Medical Cannabis Helps Older People with Parkinson’s, Other Diseases, Study Finds

One study has shown that medical marijuana is a safe and effective way to help alleviate symptoms of Parkinson's disease, cancer and other diseases, especially pain.

In addition, the European Journal of Internal Medicine reported that more than 18% of patients had reduced or stopped using opioid analgesics after a 6 month study.

The use of medical cannabis has increased significantly in recent years. Due to the aging of the population, the use of elderly people is increasing

"Elderly patients are representative of large and growing medical cannabis users, but none have dealt with how it affects this particular group." Dr. Victor Nobach is a professor at the University of Benglion in Israel Professor of Health Science University said in press release

This prompted the Ben Gurion team to study who is using medical marijuana among elderly people and whether they are safe and effective. Novack is also responsible for the Soroka Cannabis Clinical Research Institute.

The study "epidemiological features, safety and efficacy of medical cannabis in the elderly" covered 2,736 patients over the age of 65. They received medical marijuana through January 2015 through October 2017 through Tikun Olam, Israel's largest medical marijuana supplier.

Researchers asked patients whether marijuana relieves pain and improves quality of life. They also asked if they caused any adverse events within 6 months.

The average age of respondents was 74.5 years. 67% said they are using marijuana to relieve pain. 61% said their treatment is related to cancer

After six months of treatment, 94% of respondents said that their condition improved. According to the scale used to measure it, an important finding is that their pain level has fallen by half.

18.1% of respondents said that they reduced or abandoned the use of opioids for pain treatment. Researchers say this is a good sign as opioids can have long-term effects including addiction.

Regarding safety, the patient's most common adverse event is dizziness - Patients with Parkinson's disease may be worried because nearly 10% of the research participants have reported that there is a risk of falling .

"As a result of investigating patients over the age of 65 years over a period of six months, it was found that medicine cannabis treatment greatly alleviated pain, improved the quality of life for the elderly, and had minimal side effects "

This encouraged researchers to write that "the therapeutic use of cannabis is safe and effective for the elderly".

In addition, "Marijuana use may reduce the use of other prescription drugs including opioids," they wrote.

A study was conducted on how cannabis can help to reduce the side effects caused by certain medications of Parkinson's disease. The 2001 study investigated the role of cannabinoids in reducing dyskinesia caused by levodopa. The results of this study suggest that cannabinoid receptor agonist Nabilone can minimize involuntary movements associated with levodopa use. In another 2004 study, the use of medical cannabis to treat Parkinson's disease was investigated. In this study, it was found that after using medical weeds, about 46% of patients showed a significant improvement in symptoms. Approximately 45% of people are improving in terms of bradykinesia, and tremors are decreasing by 30% or more. If you continue to use medical cannabis for 3 months to treat Parkinson's disease, the patient will continue to improve symptoms

Marijuana for medical use is also called medical marijuana and has various clinical results as a treatment method to alleviate symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD). The effects of cannabis on the symptoms of Parkinson's disease are unknown. Some people report improved ease of exercise and pain relief and others report that there is no change or even worse. Cannabinoids are naturally contained in humans, plants, chemicals. Our bodies produce endogenous cannabinoids that bind to receptors throughout the body and brain. This is called the endogenous cannabinoid system. Cannabinoids can bind to receptors that affect brain chemicals such as dopamine. Low dopamine levels are characteristic of Parkinson's disease. The basal ganglia region of the brain controls motor function and includes cannabinoid receptors. Cannabinoids in cannabis act like cannabis in the body 3 Cannabinoids in cannabis have antioxidant and antiinflammatory actions and have neuroprotective effects 2.