Benefits of Weed | Health Benefits of Medical Marijuana

While growing and smoking weed remains illegal in some states, many states are today legalizing it for both recreational and medical purposes all across the world. Using marijuana or weed dates back to over 3000 years ago.

Many people swear by its benefits though FDA is yet to deem weed useful for medical conditions. In spite of this, cannabidiol, a highly potent substance found in cannabis, got its approval as an effective treatment for various types of epilepsy and other chronic diseases.

People take weed in different ways, which include smoking, vaping, edibles, and many more. Though the debate rages on about weed benefits of marijuana, below are some of the tested and tried ways benefits of weed.

Best Article About Marijuana Fact On 11- 2024

Health Benefits of Weed

Helps to alleviate chronic pain

Chronic pain is any pain that goes on for six months or more. It comes in different forms ranging from mild to excruciating pain. Pain changes people physically, emotionally, and even physically.

While people can take OTC drugs and opioids for pain relief, the effects are not always as sound as expected. One of the reasons for this is because some opioids and OTC drugs are addictive. In recent years, studies show that cannabis or weed is one of the most effective means of reducing chronic pain.

Compared to opioids, cannabis is not as addictive, and therefore one of the best substitutes for pain relief. Some of the pain symptoms cannabis help to relieve are frequent migraines, tremors, muscle spasms nerve based pain, and many others. Besides reducing chronic pain, a study found that using cannabis brings down opiate dependency by about 40%.

Helps to reduce sleep disorders and insomnia

People with sleep disorders and insomnia have a rough time going through their daily chores because of fatigue caused by lack of sleep. Using sleeping pills to get rid of the problem may have side effects in the end because you can develop an addiction to them. Using cannabis, on the other hand, comes with no addiction, and it helps you to sleep better.

It leaves the body feeling more relaxed and helps to increase stage three deep sleeps. Use marijuana in small amounts because taking the same in large doses may have opposite results that may cause you more sleep disorders.

Helps to decrease anxiety

Anxiety is another health problem that affects many people. Some claim that weed builds up the tension while others swear that it helps to relieve the feeling. The explanation could be in the strains that different people smoke. Those that use Sativa dominant strain have more exposure to higher levels of THC than the ones that take strains with higher levels of CBD.

CBD contains anxiolytic properties that help to bring anxiety levels down. However, taking THC in lower doses also helps to reduce anxiety. If you are looking for weed that can reduce anxiety, it would be wise to check out the amount of THC and CBD properties in the strains first. Start treatment by taking low doses of the anti-anxiety strains before moving on to larger doses.

Read next: 10 Best CBD Oil For Pain

Helps to reduce stress

More often than not, many weed smokers always light up after a long day to rewind and relax. Many people claim that the effects of taking the weed after a long day leave their bodies feeling lighter and more alive. There is already enough research proving that cannabis does help to reduce stress.

One of the reasons for the ability of weed to reduce chronic stress is that it helps to increase neurogenesis in the body, which minimizes stress levels. Another critical thing to note is that a high dosage of THC may have opposite results.

It is therefore advisable to start with small doses before graduating to larger doses. The strains you choose for anxiety relief should be high in terpenes and cannabinoids and have fewer THC levels.

Helps to alleviate cancer

When you search online for cannabis, helping to reduce cancer, you may come across several conflicting pieces of literature. If you read further on, you will also come across tested and tried results that show that, indeed, cannabis helps to fight cancer cells. Cancer is hard to treat, which is one of the reasons for the conflicting reports about cannabis helping to eradicate the problem.

One of the explanations for this is that cancer cells continue to grow after a tumor becomes malignant. Cannabis contains anti-proliferative properties that help to stop cancer cell proliferation. Cancer also has metastatic on its cells, which makes it easy for them to infiltrate other parts of the body, thus spreading the disease.

Cannabinoids also help to block metastasis from spreading to other parts of the body. For cancer alleviation, the best way to take cannabis is through smoking or as CBD oil.

Helps to Prevents Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is another illness that affects several people. High production of beta-amyloid proteins is the leading cause of Alzheimer’s disease. It is not a manageable disease to cure, and in most cases, patients get drugs to give them relief for a short period.

Studies show that taking THC helps to stop the production of beta-amyloid proteins, thus preventing Alzheimer’s disease from occurring. It also helps to alleviate the pain that Alzheimer’s disease patients go through. More studies are still ongoing to support the claims that weed indeed does help to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, but enough results are proving that it does.

Helps to improve physical fitness and performance

Another notable benefit of weed is its ability to enhance physical performance abilities in different people irrespective of whether they are athletes or not. Marijuana provides the users with more stamina to push themselves further in all the activities they take on. Some people, however, associate weed with laziness, but there is evidence that more athletes are today smoke it to better their performances in their respective fields.

The explanation for why weed enhances physical performance is that once THC gets into the brain, it teams up with the natural cannabinoid receptors that, in turn, help it to reduce anxiety, which is one of the causes of poor physical performance. Weed also helps to relax the body allowing the user to sleep better and wake up feeling more energized and relaxed.

Helps to improve creativity

Records show that many artists and writers smoke weed probably more than many other professionals in the world. One of the explanations they give for being great lovers of weed is that it makes them become and feel more creative. This theory, backed by science, is all true.

When the brain feels empty, weed acts as a muse to have it going enabling you to come up with ideas you did not have before. A study at Washington University proved that users of marijuana are far more creative than non-users. Some of the artists say that marijuana is their main driving force to being creative.

Helps to improve appetite

For people with a lack of appetite, cannabis comes in handy as it helps them to eat. Some of the people that suffer from lack of appetite include sick people who have cancer, especially those under chemotherapy. Chemotherapy treatments lead to patients suffering from side effects that include pain, vomiting, nausea, digestive issues, and loss of appetite.

The side effects sometimes get very severe, and the patient may lose a lot of weight and look emaciated. Cannabis helps to reverse these side effects, which in turn make the patients more comfortable during and after chemotherapy sessions.

Helps with weight management

One may wonder how weed makes one lose weight when, in fact, it makes people increase their appetite. As hard as it is to comprehend, people that smoke weed do not gain any weight. The explanation for this is that THC helps to reduce fat cells in the body, thus managing weight gain. The study successfully carried out on mice, proves that THC does not cause obesity, and it makes obese people lose extra fat.

Helps to treat bowel disease

A bowel disease such as Crohn’s is also another problem that affects many people. The symptoms that come with the disease include fatigue, blood in the stool, diarrhea, fatigue, abdominal pains, and occasional headaches.

In an Israel Medical Association Journal published in 2011, results show that some patients showed immense improvement after using marijuana. A further study two years later, published in another medical journal showed the same results.

Wrapping it up

The benefits noted above prove that weed indeed comes with good tidings in spite of some contradicting claims. It is however important to read about all the scientific findings of the benefits before jumping into smoking it.

With the legalization of smoking weed taking place in many states, scientists continue digging deeper into the benefits to give a clearer picture of its effects on health and recreation. Another vital factor to note is that you should know about the strain you are using before you smoke, as it will help you to know about the CBD and THC levels.