An Important Reminder to Our Beloved Cancer Patients
First, a message:
Here at Emerald's we are WARRIORS for our cancer sufferers. Ya'll are the real MVP and we get our hands dirty and our minds messy because of a common goal. You guys face monsters and fear straight on every day, with a smile and a vengeance we have yet to experience anywhere else. And for that, we will always fight for you. Always.
If you are here and you don't support the use of cannabis and access to such for cancer patients, this isn't the article for you. Or maybe it is... who knows. But what we DO know is that there is GNARLY evidence backing the benefit. Proven over and over and over again. If the only thing cannabis could do for people is make them feel better (it isn't), then that's still worth something.
If you can't relate to watching or feeling the relief that comes with having cannabis at arms reach during the battle of cancer, you may not be on board with this.
But.
Not only are we on board.
WE ARE STEERING THE DAMN SHIP.
The physical, internal, emotional, spiritual, and mental turmoil that wreaks havoc on a person during what happens to be one of the hardest uphill battles of their lives, it is time to set politics aside and get the real cannabis infused tea here.
First, to laugh, to escape from pain and anxiety, to step outside one’s self and experience a moment of peace, or bliss, or both—what could be more healing? I don't have any clinical research to back this particular claim at the moment. But when you watch your best friend, dad, and comforter need to comforting and relief, and cannabis brings that for him? I don't really care about siting a source as far as that's concerned. I, among others, have witnessed the good it does for cancer sufferers all over the spectrum.
I'm done preaching. Here's some cold, hard, evidence.
The first ever study to show that cannabis exhibits anti-tumor propertieswas originally designed to demonstrate the plant’s dangers, specifically harm to the immune system. Funded by a grant from the American Cancer Society, research published in 1974 in The Journal of the National Cancer Instituteshowed that mice who had tumors surgically implanted and were then “treated for 20 consecutive days with THC” had reduced primary tumor size.
The government immediately pushed the offending study down the memory hole, and pushed on with the War on Cannabis, but three decades later, Dr. Manuel Guzman, professor of biochemistry at the University of Madrid, managed to follow up on the original 1974 experiments, with similar results. In the March 2000 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, Guzman reported that cannabinoids (like THC) not only shrink cancerous tumors in mice, they do so without damaging surrounding tissues.
A year later, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine for the first time demonstrated the efficacy of THC for nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy.
“A day doesn’t go by where I don’t see a cancer patient who has nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, pain, depression, and insomnia,” Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of hematology-oncology at San Francisco General Hospital and a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco told Newsweek for a 2013 article headlined Marijuana Is a Wonder Drug When It Comes to the Horrors of Chemo. “Cannabis is the only anti-nausea medicine that increases appetite.”
More recently, in 2017, the International Journal of Oncology published a report showing that cannabinoids produced naturally in a cannabis plant possess anti-cancer activity whether used alone or in conjunction with chemotherapy. While according to research by Yale Cancer Center, a majority of pediatric cancer providers now endorse the use of medical cannabis for children with advanced cancer.
Our best advice, whether you are mostly interested in cbd oil offered here at Emerald's or if you decide to begin your own cannabis dosage (with a MMJ card), the key is to titrate your dosage and start small, to get an accurate feel for what is most effective for you. Here is a link to more info about obtaining a medical marijuana card in Arkansas:
Lastly, I would like to take you guys back to why we are even involved to begin with. Why you find MY work among the Emerald's Community. My dad was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in July of 2016. A devastating reality check wrecked through our lives like a high tower of Jenga pieces. Cannabis not only extended his life (as we believe) but made the memories we were so happy to make, endearing and heart-swelling. His good days were better, and his bad days weren't as bad. So here we are, heavily passionate, invested, and in love with the potential of cannabis and cannabinoids all together. Join us in the movement, and feel free to share this content with your pals who may be facing this diagnosis.
All love,
Emerald's Triangle LLC ~Haylie
sources: summitmedicalgroup - photo