Hydrolife Magazine August/September 2016 (USA Edition)

grow heal
“Cannabis can remove harmful stimuli and help to begin the process of healing
the damaged tissues that can result from arthritis.”
More recently (June 2015) here in the US, the Obama administration
removed the Public Health Service (PHS) review, which
had previously made available funding for research into the
health benefits of medicinal cannabis use extremely scarce
and difficult to obtain. This will also increase the amounts
of cannabis that researchers can have on hand at
any given time during their study. Ironically, this
same review initiated during the Clinton presidency
was intended to make research funds available
to start looking into the health benefits of cannabis.
Its cumbersomeness ended up creating unintended
roadblocks and impediments for researchers. Researchers
Fabian Hernandez and Sathees Chandra
of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of
Nursing and Health Sciences at Barry University, stated
in a 2016 article in the Journal of Experimental and Integrative
Medicine that this removal “will initiate the next
generation of research on cannabis. By permitting more
federal funding and access to samples, the medicinal
benefit and their bio-molecular pathways will be better
understood… as federal funding for cannabis research
increases all over the world, a better understanding
of these healing benefits will be reached.” Hernandez
and Chandra cite the undeniable evidence of the benefits of
cannabis to sufferers of not only RA, but other inflammatory
ailments as well as its benefits to those afflicted with anything
from insomnia, broken bones and cancer.
It seems as if there is hope for those suffering from the painful
effects of rheumatoid arthritis to be found from CBMs.
Physicians, though, are still obligated to counsel
against their use as a first response. Factors such as
a patient’s past recreational use of cannabis, their history
of addiction and family history of mental and psychoactive
disorders must all be taken into account before
a health professional will likely prescribe a cannabisbased
pharmaceutical for sufferers of RA.
Chris Bond is the horticulturist at Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and host of
the Keeping It Green radio program. His primary
role is co-ordinator of the university’s Farm Food
Program, but Chris also teaches classes about
growing food. His research interests are sustainable
agriculture and alternative growing methods.
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grow. heal. live. enjoy.
myhydrolife.com