- Make It Yourself Lavender Heart-Shaped Bath Bombs!
- 20 Things You Never Knew About “Down There”
- 12 Best Foods For Those Suffering From Arthritis Pain
- 12 Personal Hygiene Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes (Mom Never Told You About #4!)
- 15 Medicinal Plants And Herbs From The Cherokee People
- 12 Mind-Blowing Benefits Of Drinking Coconut Water During Pregnancy
- 12 Outstanding Winter Foods That Won’t Fatten You Up Like A Christmas Turkey
Understanding the Problems Behind Using Cannabis to Fight Cancer
Photo credit: bigstock
1. Quality
Unless you live in an area where medical marijuana is standardized, there is the matter of where the plant is grown and prepared, as these things can vastly affect the amount of active chemicals found in the plant, and thus, how much is available for the body to use.
SEE ALSO: Is Your Marijuana Laced with Pesticides?
2. Type
If you have any experience with marijuana at all, you know that there are dozens of different types of plants and there is no set standard for which type (and whether natural or synthetic) is the most effective and/or which types of cancer best respond to which type of marijuana.
3. Dosage
This is perhaps the biggest factor. There is no known set amount that will work best. Should you smoke it, eat it, use cannabis oil, or tinctures? Any of these methods will have a variable dose, which makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to measure the intake. This is why many researchers are trying to use alternative dosing methods such as using whole-plant extracts that contain a specific amount of cannabinoids. This whole plant extract would be a spray that you use under your tongue. The dosage would be exact, but this is still in the experimental stages.
4. Side Effects
Although it’s believed that natural cannabinoids are safe, they are not risk free. Cannabinoids sometimes increase a person’s heart rate and might interact with other drugs, especially antihistamines and antidepressants. They might also affect the way that chemotherapy drugs work in the body.
There is a great deal of interesting research being done about what role cannabinoids will most likely take in the fight against cancer. There need to be more studies done and more individual stories offered, with detailed notes, about how they used cannabis to cure their own cancer or other chronic diseases.
References:
Scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org
Targeting CB2-GPR55 receptor heteromers modulates cancer cell signaling, Estefanía Moreno, et al., J Biol Chem, published online 18 June 2014.
