Cannabis: What's it good for?

[MichaelVipperman]

New article outlining the various uses of cannabis:

http://michaelvipperman.wordpress.com/2 ... /cannabis/

 

[Guest]

I initially thought it was going to be about all the uses of cannabis beside getting high on it, but it actually turned that to be much more interesting than that!

I guess you just won a reader for your blog.

 

[HermesTrismegistus]

I guess you just won a reader for your blog.

And another one.

 

[MichaelVipperman]

Glad you guys liked it!

 

[Cultosaurus]

Quite a good article. There is a longer list of medicinal benefits such as glaucoma, ADD, ADHD, diabetes, MS, treatment for pain and others, but still a well written article.

Here's a short list of other things that it helps with and links to the corresponding support of those benefits, in case anyone is interested . .. https://www.icmag.com/viewarticle.php?a ... &topicid=1

 

[IJesusChrist]

Whooooaaa... Removed this

 

[MichaelVipperman]

Quite a good article. There is a longer list of medicinal benefits such as glaucoma, ADD, ADHD, diabetes, MS, treatment for pain and others, but still a well written article.

List wasn't meant to be exhaustive: it also doesn't lay out situations in which it's indicated, instead focusing on potentially useful things it can do, covering many of your examples. It's only useful for glaucoma, for example, as an extension of its being an effective anti-inflammatory. Glaucoma is simply a condition that an effective anti-inflammatory can help.

and... how do you understand it as helping with ADHD? Probably that falls under the category of "immersion." I say that as somebody who has an ADHD diagnosis and who occasionally self-medicates using cannabis. Sofar as the effect desired is in the realm of consciousness, the 9 part framework will be sufficient to cover it... "ADHD" is simply a precondition that may occasion contexts in which one or more of those effects will be desired. It is not, in and of itself, a reason to take anything.

 

[ophiuchus]

ijc, your picture is like 15,000 pixels tall... what's going on there?

 

[ophiuchus]

exercising while high, try it! You’ll be surprised how amazing it is. The feeling of effort in your body will become more intense but also more enjoyable, making it far easier to push yourself harder or keep going longer.

i used to do this on a regular basis with my cardio workouts, and i must say, this is pretty much spot on. however i'd like to note some other aspects too, because it is not all rosy.

partner exercises generally did not go well for me. when i say this, i am referring to exercises like holding muay thai pads for somebody, and then performing repetition of combinations(below).
[youtube]nxOkrwCbc6U[/youtube]
the activity itself is no problem, and neither is the inter-activity with the partner, however, remembering what combination we were doing, even after multiple repetitions, was not easy. needless to say, this is not exactly the best time to have short term memory fail. mis-place a hand pad, or forget to block a kick and it could lead to problems...

another thing is endurance. i've found that cannabis is performance enhancing, to the extent that one is high. one can generally get about an hours worth of quality workout while high, but after that, performance seems to drop off and rapidly become worse than if one had not smoked at all...

third thing is tolerance. like i said, i experimented with this for a while (+ or - 6 months) on a regular daily basis. it was great for a while, but slowly, the amount that i needed to reach the same level grew more and more, and eventually i could not reach the same state that i could when i first started. i think this was mainly due to the amount of smoke entering the lungs. a small amount, no prob. multiple hits and it essentially defeats the purpose, aka cardio and performance is not helped at all.

not to mention that working out sober after that was an absolute drag for some time. it seemed that i was very sluggish and unmotivated to do it. i definitely would not recommend this on any kind of regular basis whatsoever, though experimentation imo, might be worthwhile.

 

[IJesusChrist]

ijc, your picture is like 15,000 pixels tall... what's going on there?

sorry it seems the link to the image i posted actually got changed to another image.

weird.

 

[MichaelVipperman]

Great post, allusion! Excellent clarification. I'd definitely recommend against using cannabis for all exercise all the time... seems the best way is to take a small dose of it occasionally for inspiration/experimentation.

 

[Cultosaurus]

Quite a good article. There is a longer list of medicinal benefits such as glaucoma, ADD, ADHD, diabetes, MS, treatment for pain and others, but still a well written article.

List wasn't meant to be exhaustive: it also doesn't lay out situations in which it's indicated, instead focusing on potentially useful things it can do, covering many of your examples. It's only useful for glaucoma, for example, as an extension of its being an effective anti-inflammatory. Glaucoma is simply a condition that an effective anti-inflammatory can help.

and... how do you understand it as helping with ADHD? Probably that falls under the category of "immersion." I say that as somebody who has an ADHD diagnosis and who occasionally self-medicates using cannabis. Sofar as the effect desired is in the realm of consciousness, the 9 part framework will be sufficient to cover it... "ADHD" is simply a precondition that may occasion contexts in which one or more of those effects will be desired. It is not, in and of itself, a reason to take anything.

I realize that the list was not meant to cover all things that cannabis is useful for, as the list is very long. Highlighting the more common items is helpful in letting people know that it is a useful medicine, then letting them know that they can find out if it helps with their own particular issue on their own. That was why I included the list of other ailments, so that people can find out if it would help them.

Actually, in the treatment of glaucoma, it's used due to the ability to lower fluid pressure within the eyeball. One of the causes or features that worsens glaucoma is that increased fluid pressure. The reduction in intraocular pressure in the eye by using cannabis slows the onset of the disease. I found this article : http://www.cannabismd.net/glaucoma/ .

The list of treatable medical issues isn't something that I came up with, it was something that I've always been fascinated by. The use of it to treat ADD and ADHD was from an article that I read in Treating Yourself magazine. If by immersion, you mean that you are more able to stay focused on something for a longer period of time, then that is what the author was saying in the article. It helped the author remain in college to finish and get her degree. Past issues of that magazine are available online on this page : http://treatingyourself.com/published-issues.php . The ADD/ADHD article is in issue #17. There is, in one of the articles, a discussion on how it is effective for athletes, as discussed by Allusion, but I forget the article number. There is some fascinating stuff on a variety of things that you wouldn't intuitively think that cannabis would be used for. The site has a forum section where patients discuss the treatments for which they use cannabis.

Another wonderful site for the promotion of cannabis use is http://phoenixtears.ca/ . One can Google just about anything saying 'cannabis as treatment for insert disease', and you'll generally find results. Being diabetic, I find it very interesting that it is useful there as well. For the heart disease that I now have, the reduction in blood pressure is beneficial. I just wish that cannabis was something that I could get for my conditions. That is one reason that I research it so much, is that I find the use of a natural medicine such as cannabis to be far more useful with far fewer damaging side effects and far less expensive, especially if I could just grow it myself, instead of having to purchase from the big pharma corporations. You should see some of the side effects of what I'm taking now, it's very scary.

Peace
Cult

 

[MichaelVipperman]

Actually, in the treatment of glaucoma, it's used due to the ability to lower fluid pressure within the eyeball. One of the causes or features that worsens glaucoma is that increased fluid pressure. The reduction in intraocular pressure in the eye by using cannabis slows the onset of the disease. I found this article :

Yes, you're right, my mistake. I meant to cite the blood pressure reduction (don't know why I said inflammation instead, though I guess they're both dilatory in nature), but even in that context the particular ocular affinity is notable.