Question: How can marijuana THC and Hemp CBD treat Glaucoma?
Answer: Cannabis treats all eye disorders very successfully with regular use. Glaucoma is a medical qualifying condition to obtain a medical marijuana card in Arizona and every medical marijuana state.
Glaucoma is a common eye condition that causes optical nerve damage. This eye disease affects three million Americans, globally the figure is close to 60 million. Glaucoma is recognized as one of the leading causes of irreversible blindness. Evidence increasingly suggests glaucoma is considered to be a neurodegenerative condition. Glaucoma has a connection to other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease. A precise cause of glaucoma remains a mystery to elude the scientific community.
Treatment options are based on reducing the intraocular pressure that influences onset and progression. In fact, the only way to prevent vision loss or eventual blindness is to lower the intraocular pressure (IOP) to a safe level to halt damage caused by the high pressure levels.
To understand how cannabis works to treat disease one needs a little knowledge of the Human Endocannabinoid System (ECS). The ECS consists of cannabinoid receptors located throughout your body. When these receptors are deprived of cannabinoids, we get chronic health conditions. Each time we use cannabis products the receptors fill up, treating and often reversing disease over time. With glaucoma, cannabis lowers the intraocular pressure.
Historically THC (the psychoactive cannabinoid) reduces eye pressure 25-30%. The only way to get THC was to smoke cannabis every few hours to keep eye pressure down. When we smoke cannabis, we receive only 10% of what the plant has to offer.
Here are how two of our patients use cannabis to treat glaucoma:
Nancy is 101-year-old women who is blind from glaucoma. The drops her doctor gave her burned her eyes with each use and gave her headaches. At the suggestion of a family member she decided to try a cannabis treatment. She tried to inhale cannabis, but it made her dizzy. Instead, her caregiver cooked her day- time cannabis (Sativa) with butter in a small crockpot and her nighttime cannabis (Indica) in a second crock pot. Cooking on low and slow up to 30 hours all the medicine in the plant transfers to the butter. She strained the mixture to separate the butter from the plant. She then purchased two box mixes from the grocery store, a blueberry muffin mix and a brownie mix. The daytime canna butter was used to make blueberry muffins in the very small cup cake pans and the nighttime canna butter was used to make brownies. Nancy ate a small muffin each morning with breakfast and a small brownie after diner each night. Nancy said the difference is now she can see her husbands face where before she could not.
Alex is 67 years old. His father and both brothers went blind from glaucoma. He grinds his cannabis flowers in a coffee mill and puts it into a pepper shaker. He shakes cannabis on everything he eats starting with his cereal in the morning. This gives Alex enough relief he can work, and his glaucoma has not progressed in 10 years.
When we eat cannabis, we feel relief for 10-12 hours without feeling high from the THC. If we do not heat the plant above boiling point, there is no psychoactivity.
This article is provided by MJ Consulting LLC as information, not medical advice. Call if you or your doctor has questions or attend a free class every Monday.
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