An overwhelming number of patients and caregivers report that cannabis–especially CBD and low-dose THC–can have a significant impact on patients suffering from dementia and/or Alzheimer’s disease. Cannabis may help reduces some of the symptoms experienced by patients with these diseases.

Of course, more research is needed, but much existing research supports the benefits. Anecdotal evidence and patient reports tell us that medical cannabis often improves the quality of life of patients with dementia and their caregivers. We expect future research to further confirm and explore the clinical findings. 

Here are five ways cannabis may impact dementia. 

CBD as a Neuroproteant 

This historical fact might sound unbelievable to some, but it is 100% true: In 2001, the United States government filed for a US patent on CBD, cannabidiol, claiming CBD is a neuroprotectant. This implies CBD helps protect brain cells from further damage from the disease process and may even have restorative properties. 

In their abstract, the US Department of Health claims, “Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”

We don’t have enough research to consider cannabis an official front-line treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, however, we do have research supporting the antioxidant actions of cannabinoids. Additionally, in vitro studies show CBD can spur neurogenesis in human brain cells, suggesting the compound may protect brain cells. 

Controlling Agitation & Psychological Outburts

Agitation and emotional outbursts are challenging symptoms experienced by many patients with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Psychological outbursts can be particularly challenging for the families and caregivers of patients. 

Patients and caregivers regularly report that adding, cannabis in the form of CBD and/or THC, to a patient’s healthcare regimen often reduces or eliminates behavioral outbursts. 

A prospective observational study conducted in 2019, determined, “ An oral cannabis extract with THC/CBD, in higher dosages than in other studies, was well tolerated and greatly improved behavior problems, rigidity, and daily care in severely demented patients.”

We also have clinical research examining the synthetic form of THC, nabilone, which clearly reduced agitation in patients with dementia. 

Fight Memory Loss

Let me start by saying that cannabis is NOT a magical treatment that will allow patients to recover all their lost memories and return to life before dementia. Sadly, there is NO medication or treatment that can do that. However, research and anecdotal evidence support the idea that cannabis may stimulate the brain to gently improve memory and memory-related behavior.  

We don’t have human studies to support this, but animal studies show that regular administration of CBD and THC did improve memory and performance in animals suffering from age-related and illness-related memory issues. Caregivers also report modest improvements in memory-related activities after patients begin a regular cannabis regimen. 

Increase Appetite 

Diminishing appetites, wasting syndrome, and failure to thrive are common issues experienced by patients with dementia. These symptoms can be extremely alarming for caregivers.

Cannabis is world-famous as an appetite stimulant. In animal models, researchers found delta 9 THC triggers hunger hormones. 

Drobinol, a synthetic form of THC, has been used to address a failure to thrive. Cannabis is used regularly to increase appetite among patients with cancer. While synthetic cannabinoids are the only option for some US patients. Cannabis clinicians routinely encourage natural plant-derived cannabinoids over synthetics because they tend to cause fewer side effects compared to synthetics. 

Improve Sleep 

The research about how cannabis affects sleep and sleep disorders is conflicting, but the anecdotal evidence is clear. Caregivers consistently report that adding cannabis improves sleep in terms of time and quality for patients suffering from dementia. 

Improving a patient’s sleep can dramatically improve the quality of life not only of the patient but it can significantly improve the quality of life for the patient’s caregivers as well. 

Reduction in Rigidity and Pain

One of the most popular uses for medical cannabis is addressing chronic pain. Patients with dementia frequently experience unexplained chronic pain. Many patients also experience muscle rigidity which can cause significant pain.

Patients with dementia are also often unable to effectively communicate the quality or quantity of their pain and that can make treating it extremely difficult.

Adding medical cannabis can effectively address issues of chronic pain thus significantly improving the quality of life for the patient without suffering from the risks or side-effects of traditional pharmaceutical pain-relievers. Research show’s low-dose THC and CBD can help reduce rigidity in patients thus decreasing pain and increasing function.

Conclusion

There are many potential benefits of adding medical cannabis to the healthcare routine of a patient with dementia. Historically patients with dementia have experienced improved appetite, improved sleep, a reduction in rigidity and pain, and a reduction in behavioral outbursts when adding medical cannabis.

Many patients wonder how much cannabis to take. Finding the ideal dose can be challenging. Overall patients with dementia often report positive effects on a daily regimen of CBD and low-dose THC, but everyone is different and occasionally patients require higher doses.

Patients and caregivers should always speak with their healthcare provider before adding a new substance or medication to their healthcare regimen.

 Trending Now

Often patients with serious chronic issues benefit from adding cannabis to their healthcare regimen. This is especially true for patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and Crohn’s Disease. Some patients with mild cases may be able to eliminate pharmaceuticals completely. Many others successfully utilize cannabis in combination with pharmaceuticals. 

Anecdotal evidence and research show cannabis may affect the symptoms of Crohn’s disease in a variety of ways thus enhancing the patient’s quality of life.

Here five different ways cannabis can impact Crohn’s disease and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Nausea, Vomiting, and Diarrhea 

Patients with Crohn’s Disease often suffer from a variety of distressing symptoms. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea are frequently among the most disabling symptoms a patient may endure. For many patients, episodes of nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea can be completely debilitating.

Cannabis is famous as an antiemetic. It’s highly valued in oncology for its effects on chemotherapy-associated nausea. Ample research and anecdotal evidence show cannabis can decrease episodes of nausea and vomiting. While a 2014 Canadian population study found that  28.6% of patients with IBD reported improved diarrhea after beginning a cannabis regimen. 

Pain

Patients with IBD and Crohn’s Disease frequently report episodes of pain. Some episodes may be localized while others may be widespread. 

A 2014 study examined the effects of cannabis on patients with Irritable Bowel Disease who used cannabis. 83.9% of the participants reported cannabis improved abdominal pain, 76.8% reported that cannabis improved abdominal cramping, and 48.2% found cannabis improved joint pain as well. 

It’s important to note that this particular study researcher also noted cannabis users with Crohn’s disease more often had worsening disease than people who did not use cannabis. We don’t know if cannabis masks the symptoms of Crohn’s disease, or if people with more serious instances of the disease are more likely to use cannabis. 

Inducing Remission

Achieving remission is often a goal of treatment for patients with Crohn’s Disease and IBD. Remission is when the disease is no longer in an active state and symptoms recede. 

A small-scale placebo-controlled study conducted in Israel in 2013, found 10 out of 11 participants experienced a significant positive clinical response after beginning a medical cannabis regimen. 5 out of 11 participants went into complete remission after 8 weeks of regular cannabis administration. 

Similar research was presented in 2018, “In a randomised, placebo-controlled study, researchers from Israel have shown that cannabis can produce clinical remission in up to 65% of individuals after 8 weeks of treatment, but that this improvement does not appear to result from a dampening down of the underlying inflammatory process.”

