How marijuana helps cancer patients

Marijuana has been used as an herb in different cultures in the past for many centuries. Even though scientists have identified that it has biologically active components, research has been limited due to the fact that it is illegal.

The fact that Marijuana has remained illegal in almost all the countries in the world has limited the research on its medical applications and its medicinal effects.

Due to the increased interest in its healing powers, some studies have been carried out even though limited to humans and are said to have had positive results on how marijuana can help cancer patients.

There are three chemically pure drugs based on cannabis compounds that have been approved in the US for use by cancer patients.

This is a capsule that contains delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat nausea, and loss of appetite and weight which is caused by chemotherapy treatment.

This is a synthetic cannabinoid that acts like THC and can be taken as a pill to treat nausea and vomiting which are side effects of chemotherapy.

This is a cannabinoid drug that is still being studied in the US to see if it can help in other medical cases. It is a mouth spray that is made up of whole plant extracts with THC and cannabidiol in one mix.

Marijuana drugs are currently available in Canada and parts of Europe and are used to treat pain caused by cancer and muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis.

These are some of the ways Marijuana can help cancer patients:

Pain Relief

Marijuana tends to work similarly to the strongest pain relievers which can also be called Opioids for people living with cancer related pains.

Marijuana also has anti-inflammatory effects that tend to help with the pain. For some cancer patients, their treatments include opioid and medical marijuana.

Neuropathy

Neuropathy is commonly known as nerve damage in layman's language and is a complication that arises due to chemotherapy and other forms of cancer treatments.

Nerve damage is characterized by feelings of numbness, tingling, burning in the hands and feet, and weakness. Medical marijuana helps to relieve the pain caused by nerve damage by relaxing the nerves so that one does not feel pain for a couple of hours.

Nausea and Vomiting

Many cancer patients experience nausea which is a side effect of chemotherapy. Even though there are many drugs that treat this, dronabinol, which is a synthetic cannabinoid, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration helps in controlling this side effect.

Anti-neoplastic

Marijuana is said to be effective in slowing down, and in some cases, stopping the growth of certain tumors. There has been one small human trial to this effect to date, but other studies show an association between recreational use of marijuana and the development of different types of cancers.

Anorexia or cachexia

Marijuana is popular for stimulating appetite which is popularly known as having munchies. This effect is due in large part to the action of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which has in several studies been confirmed to be present in over 100 types of marijuana.

Cancer patients who take the THC in the form of dronabinol have a slow weight loss and have increased appetite.

Depending on the type of cancer one has, about 50 to 80 percent of cancer patients tend to develop cachexia which is a disproportionate loss of lean body tissue.

This occurs mostly during the final stages of advanced prostate cancer, lung cancer and pancreatic cancer.