Posts Tagged ‘cbd’

The anti-THC

Posted: February 17, 2012 in Breast Cancer, Cannabis Medicine
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The psychoactivity of THC is a hindrance for many. Though you can work your way into tolerance and past the high, there will be many “uh oh” moments despite the most careful dosing and that can be very inconvenient, say, behind the wheel of a car.

But THC is only one cannabinoid. There are hundreds of cannabinoids in the cannabis plant. Another one that is showing much promise in research is called cannabadiol (CBD) and is the anti-THC in every way. It has absolutely no psychoactive properties. When you ingest it, you might feel like you need a nap. My eyelids would get tired and heavy like I wanted to rub them, but my head was totally coherent! It was just freaky and amazing.

Dr Manuel Guzman, from Spain, has done some excellent work researching CBD and glioma. You see, cannabinoids cross the blood-brain barrier … that pesky little thing that makes most cancer drugs powerless. And CBD seems to show a particular affinity for getting there. Breast cancer (ding ding ding) is another one for which CBD seems to be effective.

Most recently, I did a run with an oil that was testing out at 30% THC and 30% CBD. Alas, for me it wasn’t the magic bullet but I still take a good 1/2gm each night because after all the research I’ve read on it, and my knowledge of the endocannabinoid system, I just believe in it. Period. I honestly believe it is one of the reasons I am still alive to even write this blog.

Here are a couple more articles for you to read about CBD and how much good it does for us … without the high:

http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/6/11/2921.long

http://medicalmarijuanadoctors.org/cbd-and-cancer%20

Oil, oil, toil and trouble

Posted: February 16, 2012 in Breast Cancer, Cannabis Medicine, Spiritual/Emotional/Energetic
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So I started taking cannabis oil in Jan ’09. This was all new to me at the time. I had no idea what kind of solvent was used, what kind of pot was used, etc. All I knew was that I wanted to get well and I had a source that Rick Simpson’s organization had recommended (just FYI, they no longer make recommendations like that). So I started taking this oil and went through the first 60 grams. According to Simpson, most cancers are cured by 60 grams if you take it all within 2 months. I did. I still had cancer, and it was still growing. I bought another batch from the same source. Took it and realized perhaps this particular medicine was not the right medicine.

During this time, I had met a guy in Colorado who was making oil and I got my next batch from him. I had become so used to the oil I had been using, that I didn’t treat this new oil with nearly enough respect. I knew this oil had been made from sugar leaves and trim mostly, so figured it would be a piece of cake since, allegedly, the last oil I had was made from all bud. So I measured out a dose … subtracted a little, but not nearly enough.

John and I had to go run some errands and I was sitting right smack in the middle of a Direct Buy club when it hit!!!!! Holy crap! I was already sitting down, but now I was having trouble holding my head up and that head was starting to feel very uncomfortable in a public place. I informed John we needed to leave and fast! Unfortunately, we still had a 45-minute drive before I could get horizontal.

By the time we got home, that stuff was rocking my world and not in a good way! I felt like I was having a heart attack and I was stuck somewhere between passing out and consciousness. I needed to pass out, but just couldn’t quite let go. Oh it was awful. I could’ve sworn I was having a heart attack. And there was John, stroking me and telling me it was all in my head; assuring me everything would be alright. Boy, that was a valuable lesson learned. When using any new oil, always lower the dose quite a bit, just till you know how it’s going to affect you just like any other medication.

So why then, you might ask, would I continue spending the money and paying the overdose price for this stuff? Because of all the research I had been reading, much of which is listed in the Cannabis Research List above. The way cannabinoids work within the body create healing in the body. And the fact that we have receptors and a system designed to accommodate a single plant in the plant kingdom … well, I just can’t ignore that. Couple that with the many people I know, personally, who have been healed (not just relieved) of addictions, hepatitis C, skin cancer, fibromyalgia, arthritis … let’s just say I’m thankful to live in a medically legal state.

And why oil? Isn’t that a bit extreme to be ingesting such concentrated doses of THC and CBD? Many reasons. First of all,one can’t go around smoking, or even vaporizing, all the time. Not to mention, it can’t be done in public anyway. So then, why not edibles? Still not concentrated enough of a dose plus most of them are made with sugar. If we’re talking healing, not symptom relief, we need the best medicine possible and eating a bunch of sugar would never be in a cancer patient’s best interest. Also, unless you make the edibles yourself, you don’t really know how much medicine you’re getting. I have had edibles from dispensaries that would either do nothing at all or make me forget how to breathe. So they’re just too unpredictable and sugar-laden for me to want to use for healing.