There’s no evidence to suggest cannabis decreases gut inflammation directly, but cannabis is coveted for its anti-inflammatory properties in general. 

May Mitigate Complications

Many people live successful happy lives with chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease, but in some cases, the disease process can result in complications that can be dangerous and deadly. 

A retrospective cohort study in 2019 found cannabis users were less likely to have active fistulizing disease, intra-abdominal abscesses, blood product transfusions, colectomies, and parenteral nutrition requirements.

The study concluded that “cannabis use may mitigate several of the well-described complications of Crohn’s disease among hospital inpatients. These effects could possibly be through the effect of cannabis in the endocannabinoid system.” 

Another study found “ Fifteen of the patients had 19 surgeries during an average period of 9 years before cannabis use, but only 2 required surgery during an average period of 3 years of cannabis use. Again, much more research is needed to truly determine the effects cannabis has on Inflammatory Bowel Disease, but the current research available is promising.  

Increased appetite

Weight loss is another challenging symptom experienced by many patients with Crohn’s Disease and IBD. 

One of the most famous effects of marijuana is “the munchies”. It’s true that marijuana can act as an appetite stimulant. In animal models, researchers found delta 9 THC triggers hunger hormones. 

It’s also interesting to note, that many researchers theorize cannabis may help maintain a healthy weight as studies have found chronic cannabis users generally have a healthier BMI than nonusers.

Conclusion

Many patients report benefits from cannabis including a reduction in nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea, a reduction of pain, and an increased appetite. Patients also often report that cannabis may help mitigate the complications of IBD, and in some patients, it may even induce or maintain remission.  

It’s also important to add, that some physicians have suggested cannabis may mask the symptoms of worsening disease and careful management by a healthcare provider is needed. 

Much more research needs to be done to fully understand how medical marijuana impacts Crohn’s disease or IBD.  As always, new patients should consult with their healthcare provider before adding new substances to their healthcare regimen. 

 Trending Now

Until 1937, cannabis was a medication commonly used to treat a variety of disorders including migraines. It was so common, you could pick a tincture up in your local pharmacy.

Unfortunately, cannabis is now still illegal in many areas and has been stigmatized for decades. But as legalization is embraced by the world, we’ve rediscovered cannabis as a tool for addressing migraines and a variety of other illnesses and disorders, including chronic pain, cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic inflammation, leukemia, and more.

Here are five ways medical marijuana affects migraine headache disorder.

5 Ways Cannabis Might Help Migraines

Reduces Frequency of Migraines

An overwhelming number of patients report regularly consuming cannabis reduces the frequency of migraine headaches. Multiple studies support these reports.

A 2019 study conducted at Washinton State University found, “Inhaled cannabis reduces self-reported headache severity by 47.3% and migraine severity by 49.6%”

A 2020 study published in Brain Sciences showed that prolonged cannabis use could decrease the frequency of migraines, reinforcing a 2016 clinical study, published in Pharmacotherapy Productions, which also shows medical marijuana can reduce the frequency of migraines.

The 2016 study states, “Migraine headache frequency decreased from 10.4 to 4.6 headaches per month (p<0.0001) with the use of medical marijuana.” A whopping 85% of study participants reported symptom relief.

Reduces Acute Pain of Migraines Headaches

Many patients report that consuming cannabis after a migraine has begun can help reduce the acute pain experienced during the migraine.

Medical cannabis is prized for its impressive effects on addressing pain. Most of the research has examined cannabis’s effects on chronic pain as opposed to acute pain such as that experienced during a migraine episode.

Ample anecdotal evidence shows cannabis can be helpful for many people experiencing acute pain. Research examining the effects of cannabinoids on acute pain is scarce but a 2020 study showed that cannabis is statistically significant in reducing acute pain.

Reduces Nausea & Vomiting

Nausea and vomiting are some of the most common symptoms accompanying migraine headache attacks. For many patients, nausea and vomiting can be more debilitating than the headache itself.

Cannabis has been prized for decades for its ability to fight nausea and vomiting.

Ample research and anecdotal evidence show cannabis can decrease episodes of nausea and vomiting. Research also shows cannabis may reduce dysgeusia (a persistent bad taste in the mouth) which is another complaint sometimes associated with migraine headache disorder.

Reduces Inflammation

Inflammation is suspected as a culprit in migraine headache disorder. Preclinical research from 2019 states, “Inflammation could have an important role in migraine chronification through a mechanism termed neurogenic neuroinflammation.” Some clinicians also suspect chronic inflammation may play a role in triggering exacerbations.

Cannabis is often used as an anti-inflammatory. Research shows cannabis can act to decrease inflammation. Cannabidiol is a potent anti-inflammatory. CBD from hemp oil is often utilized for its anti-inflammatory properties in states where medical marijuana is illegal.

Balances the Endocannabinoid System

One of the most significant ways cannabis affects the body is its impact on the endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is an essential biochemical communication system in every human body.

Little is understood about the endocannabinoid system but in 2008, Dr. Ethan Russo published research explaining the effects of clinical endocannabinoid deficiency syndrome (CECD). One of the specific conditions Dr. Russo attributes to CECD is migraine headache disorder.

In theory, consuming cannabinoids found in cannabis is believed to help restore tone to a deficient endocannabinoid system. So, if migraine headache disorder is caused by an endocannabinoid imbalance, then cannabis may help restore balance to that system thus easing the symptoms of migraines.

Cannabis isn’t the only way to balance the ECS–here are seven other ways to modulate the endocannabinoid system.Trending Now

How does CBD Impact Wellness?

Of course, more research is needed to fully understand the ways cannabis and CBD (cannabidiol) impacts wellness, but the results and anecdotal reports currently being revealed about these substances continues to amaze. 

Consumers repeatedly report that CBD affects health in a variety of ways, including sleep, anxiety, and exercise recovery. Below, we examine some of these ways CBD impacts wellness along with the research surrounding these topics. 

As always, patients should consult their licensed healthcare provider before adding a new supplement to their healthcare routine. 

1. Sleep

The way CBD impacts sleep varies from person-to-person. Results from research examining the effects of CBD, also varies. Nonetheless, consumers continue to report that CBD makes them feel sleepy with many consumers adding that CBD helps them to remain asleep all night. 

Research tells us that endocannabinoid signaling does impact sleeping and sleep patterns but how this manifests in each consumer still needs to be examined.  

A 2019 study examined 72 adults reporting poor sleep and using cannabidiol. The study found, “Sleep scores improved within the first month in 48 patients (66.7%) but fluctuated over time.”

Cannabis experts suspect these differences may be related to use of different cultivars, as different cultivars of cannabis can produce different physiological results. 

