Cannabis – is it Medicine?

So I had a discussion yesterday about cannabis as medicine. So today’s tip of the day includes a little bit of a chemistry lesson in regards to Cannabis. At a recent class I explained that if you were choosing to smoke pot as medicine that you needed to try to protect the body from any free radical damage. 

Not all of us make the healthiest of choices, including myself who is

addicted to cigarettes – many of us rely on meds for sleeping or a glass of wine after dinner to relax, not a good healthy choice but until God helps us make those better choices the idea is to try and protect ourselves, if possible, until the time we become SMARTER. As a matter of fact NOT being judgmental of others is VERY GOOD MEDICINE – to be 100% healthy we need to achieve balance MIND, BODY and SPIRIT.

First of all a “Free Radical” is a cell with an uneven number of molecules (this is over simplified scientifically but makes it easier to understand). Our bodies cannot make new cells with an uneven number of molecules so they become toxic. With me so far?

The term “Antioxidant” literally means to remove one molecule of oxygen for instance if you had a cell with 5 molecules (free radical) and you knock off 1 oxygen then you have 4 molecules…now you have a cell that you can USE OR LOOSE, in simple terms now it has the potential to be useful or can be passed through the bodies detoxification channels (sweat, urine or feces)

Cannabis

SMOKED: (2 oxygen + 21 Carbon + 9 THC) = 31 molecules; this of course is a free radical, it is the toxins that cause a mind altering reaction (you get high!).

I am not judgmental, I personally don’t care to be in an altered state of mind so I don’t smoke pot nor do I drink. Many people will smoke pot as an alternative to taking Psychiatric medications like Prozac for calming, and some will smoke pot as an alternative to pain. Each of us should be allowed to make those choices but in my mind I believe they should also understand the science behind those choices, so they understand the potential consequences.

The second reason that I personally don’t recommend smoking pot is that the lungs easily attract to the resin in pot when smoked, this means that your lungs have plenty of free radicals available in them. If you combine 2 free radicals (31 + 31 = 62 molecules), now the body is able to reproduce new cells with that even number making cells “Un-natural” to the body, the medical profession calls this Cancer! Of course this is a complex mechanism and would also be dependent on how strong your immune system is, but you get the idea.

VAPORIZER (3 Water + 9 THC) = 12 molecules. Again because of the THC that crosses that blood brain barrier this too will still alter your state of mind, which simply means that you are still mentally impaired but CAN protect your lungs from free radical damage. A lot of chronically ill people and cancer patients chose to use pot versus prescription medications so if this is their choice they can at least make an attempt to protect those lungs.

TINCTURE (9 Alcohol + 21 Carbon + 9THC + 3 Water) = 42 molecules. This would be one of my preferences in using Cannabis as medicine. It is very effective as an alternate for pain medications and has a calming effect WITHOUT impairing your judgment (it will not get you high). Because of the relaxing effect it may make some feel sleepy so some people do well with tincture as an alternative for sleeping medications as well.

TEA (3 Water + 9 THC) = 12 molecules
TEA WITH PEPPERMINT (3 Water + 9 THC + 6 Peppermint, Acreolic Acid) = 18 molecules
Tea has wonderful muscle relaxing effects again, without impairment of mental state. It acts on the autonomic nervous system which allows relaxation from mental and physical stress. Many Cancer patients that are on chemotherapy have trouble with nausea, heightened by the fact that they are stressed and fearful of the cancer disease itself and do well drinking cannabis tea. The addition of the Peppermint to Cannabis tea helps to calm the nausea to allow people to eat, one of the biggest problems with chemotherapy is extreme weight loss due to no appetite and not being able to keep food down.