What is Medical Marijuana & What are its Benefits?

Medical Marijuana, as opposed to the usual Marijuana which is used for recreational purposes to become “high”, refers to the unprocessed marijuana plant which is used for treating symptoms of various illnesses including chronic pain. Medical Marijuana still has not been approved by the FDA to be used as a medicine, although various studies conducted on the chemicals present in marijuana called cannabinoids have led to medications which have been approved by the FDA for use as a medicine. Thus, there is growing argument to legalize Medical Marijuana for treatment purposes.

Some of the benefits of Medical Marijuana are:

Fighting and Preventing Several Diseases: Many people argue that Medical Marijuana can cause many diseases instead of treating or preventing it but research shows a totally opposite result. Studies conducted on Medical Marijuana shows that it has the potential to treat and even cure many diseases. Medical Marijuana is quite beneficial in controlling seizures and also quite effective in treating glaucoma.

Medical Marijuana also prevents spread of metastatic disease. It also slows down the progression of conditions like Alzheimer Disease. Medical Marijuana is also quite beneficial in easing pain that is caused by multiple sclerosis. Medical Marijuana is also quite useful in treating inflammatory conditions like arthritis.

Losing Weight and Improving Metabolism: Medical Marijuana is also quite beneficial in losing weight and helps improve metabolism in the body. Studies have shown that Medical Marijuana regulates insulin production and helps the body manage the calories taken in daily so that these calories can be used by the body and helps prevention of obesity.

Anxiety and Depression: One of the benefits of Medical Marijuana is that it helps people with anxiety and depression. This aspect of Medical Marijuana is most prominent as it promotes positive thinking and thus fights off anxiety and depression.

Benefits of Medical Marijuana in Enhancing Creativity and Maintaining Focus: Medical Marijuana also helps in increasing mental creativity of many individuals and allows them to remain focused on their tasks for a longer period of time. Thus people on Medical Marijuana do much better in their respective fields than other individuals.

Reversing Harmful Effects of Smoking: It may sound astonishing but Medical Marijuana is quite beneficial in reversing the negative impacts that smoking tobacco has on the lungs after quitting smoking.

Useful in PTSD: Yet another benefit of Medical Marijuana is that it is also quite helpful in calming down the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder in individuals, especially war veterans who suffer from PTSD. Medical Marijuana works by easing the stress caused by PTSD and thus help an individual lead a more normal life despite having PTSD.

As stated above, the FDA is yet to approve Medical Marijuana as a medicine to treat various symptoms including chronic pain. The reason behind this is that in order to approve a drug the FDA needs clinical trials to be conducted on numerous people which ranges to thousands and as of now Medical Marijuana has not been trialed on that many people and hence Medical Marijuana has not been approved by the FDA for clinical use in treating various illnesses and chronic pain symptoms.