While we may not fully put the synthetic vs. natural marijuana debate to rest, we can at least provide with you some convincing arguments and facts in favor of the latter.
Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy have had access to FDA-approved synthetic THC pills to combat chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, a common side effect of the treatment. These pills commonly referred to and sold as Marinol and Cesamet have been available for over 20 years now, but a study shows that many patients prefer medical marijuana for four commonly cited reasons.
Advantages of self-titration with the smoked marijuana
Unable to swallow pills while experiencing nausea
Faster onset for the inhaled or injected THC than oral delivery.
A combination of the action of other cannabinoids with THC that are found in marijuana.
Let’s skip to point two. The debate for oral synthetic THC vs. smoked marijuana has been the topic of discussion for years. In a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine, they noted that patients who are already dealing with extreme and severe symptoms of nausea and vomiting find the pill to be ineffective because of the inability to swallow or keep the pill down.
Essentially, research suggests that trying to swallow a pill when you already feel sick runs the risk of regurgitation.
Photo by Caiaimage/Sam Edwards/Getty Images
Now to point three. A study from the American Cancer Society shows that the THC pill takes hours to absorb fully, thus taking too long to provide immediate and, sometimes, desperate relief. When cannabis is smoked or vaporized, THC enters the bloodstream faster, reacts with your body’s cell receptors quickly and triggers the brain to settle and calm your stomach, in minutes.
The ACS study also shows that ingesting a pill means that it travels through your digestive tract and broken down by the liver, proving this process less effective for battling an upset stomach.
Finally, A 2015 study from the United Patient’s Group concluded that “inhaled marijuana achieves superior results in reducing nausea and vomiting” because the body is able to absorb it more quickly since it’s similar to the cannabinoids the body already produces.
So while we may have not fully put the synthetic vs. natural marijuana debate to rest, we can at least provide with you some convincing arguments and facts in favor of the latter. You be the judge.
Access to medical marijuana appears to improve the health of some patients, even reducing their alcohol intake, according to new research.
As marijuana legalization begins to pick up speed, a new study finds that state laws need to treat medical marijuana more like accessible health care.
The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, analyzed data from the years 1993 through 2013. These surveys and responses were compiled by the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which receives around 300,000 submissions a year. The surveys, which are developed by the Centers for Disease Control and other state health departments, ask people to self-report their mental and physical health and the fluctuations they experience on a daily basis.
The findings were published in the journal Forum for Health Economics and Policy, and suggest that responses from subjects improved slightly if they lived in a state with medical marijuana laws (MMLs). “A MML alone increased the probability of reporting very good or better health by 1.7 percentage points and reduced the number of days with mental health problems by 0.114 days (or 3%), while dispensaries show little effect,” explained the study’s authors.
However, when researchers accounted for people’s access to dispensaries, they found that those who lived with chronic pain saw large improvements in their overall health when. It’s not enough for states to just legalize medical marijuana, they need to also make it easy for patients to obtain it.
The study also found that legal medical cannabis and having access to dispensaries reduced the probability of being a heavy drinker by 0.03% and the probability of being a risky drinker by 0.8%.
While the study can only suggest connections between legalizing marijuana and health, one theory is that when people who suffer from chronic conditions have access to legal marijuana, they choose to supplement their treatments with it, perhaps even discarding opioids and the negative side effects that they’re associated with.
Not only is fibromyalgia a painful medical condition, it can have a negative impact on an individual’s well-being and daily life.
Fibromyalgia is a chronic medical disorder that causes fatigue and muscle pain, and affects roughly 5 million people. However, according to other sources, the number of fibromyalgia sufferers is more than double that figure.
Since fibromyalgia is hard to diagnose and because multiple people go undiagnosed for years, the statistics on this condition are somewhat unreliable. Nonetheless, not only is fibromyalgia a painful medical condition, it can have a negative impact on an individual’s well-being and daily life. Aside from pharmaceutical medications, what treatment options are available? One treatment method that’s gaining more attention and popularity by fibromyalgia patients is cannabis.
About Fibromyalgia & Its Symptoms
As briefly stated above, fibromyalgia is a chronic medical condition that delivers fatigue, widespread musculoskeletal pain, and tenderness/sensitivity in localized areas of the body. Unfortunately, every day could be a struggle for fibromyalgia patients. This is especially the case because of the condition’s symptoms. Fibromyalgia’s symptoms can have a negative impact on one’s quality of life. Aside from pain and fatigue, fibromyalgia can cause sleeping difficulties, muscle stiffness, numbness, memory difficulties, and focusing issues.
