Medicinal Cannabis is being used to treat a whole range of medical conditions, one of them being Medical Cannabis for asthma.

As counterintuitive as it sounds vaping or even smoking some strains of cannabis has been shown to help relieve asthma symptoms in patients. Whilst this information is nothing new, we wanted to share the beneficial effects of medical cannabis for asthma sufferers.

THC

When you have an asthma attack, airways in your lungs constrict, causing shortness of breath and a painful tightness in the chest. The THC in medicinal cannabis has been proven to be an effective bronchodilator, which means that it relaxes and widens these airways, allowing more oxygen to flow freely through them.

The reason for this is not entirely known, although it is thought that airways in the lungs contain cannabinoid receptors which react strongly and favourably to THC.

Royal Queen Seeds says: Although several important studies have been conducted regarding the medical benefits of weed, a landmark study conducted by Dr. Donald Tashkin, first published in 1975, strongly suggests the sound medical evidence behind the use of medical marijuana for asthma sufferers. Doctor Tashkin is a highly-regarded pulmonologist who spent much of his career studying the effects of cannabis on various physical ailments and afflictions.

The subjects of this particular study were 10 men and women with typical asthma symptoms. Asthma attacks were induced in the patients on a controlled basis, sometimes through exercise and sometimes through psychological suggestion. Some members of the control group were given medical marijuana in joint, pill, or vaporized form, while others were given a marijuana placebo.

Simply stated, the results of the study show that the members of the group who were given medical cannabis experienced near-immediate relief of airway constriction, and were ultimately more relaxed and calm. Not only did they experience a profound relief from their symptoms, but the medicinal effects of the weed lasted much longer than those of a typical asthma inhaler. The control group members who were given the placebo experienced no such relief.

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There are specific recommended strains such as Royal Medic or Dance World by Royal Queen Seeds that have been shown to help asthma sufferers on medicinal cannabis programmes in the Netherlands. Medical Cannabis for Asthma is a subject we are likely to see a lot more studies done on in the near future.

CBD:

Recent studies in Brazil have also shown that CBD may be an effective treatment for Asthma sufferers:

Medical Jane reports that:

Atopic diseases, or those that cause an individual to experience immediate allergic reactions (asthma being one of the more common), affect about 20 percent of the population in developed countries.

Researchers looking for a way to combat the longtime public health concern conducted a series of tests involving the use of cannabidiol (CBD). Although the research used rats as subjects the results are nonetheless encouraging. Early research suggests that CBD is an effective treatment for minimizing the inflammation experienced by asthma sufferers.

The study revealed that the rats treated with CBD experienced a reduction in two types of cytokines; known as Tp and Th2. In addition to showing that CBD treatment was effective in reducing cytokine levels, the study suggests that CBD may influence a reduction in the major stimuli of mucus hyper-secretion, another prominent symptom experienced by those with asthma.

The findings of the study were consistent with that of the Ribero study, which shows CBD to have potent immunosuppressive and anti-inflammatory properties. It is noted, however, that the asthma-associated inflammation of the rat models differed somewhat from that of the LPS-induced inflammation of the mice models being studied for decreasing inflammation due to lung injuries.

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Further studies need to be done into CBD’s effects on medical cannabis for asthma but initial results seem promising.

As always, please do your own thorough research before self-treating any condition, including cannabis for asthma. There are numerous resources available online including casestudies and informative articles by patients.

Are you using medical cannabis for asthma? We would love to hear from you – tweet @ISMOKEMAG or email [email protected]