2. Energy

Just as many consumers report that CBD may enhance sleep, others report that CBD actually causes stimulation instead. Many users report that using CBD increases their energy levels and leaves them feeling energized after consuming it. 

Again this could be related to the cultivars of the cannabis being used to produce the CBD. It may also be related to the dose, as different dosages of CBD can produce different physiological effects.

Some researchers believe this may be related to the effects of CBD on circadian rhythm, others speculate that it may be a result of the impact of CBD on mitochondria within our cells.  

Today many consumers are using CBD as a way to increase their energy and thus increase their productivity. Still, we need a great deal of research to understand exactly how and why CBD causes specific consumer experiences. 

3. Anxiety

 Research has shown that CBD may improve anxiety in some consumers. The same study we referenced above also examined the anxiety levels of the study participants. Their results showed, “Anxiety scores decreased within the first month in 57 patients (79.2%) and remained decreased during the study duration.”

Another study, published in the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, examined the use of CBD for anxiety induced by the prospect of public speaking. The study looked at anxious individuals who were administered 600 mgs of CBD, or a placebo, prior to speaking publicly. 

Results showed that participants who had received the 600 mgs of CBD, were able to speak publicly with “significantly reduced anxiety, cognitive impairment and discomfort in their speech performance.”

Consumers should also keep in mind that some consumers report that taking too high of a dose of CBD can actually trigger anxiety instead of relieving it. 

4. Pain Relief

One of the biggest reasons consumers choose medical marijuana is to attain relief from chronic pain. Many CBD consumers report using a high quality CBD product can help relieve pain. Research supports this suggestion. 

While we do need more research, numerous studies have demonstrated that CBD does impact both inflammatory and neuropathic pain. This is thought to occur for a variety of reasons. 

Consumers are choosing to use CBD to address pain caused by a variety of ailments and issues. Research surrounding the cannabis-derived pharmaceutical, Sativex, shows a combination of plant-derived THC and CBD can have significant effects on muscle spasticity, as well as neuropathic pain. CBD is also being examined as a way to address painful conditions like arthritis and fibromyalgia. 

5. Exercise Recovery

One of the most popular new ways to utilize CBD products is for exercise recovery. This is because CBD has been shown to behave as a potent anti-inflammatory. 

When we exercise, we cause microscopic damage to our muscles and other biological tissues. The stress we place on our tissues during exercise, causes physiological stress and produces excess free radicals. CBD may act as an antioxidant, essentially helping to eliminate free radicals and thus enhancing exercise recovery. 

In mice, CBD has demonstrated the ability to lower urea nitrogen and blood creatinine levels. This is also believed to enhance exercise recovery. Some hope that this means CBD may one day help prevent exercise-induced nephrotoxicity, but more research is needed for that to be determined. Of course, more research is needed to examine the true extent of CBD on muscle recovery in humans. 

Conclusion

CBD may impact wellness in a variety of ways. Anxiety, exercise recovery, and sleep are just some of the areas consumers report CBD impacting. We need more research to examine all the ways CBD truly impacts health & wellness. 

Like all substances, cannabis and CBD have side effects, additionally, CBD may interact with some medications. Consumers should always speak with their licensed healthcare provider before adding a new substance to their health routine.

 Trending Now

There’s no real research examining cannabis’s effects on ADHD, but Dr. Mary Clifton discusses related research that indirectly suggests cannabis may be beneficial for patients with ADHD.

About Mary Clifton, MD

Mary Clifton, MD is an internal medicine doctor in New York City with 20 years of experience in both the hospital and private practice. She’s a licensed by the New York State Department of Health to provide medical marijuana and is a recognized expert in cannabis therapeutics. She’s a published researcher, a national speaker on women’s health and osteoporosis, and is author of four books including the bestseller,  “The Grass Is Greener: Medical Marijuana, THC & CBD OIL: Reversing Chronic Pain, Inflammation and Disease”.

About Dr. Mary Clifton, MD

Transcript:

Dr. Mary Clifton (00:00):

Hi, I’m Jessie, I’m a cannabis nurse and the founder of marijuana mommy. And you’re watching patients are the proof where we talk about the real benefits of cannabis. Today I’m talking with dr Mary Clifton. Dr Clifton is an internal medicine doctor in New York city with 20 years of experience in both the hospital and private practice. She’s a licensed by the New York state department of health to provide medical marijuana and is a recognized expert in cannabis therapeutics. She’s a published researcher, national speaker on women’s health and osteoporosis and author of four books and two new, soon to be released books on CBD and cannabis. Dr Mary Clifton. Hello. Thank you so much. Oh, I’m really excited to be here. Thank you for having me. Fantastic. So tell me a little bit about your practice and how you became involved in cannabis.

Dr. Mary Clifton (00:52):

Well, I do a tele-medicine practice almost exclusively at this point and a lot of consulting within the cannabis community. My work is, you know, to help people get cannabis cards and also to do consultations so people can know, you know, what kind of products to look for when they get to the dispensary. And then I shoot educational videos. I have a hundred free videos on my site cbdandcannabisinfo.com and then I shoot a video specific to the work that you’re doing in, in your community for various organizations.

Jessie Gill, RN (01:25):

Fantastic. And how did you become, how did you become a cannabis expert? Because so many you know, practicing physicians aren’t really aware. I, you know, so many healthcare professionals in general aren’t aware of, of the power of the plant and aren’t aware of the developments in cannabis therapeutics. How did you become involved in it?

Dr. Mary Clifton (01:46):

Well, I, I wasn’t particularly aware of myself. I had been practicing, I’ve been practicing for almost 25 years now. And I did you know, a fair number of cannabis cards in my primary practice and advised people, but mostly listened to what people were telling me was working for them. And and I wasn’t really sure about exactly the value of the product or I, and I, and I was very busy as a, as an internal medicine doctor with a lot of specialization in women’s health and osteoporosis and not necessarily thinking about redirecting. And then I had two very important deaths. A my brother who died of colon cancer and a girlfriend, a good girlfriend who died of ovarian cancer.

Dr. Mary Clifton (02:33):

Oh, I know about four months apart. And these were both people that I loved very much and that I ended up doing bedside hospice. I’ve done hospice for 25 years, but I’ve always done it over the telephone with a nurse managing all of the hard work at the bedside or I’ve popped into the hospital and see the patient for five minutes or six or eight minutes or 20 minutes once a day. And then the nurses is been really the bedrock of the care. So this was me at bedside and I got to see, you know, a lot of uncontrolled symptoms without cannabis, and a really pleasant, very smooth experience on the other end with cannabis. So I thought this all is probably just a onetime experience. It’s coincidence. None of this is actually real about none of this can be real. So, so I thought I’ll do a little research and then I’ll get back to my day job. And that was about three years ago.

Jessie Gill, RN (03:32):

Not back to your day job yet, huh?

