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Incurable Disease Research Paper

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Millions of people suffer daily from incurable diseases. The reality for a person affected by an incurable disease is that from the moment they are diagnosed and even before that back to the moment they experienced their first symptom, they will have their disease. While these diseases do not have a cure, treatments do exist to manage the symptoms. Often, the prescription drugs available to sufferers of these painful, sometimes life-threatening ailments are expensive and carry side effects of their own. A remedy used for treatment of many of these symptoms and side effects, historically dating back to as early as the 2700’s B.C. has, within the last 20 years, begun its re-ascent into medical potential. Cannabis was first documented in medical …show more content…

“The disease is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body (“What Is MS?”).” A multitude of symptoms present and progress from the disease, the most common of which is spasticity or muscle stiffness, spasms, and pain which affect approximately eighty percent of patients (Friedel). Many studies have been and are being done on the use of cannabis to treat spasticity. One such study resulted in reduction of spasms by fifty-seven percent within the first ten days of cannabis use (Koehler, et al.). This same study has provided data on 1,200 patient trials and established efficacy as well as safety in the use of cannabis for treatment of multiple sclerosis related spasticity (Koehler, et al.). Another study also produced results in the reduction of spasticity as well as enabled the patients involved to maintaining the ability to drive while suffering moderate to severe symptoms of multiple sclerosis (Friedel). The prescription drugs used to treat multiple sclerosis can be expensive and the more symptoms present, the more drugs a patient requires. In addition to spasticity, cannabis has proven successful in treating many of the other symptoms such as pain, some vision issues, and emotional troubles (“What …show more content…

The first and possibly most important fact to which many people are uneducated is the idea that users of medical cannabis are “getting stoned,” but the reality is that scientists are capable of modifying strains of cannabis used medically to contain low amounts of the intoxicant, tetrahydrocannabiniol, more commonly known as THC, and higher amounts of cannabidiol (Coulter and Jenewein). In most cases medical cannabis is not ingested as an inhalant but instead as an orally administered oil. Another common argument against cannabis is damage caused to the hippocampus which can cause short and long term memory impairment, very real side effects that should be considered and monitored for carefully, but studies have discovered the potential to combat these issues with the use of “non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen (Welberg).” While there is still much to learn about the use of cannabis medically, it should be remembered that there is still much to learn about many medical treatments and options but unlike cannabis, other treatments do not have an accompanying stereotype to

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