Search Results: diabetes (27)

Gaia Health

Worth Repeating

By Ron Marczyk, RN
OK, somebody please talk me off the ledge on this one…
It has already started… This is what a dying war on marijuana looks like.
The U.S. government is in an untenable position; the war on marijuana has failed completely, but the U.S. government also holds the sole medical marijuana patent ever granted, which proves that cannabinoids from cannabis are powerful medicines that can save thousands of lives annually and save the government billions of dollars in health costs, treating everything from cancer to neurological diseases. 
But after 75 years of misinformation and brainwashing the U.S. population, and the world, that marijuana is an evil drug that must be eliminated, how can it now do a 180 degree turn and sell marijuana as a medicine to the same population? The coming verbal somersaults will be amazing!

Marijuana.com


Advocates Applaud Scientific Advances, Decry Federal Interference in Medical Marijuana States
  
Research currently underway by GW Pharmaceuticals and the University of Buckingham has recently shown that some of the compounds found in marijuana can have a beneficial effect for people suffering from metabolic diseases associated with obesity.
In animal trials, it was discovered that these compounds acted as appetite suppressants, lowered cholesterol, decreased fat buildup, and improved insulin response to sugars. These qualities could be used to reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke associated with obesity, as well as aid in weight management programs.
 
GW Pharmaceuticals is already working on a variety of marijuana-based drugs for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, cancer pain, and other conditions. Most other research into the medical properties of marijuana has been stalled in the United States, thanks to the policies of the federal government, which discourages medical marijuana research and will only fund studies looking for dangers of cannabis, as opposed to its benefits.

OpCannabis

The online activist organization Anonymous has begun Phase 1 of OpCannabis, its effort to educate the public and work on behalf of cannabis legalization worldwide.
In announcing OpCannabis, which officially launches on April 20, Anonymous released the following statement:
Dear Citizens of the World
For far too long cannabis has been oppressed by big corporations, big pharma and governments when it could be benefiting all of mankind on many different levels. We have heard and we have watched your government lie and deceive you on all the dangers of cannabis. Show support by making your profile pictures green this April 20th on your social network profiles.
OpCannabis phase 1, initiated. We are Anonymous…..Expect us.

Worth Repeating
By Ron Marczyk, R.N.
Health Education Teacher (Retired)

A new understanding of the neurobiology of cannabis is emerging, namely the “endocannabinoid induced aerobic bliss state,” or simply the endocannabinoid runners’ high.

For users of medical marijuana, a new use for this miracle plant is at hand: its ability to produce “the psychology of exercise motivation.”
“Recent findings show that exercise increases serum concentrations of endocannabinoids, a result suggestive of a new possible explanation for a number of these changes. The cannabinoids produce psychological states that closely parallel several experiences described as being related to the runner’s high. Compared with the opioid analgesics, the analgesia produced by the endocannabinoid system is more consistent with exercise induced analgesia. Activation of the endocannabinoid system also produces sedation, anxiolysis, a sense of wellbeing, reduced attentional capacity, impaired working memory ability, and difficulty in time estimation. This behavioural profile is similar to the psychological experiences reported by long distance runners.” ~ From Endocannabinoids and Exercise / Br J Sports Med. 2004 October

Rollitup

​Scientists have discovered that blocking a marijuana-like chemical in the brain drastically increases fat burn, allowing people (OK, in the study it was mice) to eat more and exercise less without gaining weight.

University of California Irvine pharmacology professor Daniele Piomelli and his colleagues found a way to breed mice who had naturally low levels of the endocannabinoid 2-AG, reports Dennis Romero at LA Weekly. “These modified mice ate more and moved less than typical mice, but did not gain any weight, even when they were fed a high-fat diet,” the researchers noted.
Now, while that may sound as if a cannabinoid-blocking pill would allow you to eat all the junk food you want, not exercise, and still not gain any weight, you might wanna hold off just a minute before stocking your freezer with Klondike bars.