Dr. Mary Clifton (03:36):

No. There’s so much great data on cannabis. Everybody always says, Oh, there’s no research, but there’s loads of research. So it’s my job to bring that data to people and make it easy to understand why the product might be valuable for you and your various conditions.

Jessie Gil, RN (03:50):

That’s, that’s excellent. And a great point with the research. I just had an interview about that. My last episode that you know, a lot of, a lot of doctors here in the United States think there is no research and the truth is there’s just no US-based research. But there is so much outside. It’s amazing.

Dr. Mary Clifton

The US-based research has been hard to get. I mean, there’s been limitations in getting an adequate product to even start doing the work on. And then once the product is available, the prohibition really limits. It’s a little bit Alice in Wonderland, you know, it limits our ability to, to, to be able to set up great protocols and then the product that’s available to study in the U S is something that people aren’t even using anymore.

Dr. Mary Clifton (04:34):

We can only get it from one source and oftentimes by the time it’s delivered, it’s overly dried or moldy. There’s been a ton of problems with completing high quality research here in the US so I think, I think that’s changing, but in the meantime we can get great data from Israel. There’s great data coming out of Italy and a lot of good Canadian study. Some of my favorite work is coming out of Canada.

Dr. Mary Clifton (04:59):

Fantastic. Yeah, Thank goodness for these other countries that are, are, you know, doing the work for the information that we need. I love your videos. They’re short and so helpful and you know, really target like specific, you know, issues that people can utilize cannabis for. And I watched one in particular that just fascinates me because I don’t know a lot about it, but ADD and ADHD and the use of cannabis a lot of people are starting to explore that more. Can you speak to that a little bit.

Dr. Mary Clifton (05:32):

ADHD is very interesting, surrounding the cannabis use. We don’t have any direct research, but a group of Duke researchers did a very smart study on chat rooms. They looked at chat rooms on the internet in all kinds of platforms and, and looked at people who were talking about ADHD and what they were saying around cannabis and ADHD. And they found thatyou know, they found, I think in the study 258 different chat rooms that were communicating within the chat room about cannabis and in fact, people reported nice benefits to their symptoms of ADHD with taking cannabis. They reported that they were able to sit still for longer and they felt that they could concentrate longer. And the, the studies actually would support that in that cannabis operates in the same parts of the brain when you do a functional MRI or a pet scan, the scans that light up your brain and various areas based on how your brain is responding. When you do a pet scan, it definitely shows that canvas behaves in the movement areas in the back of the brain and the cerebellum in a similar way that methylphenidate or Adderall does.

Dr. Mary Clifton (06:48):

So, a lot of what we’re doing with these ADHD kids and adults because it doesn’t necessarily, you don’t really necessarily grow out of it, but a lot of the problem is that it’s very hard to sit still and do your work. So once somebody can just sit still, oftentimes that will help to relieve quite a bit of the attention deficit. If you can just resolve the hyper activity. And that may be where we’re seeing the results with using cannabis in these settings.

Jessie Gill, RN (07:18):

That’s amazing. That’s it’s, it’s remarkable how many different areas, you know, and how many different issues it can impact. Have you seen anything about, you know, maybe the dosing that people are using? Is this more like you know, I know that the research out of Israel for autism shows us that, that often patients respond best to like high CBD, low THC, more more THC than hemp. Have you seen anything like that with, with ADHD? Are we not there yet?

Dr. Mary Clifton (07:49):

I don’t think we really have specific dosing recommendations, but I think most of your considerations are right on track. And you know, a lot of people respond to a higher CBD with a low THC unless you’re working in in weight loss or loss of appetite or or nausea. All of those seem to be very centrally mediated. And the high THC content seems to be superior in helping some of those symptoms that you see with end stage cancer or sometimes in end stage HIV, although that’s less of an issue nowadays with the antiretrovirals. But managing chronic nausea, managing chronic loss of appetite is more of a central issue and that’s more THC. But I agree the rest of it is a oftentimes of response very well to CBD.

Jessie Gill, RN (08:39):

Hmm. Yeah. I have had, you know, a few people reach out and tell me that just CBD alone is very helpful for their, you know, ADD or ADHD issues. So that, it is interesting. It’ll be fascinating to see what [inaudible] sort of research comes out of this. You know, it’s, so the response and in part that’s because of the CB one and CB two receptor distribution. There’s, you know, physiologic reasons why you haven’t CB one or CB two receptors in various locations. But there’s also the number is genetically determined. So doing this process, having them the amount of CB one and CB two receptors is, is to some degree determined by your genetics. And there’s also the FAAH, the fatty acid, I mean hydrolase levels, that are very much genetically dependent. So some people may…

Jessie Gill, RN (09:34):

Can you explain a little bit about what that is.

Dr. Mary Clifton (09:36):

The FAAH is the enzyme that breaks down the THC or CBD. So some people may report that they have an onset of action when they take the medicine of a few minutes, but then it peters off after a few hours where somebody else may take the same dose of a medicine and watch it peter off over six or eight hours. And that’s because of the amount and the level of activity of the FAAH in individual persons’ metabolisms. So it’s very, it’s hard to come up with a standard dose and the standard dosage recommendation I can say pretty reliably that you’re going to have to give yourself two weeks of trying different doses, seeing how they’re working for you, trying some different products before you say that this doesn’t work. It’s not for everyone, but it’s going to take most people two weeks and a couple of tries before they feel super confident on what they’re doing.

Jessie Gill, RN (10:35):

And I’ve noticed a lot of times it can also, different cultivars can come into play as well. Like, you know, patients will utilize one cultivar, it’ll do very little for them and they’ll find something else and that can be really, really impactful. So I’m always surprised that, you know, well not surprised, but I’m always, you know, I hear so often. And you probably do from patients do like what do you mean? I have to try different things and different doses? Like why, what? Just tell me which one to use that’s going to make me better. And I’m always, my response is always like, well how many different pharmaceuticals did you try? Because like I tried tons of different pharmaceuticals and I know many of them didn’t work for me. And it’s kind of the same with cannabis. There are different types and you got to figure out what works for you because like you said, it’s so genetically determined and it really, really varies from patient to patient.

Dr. Mary Clifton (11:22):

Well that’s very true. And really by any measurement and you know, Motrin, Advil, Aleve all of those products are basically the same molecule. They should all work the same way. But I’ll have patients tell me over and over again that they prefer Aleeve to Motrin. I really don’t understand why you would, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t understand why you would the molecules are so similar than really we used to call them another nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory when they were first coming into market, like all the day pro and, and relevant, all of that to very, very similar molecules and their claims to fame were so weak. You know, it was just a another one joining an already crowded field. But you know, we’re, we’re also trying to standardize this product, but in reality it’s a plant and even from one side of the greenhouse to the other, the exact same monoculture across the greenhouse, the exact same soil, all of the same conditions apply.

