After extensive studies, reputable claims have been made about the potential benefits of medical marijuana usage for those who suffer from certain illnesses. While declarative statements of direct causation can be made in regard to medical marijuana’s interaction with the agonists of all illnesses, strong correlations have shown a relationship with multiple positive prognoses.
Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
In the March of 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a report concerning scientific analyses of marijuana and its consistent use. In the report, the Institute of Medicine determined that there was promising-evidence to believe in the potential for marijuana to treat AIDS patients’ wasting syndrome symptoms.
The Institute found that pain, appetite loss, anxiety and nausea, all commonly manifesting symptoms from wasting syndrome, can in some effect be mitigated through medical marijuana use. While the institute did not go so far as claiming marijuana to be the best possible recourse, it did note that there was also variance in the effectiveness of conventional prescription medications for wasting syndrome.
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Alzheimer’s Disease
In an article published in the Aging and Mechanism of Disease journal, an interesting interaction between THC and Alzheimer’s was examined. Observations of a clinical study showed that beta-amyloid, a protein linked to the emergence of Alzheimer’s disease, is removed due to reaction triggered by THC in the body. A lower beta-amyloid count indicates a lower potential amount of plaque-forming protein mass accumulation in the brain.
Alcoholism
In the year 2004, Dr. Tod Mikuriya, MD conducted a study to examine the effectiveness of marijuana as a substitute for those suffering from alcoholism. The study involved 92 participants in total, and the results showed that nearly all of them found marijuana to be either “effective” or “very effective” as a treatment option. Out of the 92 participants, 9 reported that they would confidently attribute their ability to achieve complete abstinence from alcoholism to their cannabis use.
Insomnia
One of the most common medical purposes that individuals elect to seek out marijuana for is sleep aid. Though there have been conflicting studies questioning the influence of marijuana on the overall quality of the sleep that it induces, a great many users have reported being more capable of achieving long-sought rest after self-medicating with it. Rather than relied on as a crutch for deep sleep, THC can more effectively be used to treat stints of sleeplessness and restore circadian rhythm.
Anorexia Nervosa
For those whose neural imbalances trigger unhealthy feelings of anxiety toward food, marijuana has been posited as potential treatment option. Though anorexia nervosa can be devastating in its effect on a patient’s appetite for necessary sustenance, those with the condition may be self-aware of its distortion and still may struggle to correct it through willpower alone.
Using positron emission tomography, scientists from the Universiteit Leuven in Belgium found that thirty women with either anorexia or bulimia each had a highly under-active endocannabinoid system. THC’s regulation of an under-active endocannabinoid system in the brain may serve as means of leveraging symptoms of anxiety associated with eating.
Depression
Researchers at the University of Buffalo have researched the efficacy of medical marijuana as a potential depression treatment option. Their research has majorly concerned depression resulting from unmitigated stress, and the observations have shown a correlation between stress levels and the brain’s natural endocannabinoid production rate. THC supplementation, in theory, could leverage an underproduction of endocannabinoids caused by stress, lowering the intensity of depressive symptoms.
