Can Cannabis
cure Arthritis?
You can see the humour in
writing about Cannabis Medicine and a joint condition but seriously there is
nothing funny about arthritis especially if you have it.
So just to be very clear a
joint is that part of the body space where two bones meet for example the
knees, ankles, hips, fingers and so on. Arthritis is then a debilitating joint
disorder characterised by swelling of the joints.
The pain and swelling sets in
when the cartilage breaks down and the bones start to rub against one another.
To this day there are no
proven medications or treatments which can stop cartilage damage or in fact
completely repair damaged cartilage. So the focus is therefore on reducing
pain, swelling and stiffness with oral pain medications, pain relieving topical
treatments, cortisone joint injections and also Hyaluronic acid joint
injections.
There
are also surgical options from arthroscopy which is cartilage repair, osteotomy
which is bone removal and then you can also have a joint fusion or a total
joint replacement for example a knee or hip replacement. Wow ii have seen
people suffer immensely with these procedures and the recovery period is long
and often unbearable.
How does Cannabis affect our joints?
At the age of 12 ii was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and
when ii started using Cannabis to treat my cancer at age 28 ii noticed a
remarkable improvement in my joint problems.
My knee and hip are still a concern but ii can honestly say that ii have
very little joint pain or swelling and this ii attribute only to 20 years of Cannabis
use.
It is tempting to use the other bone pun but because of the ‘funny’ side
of arthritis and all the talk about stiff joints ii became interested in
studying the healing effects of Cannabis on joint healing.
Cannabis produces its healing effects by stimulating the Cannabinoid
receptors which respond to the chemical compounds within the plant known as
Phyto-Cannabinoids. So these Cannabinoids ii am speaking about are plant
derived and not synthetic as ii do not condone any synthetic Cannabis compound
or medicine as yet and this is because of the very simple fact that ii do not
believe that our natural Cannabinoid receptors would even recognize these
synthetic compounds and ii wait to see what science will produce in this regard
to prove me wrong.
So we all have Cannabinoid receptors in our bodies as well as naturally
produced Cannabinoids known as Endocannabinoids. These receptors and
Endocannabinoids form make up our Endocannabinoid system, the ‘new’
physiological system only discovered in the 1990’s. So yes definitely we are
all supposed to consume Cannabis to stimulate our Endocannabinoid systems in
the same way as we take other supplements to stimulate other systems for
example vitamins and personally ii like to refer to Cannabis as a vital
vitamin.
We already know that Cannabis assists in bone formation and this has
paved the way for new studies in the treatment of osteoporosis.
Dr Yankel Gabet is a bone researcher at Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and ii have been
a fan of his studies for many years now.
Gabet and his team discovered that the Cannabinoid now famously known as CBD in fact enhances bone
healing by strengthening the cartilage ‘bridge’ that forms when a bone is repairing. This bridge is known as the ‘fracture callus’
and it is made of collagen which then gradually mineralizes and hardens into
new bone.
This new bone formation occurs around the old damaged bone thus
automatically strengthening the joints as well.
Their results also revealed that this new strengthened collagen tissue
was stronger than the older tissue (30 to 50% in most research studies) which
means that bones treated with Cannabis are less likely to break in the future. You
can read about my personal experience with my broken ankle in Can Cannabis cure Menopause.
What is even more interesting and fascinating to me is that these and
other Israeli studies have proven that these results were achieved through the
isolation of the CBD Cannabinoid which means that there was no THC present in
the medicine.
As ii have written many times ii have never believed that there is such
a thing as a zero THC medication and this is based on our studies of the ‘entourage
effect’ of whole herbal Cannabis where all the compounds are required to work
together.
So ii have always believed that Cannabinoids simply do not work in
isolation and often cease to even exist in the absence of THC the main
pharmacological component of the Cannabis plant.
Times do change and science will always be my ultimate motivating factor
in my research and my questions need convincing answers. If science can prove
that they can successfully isolate CBD from the Cannabis plant and produce the
exact same if not better results than were achieved in the presence of THC then
you would say that ii am convinced.
Israel does have the correct facilities to perform such Cannabinoid
isolation techniques and ii do believe that this is true and the results speak
for themselves.
In my opinion pure raw natural Cannabis straight off the tree or juiced
if you like is the best solution for a high CBD dose or raw Cannabis infused in
olive oil just like the Holy Anointing oil described in the biblical book of
Exodus especially for people with low tolerance to the psychedelic properties
of THC.
In nature where there is a low THC count, for example in the leaves then
there is naturally a high CBD count. It is
only the lack of testing facilities which prevents people from believing this
so ii am pretty certain that if we tested buds which are THC high when heated
that the buds from the same plant would then be high in CBD when consumed raw.
Looking to the future…
Please believe me when ii say
to you that absolutely NO ONE needs to let arthritis stop them from living a ‘normal’
life. In fact getting out there and
exercising or even just walking is the very first step to managing this
condition. Things like looking at diet and lifestyle are also obvious.
Let me tell you a story about
a 66 year old woman who came to me with crippling arthritis as you can see in
this picture below. To be honest if they were giving prizes for pictures which
give credit to arthritis these pictures wouldn’t feature because honestly this
lady could not even open her fingers when ii placed my hands on hers so she
must have really struggled to get these shots.
Personally ii did not think that ii could help her and that is very rare
for me to say.
This lady is a true angel she
spends her life in the servitude of others like herself, the aged. She works humbly in the kitchen at an old age
home and the first time ii met her she told me that she especially loved
peeling potatoes for her friends and with her hands in this condition it was
impossible so she was desperate to find a cure so she could continue peeling
potatoes. This really appealed to the
Irish in me and so ii started her on an extra strong dose of oral CBD drops.
After one month she sent me a
pic which sadly ii lost and no one has now of her knitting…well ii truly could
not believe my eyes and as ii always say even after years of working with this
medicine every day ii am amazed and blown away at what this medicine can
actually do.
So it is coming up to her 90
days of treatment at the end of April and as you can see below there is a dramatic improvement in
the condition of her joints on both hands.
Clearly you can see the
reduction of inflammation brought about by the formation of new cartilage
around the bones thus building up the joints with stronger material than
before. This is the power of Cannabis Medicine.
She states that she is able to
use both her hands almost to full extent and that she is virtually pain free
and is no longer taking her prescription meds. She is also deeply religious
with an extremely positive outlook to life.
This is my favourite picture above
and it brought tears to my eyes and ii asked her if she was clicking her
fingers and she admitted that she had not quite got to that point yet but could
well assume the position and was practicing daily. Wow what a beautiful success story Praise
JAH!
In this day and age of texting
and typing we give thanks now for voice notes as the stress on the fingers and
wrists and shoulders are easily manifested as arthritic conditions in young and
old people.
Please don’t wait until you
are struggling to use your hands if you suspect you might have arthritis start
preventative Cannabis treatment immediately to avoid suffering later in
life. A lot of the time in my work,
people come to me as a last resort when nothing else has helped or they are on
their death beds looking for a miracle in Cannabis.
No plant can cure absolutely everything and so
no one should expect this of Cannabis but yet in this plant we have the most
amazing healing potential especially in respect of preventative medicine and
this is because of the way our Endocannabinoid system works. And your system needs
Phyto Cannabinoids to perform its vital functions.
SOURCES:
Can Cannabis cure Osteoporosis?
Can Cannabis cure Menopause?
What can Cannabis do for you?
One Patient One Plant
Tel Aviv University's Sackler
Faculty of Medicine
Hebrew University Jerusalem Israel
Wonderful and inspiring reading sister of our planet.
ReplyDeleteGive thanks brother Greg!
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