Enter cannabis oil. Not to be confused with butane or honey oil. If it’s golden, it has almost all THC and is mostly for spiritual or recreational use. Plus, butane is not made to be ingested even though the extractors will swear they got all the butane out of it. I don’t trust anyone that much. At least grain alcohol is relatively meant to be ingested. That’s just my personal comfort zone.

Another question one might have is how do you function if you’re that full of THC all the time? Well, that’s easy. You don’t at first. But that’s the point of starting tiny and slowly working up the dose. While you’re working up that dose you are slowly building your tolerance. Before you know it, you’re taking 1/4gm at a time and you’re not even feeling its effects. At that point, you’re off and running toward healing.

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Down the rabbit hole

Posted: January 30, 2012 in Breast Cancer, Cannabis Medicine, Spiritual/Emotional/Energetic
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Now I had been using pot medicinally for only a few months when something crossed my radar.  I don’t rightly know where it even came from, but I’m learning that’s how it works.  God (I call Him God and it’s easier to type, so that’s how I’ll keep it.  You can feel free to translate into your preferred reference) drops something randomly on you but only when He knows you’re ready for it.  I saw this video and I can’t even remember whether I found it on a website or someone suggested it to me in a email, but it sounded like a bunch of bunk and waaaaay too good to be true! It is called Run From the Cure. Catchy name, huh?  And pretty appropriate for where I was in my life at the time.  I wanted nothing to do with their cure.  I was running as fast as I knew how.  I took the time to watch it but it was pot, for crying out loud … and it took a pound of pot to make a batch.  God knows where I would get that or how I would afford it.  And the video kept stressing how dangerous the process was, so I pretty much ruled it out at that point.

But months later, after I’d started using medical cannabis, it came across my radar again.  Now I was ready for it.  Now I was open to it.  Now I was intrigued and interested.  I couldn’t believe that anyone would claim that marijuana cured their cancer and thought that, if that were true, there would be way more stoners in the world today because they wouldn’t be dying of disease.  I contacted the organization and was told of a person who could make the oil for me.  They have since stopped doing that.  But I contacted this person and purchased my first batch of cannabis oil.

I started with a dose no larger than half the size of a grain of rice, as the instructions directed.  This stuff was certainly not what I expected when I thought of oil.  It was really more like so-green-it’s-almost-black axle grease.  And the taste? Aaaaaacccckkkkkkkkk!  Vile … in my opinion anyway.  So I always recommend folks to purchase a digital postal scale so you know exactly how much you are taking.  And purchase some Now brand #3 veggie caps to put it in because, trust me, you do not want a big dollop of this stuff lingering in your mouth.  You’ll be looking like a dog trying to swallow peanut butter trying to get that thick coating of nastiness off your tongue!

You do this several times a day, for a few days, then increase the dose.  You keep at it until you are able to ingest 1 gram of oil per day.  That process usually takes two to three weeks to build up to therapeutic dose.  I was rapidly becoming emaciated due to the cachexia process, which is typically considered the end.  But that oil immediately put 13 much-needed pounds on me.  My oncologist was so impressed he was considering sending some of his other patients my way so I could point them to some oil because even he admitted he couldn’t do much about cachexia.  But the first 60 days came and went and I still had cancer. On the other hand, my insomnia was a thing of the past.  I didn’t spend my days focused on a cancer death any more.  And if that was all there was … if all it did was make me gain weight, sleep, and not be so terrorized, that was worth its weight in gold alone.  But then there was the research …. oh how, with all the reading about alternative cancer cures, did this escape me all this time?

Again, I truly believe that we are only given info as we can handle it.  When this crossed my path before, I was nowhere near ready to even consider it, much less do it.  And despite all the research I was doing every day, I was not seeing the research I’m seeing now.  And it was there all along.  Just not in view to me.  But that’s one of the things I’ve learned and, just recently, it has brought me much comfort.  When things get uncomfortable, all I have to do is stay open and relax.  The bread crumb trail has not been visible in the distance for me.  It’s only as I turn a corner that the next bread crumb appears.  Kind of as the Bible refers to “a lamp unto my feet.”  That would only light the path ahead for a single step.  You would not see the whole road.  Just the path that is directly before you.  So you take the step … and the next step becomes visible.