There is an ongoing debate in the United States about whether recreational marijuana use should be legal or not. One side of that debate says that marijuana is not harmful when consumed and actually provides a lot of positive health effects. Of course, these people probably just say that because they want to be able to smoke marijuana and experience the euphoric high caused by the high THC levels in marijuana.
But, despite their motives, their claims are true. There are various positive health effects associated with marijuana. This is due to one of the main components of marijuana, and no, it’s not THC. It is the other main component of cannabis known as tetrahydrocannabinol. That is a mouthful, isn’t it? I am going to refer to it as cannabis oil from here on out, just to give you a head’s up.
Anyways, cannabis oil is nothing like THC. It does not provide any euphoric high feeling, so those chasing a high might want to find a different article. Instead, as I stated before, this component is responsible for all of the miraculous positive health effects touted by the pro-marijuana crowd.
Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about cannabis oil – starting off with how it interacts with the human body once consumed.
About Cannabis Oil And How It Interacts With The Body?
I know a lot of you are chomping at the bit to delve into all of the health benefit that cannabis oil provides. However, I think it is necessary to first give a brief explanation of how cannabis oil reacts with the body once it is consumed. I find this necessary so that you can better understand why it provides the benefits that it does.
Anyways, let me introduce you to a new system in the body. It is known as the endocannabinoid system. It is part of the brain and science is only starting to emerge about it. You probably have never heard of it because not a whole lot is known about it. That said, what we do know about it indicates that it plays a vital role in maintaining proper functioning of the body. Such human faculties it affects are mood management, dealing with inflammation, and feeling pain.
What does this obscure system have to do with cannabis oil? First off, take another good hard look at the name of the system. Endocannabinoid. See the connection? This system has cannabinoid receptors that float around in it. These receptors are able to detect and respond to certain substances that come from cannabis oil. These substances are known as cannabinoids (that’s why the receptors are called cannabinoids). The body produces these substances naturally, but often it is not enough.
The Positive Health Effects Of Taking Cannabis Oil
I hope that the brief explanation of how the body responds to cannabis oil will make it easier for you to understand why it produces the following positive health benefits. Now is the time you were all waiting for. It is time to dig in!
It Can Help In The Fight Against Parkinson’s And Alzheimer’s Disease
Since the endocannabinoid system is in the brain and is responsible for regulating proper brain function, it is easy to infer that cannabis oil can help in fighting diseases that attack the brain such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. In fact, fighting these crippling diseases is one of the most common uses of cannabis oil. In addition to fighting the effects of the diseases, those who are not currently suffering can take the oil and it will actually lower their chances of developing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia.
One of major causes of Alzheimer’s is a substance known as beta-amyloid. This is a very toxic substance that can seriously hurt the brain. Studies from an Italian university have shown that consumption of cannabis oil can actually detoxify beta-amyloid. These compounds basically form a protective layer on the brain that mitigates the toxic effects of beta-amyloid, thus greatly reducing your risk of getting Alzheimer’s.
Another study conducted by a different university seemed to corroborate these findings. However, they went a step further and concluded that cannabis oil can also help those currently suffering from Alzheimer’s. How? By mitigating the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s. Now, these are still early studies but I imagine many more will be done that will corroborate these findings.
It Can Reduce Stress And Help You Manage Stress-Related Diseases
This is a particularly positive health effect, considering how common stress and stress-related diseases are. It is estimated that around 20 percent of the population of the United States are dealing with some kind of stress-related disease.
And helping to manage and treat these diseases is not cheap. Every year, the nation spends over 40 billion dollars to combat anxiety and stress-related disorders. This amounts to over 30 percent of the country’s health expenditures. On top of that, some of the most common “treatments” for these stress-related disorders are either mostly ineffective or have very dangerous side effects.
This is what makes cannabis oil such an attractive alternative. You get the same relief (or perhaps even more relief) without the high chance of suffering the dangerous side effects. An interesting study that I came across compared the stress reducing effects of cannabis oil with the effects of other commonly prescribed antidepressants and anxiety reducing drugs. Basically, the study consisted of a few groups of people with stress-related illnesses.
One group took cannabis oil. A couple of the other groups took different kinds of common medications such as diazepam and ipsapirone. The final group was the control group and took placebos. The study looked at their stress levels when doing a public town hall-like speaking exercise. What were the findings? The only two groups that experienced stress reduction were the group that took ipsapirone and the group that took the cannabis oil.
A South American study corroborated these findings and went further to conclude that regular use of cannabis oil can help reduce the harmful symptoms associated with anxiety and stress-related diseases. To pile on top of that, a Spanish study found that cannabis oil is potent at relieving feelings of depression as well. This is especially promising, given how common depression is among the American population.
It Can Help You Get A Better Night’s Sleep
Scientists and medical experts alike agree that people generally need about eight hours of sleep every night to be able to function properly throughout the day. The problem is that many people do not get that much sleep every night. Whether that is because they are too busy and can’t fit in eight hours for sleep in their schedule, or that they are dealing with health conditions that make it hard for them to sleep. Unfortunately, cannabis oil will not be able to help you free up your schedule to fit eight hours for sleep if that is your problem.
However, if your sleep problems are associated with a health disorder such as insomnia, you are in luck. A study conducted in the US state of Colorado found that cannabis oil can function as a potent cure for insomnia. The best part? As was the case with relieving stress-related illnesses, there are not any harmful side effects. It is a risk-free treatment that has been proven effective.
This is a very promising development, as not getting enough sleep can lead to a multitude of health problems, such as diabetes and various heart problems. And if you own a car and have to drive a lot, you are putting yourself at a heightened risk of getting into an accident if you do not get enough sleep.
