Is Marijuana Good for Parkinson’s Disease?

Introduction

Parkinson’s is a common movement-related brain disease. Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder that causes uncontrolled or unintentional movements. For example, difficulty balancing, stiffness, shaking, and issues in coordination. Patients with this disease show mild symptoms at first, but with time, they get worse and can cause difficulty with simple functions like walking and speaking.

What causes Parkinson’s disease?

Parkinson’s disease occurs when the nerve cells present in the basal ganglia get damaged. The basal ganglia is a part of the brain that plays an important role in controlling movements, and the nerve cells also produce essential chemicals like dopamine, also known as the happiness hormone.

Damaged or impaired nerve cells cause problems with mobility, which can be associated with the disease.

What are the symptoms of this disease?

Patients with Parkinson’s disease show a variety of symptoms, including:

Shaking or tremors in different body parts such as the hands, jaw, legs, etc

• Difficulty and slow movements
• Stiffness in the muscle
• Compromised balance and coordination
• Depressions
• Mood swings
• Difficulty in chewing, speaking, and chewing
• Bowel issues like constipation and urinary problems
• Derm-related problems

The list of symptoms depends on the stage of the disease, and it varies from individual to individual.

Available treatments for Parkinson’s disease

Although this disease is incurable, we can treat some of the symptoms through medications. These medications can help by:-

• Elevating the dopamine levels in the brain
• By helping to control non-movement symptoms
• By altering the transmission between the neurotransmitters that help with information transfer

Benefits of Marijuana for Parkinson’s disease

Marijuana is one of the potential alternatives for Parkinson’s disease because of its positive effects on the symptoms. Some of the ways marijuana helps with Parkinson’s disease are:

It helps to improve the mood

• It induces quality sleep.
• It can improve the ease of movement.
• Helps reduce tremors and shaking

What do researchers say about cannabis use while dealing with PD?

Several studies show how marijuana helps improve the symptoms of PD. The reviews also show that marijuana helps treat symptoms like anxiety, involuntary movements, stiffness, insomnia, pain, weight loss, and tremors.

There are chemicals present in plants that are capable of interacting with the brain and can potentially help with different medical symptoms. Medical marijuana shows improvements in both non-motor and motor-related symptoms.

Cannabis has also shown promise as a treatment for Parkinson’s disease symptoms in studies, with approximately 46% of 85 participants reporting relief.

The Bottom Line

Many studies still need to be done when it comes to the effectiveness of cannabis in treating Parkinson’s disease, but it does show positive effects in dealing with the symptoms. This means that even if we do not have a cure as of now, we can enhance the quality of life through proper prescriptions and the doctor’s advice.

Those who are prohibited from purchasing cannabis due to legal actions can use a Medical marijuana card to obtain legal protection when purchasing marijuana. You can get the medical card online or by reaching out to your nearest medical marijuana doctor.