Medical Cannabis – a breakthrough in severe symptom relief – and reportedly even more.
I recently attended a medical cannabis course, given by ACNEM* that was founded by acclaimed international medical nutritionist, Prof Ian Brighthope, founder of the Nutrition Care range of nutraceuticals.
*Australian Council of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine.
Prof. Brighthope opened the weekend course and introduced us to a wide range of guest speakers, all experts in their fields.
As a humble pharmacist/clinical nutritionist/herbalist/naturopath, I was astonished at the advances that have been made in research in this very exciting field of relieving previously medically unreachable conditions.
Thought by anthropologists to have originated in the Himalaya region, the cannabis plant has been found to have astounding properties.
It has over 700 active constituents all with their own properties, including PEA, mentioned elsewhere in this website and that is also found in palm trees.
The main active constituents found in cannabis are THC (tetrahydrocannabiol) and CBD (cannabidiol).
Also found to be produced in humans and animal species, and called endocannabinoids, this same family of plant substances are activated like endorphins, when your body is challenged by a trauma. This endocannabinoid system is known as the ECS.
That’s right, we can make our own! And the whole subject is so taboo that this discovery was unknown until fairly recently. In fact, it is believed by researchers that you if you have unusual pain or loss of neural control (such as in some types of epilepsy) then you may even have an endocannabinoid deficiency.
So, the “endos” are thought to help control your internal self-help, health regulatory (homoeostatic) response. That’s right – the enzymes that make them are found in the ends and joins of nerves.
Endocannabinoid deficiency
We can explore the underlying cause of this deficiency a little later, but for now I would like to focus on what to do about this issue in the short term.
Undue pain or chronic health condition
Did you know that, right now, as a chronically ill person, you may apply to a medical practitioner to have your case assessed for cannabinoid deficiency. That’s right – pain from cancer or spasms from some forms of Multiple Sclerosis, among other illnesses, are well treated with different ratios of the cannabis constituents.**
**Medical Cannabis Education: Sydney, Sept 8&9 2018, Four Points by Sheraton, 88 Broadway, Chippendale Sydney, NSW 2008.
Other treatments that are supportive of patients receiving medical cannabis include frequency specific microcurrent for pain relief***, specific vitamin C/bioflavonoid/mineral blends and various herbal concentrates.
***www.microcurrent-painrelief.com.au/content/FSM-mouse-research.pdf
Dose variation
It was mentioned by one of the expert presenters that some people need much higher doses than others to achieve the same effect.
This might be due to either different rates of activity of the endos (that you make yourself), logically from a trace element deficiency, or a genetic tendency in some individuals producing the same effect.
Underlying causes
It was thought at the seminar’s question time, that deficiencies of particular micro-nutrients may be responsible, in part at least, for inactivity of the enzymes that got to make endos and then break them down after use. Proudly, we believe that we have that issue covered with the new Wade range of food supplements that contain all 105 elements that cannot be self-made and that are needed from the diet but which is deficient in these****.
****www.abs.gov.au/…/4364.0.55.008~2011-12~Main%20Features~Key%20findings~10…
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