Dr. Mary Clifton (12:20):

You’re going to have different levels of THC and CBD on plant a on one end and plant B on the other end there. They’re individual plants.

Jessie Gill, RN (12:28):

And terpene production can vary a lot too.

Dr. Mary Clifton (12:32):

Absolutely. Absolutely. So I’ll have people who have had, who are doing a homegrown and they’ll test their homegrown and say, look at these tests. They’re so vastly different. I mean these, these laboratories are all screwed up. No, I don’t think it’s the lab.

Jessie Gill, RN (12:48):

Yeah, it is. It is such a common misconception that people think if they’re going to get their seeds with their genetics and they’re going to get their exact product that they want and it doesn’t always work out like that because grow conditions can impact so much of the chemovar of the plant or that really makes a big difference.

Dr. Mary Clifton (13:07):

100% just very subtle changes in, in hydration and in sun exposure, light exposure and you can see major differences in your plants. So yeah, you just have to take a step back on that and try to, try to honor the results and realize that we’re dealing with a natural product here. And we want to, you know, because you want to have some variability and have a plant that is responding to the situation around it and that is going to adjust the tepenes. I always wonder if there is it just some natural adjustment seasonally for what you need that you don’t even realize you need. Like you know, even on our earth, if you eat seasonally you would be eating a lot of fresh green light leaves. The leaves get darker and thicker and green when you’re getting into collards and kale that can live and still grow this time of year and the fall is just loaded with orange, right, with all of the squashes and everything.

Dr. Mary Clifton (14:03):

So there is apparently a need for more beta carotene and its other constituents this time of year that I don’t think anyone really understand.

Jessie Gill, RN (14:11):

I don’t think so either.

Dr. Mary Clifton (14:12):

But it’s hard to find something orange in may and June to eat.

Jessie Gill, RN (14:15):

It is. Yeah, that’s good point. That’s a very good point. Fascinating.

Dr. Mary Clifton (14:21):

It is. It is. I think sometimes if we allow the natural world to guide us, we’re going to get a lot farther than if we keep trying to inflict a very severe control around it.

Jessie Gill, RN (14:31):

I so completely agree and that’s one of the things I worry about with cannabis. Like if it’s taken over by, you know, our big pharmaceutical companies and our large corporations that are going to just turn it into this mass tightly controlled product. So we’ll see. Hopefully that doesn’t happen.

Dr. Mary Clifton (14:49):

Well, I think there’s probably going to positions for some very high quality distillations where if you’re dealing with Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis for example, I think there’s some exciting research coming in around that where you know, we can, yeah. Where we can maybe distill down different concentrations of more of the lesser known cannabinoids. It’s like got a CBN or CBG and then concentrate those and find a very, very potent anti-inflammatory product. Because a lot of these poor patients are going to biologics right now that are doing a wallop on their impart system.

Jessie Gill, RN (15:25):

It is a devastating treatment for a devastating condition. It’s really, really hard. You know, the whole such a tough, tough, my sister has Crohn’s disease, such a, such a challenging, challenging condition.

Dr. Mary Clifton (15:37):

It hits everybody close to the heart? It does, yeah. Everybody knows somebody who’s just not doing well under those circumstances. You know,

Jessie Gill, RN (15:48):

So many. I know because there’s, there are so few options with that.

Dr. Mary Clifton (15:53):

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think finding some great options. I’m really hopeful that we’re going to get some great options coming out of cannabinoid distillations in those settings. And so, you know, we’ll see.

Jessie Gill, RN (16:04):

Yeah, it’d be very interesting. And you know what, I love that you are able to offer tele-health in New York. So maybe tell us a little bit about how it works over there because in New Jersey, patients are not allowed to use tele-health to acquire their cards and it, you know, you mentioned hospice. I’m a former hospice nurse, that’s my background too. And it’s, you know, patients can’t get out of their homes. There’s, they’re bedbound and it’s a huge limitation here. So I love that a few States do offer it, and New York is one of them.

Dr. Mary Clifton (16:34):

There’s only a few States in the country that do, I think New York, Vermont, Iowa, there’s, there’s a few States there and I think, and I think that that’s, I think that more will come online as time passes. But thethe card production is, is fairly simple and very easy. You can just be in contact. We’ll have a conversation, I create a card and and generate a PDF and then you have everything that you need to go to the dispensary. There’s a little bit of work you have to do with the state of New York, but otherwise, you know, you should it’s, it’s not difficult to get a card. And consultations I think should not be expensive either. So I have very reasonably priced consultations that allow people to, you know, do like more of an urgent care consultation and make a decision on how things should work for them.

Jessie Gill, RN (17:21):

Yeah, that’s fantastic. And how can people book a session with you?

Dr. Mary Clifton (17:26):

Oh, well you can just reach out. I appreciate you sharing that. You can, you can connect with me through CBD and cannabis info.com. I also have drMaryJanemd.com. And that’s where I have the cards and the consultations.

Jessie Gill, RN (17:50):

And I’ll put, I’ll put those down in the comments as well. So that people can click them. But I really, really appreciate your time. I think that’s a great place to wrap up. Is there anything you would like to add?

Dr. Mary Clifton (18:01):

I know we did a nice, a nice job covering everything. I do want to tell you that I reached out to the researchers that did the chat room information on ADHD. There they were Duke based researchers and asked them if I could do a web, a webinar with them and they they remain very staunchly anti cannabis. And I said, I said after your review, it would be really hard, I think to remain anti-cannabis, this may be a nice alternative for your patients. But you know what? They’re Duke and Duke is big tobacco and big tobacco is not big cannabis.

Jessie Gill, RN (18:35):

They’re the Southeast coast. So we know, you’re on the East coast. We’re lacking and we’re a little behind over here, especially further South.

Dr. Mary Clifton (18:46):

Yeah, North Carolina may be one of the last pegs to fall. They’re pretty resistant, so, but you guys just need to keep up the hard work. There are so many big industries that are trying to prevent, I mean, alcohol of course, pharmaceuticals. So you know, whatever you can do to keep driving it forward,

Jessie Gill, RN (19:06):

Keep contacting those elected officials, everybody at home, keep contacting them. The only way to get that movement.

Dr. Mary Clifton (19:14):

Well, thank you so much for having me.

Jessie Gill, RN (19:16):

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it and I will talk to you soon.

Dr. Mary Clifton (19:20):

Thanks.Trending Now

Tracy Ryan is an overall cannabis wonder-woman. Most poignant is the story of how cannabis preserved her young daughter’s life in the battle with childhood cancer. Tracy is the founder & CEO of CannaKids, the CEO of CK Sciences, and the founder of SavingSophie.org. Her family’s story is featured in the illuminating documentary, Weed the People (which is coming to Netflix on 4/20/19). Watch us chat and hear more about her story and the life-saving cannabinoid research she’s working on and hear how Ricki Lake brought cannabis into her life. Watch or read the transcript below.