It has been estimated by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) that women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia than men. When individuals are diagnosed with fibromyalgia, the most common age range is middle age. As people get older though, they’re more likely to develop fibromyalgia. However, children can be diagnosed with the disorder too.
Regarding risk factors, there are several when it comes to fibromyalgia. If an individual has Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis, they’re more likely to develop fibromyalgia. Other risk factors include obesity, family history, illnesses including viral infections, repetitive injuries, stressful or traumatic events, and one’s gender.
Cannabis as a Fibromyalgia Treatment Method
Does cannabis have the ability to provide individuals with fibromyalgia some relief? Based on cannabis consumers who have been diagnosed with this condition, the unanimous answer is yes.
Photo by blackboard1965/Getty Images
In addition to chronic pain, fibromyalgia is often associated with other health issues that cannabis can help treat, including depression, anxiety, arthritis, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Fibromyalgia can also cause insomnia, digestive difficulties, and headaches. Fortunately, though, cannabis and certain cannabinoids can help treat all of these issues.
Research Findings that Support Cannabis as a Fibromyalgia Treatment Method
In a 2011 study, researchers studied 56 fibromyalgia patients. Half of them consumed cannabis and the other half didn’t. The study’s researchers expressed their concluded findings by stating that, “…the use of cannabis was associated with beneficial effects on some fibromyalgia symptoms.” Additionally, the study’s authors suggested that further research is needed to fully understand how cannabis can specifically help in this situation. However, this is not to say that fibromyalgia patients shouldn’t consume cannabis because more research is needed. It’s actually the exact opposite. If cannabis helps fibromyalgia patients to some degree, then it may be best to stick with it.
So far, there’s no cure for fibromyalgia. Therefore, patients with this condition should try to not only find a medicine that effectively relieves their pain and other symptoms, but also one that helps with their mental state of mind and overall well-being, which is cannabis. In general, there’s still a lot to learn about fibromyalgia and its specific causes. However, the characteristics of this condition indicate clinical endocannabinoid deficiencies, according to Dr. Ethan Russo, a neurologist and pharmacologist.
Linkage Between Fibromyalgia and Endocannabinoid Deficiencies
We all have an endocannabinoid system (ECS), and the role of this system is to maintain balance amongst all body processes. When the body’s ECS isn’t functioning as it should because of an endocannabinoid deficiency, many ailments can occur including migraines, fibromyalgia, Crohn’s Disease, or irritable bowel syndrome. These ailments can be tough to treat with other traditional medications, however, fortunately, cannabis can target the ECS. This is the case because the cannabinoids within the cannabis plant mimic the compounds our bodies should naturally produce. Thus, this keeps the ECS running smoothly and in balance.
Overall, cannabis could be added onto other medicine in the form of an adjunct therapy method or it can be used on its own. If you’ve been diagnosed with fibromyalgia or if you know someone who has been, try suggesting cannabis to them. But first, it’s suggested to start slow, pace yourself, and spend some time experimenting with different cannabis strains, doses, and delivery methods to find what works best.
If you’re tired of experiencing daily fatigue and chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia, consider giving cannabis a chance, and see what it can do for you! Since a natural and medically beneficial form of medicine exists, why not try it out?
We’re constantly checking our phones, even if there are no notifications. Here are some tips that can help you stop.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that, in one way or another, we’re all addicted to our phones. These devices connect us with everything, from navigational apps, to music, to social media. Sometimes we even look at our phones because we feel like we have to. What if there’s a text? What if the world is falling apart? Your phone would tell you.
While the internet is a source of many amazing things, it’s also exhausting. Everyone’s life can be a little improved by not spending most of their day looking down at their screen.
Check out 5 tips that can help you look at your phone less.
Don’t use your phone while commuting
Whether you drive yourself to work, walk or use public transportation, there’s no need to check your phone during this time. For starters, if you’re driving it’s super dangerous, so it should never be used, but this period of time can be used for less stressful things. Take this time to listen to music, a podcast or read a book, consciously disconnecting yourself from your phone and stopping yourself from walking down the street with your phone in hand, bumping into everyone.
