Medical cannabis ‘safe and effective’ for cancer patients, study – Cannabis | weed | marijuana

A new study shows what many already know: medicinal cannabis is safe and effective for cancer patients.

The study of 358 adults with cancer found that a 1:1 balance of THC and CBD significantly helped reduce pain intensity and how pain interfered with daily living.

The Canada-based study also found that cancer patients using medicinal cannabis had a reduced need for other medications.

Why is cannabis popular with cancer patients?

Before we dive into the latest study on medicinal cannabis, let’s take a look at why cannabis is popular with cancer patients.

While research studies can provide insight and confirmation, the summary of a study means little for a terminally ill patient who experiences severe pain on a daily basis.

What do anecdotal reports tell us?

Cannabis patients have reported that medicinal cannabis is suitable for:

• Treatment of nausea associated with chemotherapy
• reduce pain
• increase in appetite
• improve sleep

This medical cannabis study for cancer patients examines cannabis and pain relief.

Can Cannabis Cure Cancer?

Whenever the topic of medical cannabis for cancer patients comes up, the question often arises: Can cannabis cure cancer?

Cannabis actually treats cancer. Cannabinoids play a role in preventing and killing malignant cells that like to grow and spread out of control. This might sound like cancer, but technically there are over 200 types.

There is currently no clinical evidence that medicinal cannabis can cure all types of cancer. Or any kind of it.

However, it is important to think of the philosopher Paul Feyerabend.

According to the 20th-century Austrian thinker, cultural, political and economic factors influence scientific theories and methods. As well as random events.

The scientific community tends to suppress alternative and unconventional ideas. According to Feyerabend, this inhibits scientific progress and stagnates creativity.

Feyerabend’s Against Method may seem abstract or speculative – but people who have witnessed the miracle of Rick Simpson oil may have different opinions.

If medicinal cannabis cured cancer patients, those who benefited from their illness would fight back.

Cannabis cures cancer would be “misinformation” that would need to be refuted by “fact checkers”. Where the lack of clinical evidence becomes a scientific consensus. Where Cannabis Doesn’t Treat Cancer; it only helps to relieve the symptoms.

But even then, scientific theories are incommensurable.

Details of the study

The study was conducted by researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons Dublin and Cedars Cancer Center in Canada and was published in BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care. It involved 358 adults with cancer and lasted over three and a half years.

The mean age of the patients was 57 years. There were slightly more women than men.

The researchers determined that medical cannabis is “a safe and effective adjunctive treatment for pain relief in cancer patients.”

A quarter of the patients took THC-dominant products, 17% CBD-dominant products and 38% THC-CBD balanced products.

Researchers found that products with a 1:1 ratio of THC and CBD are the most effective.

The cancer patients selected for the study were diverse. However, two-thirds were terminally ill and suffered from moderate to severe pain on a daily basis.

Only five patients reported feeling dizzy or tired. Most patients reported much less pain and a better quality of life when taking cannabis products.

The patients reported their findings after three, six, nine and twelve months. Researchers say the patients’ pain relief — compared to baseline — was “significant.”

They concluded that medical cannabis is a “safe” and “complementary” option to traditional cancer treatments.

“Our data suggest a role for medical cannabis as a safe and adjunctive treatment option for cancer patients who are unable to achieve adequate pain relief with traditional analgesics such as opioids.”

Unfortunately, the researchers did not conduct their study with a control group. Confirmation from more rigorous studies would be helpful.

But you don’t have to tell medical cannabis patients with cancer what works. You know. you experience it.

And sometimes a “gut feeling” or first-hand experience really overrides the scientific method.