What is Alcoholism and can medical cannabis be used to treat alcoholism?– although many times people think of alcoholism as an excessive drinking problem, unfortunately, it is not just a drinking problem. Alcoholism is a progressive, chronic, and very serious disease that can have a lethal effect on a person, and can also have a big impact on the quality of life, of the person and on the family and friends too. People who fight alcoholism often don’t realize they have a problem and continue drinking despite professional and private issues caused by alcoholism, and experience withdrawal symptoms when not drinking for some time and as alcoholic the alcohol tolerance increases, allowing much more alcohol to be consumed.
There are different types of alcoholism, young adult characterized by occasional excessive drinking, and usually goes by when you grow a bit older (like college drinking), and is usually harmless. Young antisocial are young people with mental problems or antisocial issues who start drinking to cover the pain, also often stop because they seek help. Then there are functional alcoholics who often have a family history of alcohol-related problems, and intermediate familial, who also often have some mental issues and disorders (like bipolar disorder and clinical depression). The last type is chronic severe which has the highest probability of coexisting conditions, such as depression with some auto-immune disease, and are most likely to seek help for their alcohol issue!
Alcohol causes various disorders, and besides the obvious under alcohol symptoms, the withdrawal disorders are much more serious and include nausea, shaking, tremors, vomiting, memory loss, and craving for alcohol, and could develop depression and mood changes. The more severe consequences include cirrhosis and alcoholic ketoacidosis!
Current treatments for alcoholism vary from medical treatment including various pills for detox and group support (12 steps) and aftercare. However, the withdrawal and detox process can be hard both for the patient and the whole family and surroundings friends!
Medical cannabis – today medical cannabis is being used for many disorders and diseases, some more successful than others, but many types of research and studies prove the effectiveness of medical cannabis every day. A lot of people are also using medical cannabis for the treatment of alcohol withdrawal symptoms, and with a lot of success too. The most common reasons for substituting medical cannabis with alcohol are the management of withdrawal symptoms and reduction of negative side effects.
Unlike alcohol, cannabis doesn’t damage the liver, doesn’t kill any brain cells, and does not has a large impact on the family, most of the time no impact at all. It does not cause aggressive behavior, any blackout or memory loss, and not obvious changes of physical and mental behavior.
There are already studies that can confirm that medical cannabis can be used in the process of treating alcoholism, showing solid evidence that cannabis can reduce the symptoms of withdrawal and help fight alcohol caused depression and anxiety. A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience in 2014 shows that medical cannabis can act as a neuroprotective shield that prevents brain damage sustain during alcohol withdrawal. Another study published in the Free Radical Biology and Medicine, also in 2014, showed that cannabinoids can help ease alcohol craving and also can help restore liver function and prevent steatosis of the liver. The study has been conducted on mice, but human testimonies have confirmed the same conclusion.
Among the symptoms treated with medical cannabis during alcohol withdrawal are:
– Anxiety
– Nausea
– Depression
– Craving for alcohol
– Stress
Some experts however warn that cannabis is just a substitute for another addiction, which has been largely argued by patients who have used cannabis for treating alcoholism, and the facts can be said are on their side. Getting the “high” effect can be achieved by both alcohol and medical cannabis, but the latter is significantly cheaper and there is little evidence that cannabis causes any addiction or damage to your body, and has been proven that regular consumers only form a habit, and do not have any physical addiction at all.
Methods of treatment – If you are fighting alcoholism, or someone close to you is, you can look for the professional help from your doctor. If medical cannabis is available in your country or state you will be given the right strain of medical cannabis and the right method will be provided to you. There are many ways of medical treatment with medicinal cannabis, amongst which vaporizing is the most popular and the most effective in fighting alcoholism. Other methods are edibles, which take longer to act but last longer, tinctures and oils which can be taken orally and act more quickly, and traditional smoking which is largely been replaced throughout the world by vaping, as a more healthy alternative.
Side-effect – Your doctor will point you to the possible side-effects of medical cannabis, which can be mild like nausea, euphoria, increased heart pulse, and mild anxiety, and more severe like paranoia and fatigue. However, most if not all of the side-effects only last for a couple of hours and wear off. There are some restrictions for using medical cannabis also, if you have a predisposition for schizophrenia, or if it runs in your family, you should not use medical cannabis because there is evidence that it can induce the onset of this mental disorder. Also, if you are pregnant because very little is known about how cannabis affects your baby’s brain development. And because of the possible “high” effect, it is needless to say you should not drive or operate any heavy machinery, and because of the same reason, you should definitively not babysit!
References:
https://www.thegrowthop.com/cannabis-culture/can-medical-cannabis-help-alcoholics-stop-drinking-for-good
https://www.labroots.com/trending/cannabis-sciences/13701/medical-marijuana-treat-alcoholism
https://www.verywellmind.com/the-dangers-of-the-marijuana-maintenance-program-67746
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3992908/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8xdz7a/alocholism-addiction-recovery-medical-marijuana
http://hams.cc/mm/
https://health.usnews.com/wellness/articles/2016-11-16/should-people-in-recovery-from-alcohol-or-drugs-use-medical-marijuana
https://herb.co/guides/alcoholism-medical-cannabis/
https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/blog-can-cannabis-help-with-alcohol-withdrawal-n848
Cannabis Oil for Alcohol Withdrawal – How to treat Alcohol Addiction
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/16/5529
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0891584913015670
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