Nowadays, medical marijuana is a booming industry. As cannabis is heavily prohibited, its use value just continues to expand as we learn more about this clearly, a medicinal plant. Aside from CBD (cannabidiol), which has the ability to help treat seizures, a new, non-psychoactive, medicinal plant compound has been stealing the show.
Terpenes, found in an array of strong-smelling plants, are another class of beneficial compounds. It can be found in rosemary, frankincense, citrus fruits, and of course, cannabis. The pungent odors produced by terpenes are used by plants to ward off pathogens and predators.
Thereby, it’s not surprising to know that when consumed, terpenes offer a number of health benefits to the humans.
Terpenes Found In Cannabis Can Fight Cancer
The cannabis plant has over 200 different terpenes. Most healing plants, just like lemons, offer only one or two terpenes. This alone is a strong indication of cannabis’ healing power. Moreover, terpenes also play a role in the plant’s “entourage effect,” as explained by Natural health 365.
Bevy compounds and substances are found in cannabis and these include cannabinoids like CBD and THC, lactones, ketones, esters, and fatty acids. Along with terpenes, these compounds interact with each other. The synergy of cannabis compounds makes the whole plant much more potent medicine when compared to Big Pharma’s concoctions.
As Natural Health 365 reports:
“These interactions produce what is now known as the “Entourage Effect” of Cannabis Therapy. The term was first coined in the late 1990s by Israeli scientists S. Ben-Shabat and Raphael Mechoulam of Hebrew University in Jerusalem and refers to how terpenes and cannabinoids in cannabis combine and interact for the treatment of specific disease conditions.”
In terms of health benefits, terpenes found in cannabis truly have much to offer in terms of health benefits.
Studies have found that terpenes like pinene and limonene have both powerful anti-cancer effects. Limonene can reduce tumor size as well as the risk of some cancers by up to 50%. At least 15 different terpenes found in the cannabis plant have been credited with an array of benefits in addition to fighting cancer. These terpenes can decrease stress and reduce inflammation.
Cannabis Fights Cancer In Many Ways
Through a number of avenues, cannabis has been found to help prevent and even treat cancer.
According to a research, compound present in cannabis can actually help jump-start the immune system. Professor Burkhard Hinz, the lead person in a German research, concluded that cannabis compounds can fight cancer. Over 100 different studies on cannabis were analyzed by a team from Rostock University Medical Centre in Germany. They concluded that the assortments of compounds found in the plant are the ones that contribute to its anticancer activity.
Hinz commented that:
“In this context accumulating data from preclinical models suggest that cannabinoids elicit anti-cancer effects on several levels of cancer progression.”
Aside from the growing body of research, there were also numbers of anecdotal accounts of cannabis curing cancer when conventional medicine failed.
According to Joy Smith, a 52-year-old from U.K., had cured her terminal cancer using cannabis oil. After being diagnosed with stomach and bowel cancer, Smith was only given six weeks to live. After her chemotherapy failed, she tried cannabis oil as a last resort. Smith says she is certain it saved her life.
She contended that:
“Cannabis oil should be legalized for medical purposes – people are dying and the chemotherapy isn’t curing them.”
