Yesterday was a lazy Saturday afternoon at our house. Sometimes on lazy weekends we end up getting involved in documentaries–or sometimes pseudo-documentaries–and we got involved in a 2+ hour show on the miracle of cannabis-derived medications. As with most things, it seems these days, the medical marijuana debate is heated and incredibly divisive. The sky is blue, you say? I don’t know, it almost looks a milky whitish-bluish color to me today. It truly seems like Americans can’t agree on anything anymore, especially if one were to try to gauge “typical American” mindset from election news coverage.
But I digress. In my younger years I didn’t really experiment with marijuana. I was the stereotypical good girl. But hey, what with battling MS and wanting to be open to trying any and all therapies that might be of some assistance, I sat down to watch the program. I learned that the chemical that gives the marijuana high, THC is just one of the chemical compounds in the cannabis plant. Another, CBD, or cannabidiol, is a non-psychoactive compound that seems to have plenty of benefits in treating a host of maladies, including MS.
As you can well imagine, a quick Google search for CBD brings a plethora of somewhat questionable websites. But according to www.projectcbd.org, not only is there research showing benefit to multiple sclerosis patients, but numerous cancers and autoimmune diseases, ALS, ADD and ADHD, depression, anxiety, and many other conditions are showing improvement when treated by CBD. This is something to look into.
I have to admit to a great deal of hesitation when I think about calling Dr. Burt’s office tomorrow to ask about their thoughts on CBD. I mean, Dr. Burt is like a rock star researcher in my book. I don’t want in any way for him or his team to think of me as a flake who would try anything. But if it’s true that the U.S. government holds a patent on a cannabis-related compound that may be specifically for researching its benefits on multiple sclerosis? That really does make me want to look into this whole thing. So I’ll try to think of a way to phrase my question to my nurse at Northwestern so that I don’t sound like a hippy flake. So if anyone has looked into the whole CBD thing, jot down a comment. I’d love to know more.
Be well.
BuildingABetterMe 