A good way of controlling how much you look at your phone is to mute your notifications. While muting messages might make some of your friends hate you, most other apps don’t need notifications to fulfill their purpose. Muting notifications on social media and games can drastically reduce the urge to look at your phone.
Don’t use your phone in bed
One of the best ways to reduce your phone usage is to avoid using it while in bed or in your room. Plug in your device for the night and avoid going on social media once you’re in bed, that way you can prevent mindless scrolling that can easily disrupt your sleep or delay your morning routine.
Take advantage of your phone’s screen time features
Phones nowadays have pretty robust screen time features, breaking down the apps that consume most of your time, how much time you spend on each one, and which hours of the day lead to your most browsing. Want to have a reckoning? Head over to screen time section on your phone and see how much time you spent on Instagram today.
Set app limits
On your phone’s Screen Time section (called digital wellbeing on Android), there are several options you can play with, like setting a time limit for apps. These limits won’t lock you out of your apps, but they’ll let you know once you’ve used your app for the amount of time that you slotted in.
Despite jokes Drake doesn’t know how to smoke weed, the partnership positions Canopy Growth as the home for celebrity marijuana brands.
The stars keep coming for Canadian cannabis business Canopy Growth. The latest is none other than Drake, the Toronto-born rap superstar. Drake and Canopy Growth will collaborate on the More Life Growth Company, which will be a fully licensed joint venture that will produce and distribute marijuana in Toronto.
More Life is named after Drake’s More Life, a commercial mixtape featuring the rapper’s known associates like PartyNextDoor, Travis Scott, Jorja Smith, and Kanye West. The company plans on focusing “cannabis products and herbs, medicinal herb extracts, herbal tea, rolling papers, dried plants as well as other merch and apparel,” according to trademark applications filed in the United States and Canada last month.
Under the arrangement with the company, Drake will receive a 60% stake in a subsidiary of Canopy Growth, according to Reuters. This is another in a developing list of celebrity partnership for Canopy. Earlier this year, the company announced a similar partnership with lifestyle guru Martha Stewart to produce healthy CBD products for humans and animals alike. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg also teamed with Canopy to create Houseplant, a cannabis brand with a focus on education to “make it easier for people to learn to love cannabis.”
Drake, a master marketer and brander, has already started promoting his new cannabis venture in quiet. The rapper posted a teaser clip on his Instagram page to announce the company to his followers and his OVO team created a @morelife IG page as well, though it’s currently set to private. The company has also targeted influencers within Toronto, such as Canadian news anchor Dina Pugliese-Mirkovich, who received a care package from More Life to raise awareness for the brand.
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If you're in the Downtown core…Be on the lookout for @Drake's #MoreLife team as they're giving out flowers!! The boy is tryna brighten up your day and spread love and good vibes in the city!! pic.twitter.com/L7te6uJCTj
Perhaps most ironic in the deal is the long-running joke that Drake doesn’t know how to smoke weed. The rapper canceled shows in Amsterdam after allegedly consuming too much marijuana backstage two years ago. Vice jokingly labeled Drake’s relationship with cannabis “the biggest conspiracy in the history of rap,” detailing all the times the rapper smoked marijuana in public. However, with his own brand underway, it appears Drake should have more practice to become a better marijuana consumer.
Even in places where cannabis is recreationally legal, distribution remains tightly controlled, with many states and Canada requiring special licenses and a multitude of regulations that pot businesses must comply with. But would consumers accept cannabis being sold in other outlets, such as convenience stores? One study provides some insight into public opinion on cannabis sales outside of marijuana dispensaries.
In Trend Source’s report on cannabis, the San Diego-based market research consulting firm found, in part, that consumer opinions towards a company that sold pot products varied based on type of business, age of consumer, and level of cannabis use.
The study found that millennials would be nearly indifferent if a business started selling cannabis, with older generations (people in their 70, 80s and 90s) being the most turned off by having weed sold alongside other products.
When asked if they would boycott a business if it started selling cannabis, over 61% of consumers said they would not stop patronizing a business selling pot, but nearly 32% of overall consumers responded that they would stop going to a fast food outlet that served cannabis products along with their burgers, tacos, and fries. When broken down by generation, over a third of boomers, 33.5%, would stop going to a fast food chain if they also sold pot.
