The Many Benefits of Cannabis
The medical community in many countries is recognizing the benefits of cannabis and encouraging its use for medicinal purposes. Many people report positive results when they ingest cannabis, including alleviation of common ailments including chronic pain, cancer and glaucoma. There are numerous reported health benefits of cannabis, but is it really true?
Let's start with the most obvious: it is an intoxicating drug with known very real, harmful side effects. The primary known side effect is that it causes drowsiness. It also causes loss of appetite and leads to nausea. Users may also experience body changes, including weight loss, coordination difficulties, slurred speech, lack of focus, impaired thinking and memory and feelings of paranoia. There are also some rare but severe side effects such as seizures, hallucinations, panic attacks, severe nausea, convulsions, respiratory failure and extreme tiredness or even death. That's quite a lot to deal with, especially when you consider that most of these can be avoided by using other methods!
Some other well-known medicinal uses for cannabis are in chemotherapy, AIDS and HIV treatment, osteoporosis, diabetes, epilepsy, herpes and psoriasis. There are also Reports of its beneficial use as a cough suppressant for children with sore throats. The scientific studies on the medicinal use of cannabis are still emerging. For this reason, the Canadian Medical Association has published a statement saying that the use of cannabis "should only be considered with due caution". In the US, the National Institute of Health has issued statements saying that there is "no evidence currently available" to support the claimed medical benefits of cannabis.
The benefits of cannabis are also being recognized by the Canadian government. It has become a popular replacement for smoked marijuana. Canadian users have reported a number of beneficial side effects from drinking cannabis. Many users also report feeling less "high" after consuming cannabis. This is believed to be due to reduced THC levels (tetrahydrocannabis), which has an intoxicating effect.
One interesting bit of historical perspective is the documented evidence that ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians and the Chinese used cannabis for medical purposes. Both of these cultures used medical cannabis and were known to have longer life spans than those of their Western counterparts. The Chinese and the Egyptians were not known for having a tobacco market. Therefore, there is no obvious reason why they would use a cannabis product to treat chronic illnesses when it was freely available to them at very affordable prices.
Cancer is yet another purported benefit. Though conclusive research has not been done on this, many believe that cannabis has an anti-tumor effect. Some of the purported benefits include; the alleged ability to reduce tumors, and increase the patient's energy. This is also backed by the fact that the Canadian Government lists marijuana as one of the safest prescription drugs, along with ibuprofen and aspirin.
In some countries, smoking cannabis is against the law. However, this is in the minority. A more important benefit to smoking, or smoking weed in general, is the relaxation of the mind. Many who partake in smoking cannabis do so because they find themselves calm and detached from everyday life. They often say that they forget to worry about anything else. This is a benefit in its own right!
The list of benefits of cannabis is very long. We are all aware that many of the "benefits" touted are purely fanciful. However, if we were to eliminate all the things that aren't considered benefits, the list would still be very long. Therefore, the choice to use this or that is entirely up to you. You are free to try different things until you find a method that works for you. However, keep in mind that the results that you get from the various methods vary greatly.
Ashwagandha is an evergreen shrub that grows in Asia and Africa. It is commonly used for stress. There is little evidence for its use as an "adaptogen."
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