"New Studies Reveals That Cannabis Helps PTSD Patients"

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that can develop after a person is exposed to a traumatic event.

This debilitating condition causes chronic problems like nightmares, panic attacks, hypervigilance, detachment from others, overwhelming emotions, and self-destructive behavior.

Unfortunatelly these overwhelming symptoms can even lead to suicide.

The current method of treating PTSD is to medicate the symptoms, not to actually treat the patient. In fact, many of the medications prescribed do the opposite and suppress the brain’s natural healing functions.

Because of this, many PTSD patients are stuck in a cycle: take pills, feel sedated, stop taking pills, then feel alive until the massive hammer of symptoms comes back. This is why we see so many veterans taking their own lives – not to mention the number of first responders who are suffering and who rarely get discussed.

Many PTSD patients have been saying for years that cannabis helps with their PTSD.

 

Previous research has shown that cannabis has the potential to reduce anxiety, or even prevent heightened anxiety in threatening situations. But up to this point, no studies had investigated this response in adults dealing with trauma - such as those with PTSD. 

Two new studies point to the way that cannabinoids may help treat PTSD. One shows how cannabis can reduce activity in the amygdala (part of the brain associated with fear responses to threats) andd the other suggests that the plant’s cannabinoids could play a role in extinguishing traumatic memories. Both effects could be therapeutic for those suffering from PTSD - according to those studies.

"The Antimicrobial Activities of Phytocannabinoids"

Novel antimicrobial drugs are urgently needed to counteract the increasing occurrence of bacterial resistance. 

Extracts of Cannabis sativa have been used for the treatment of several diseases since ancient times. 

It has been demonstrated that several cannabinoids show potent antimicrobial activity against primarily Gram-positive bacteria including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). As first in vivo efficacy has been demonstrated recently, it is time to discuss whether cannabinoids are promising antimicrobial drug candidates or overhyped intoxicants with benefits.

The worldwide spread of bacterial resistance against market antibiotics has been identified as one of the major threats to public health by scientists and healthcare authorities. Thus, new antibacterial strategies and antibacterial compounds are urgently needed to counteract the increasing occurrence of antibiotic-resistant and, especially, multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, to keep the live-saving advantages toward bacterial pathogens. 

In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized the crucial need for antimicrobial drug development against a group of 13 different genii, families, and specific species of pathogenic bacteria.The real problem is that the vast majority of these prioritized bacterial pathogens are drug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.

However, antimicrobial resistances are also increasing in Gram-positive bacteria and, among the high priority pathogens, the Gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus is the leading cause of both healthcare and community-associated infections worldwide, and a major cause for morbidity as well as mortality.

"CBD Improves Blood Flow to Brain’s Hippocampus"

Cannabidiol (CBD) increases cerebral blood flow to areas of the brain associated with memory processing, specifically the hippocampus. The findings identify a potential mechanism for the use of CBD to treat disorders associated with altered memory processing, including Alzheimer’s disease, PTSD, and schizophrenia.

A single dose of cannabidiol (CBD) helped increase blood flow to the hippocampus, an important area of the brain associated with memory and emotion, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

Researchers say the findings could be an important discovery for conditions which affect memory, such as Alzheimer’s disease and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and could help better target therapies.

In the study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, researchers set out to investigate how CBD influences cerebral blood flow in different regions on the brain involved in memory processing.

Lead author, Dr Michael Bloomfield (UCL Psychiatry) said: “Cannabidiol is one of the main constituents of cannabis and is gaining interest for its therapeutic potential.

"Using CBD to Treat the Symptoms of Alzheimer’s & Other Forms of Dementia"

Worldwide, 50 million people are living with Alzheimer's and other dementias.

Alzheimer’s disease is a degenerative brain disease and the most common form of dementia. 

Dementia its an overall term that describes a group of symptoms.

Dementia is a general term for loss of memory, language, problem-solving and other thinking abilities that are severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia.

The dementia-related conditions that can be helped by CBD include: Alzheimer’s disease, Vascular Dementia, Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Parkinson’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia and Huntington’s disease.

According to researchers at California’s Salk Institute, their 2017 study has found evidence that cannabinoids such as CBD could help remove dementia from, and increase connections between, brain cells. Those results were validated by other laboratories. 

There are three ways CBD can work to improve health outcomes for persons with dementia: by reducing inflammation, by reducing oxygen buildup, and by working as a brain stimulant and neuroprotectant. From a user’s perspective, CBD may reduce stress and anxiety in the individual with dementia as well as reduce the decline of memory and other brain functions.

"Safety and efficacy of cannabidiol in children and adults with treatment resistant Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Dravet syndrome"

Since 2014, patients with severe treatment-resistant epilepsies (TREs) have been receiving add-on cannabidiol (CBD) in an ongoing, expanded access program (EAP), which closely reflects clinical practice.

Researchers conducted an interim analysis of long-term efficacy and tolerability in patients with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) or Dravet syndrome (DS) who received CBD treatment through December 2016.

The Study...

Children and adults with LGS/DS taking stable doses of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) at baseline were included from 25 EAP sites across the United States.

During the 4-week baseline period, parents/caregivers kept diaries of all countable seizure types. Patients received a pharmaceutical formulation of highly purified CBD in oral solution at 2-10 mg/kg/day, titrated until tolerability limit or a maximum dose of 25-50 mg/kg/day.