Photo by Flickr user Phillip Pessar
Perhaps unsurprisingly, cannabis users opinions towards companies making or selling cannabis products increased higher than the average, with their opinions going up across the board, and non-cannabis users having the opposite sentiment by nearly the same amount.
While there are no signs pointing to cannabis being sold in drug stores, supermarkets, liquor stores, or fast food restaurants soon, a group of merchants are already preparing for the possibility. The National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS) has started lobbying in Washington D.C., working to position their members at-the-ready when cannabis is legalized federally and allowed wider distribution. The trade group points out that convenience stores have a lot of experience and procedures in place to legally sell age-restricted products.
The findings run somewhat counter to a cannabis consumption trend in Canada, with older consumers being the fastest growing market segment in the country. That doesn’t mean that these same older adults wouldn’t prefer their cannabis to be sold separately from their multivitamins.
Lady Gaga on her A Star Is Born co-star Bradley Cooper: ‘Of course we wanted people to believe that we were in love.’; Kourtney Kardashian once again shows off her (barely there) stretch marks.
Lady Gaga, who covers the December issue of Elle, touched on a lot of topics with interviewer Oprah Winfrey — including her rumored romance with Bradley Cooper.
Winfrey recalled asking her friend Cooper if there was something going on between him and his “A Star Is Born” co-star, who played a couple onscreen, after their smoldering Oscars performance. She went on to say, “He said his Catholic guilt would have never let him be able to look you in the eye at that piano,” as his then-girlfriend, Irina Shayk, looked on from the audience.
Winfrey praised Gaga’s handling of the gossip, to which the singer/actress/beauty mogul replied, “Quite frankly, I think the press is very silly. I mean, we made a love story. For me, as a performer and as an actress, of course we wanted people to believe that we were in love. And we wanted people to feel that love at the Oscars. We wanted it to go right through the lens of that camera and to every television that it was being watched on. And we worked hard on it, we worked for days. We mapped the whole thing out — it was orchestrated as a performance.”
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After social media went crazy and the rumor mill ran wild, especially as Cooper split from Shayk a few months later, Gaga said she and Cooper agreed, “Well, I guess we did a good job!”
The women also talked about Cooper being — in Gaga’s words — “a beautiful father” to his 2-year-old daughter, Lea De Seine.
The Kardashians aren’t exactly known for being the world’s biggest proponents of unedited and unfiltered photos, but Kourtney Kardashian has been ditching Facetune and Photoshop lately. And head’s up: she just hit her lifestyle website POOSH’s Instagram account to get real about her stretch marks.
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Kourtney posted a photo of herself in a bikini where you can see stretch marks on her thighs, and captioned the pic “Stretch marks: we’ve all got them.”
And her followers seemed to appreciate the authenticity, writing “Keeping it real ?❤️❤️,” and “That was a refreshingly positive and practical approach to stretch marks,” and the slightly more salty “About time ya’ll got real about something!!”
This is actually the second time this year Kourt has posted pictures of her stretch marks—she also shared this pic in August and fans were loving it:
New research found that negative stigmas associated with the term “marijuana” have changed over time.
Over the past couple of years, marijuana has been under a microscope. We don’t mean the plant or the effects of legalization, we mean the word itself — marijuana. Whether you realize it or not, an underground movement has developed to convince you to use the word “cannabis” instead.
Primarily, a vocal minority believes we should the term marijuana because of its historical baggage, which includes racist policymaking and the War on Drugs. Instead, the argument goes, we should use cannabis, which will be more appealing to newcomers and push them to support legalization efforts. But does saying cannabis instead of marijuana actually influence public opinion?
According to a study published in the journal PLOS One, the answer is no. The authors of the study partnered with YouGov for an “original survey experiment” that polled 1,600 adults in the U.S. Researchers determined that 43% of respondents believed saying marijuana and cannabis was “morally acceptable.” Only about a quarter of participants said marijuana was “morally wrong” while 20% said the same of cannabis. The rest of those surveyed responded they were “not sure.”
“Whether asked about legalization of the drug, the moral acceptability of its use, tolerance for activities involving the drug, the harmfulness of its use, or the traits of its users—and whether they are prompted to think about medical use or use more generally—respondents offered similar opinions whether we called the drug ‘marijuana’ or ‘cannabis,’” the authors wrote.
