laws making marijuana legal 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 University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research in San Diego helps coordinate clinical studies to investigate the safety and effectiveness of marijuana and they've discovered in their studies related to neuropathic pain, Multiple sclerosis, and nausea.
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.