“Ricki Lake brought me weed and, honestly, it’s a good thing she did!”

Get 40% Off the Cannabis Nurses Network Conference!

February 28th – March 2nd 2019 in San Diego, CA

• Visit: https://www.cannabisnursesnetwork.com/cnnc
• Use discount code CNNCVIPGuest4668

Tracy Ryan Bio:

Tracy Ryan is the founder & CEO of CannaKids, a California-based brand with a focus on supplying medical cannabis oil tinctures and medical cannabis products to patients of all ages.  She is also the CEO of CK Sciences whose sole focus is to execute pediatric human trials using cannabis medicine both in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, Tracy founded the 501c3 non-profit, Saving Sophie Inc (SavingSophie.org). Their mission is to provide educational resources and financial support to families whose loved one has been diagnosed with a serious disease.

Connect with Tracy

CannaKids: https://cannakids.org/
Donate to Saving Sophie: https://savingsophie.org/donate/

Find Tracy on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyCannaKids/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/mycannakids/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyCannaKids/

VIDEO RECORDING TRANSCRIPT:

Jessie Gill :                           00:06                     Hi, I’m Jessie a cannabis nurse and the founder of Marijuana Mommy, and you’re watching Patients are the Proof where we talk about the real benefits of cannabis. Today, I’m talking with Tracy Ryan. Tracy is the founder and CEO CannaKids, a California based brand with a focus on supplying medical cannabis oil, tinctures, and medical cannabis products to patients of all ages. She’s also the CEO of CK Sciences whose sole focus is to execute human pediatric trials using cannabis medicine, both in the US and around the world. In addition, Tracy founded the 501c3 nonprofit Saving Sophie. Their mission is to provide educational resources and financial support to families whose loved ones have been diagnosed with a serious disease.

Jessie Gill :                           00:52                     Hello Tracy.

Tracy Ryan:                         00:55                     Hi, how are you today?

Jessie Gill :                           00:56                     Great. You are busy.

Tracy Ryan:                         00:59                     You have no idea. That’s only part of what I have.

Jessie Gill :                           01:03                     I know. It is. That’s just the little scratch of the surface.

Tracy Ryan:                         01:09                     I like to be busy. What can I say?

Jessie Gill :                           01:10                     It’s good. It’s good. And you know the industry needs it, right?

Tracy Ryan:                         01:13                     Absolutely.

Jessie Gill :                           01:15                     Thank you so much for talking today. I’m so touched by your story. I’m really, really excited to share it with my readers and my viewers. And I’d love to just hear in your words a little bit about how you got involved in the industry.

Tracy Ryan:                         01:30                     Sure. So my story really starts over five years ago now. My daughter Sophie was diagnosed unfortunately with a brain tumor at eight and a half months old. It’s a low grade tumor called an optic pathway glioma. It’s a tumor that follows the optic track behind the eyes and therefore squeezes the optic nerves and one of the side effects can be blindness of this amongst many other things that can happen, like Hydrocephalus, early onset, puberty, issues with the chemotherapy and so on. But we have been very lucky with Soph because only after about two weeks post diagnosis we were connected with Rikki Lake and Abby Epstein and many of you are in my age range, will know that Rikki was a talk show host top 10 years and was in movies and was on dancing with the stars and is a household name for my generation. And her and abby had begun filming a documentary called Weed the People. We’re super excited about this film. It is wrapping up a theatrical release. They’ll be available on itunes at the end of January, around January 22nd and it’s premiering on Netflix in April.

Jessie Gill :                           02:36                     Oh on Netflix? That’s excellent. That’s wonderful because people need to see it. It’s such a remarkable film.

Tracy Ryan:                         02:46                     Absolutely. And we’re working on getting it all around the country. We’ve got about six or seven screenings coming up in Canada next week. The British parliament brought ricky and abbey over for a private screening. It’s becuase of this film that I found cannabis. Ricki Lake brought me weed! And honestly it’s a good thing she did because there had been a lot of people on social media that we got connected with through my husband’s old roommate who lived over abroad and they were messaging as saying you should use cannabis for Sophie. And we thought they were all stoned out of their minds are on some kind of crazy drug because we were by no means ever going to give our child something. people traditionally smoked just to get high and have a good time, so it was the one thing we really didn’t research. And then Ricki & Abby came into our lives and I had tried for a natural birth with Sophie because of the film The Business of Being Born, which helped revolutionize how women look at childbirth. And I trusted them, and I’m so glad that I did because it has changed my life, my daughter’s life, my husband’s life, my sister’s life because she works for me, and all of my friends who now have been employed by us some, some for as long as nine years.

Jessie Gill :                           04:05                     And way more than that, tracy. I mean, you are impacting the world on a massive scale, sharing your story and it’s so, oh gosh, it’s so, so desperately needed. So how is Sophie doing now?

