Not so long ago, I was writing about epilepsy and cannabis. But because this is not the only disease that I'm fighting with, I also wanted to write something about Crohn's disease and power of healing.
I'm learning to live with this disease for about eight years now and I'm always looking for new things to heal or calm this. I was always convinced I can fight this because I'm strong enough to overcome this thing. But unfortunately, doctors always tried something new with me because nothing helped... They always gave me new medications, and nothing helped, my psychological state was already at the bottom. I was fighting and really trying to overlook all the side effects, but after a hair loss, that was simply too much. When I gave up all the medications, it was necessary to find an alternative treatment. Of course, we previously experimented with cannabis, but never in the large dose and never with a purpose. But now I had the purpose of using this alternative. After 2 weeks of treatment with THC and CBD, my hair began to grow back and all wounds were gone. Cramps have disappeared and the world was more beautiful. Of course, until epilepsy occurred. And because of the stress I experienced during this time, Chron's disease started again. Since it was now necessary to look after two diseases, I was really forced to find something that would calm both. I decided to treat Chrons disease with CBD alone so that I could see what it was all about. The cramps again slowly calmed down, but I still couldn't keep the food inside, so I was still losing weight. Since I was only taking epilepsy medicines during this time, I still had to add something that would slow down the chronic illness. And again, I tried THC. After a few days, the food got a taste again, at least 4 hours stayed in the stomach, and after a month I began to gain weight again.
Of course, for now, it's still not curable, but at least I know how to calm the disease. Unfortunately, with a little more stress, the disease appears again and then it doesn't help for a while. I didn't want to start treatment with medicines again, because I have a hope that cannabis will help. I didn't manage to stop the disease, but it helped me to sleep peacefully for at least three hours without pain. However, after two months, it all started to work, and the situation slowly calmed down. The first time when I slept the whole night, was the best day of the year. But because I was still bleeding from the intestine, we were forced to start treatment with biological medicines. But since I'm not 100 percent sure what stopped the bleeding, now I seriously think that I can stop medical treatment and only treat it with cannabis. I will continue to use pills for epilepsy, because, I still hope to stop attacks at least a little. But calming and maybe even healing illness with an alternative will always be a priority.
Something about Chron’s disease
The term inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is used for various chronic intestinal infections but the two most common diseases are Chron's disease and Ulcerative colitis. Genetic factors play an important role in the onset of disease, while environmental factors affect the course of the disease. These diseases have many common features, but there are also some differences.
In Ulcerative colitis, inflammation begins in the large intestine, usually in the rectum, and later spreads along the colon. At Chron's disease, any part of the digestive system can be affected. The basis of the disease is inflammation that affects all layers of the gastrointestinal tract. Both diseases can occur in early adolescent (between 10 and 20 years) or between the ages of 50 and 80. There are periods of acute outbreaks and so-called periods of disease remission, where the symptom are mild and suppressed.
This disease is spread all over the world. More often it occurs in developed countries than in underdeveloped. The symptoms of the illness include abdominal pain, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, general weakness, malabsorption, bleeding, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, ocular inflammation, and rheumatic changes.
Cannabis and healing?
Weakness, vomiting, and loss of appetite - symptoms, for which it has been known since the 1980s that they are successfully alleviating with cannabis. THC, a psychoactive cannabinoid, is often prescribed to patients after chemotherapy. The efficacy is associated with the influence of cannabinoids in the center of the brain that controls vomiting.
Fortunately, research of the healing effects of cannabis are significantly advancing, which means that the CBD and THC, are involved in more and more studies that investigate its therapeutic capabilities. Such research is supported by various societies, which are trying to improve the health of people suffering from gastrointestinal diseases, which also include IBDs. They found out that CBD and THC are reducing the size of the inflammation itself, and in some cases has even stopped the inflammation altogether.
A study in 2005 showed that cannabis is effective in cases of gastrointestinal diseases. Research has shown that cannabis influenced cannabinoid receptors in the intestines and brain, which led to effective treatment. Cannabinoid receptors can be found all over the body and they are forming what is known as the endocannabinoid system. These receptors activate numerous cannabinoids in the cannabis plant. The endocannabinoid system is partly composed of CB1 receptors which are found in the brain and intestine. It has been reported that these receptors help repair the colon when it's damaged. In one of the studies, the researchers deliberately damaged the intestinal tissue, causing inflammation, and then they added synthetic cannabinoids to the tissue, which resulted in the healing process.
CBD cannabinoid is mainly anti-inflammatory, and indirectly also THC. These and other cannabinoids are also important because of other properties that can influence the accompanying symptoms of Crohn's disease. For example, they are known by the treatment of pain, increasing appetite, alleviation of nausea and the reduction of cramps.
They started with the cultivation of different types of cannabis in which they’re trying to increase the antifungal and antibacterial properties of the CBD and THC for using in such purposes. Also, a recent study of Crohn's disease claims that not only that THC and CBD are calming the disease, but that it might even cure it.
But here is the thing
When we talk about the use of cannabis for medical purposes, we can't ignore the laws set by governments. Cannabis is still to often treated as a drug. But a lot of different specialists are considering that cannabis is more than that - it helps with many of the most serious diseases, relieves chronic pain, soothes symptoms of AIDS, alleviates muscle cramps, multiple sclerosis, cancer, glaucoma, epilepsy, anxiety disorders and positively treats depression. There is no doubt that it’s generally considered to be safer for the health of patients than prescribed chemicals. Prescription medicines, which otherwise patients take to treat the described diseases, have several side effects. According to some studies, about 17,000 people in the United States annually die due to an overdose of these drugs. On the other hand, overdosing with cannabis can't be physically possible because, according to the indicator of mortality, the user should smoke about 680 kilograms of cannabis in fifteen minutes in order to cause death.
And instead of finally regulating at least the field of cannabis cultivation for medical purposes and so helping patients, the public is divided and often manipulated with the arguments of both sides. So, we're all hoping for the best.
And finally, people started to understand the meaning of this amazing plant and that we can do great things with it.
I’m not done, I have a lot to say about this theme 😊 but in the meantime, if you want to read something --> Epilepsy and cannabis: @tinabrezpike/calming-diseases-with-cannabis-power-of-connection
Guys, thank you for reading and till next time 😉
In life, storms come not to hurt you but to make you stronger. - Debasish Mridha
With love, @tinabrezpike ❤