Photo by adamkaz/Getty Images
Only when they included the term “medical” did attitudes shift. Support for legalization increased when adding medical as a descriptor to marijuana or cannabis. In all, the researchers found that the public supported medical marijuana more than an “unspecified use” of the plant. “The public is much more supportive of legalization of medical use, more morally accepting of it, less bothered by activities involving it, less convinced that it is harmful, and more likely to attribute positive traits to its users when told that the drug is ‘medical,’” they wrote.
That isn’t to say those with adamant beliefs in the marijuana vs. cannabis debate did not once have merit. The truth is, for a long time, negative stigmas were associated with “marijuana,” the researchers report, but that has since changed.
“One possibility is that the term ‘marijuana’ once actually did conjure up special negative associations, but that the word has since shed those associations. Although we cannot test this hypothesis with our data, historical polling shows that public attitudes toward ‘marijuana’ have liberalized over time,” the authors wrote.
The machines ensure that their products stay fresh, but they also track consumer data, recording which products have had the most success and which haven’t.
High-tech CBD vending machines are a thing now, populating select 7-Eleven stores in Colorado. The mega-chain is the latest to join other large brands, such as CVS and Walmart, in conveniently distributing CBD products across the U.S..
These machines, developed by Greenbox Robotics, act as CBD dispensers and curators, containing select products that ensure everything inside the machine is fit for customers. This is a great way to eliminate many of the dubious products that are currently populating the CBD market, which claim to provide health benefits without having the necessary evidence to support their claims.
According to the Daily Mail, these vending machines were designed to sell products, while also educating customers on the benefits of CBD and eliminating a trip to the dispensary. The machines ensure that their products stay fresh, but they also track consumer data, recording which products have had the most success and which haven’t.
“Greenbox makes it easy to discover, select and purchase cannabis and CBD products via self-service robot locations. We are bringing a $55-billion-plus industry over the counter with a simple consumer touch,” Zack Johnson, CEO and founder of Greenbox Robotics, tells Daily Mail.
Currently there’s only robots available in two different 7-Eleven locations, with CEOs of both companies rolling out features slowly in order to gage people’s reactions. “What we’re looking for is to generate sales and show 7-Eleven corporate that this is a value add, we’re introducing a product that is protected, not on shelves to risk theft, but we are also looking to generate sales for you in your store beyond just the CBD product,” says Johnson.
In one study, after a single dose of THC, all 2 patients saw a reduction in the amounts of tics they normally experienced.
What’s one to do when their medications still can’t seem to reduce Tourette tics, verbal outbursts and other uncontrollable movements? According to decades of research, cannabis may be the answer.
In a 2016 study, scientists administered two daily doses of THC, cannabis’s most psychoactive ingredient, to a man afflicted with treatment-resistant Tourette Syndrome. After a six-week period, the subject demonstrated a significant improvement in motor and vocal tics. And the researchers concluded cannabinoids to not only be safe, but effective.
Almost 20 years ago, in a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, researcher’s used one man’s TS to examine the effects of cannabis on tics. The 25-year old man, who was diagnosed with TS at the age of six, was administered a single dose of THC.
Using the Tourette Syndrome Global Scale, the study concluded that the patient’s tic severity decreased from 41 to seven. Also, he was able to see the reduction in tics only after 30 minutes after receiving the THC and the relieved symptoms lasted for about seven hours. No adverse side effects were noted either.
In a 2002 study, researchers conducted a double-blind placebo test with 12 patients suffering from Tourette’s. After a single dose of THC, only five of the patients noted mild or transient side effects. Even better? Every patient saw a reduction in the amounts of tics they normally experienced.
Photo by Jamie Grill/Getty Images
In the following year, researchers conducted another study with 24 patients. In a six-week randomized trial, patients were given up to 10 mg. per day and resulted were evaluated six times, week one as a baseline, weeks two though four during baseline, and weeks five and six after treatment stopped and withdrawals were present.
The highest differences between the placebo group and THC group were noted during days 14-41 (when treatment was ongoing). As you can imagine the THC group fared very well during the experiment.
Ultimately, the researchers concluded: Our results provide more evidence that THC is effective and safe in the treatment of tics.
With over 20 years of researching proving THC as an effective remedy for treatment-resistant TS, hopefully the 200,000 people suffering from the illness will begin to turn to the powerful plant when traditional treatment methods fall short.
