This short section was taken from Dr. Bonni Goldstein's book"Cannabis Revealed". Dr. Goldstein M.D. specializes in cannabis medicine and has treated thousands of adult and pediatric patients with cannabis. Although she has a long waiting list, I encourage people to pick up a copy of her book which is very easy to read and has great information!
"In 2003, Dr. Ethan Russo, a board certified neurologist and psychopharmacology researcher, posed an excellent question in a scientific paper, asking if a deficiency of endocannabinoids - the compounds that are made on demand in our brains and bodies to maintain homeostasis - can lead to disease. He hypothesized that having lower levels of these compounds, which would diminish the ability to maintain homeostasis, may lead to medical conditions such as migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, IBS and other "treatment resistant" conditions. He reported that many patients with these conditions who used cannabis medicine had improvement of their symptoms.
Since that article was published, there have been numerous scientific studies that demonstrate that an impairment or dysfunction of the endocannabinoid system can be the cause of significant and difficult to treat medical conditions. This deficiency may be genetically determined, meaning you are born with it, while others may develop it later in life. Chronic stress, poor diet, and chronic pain hae all been shown to negatively impact endocannabinoid system functioning and can lead to endocannabinoid dysfunction.
Medical conditions that have been shown to result from endocannabinoid system dysfunction include:
*Autoimmune diseases
*Epilepsy
*Migrane headaches
*Fibromyalgia/Myofascial Pain Syndrome
*Irritable Bowel Syndrome
*Failure to thrive in newborns
*Complex regional pain syndrome
*Anxiety and depression
*Schizophrenia
*Multiple Sclerosis
*Huntington's disease
*Parkinson's disease
*Menstrual symptoms