Asthma:

The use of marijuana as a treatment for asthma has many advocates and opponents, because research on humans and lab animals shows possible benefits in some people but adverse effects in others. Marijuana has a tendency to intensify physical responses and psychological feelings, bringing about varied results among different people. There may be short-term benefits but long-term difficulties when asthmatics smoke marijuana. But many experts believe more research is necessary says one medical marijuana doctor in orlando florida. Eight people with asthma were induced with bronchial spasms through chemical inhalation in some sessions and bicycle exercise on other sessions, according to a study published in the American Review of Respiratory Disease. The subjects receiving placebo marijuana had a gradual recovery during 30 to 60 minutes. The people who received actual marijuana recovered immediately, reported the researchers. The primary active ingredient in marijuana, may cause modest short-term expansion of the air passages. But regular use of marijuana may lead to long-term consequences such as chronic cough and possible airway inflammation. Experts have been changing their minds too — recently, many medical experts have reversed their opinion on medical marijuana law in surround areas. While recreational pot usage is controversial, many people agree with this new stance, and believe that the drug should be legal for medical uses. And even though the benefits of smoking pot may be overstated by advocates of marijuana legalization, new laws will help researchers study the drug’s medicinal uses and better understand how it impacts the body. There are at least two active chemicals in marijuana that researchers think have medicinal applications. Those are cannabidiol (CBD) — which seems to impact the brain without a high— and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — which has pain relieving (and other) properties. Also keep in mind that some of these health benefits can potentially be gained by taking THC pills like Dronabinol, a synthetic form of THC, which in some ways might be more effective than smoked marijuana.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

One of the ways scientists think it may help with pain is by reducing inflammation, a component of painful illnesses like rheumatoid arthritis. A preliminary study of 58 patients with RA, roughly half of whom were given a placebo and roughly half of whom were given a cannabis-based medicine called Sativex, found “statistically significant improvements in pain on movement, pain at rest, quality of sleep” for patients on Sativex. Other studies testing both other cannabinoid products and inhaled marijuana have shown similar pain-relieving effects, according to the report.

Crohn’s

Some people with inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis could also benefit from marijuana use, studies suggest. A 2014 paper, for example, describes two studies of people with chronic Crohn’s in which half were given the drug and half were given a placebo. That study showed a decrease in symptoms in 10 of 11 subjects using cannabis, compared with just four of 10 on the placebo. It may throw off your balance, as it influences activity in the cerebellum and basal ganglia, two brain areas that help regulate balance, coordination, reaction time, and posture. Feeling as if time is sped up or slowed down is one of the most commonly reported effects of using marijuana. A 2012 paper sought to draw some more solid conclusions from some of the studies on those anecdotal reports, but it was unable to do so. “Even though 70% of time estimation studies report overestimation, the findings of time production and time reproduction studies remain inconclusive,” the paper said. In a 1998 study that used magnetic resonance imaging to focus on the brains of volunteers on THC, the authors noted that many had altered blood flow to the cerebellum, which most likely play a role in our sense of time. says Florida medical marijuana professionals. Limitations on what sort of marijuana research is allowed make it particularly difficult to study this sort of effect. A case of the munchies is no figment of the imagination — both casual and heavy marijuana users tend to overeat when they smoke. Marijuana may effectively flip a circuit in the brain that is normally responsible for quelling the appetite, triggering us to eat instead, according to a recent study of mice. It all comes down to a special group of cells in the brain that are normally activated after we have eaten a big meal to tell us we’ve had enough. The psychoactive ingredient in weed appears to activate just one component of those appetite-suppressing cells, making us feel hungry rather than satisfied says medical marijuana doctors in sarasota florida. But one study from the Netherlands suggests that smoking weed could raise the risk of depression for young people who already have a special serotonin gene that could make them more vulnerable to depression. Those findings are bolstered by which found moderate evidence that cannabis use was linked to a small increased risk of depression. On the one hand, nearly half of cannabis users say that their goal is to relax. Yet many people are also familiar with the marijuana freak-out, or have seen a paranoid friend disappear from a party because they “just can’t handle it, it’s too much, man.” So what gives? The simple answer is that feelings of panic probably mean someone has had too much — especially if they pulled and ate an edible without knowing what they were getting into. Knowing how much is too much can be hard said one medical marijuana doctor in jacksonville florida, and a new study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence shows just how easy it is to overshoot the target. The study investigates the amount of cannabis that can push someone from relaxed to anxious, and suggests that the quantity that helps people relax is actually pretty small.  Marijuana is dose dependent — the more someone uses, the stronger the effects. To figure out the ideal quantity for promoting relaxation, the researchers selected 42 volunteers between the ages of 18 and 40, all of whom were familiar with cannabis but not daily users. They split them into three groups, giving either a low dose (7.5 milligrams of THC, the cannabinoid in marijuana that’s mostly responsible for the high), high dose (12.5 mg), or placebo dose. We found that THC at low doses reduced stress, while higher doses had the opposite effect, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University and an author of the study, said in a press release. People on the low dose reported being more relaxed than those on the placebo, and their stress levels dissipated more quickly after the tasks. But people on the high doses paused more in the job interview and reported the tasks to be stressful, challenging, and threatening. Those differences, however, were just in how people perceived the events. Physical stress markers like heart rate, blood pressure, and hormone levels were equal for all groups. “The doses used in the study produce effects that are equivalent to only a few puffs of a cannabis cigarette. In other words, a few hits of a joint or bowl is enough to hit the low dose. And just a few more hits could easily bring THC levels in line with the “high” dose. The Cannabist has calculated the amount of THC people get from an average joint. According to a study cited in their analysis, an average joint weighs about .32 grams. They say that smoking half of that would give users 9 to 11 mg of THC, assuming that about the same amount of THC would just burn off. That’s right in between the “low” and “high” doses used in the study.

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