Tracy Ryan:                         04:15                     She’s amazing. We just recently had an issue with her vision. Her vision has gotten very, very, very poor. It’s not even from the tumor right now. She had to have a brain tumor surgery on April 23rd of this year to debulk the tumor. Her tumor has a 90 percent survival rate, but an 85 percent recurrence rate. That’s why she’s still in chemotherapy with chemo. Just to kind of explain what that means and why she’s still one of the chemotherapy, but why is she’s ok. With chemo, it only goes after dividing cells will. When you have a slow growing tumor, the cells don’t divide that often. So if when the chemo goes into her body, those cells aren’t dividing at that very moment, then it’s only going to in the best case scenario, arrest development of the tumor. Well with cannabis in correlation with the chemotherapy, we have shrunk this tumor more than what any doctor could have ever expected many times. And she’s been a miraculous healer throughout this process since she first got on cannabis. Her first, miraculous healing event was when she had nine blood transfusions her first nine months on chemotherapy. And then the last four months of treatment she just stopped needing them, which is medically impossible. The way she healed from the brain surgery on April 23rd, she should’ve had two black eyes visible swelling because they cut her from here on top of her head to the bottom of her ear. She should have had all kinds of swelling in this area. She had no bruising on her entire face, not one bruise. She had no signs of visible swelling. She was supposed to be in the hospital for three to five days, was released in less than 48 hours, was told she would not be able to go back to school for one to two weeks, but was told she could go back to school for one in one to two days and what it did for her pain was so profound. Not only did the nurse chart it. I had to go and get her so she could see the difference between how Sophie was and how he was once the cannabis kicked in, but then she also passed the information onto the next nurse. The next nurse could know and be aware of what she had witnessed with her own eyes. So once. Sophie had this brain tumor surgery, a post surgical cyst formed the size of my fist formed inside of the tumor, so the cyst kept getting larger and larger and larger and fortunately, but oddly enough, started pooling on the side of her face right here. The liquid was seeping through the bone plate where the surgery was, so it was somewhat of a blessing in disguise because otherwise she would have had to have a shunt put surgically into her head which can come with its own list of issues, infections being one of them. We were able to go back through this existing scar from her brain tumor surgery and the day before Thanksgiving she had 50 ccs of fluid drawn off and we think that becomes such a massive shift that occurred in her brain that it has now further damaged her vision. To meet her you would not know, just by talking to her and watching her get around, That there’s anything wrong with her. But if you’re standing more than three feet past her visually, she can’t see you. But she never complains and she’s so happy and she loves her life and she public speaks with me all over the country and I mean the is just.. So you know there’s been some challenges this year, but because of those challenges, Sophie’s brain tumor is now, growing and mice that pump human blood at one of the top universities in the country. Her immune system is being studied by the world leading research scientists in natural killer cells. Natural killer cells are what fails and causes us to have cancer in the first place, which is one of her major discoveries and now because of what we have found in Sophie’s immune system, which has helped us to now understand why she’s a miraculous healer. We’re now studying seven other CannaKids patients, two of which were supposed to succumb to their diseases three and a half years ago. One young man had 90 days to live with no chance of survival after his cancer recurred six times in three years on Western medicine. Three and a half years later, he’s still cancer free and his immune system mimics Sophie’s and their immune systems are functioning on such levels that it’s humanly impossible, so this research is not only leading to an expansion of our understanding of this plant and our understanding of how to treat cancer, but I’ve now also raised 55 of the $70,000 that I need in order for the surgical, the surgical process to occur so that we can now put our research scientists treatment plan into the brain of the mice that pump the human blood. Because we now know why Sophie has this brain tumor that won’t go away. She has no natural killer cells in her brain whatsoever, but from the neck down, they functione five times out of a healthy adults. So, we are now working on a cure for her. And I believe that this process will. This procedure will occur in the next six weeks. If it works. Not only would this be a cure for my daughter potentially, but the thousands, if not millions of other people that this could create a major breakthrough for could be absolutely profound. We’re very excited about what has come out of these tragedies and we are silver lining staple and we just keep trying to find the good and we keep finding it.

Jessie Gill :                           09:22                     You’re doing an amazing job of finding it, so how are you raising money for that?

Tracy Ryan:                         09:26                     So there’s a couple ways that you can actually donate to Saving Sophie and it’s through our website@ www.savingsophie.org. We also have fundraisers that we do throughout the year. You can contact us on social media and we can show you where our little campaign sites are as well. You can throw a little campaign on your own facebook page if you have a birthday and you can choose Saving Sophie as your organization of choice to have your birthday funds donated to in lieu of gifts. We’ve probably raised six or $7,000 in the last few months from just people donating their birthday money to us.

Jessie Gill :                           10:04                     Cool.

Tracy Ryan:                         10:04                     Yeah, it’s exciting. So we were really starting to try and get the word out in a very large way and we’re looking for philanthropists and supporters of the cause that would be willing to give anywhere from $5 to $5,000,000. No amount is too small or too large.

Jessie Gill :                           10:19                     I love that. It’s amazing. I mean you’re doing a remarkable job with it already. Just raising money so you have how far to go?

Tracy Ryan:                         10:27                     So we’ve raised 45,000. We’ve got another 25,000 to go on that. Awesome. Also very, very, very close to closing funds for our lab that we’re going to build. It’s going to be a research facility and will also allow us to release our research scientists test into the medical community that are predictive of when the natural killer cells fail. Thus helping us understand when a patient is at risk for cancer. So not only are we trying to get rid of cancer, we’re trying to prevent it from ever occuring.

Jessie Gill :                           10:59                     Wow. That’s so amazing.

Tracy Ryan:                         11:01                     Crazy. Because I literally just got dropped into the scientist’s lab, the ver thing that cannabis is doing to my child to make her this miraculous healer that she is, is literally the very thing that this woman is the world leader in.

Jessie Gill :                           11:17                     Wow. What a…

Tracy Ryan:                         11:19                     Coincidence? I don’t know. I don’t think so.

Jessie Gill :                           11:21                     That’s an amazing coincidence if there is such a thing. So, what else are you working on? I know you have a ton of projects.

Tracy Ryan:                         11:28                     Yes, we do. We have a lot. We’re working on a ton of projects right now. The research one is always going to be my passion and expanding the brand. What’s exciting about CannaKids is we are now taking on global expansion. We have licensed our brand and our product formulations to Australia. We should be closing in Canada this week, if not by Monday, We are working on Europe right now with an incredible team that we do believe probably by next week we’ll come to terms on, and we’re also in talks with China, so our. Our big, big, big goal is to get our medicine to patients globally because we know we’re getting such a better understanding of how to work with patients. We’ve got these incredible nurses that understand Western medicine, they understand cannabinoid therapy, they are trained to the utmost extent before even taking their first patient call with CannaKids. We make them go through the most rigorous training that’s available out in the market today and then they also train additionally with us based on our data that works alongside with our medicine. We are working on a national hemp line because we want to get our cbd out too quickly. Because believe it or not, it’s easier going to a legal country than it is to go to another state because you have to replicate what we do here in every state every single time, but in Canada, we just work with one person and can get all over the country same with Australia. So that’s why we’re going more global and focusing on hemp for national, since we’re now a midst the farm bill passing.

Jessie Gill :                           13:04                     Yes. Yes. That’s exciting.

Tracy Ryan:                         13:06                     We have that happening and then you know the lab. We also just won a license in West Hollywood, California.

Jessie Gill :                           13:11                     Congratulations. That’s amazing.

Tracy Ryan:                         13:15                     The goal is to open the very first ever have CannaKids Wellness Clinic. We’re very excited about this. Patients will be able to come in, they’ll be able to meet with a nurse, we’ll have a kids club where their children can be dropped off with a licensed care provider if they need to go to our cbd wellness spa or need to go next door to our cafe where we’ll have our line of products available for purchase because you can’t take a child where medical cannabis is being sold, so we’ll have a kid center for that. So we’re really excited about being able to bring extension courses, nurses, training, events, fundraisers to the West Hollywood community and the goal is really hopefully have the lab, CannaKids offices and the clinic in the same area or in the same building so that we can all work centrally together. So we’re building quite a large team right now to help me with all of these endeavors. I’m kind of the mastermind behind it, but I’ve got wonderful teams helping me execute on all the different projects and it’s exciting. We think that this is really going to be a banner year for us.

Jessie Gill :                           14:15                     It’s so incredible. I’m just so grateful for everything you do for everything you are doing and you’re speaking at the cannabis nurses network conference. Right?

Tracy Ryan:                         14:26                     I am. I’m very excited about that.

