All of a sudden, numbers of former and current professional basketball as well as football players are now openly giving their support for medical marijuana and/or cannabidiol. It helps them relieve anxiety, get through pains without opioid painkillers, and recover more quickly.
In relation to this issue, the NFL players focus on concussions or temporary damage to the brain caused by a fall or hit on the head. According to their spokesman, NFL is now recognizing the possible link between concussions and CTE – which is completely refuted by the NFL—but not until now.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE is a degenerative brain disease that is mostly experienced by boxers. In sports journalism circle, the issue regarding CTE has been tossed after some scientists had learned CTE in the brains from the remains of deceased NFL players donated by family members. As the research steps forward, it was revealed that 87 out of 91 brains have CTE. And also, some of the similar patterns they had before the end of their journey includes losing their minds, sometimes killing themselves, sometimes going homeless and others.
This is what started the cannabis movement among NFL players. Stricter policies regarding concussions were made with the aim of reducing CTE incidences. The cannabis they are promoting is from a herbal plant and not a hazardous pharmaceutical formula that can put someone in a coma.
Cannabis Heals Incurable Brain Damage
In a parking lot of a fast-food restaurant, Debbie Wilson was hit by a pick-up truck. She was knocked to the ground head first upon impact. This is where her 22-year journey into despair, disability, and unbearable darkness begins. At first, she struggled with common traumatic brain injury symptoms which include nightmare, time distortion, paranoia, forgetfulness, balance problems, anxiety, and migraines.
Moreover, several years had passed and Debbie was then diagnosed with epilepsy and suffered from chronic depression, seizures, Alzheimer’s, PTSD, anxiety and type 2 diabetes. Different pharmaceutical drugs were all ineffective for her and only caused side effects including damage to her intestines.
Debbie had become desperate; she wanted to try everything for her to feel some relief from the pain she was going through. In 2010, she gave cannabis a try. Within weeks of smoking the weed, she noticed a considerable improvement in her symptoms. Debbie began experiencing miraculous healing benefits of cannabis when she orally ingests a non-psychoactive cannabis medicine or “NeuroEnhancer” (22% CBD 1% THC oil) together with smoking a high THC strain for her epilepsy.
Debbie states that:
“I know for a fact that I’m now accessing file drawers in my memory bank that were shut for more than 20 years. My story has not ended yet. I’ve been able to retire my seizure alert dog, my helmet, my diapers and over a dozen central nervous system depressants, pain relievers and antidepressants. So many areas of my body have been helped that it’s not even like I’m the same person.”
The Science is In
According to Medical Jane online magazine, a study from Brazil reported that cannabidiol (CBD) “could help ward off neuronal cell death in the face of neurodegradation.” Furthermore, previous researches show pieces of evidence that an “ultra-low dose of THC (0.002 mg/kg)” can protect the brains against cognitive deficits from a variety of insults that would ordinarily cause brain inflammation.
In addition to this, a cannabis study from Tel Aviv University in Israel was conducted and recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience Research. Their findings show that low doses of cannabinoids, particularly ultra-low-dose tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), can have a protective effect against cognitive deficits from brain inflammation.
The main objective of the Israeli researchers was to determine if low-dose THC could really protect the brains against cognitive deficits after lab-induced brain inflammation. They used a mouse in doing their lab study. They injected it with “10 mg/kg of lipopolysaccharide (LPS),” which is known to cause brain inflammation. In addition to this, the mice were injected with “0.002 mg/kg of THC either 48 hours before LPS treatment or 1-7 days after LPS treatment.” This will determine whether the timing of the THC dose could protect the mice brains from induced brain inflammation. Then, the mice were tested three weeks after the injections.
The lead researcher, Miriam Fishbein-Kaminietsky, PhD. said that:
“An ultra-low dose of THC that lacks any psychotropic activity protects the brain from neuroinflammation-induced cognitive damage.”
It clearly shows that, even if LPS causes brain inflammation resulting in chronic cognitive debilitation, an introduction of THC either before or after LPS injection can prevent inflammation-induced cognitive deficits.
It goes to say that, THC acted as both a preventive as well as a remedy against brain inflammation.
This can be a good news for elderly patients who fear the “high” associated with THC as the study suggests that low doses of THC can already prevent and heal cognitive deficits resulting to brain inflammation as well as other degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Disease.