It Can Help You Eat Healthier
Do not misinterpret this to think that taking cannabis oil will suddenly make you more able to ditch the sweets and eat veggies instead. That is not what it means at all. Instead, cannabis oil helps those who are dealing with a dwindling appetite.
I hear it from my friends all the time that they just “forget to eat” or that they just “aren’t hungry”. And while these feelings might sound positive for people trying to lose weight, the opposite is actually true. When you lose your appetite and do not eat, your body goes into panic mode. It slows your metabolism down to a standstill because your body thinks it is starving and has to preserve as much fat as it can.
This means that when you start eating again, your body will not quickly burn those new calories. This causes two problems. One, you will end up gaining weight because more fat will be built up instead of burnt off. Two, you will be feeling groggy and sluggish and have no energy. This is because little to no fat is being turned into energy due to your snail-paced metabolism.
Luckily for those people, simply taking cannabis oil can bring back their appetite, according to the National Cancer Institute. Wait, why is the National Cancer Institute looking into this? Well, it just so happens that cancer can cause people to lose their appetite as well. And this is all leading to…
It Can Help You Deal With Cancer
Everybody knows what cancer is. The out of control replication of cells that ends up being a slow killer for millions every single year. Unfortunately, there is no cure for cancer right now, but there are plenty of treatments.
The catch is that these treatments are usually very painful and uncomfortable, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Not only are they painful but they are expensive too. The worst part is that they are not even a guaranteed treatment, which is why millions of lives are still taken by this horrible disease annually.
A lot of you may have heard the claims from the pro-marijuana crowd that marijuana can help in the treatment of cancer. And guess what? They are right! But you do not need to smoke it and get high to get these benefits. Why? As you probably guessed, it is not the THC that provides these cancer-fighting effects. Once again, this can be attributed to the handy dandy cannabis oil.
A groundbreaking study conducted by a university down in South Africa came up with some very promising findings. They discovered that cannabis oil, more specifically the aforementioned cannabidiol compounds in cannabis oil, can actually stop the development of cancer cells. This study was done on actual cancer patients too, not rats or anything.
This makes the study especially incredible. In addition to that, the study went on to further conclude that cannabis oil not only stops the growth of cancer cells. The chemical compound kills existing cancer cells as well. This would seem to imply that cannabis oil can function as a potent cancer treatment without the horrible drawbacks associated with other treatments.
Other studies on actual human patients corroborated these findings but focused on different kinds of cancers. You see, the South African study was conducted on women suffering from cervical cancer. Other studies looked at suffering of cancers such as Leukemia, breast cancer, and prostate cancer. What did these studies find?
The same thing! The cannabis oil stopped the spread of those cancer cells and helped exterminate the existing cancer cells. All of this without killing healthy cells in the process, which other cancer treatments (such as the aforementioned radiation and chemotherapy) are guilty of doing.
Now, nobody is saying that it can function as a standalone cure right now. However, cannabis oil can function as a potent complement to other treatments to help your chances of surviving your cancer and going into remission.
It Can Help You Deal With Pain
Besides trying to get high, this is probably the second most common reason that people smoke marijuana. It really is an effective pain reliever but once again that is not due to the THC content in cannabis.
Something that differentiates cannabis oil from your typical over the counter pain relieving drug is that cannabis oil has been shown to help reduce long-term persisting pain. That is not to say that it has not been shown to deal with short-term pain too, but its effect on long-term pain relief is more promising.
Universities all over the world have been looking at cannabis oil’s effect on pain and has found it to be effective at reducing both short-term and long-term pain. On top of that, it has shown effectiveness at reducing inflammation as well. Remember earlier when I mentioned that the endocannabinoid system in the brain regulates pain reception and inflammation? Well, now you can see why cannabis oil provides these sorts of benefits.
There is no longer a need to constantly buy larger dosages of ineffective OTC pain relievers like Aleve and Aspirin that can end up leading to addiction. Just get you some cannabis oil to get rid of your pain.
It Can Help You Deal With Seizures
This is probably the oldest and most well-known medical use for cannabis oil and marijuana in general. Whenever someone has a seizure-inducing illness such as epilepsy, they are often prescribed medical marijuana to help them reduce the frequency of their seizures. As you can probably guess, this has little to do with the THC content and can be mostly attributed to the star of the show, cannabis oil.
An American university conducted a survey on the parents of children who were suffering from epilepsy and found that over 80 percent of the respondents reported that they experienced less symptoms associated with their epilepsy after treating their children with cannabis oil.
There is another benefit that cannabis oil has in the fight against epilepsy – the human body does not build a resistance to it. Why is this important? While some of you might not know that a growing problem in the treatment of epilepsy is that the body ends up building up a resistance to common drugs used to treat it. This means that those drugs have little effectiveness in relieving the symptoms of epilepsy and the sufferers continue to suffer.
This is where cannabis oil steps in. One such study looked into this and found that cannabis oil was able to help a lot of people whose bodies built up a resistance to common epilepsy treatments. One of the most common symptoms that was relieved was seizures. Patients in the study reported that they had way fewer seizures than they had prior to the cannabis oil treatment.
To “Wrap” Things Up
It looks like those in the pro-marijuana were not making things up when they touted all of the benefits of smoking marijuana. Of course, most of those people only touted those benefits so that they could chase the high if or when the drug gets legalized. However, the benefits are very real. The bad news for those chasing the high are that most of the benefits have nothing to do with the euphoria-inducing component of marijuana known as THC.