The Dangerous Servant

By Bob Starrett
Of all the baloney that has come out of the various battles in medical marijuana states, the notion that “anyone” can get a medical marijuana recommendation from a doctor is the scariest to legislators who are considering medical marijuana bills in their states this year.
In 2012, 17 states have pending medical marijuana legislation. And you can be sure that this argument — that chronic pain is used as a catchall for doctors to hand out medical marijuana recommendations to “anyone” — will come into play as it has in Montana and New Jersey.
In an apparent attempt to prevent wholesale stoned-ness among the citizenry, New Jersey specifically excluded chronic pain as an eligible condition in their legislation.
Last year, the Montana Legislature, having failed in their attempts to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law entirely, made significant changes that included specific doctor rules for a chronic pain diagnosis. A recommending physician must have either x-rays or an MRI to back up the diagnosis. If they do not, a second physician must sign the “Physician Statement for a Chronic Pain Diagnosis.” It is a separate form.

UCSF
Hector Vizoso, RN, left, and Donald Abrams, MD, prepare a cannabis vaporizer for inpatient use at San Francisco General Hospital & Trauma Center’s Clinical Research Center.

​A medical study suggests patients with chronic pain could experience more relief if their doctors added cannabinoids — the main ingredients in cannabis or medical marijuana — to an opiates-only treatment. The findings, from a small-scale study at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), also suggest that a combined therapy could result in reduced opiate dosages.

More than 76 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. That’s more people than have diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined, according to the National Centers for Health Statistics.

SportsxInjury

​When you injure yourself playing a sport, why cover up the injury when you can actually start the healing process? 

Treatment Trends
By Ben Reagan
Co-Founder, The C.P.C
Weekend warriors, serious athletes, obsessive golfers, all ye with active lifestyles, if you’re reading this article you probably have first-hand experience with the side effects associated with opiate narcotics, analgesics, muscle relaxants, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) typically prescribed for sports injuries or the wear and tear from a lifetime of “staying fit” or “playing hard.”
Take opiates (please), which interrupt pain signaling to the brain by flooding pain receptors with damping effects. The long term effect is a down regulation of endogenous opiate production. 
Technically speaking, “this down regulation appears to have cross over effects across the pituitary gland and hypothalamus, triggering something called panhypopituitarism, with symptoms of fatigue, obesity, diabetes, insomnia, depression, GI inhibition and decreased libido often resulting,” according to Dr. Zach Sparer of Green Wellness.

Photo: Geoff Pugh/The Telegraph
Ben Whalley, middle, with Dr Gary Stephens and Dr Claire Williams of Reading University at a secret cannabis farm in the south of England in the hope of producing a new treatment for epilepsy

​Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.

Worth Repeating

By Ron Marczyk, R.N.

An overwhelming amount of very promising research has been gathered supporting the use of medical cannabis for many illnesses and diseases… and the evidence is now impossible to ignore.

Examples:
“The endogenous cannabinoid system has revealed potential avenues to treat many disease states … Medicinal indications of cannabinoid drugs including compounds that result in enhance endocannabinoid responses (EER) have expanded markedly in recent years.”
“The wide range of indications covers … chemotherapy complications, tumor growth, addiction, pain, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, inflammation, eating disorders, age-related neurodegenerative disorders, as well as epileptic seizures, traumatic brain injury, cerebral ischemia, and other excitotoxic insults.”
Source: “Cannabinoid drugs and enhancement of endocannabinoid responses: strategies for a wide array of disease states,” Current Molecular Medicine, September 2006

Photo: The Julius Axelrod Papers
Dr. Julius Axelrod, pictured above, conducted some of the original research which culminated in the United States government getting a patent on all cannabinoids in 2003.

​​​Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.


Worth Repeating
By Ron Marczyk, R.N.

Health Education Teacher (Retired)

The United States federal government holds a “medical patent” for all cannabinoids — a patent which it has held since 2003.
Let’s take a look at the rationale behind this patent, and highlight the good news it actually contains for disease prevention, medical treatment and for cannabis legalization.
This patent was the outcome from research conducted by:
• Dr. Aiden J. Hampson, a neuropharmacologist at the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland 
• Dr. Julius Axelrod (1912-2004), Professor Emeritus, National Institutes of Health, pharmacologist and neuroscientist who shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine
• Dr. Maurizio Grimaldi, professor of neurology/neuropsychopharmacology and toxicology, NIMH
Here’s how it all went down in 1998.