What Is Medical Marijuana Prescribed For?

Medical marijuana is prescribed for a variety of medical ailments, ranging from pain to long-term conditions. Evidence has shown it to be effective in treating a variety of disease symptoms, and additional research will surely prove its efficacy in other areas.

As a medicinal plant, the traditional use of marijuana to treat a variety of ailments dates back centuries all over the world. Its use in recent western medicine has not been without controversy, but it is gaining ground as a recognized and effective treatment of both symptoms and chronic disorders.

Medicinal cannabis can be inhaled (either smoked or vaporized), ingested in capsules, lozenges or edibles, and applied topically in various forms or by dermal patches.

What medical marijuana is prescribed for ranges from minor muscle pain to symptoms of a number of diseases.

It has often been prescribed to stimulate appetite (particularly in HIV/AIDS patients), to treat nausea and vomiting (especially in chemotherapy patients), and for both acute and chronic pain relief, migraines, nerve issues and seizures.

It has also been widely used to ease pain and improve quality of life for terminally ill patients.

Increasingly, medicinal marijuana is prescribed to treat a growing number of other conditions, including movement disorders like epilepsy, musculoskeletal conditions like arthritis and osteoporosis, hypertension, psychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety, and gastrointestinal disorders.

Specific diseases that medical marijuana has been prescribed to treat symptoms of include multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, cancer, glaucoma and Parkinson’s disease. Medical marijuana is also prescribed for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, as well as respiratory conditions like asthma.

Topically, medical marijuana has proven effective when prescribed for muscle pain, soreness and inflammation. It can be dispensed in lotions, salves, sprays or tinctures. In addition to these uses, increasing evidence supports the use of medicinal marijuana in topical form to address skin issues like itching, dermatitis and psoriasis, and well as topically treating headaches and muscle cramps.

Obviously, there are a wide range of conditions that medical marijuana is being prescribed for because it enhances the body’s natural healing processes.

Medicinal marijuana, in simple terms, works by helping the body’s processes function better when they are impaired. In many medical conditions, the endocannabinoid system (present in everyone), can be impeded. This system regulates everything from mood to pain sensation in the body. The cannabidiol (CBD) content of marijuana allows its biological compounds to interact and bind with two types of cannabinoid receptors that are found throughout the endocannabinoid system, thereby supplementing that system’s functions.

The Canadian Government recognizes the ability of medicinal marijuana to address symptoms that have not responded to conventional treatments. And because the courts have also ruled that Canadians are entitled to a legal source of marijuana for medical purposes, more attention is rightly being focused on research in this area. With mounting evidence pointing to medical marijuana’s efficacy in treating various conditions and the number of conditions that medical marijuana is already prescribed for, we will surely see more study in this area and expanded uses for this treatment.