Jessie Gill :                           14:28                     Me too. I’m so excited about it. I’ll be there. I’ll be on one of the panels and I’m so looking forward to it. I mean, it’s amazing how many healthcare professionals are finally coming around and so desperately needed.

Tracy Ryan:                         14:45                     I mean if you look at where my husband and I were five years ago with the healthcare system and how nervous we were to have these conversations with our doctors and how nervous we were to give our child a dose of cannabis in the hospital when we were inpatient and where we are now and today where we literally have nurses, like if Sophie is inpatient, a lot of the nurses now in Sophie’s hospital, children’s hospital, have heard of CannaKids because we have so many patients that we treat there. And I have literally had nurses come to me and say, there’s a mom who I know wants to get involved with cannabis because she’s communicated it to me. She’s desperate, her child is dying. Would you be able to help them? And you know, I, she was like, I can’t have anything to do with it. If you bumped into him in the hall, that’s Great. I can’t tell you exactly who they are. But if she was willing to come to you, would you be open to the conversation? And I said, please send me anyone you have, any time you have them. I’ve got nurses begging me to get the research to go as fast as possible because these children are suffering from excrutiating pain. They’re refractory to opioids, the opioids are not working anymore through end of life care, which is a big passion of mine to try and get trials going in that field to not only help try and save their lives, but help them with transition if we’re not able to. Because the opiod epidemic and, and just opioids at large are very problematic, especially for a kid. Even when we go to change Sophie’s Chemo Protocol, because we constantly are having to adjust her protocol and try different medicines because of the way her tumor behaves. Even her doctor will bring in the list of drugs where there’s potential interactions and he’ll have me go through the list and make sure cannabis is not on that list.

Jessie Gill :                           16:31                     That’s great. A lot of healthcare professionals aren’t even aware of the fact that there can be drug interactions.

Tracy Ryan:                         16:39                     And that’s very true. And today, believe it or not, there are still doctors who don’t even know about cannabis because the medical professionals that have these rigorous jobs and keep them, you know, shift after shift doubles there. You know, when they, when they’re not working, they’re doing paperwork and when they’re not doing paperwork, or they’re spending time with their family. I’ve met doctors at top hospitals like MD Anderson before who are like I don’t have time to watch tv or read the news, I know nothing about what’s going on in this world. So that’s why every time we are inpatient at any hospital, anywhere in the country for that matter, because it has happened, we’ve had to be in a hospital in Portland, we’ve had to be in hospital when we traveled to Hawaii because of got sick on an airplane and we were worried that it was her brain tumor. We made it a point every where we go to the open and honest about what we’re doing, to communicate the research that we have going on and to take the time to educate anyone who is willing to listen and it’s paid off. We’ve really seen a huge shift, especially at children’s hospital where my daughter is treated.

Jessie Gill :                           17:38                     Wow, that’s amazing. I’m so eager for that to come to the east coast were so far behind you guys over here in New Jersey to go.

Tracy Ryan:                         17:51                     Slowly getting there.

Jessie Gill :                           17:51                     That’s true. Slow. Slowly but surely. Before we finish up, I’d love to hear what you say to parents who have kids who are very interested and have children who obviously need it and could benefit from it, but they’re scared of the stigma.

Tracy Ryan:                         18:12                     One of the things that I say all the time to people I meet everywhere, if everyone could just jump inside my brain for five minutes and know what I know, no one would question the efficacy or safety of this plant. That’s number one. Number two, don’t trust me. Read the research. If you go to savingsophie.org, we have a whole section called cannabis studies where we have all kinds of research that’s published that we are constantly updating, whether it be articles about new discoveries or new papers that are being published or stories of survival. We have all of all of those there and we’re constantly adding more all the time. We currently have them in three categories, cancer, autism and epilepsy because those are our three big fields of focus. But there are articles in there that pertain to everyone that’s education on the endocannabinoid system. Why and how it works, you know, as, as far as what we know today. So don’t trust me. Read about it and watch the videos. I was on the TV show, the doctors, this past year, which is a nationally syndicated, a emmy award winning television show, and these guys are grabbing onto these stories because they too believe cannabis can help. National Geographic has been following us for five years, We’ve been photographed for basically on every major event I can name and even when we were working up to Sophie’s brain tumor surgery and I was getting the tissue ready to go to the hospital, and then the tissue being then taken to the research facility that was all photographed by national geographic. These people would not be following us, if there was not something to this plant. And watch our film. You cannot walk away from this movie after seeing these five families battle with cancer and you see onscreen what this plant does for these children. Not to mention they interviewed the top research scientists around the world Dedi Meiri, married from the Technion being my partner by the way. Year two of his research right now. A dear friend and business partner. Raphael Mechoulam is on there, Christina Sanchez. I mean there’s all kinds of brilliant minds, that are showing you firsthand in their research where cannabis is eradicating disease in their machine and animal models and how desperately we need to push this into humans. And you also learned about the propaganda. You learn why cannabis was made to be illegal in the first place and when you really start to understand how far back this plant dates, which they have, they have post dated it like around 8,000 years post the written word. That’s how far back we’ve known that cannabis has been used. And if you look at the medical books and the apothecary books and the pharmaceutical tinctures that were being sold across the country before Harry Anslinger and William Randolph Hearst in the thirties went on this trail of, of um, really just confusing the population at large as to what this plant is and does. Even the American Medical Association when against these gentleman and said, do not put cannabis on schedule. I we have all kinds of diseases and issues that this plant works for and we don’t have a replacement, but it was all about money and power.

Jessie Gill :                           21:25                     Thats a great point, because I think a lot of people miss that, that the American Medical Association was pro cannabis and during the 1937 marijuana tax act, they testified that they did not want it banned and they did not want prohibition. A lot of people don’t realize that. They’re like, oh, it was just bad.

Tracy Ryan:                         21:42                     They used to use cannabis on women during childbirth. That’s how safe the medical associations believe this plant to be all the way up until the thirties, so if you start there and then work your way forward, I feel like it’s a lot easier to really have an open mind to it. Once your mind is open, it can’t be closed.

Jessie Gill :                           22:02                     Yeah, that’s beautiful. I love that. Thank you so much tracy. It’s such a joy, such a pleasure to talk to you. I’m such a big fan of all you do and I truly, truly am grateful because it’s stories like yours and like Sophie’s that is really changing the face of this medicine.

Tracy Ryan:                         22:20                     Thank you for all you do and I cannot wait to meet you in person.

Jessie Gill :                           22:23                     I can’t wait to meet you either next month, so if there are any nurses watching this, you need to go to the cannabis nurses network conference at the end of February, so definitely go check that out and I’m gonna link down in the description to all of your sites as well.

Tracy Ryan:                         22:38                     Great. Thank you so much.

Jessie Gill :                           22:40                     Thank you. I’ll see you the next month..Trending Now