Can marijuana treat Crohn’s disease?
Cannabis can be very effective in treating Crohn’s disease by lowering oxidative stress, treating inflammation, and acting as an antioxidant. In addition to treating these main parts of the disease, it can also stimulate appetite and ease nausea, two of the symptoms that often occur due to the consistent stomach upset that Crohn’s causes.
How does cannabis work
Cannabis treats Crohn’s disease by attaching to cannabinoid receptors found throughout the body. By mimicking the body’s own cannabinoids, marijuana aids in the digestive process and also regulates immune function, stimulates appetite, and helps the body regulate pain. This is important in those with Crohn’s disease as it is an autoimmune disorder, disrupting the body’s natural defense system and causing it to attack healthy tissues.
Inflammation is a major cause of symptoms in those with Crohn’s disease. While steroids can reduce this inflammation and provide some relief, cannabis can have similar benefits without the negative side effects. Marijuana also lowers oxidative stress, which is the imbalance that occurs between free radicals and antioxidants. Because marijuana has an antioxidant effect, it can lower this stress and increase the body’s ability to detoxify, leading to fewer or less intense symptoms. Finally, cannabis has a neuroprotective effect on the body and can protect the neurons that regulate inflammation that is caused by Crohn’s.
Patients have reported they immediately experience reduced symptoms of Crohn’s after using medical marijuana. They especially felt relief of abdominal cramping, less diarrhea, lower stress levels, and an improvement in abdominal pain.
Scientific research on marijuana and Crohn’s disease
There have been numerous studies conducted on the effects of marijuana on inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s. One recent study found that 65% of those receiving cannabis oil experienced a complete remission of the disease while only 35% of those in the control group had the same results.
Another study, detailed in this 2012 paper, found that a dysfunctional endocannabinoid system was one of the leading causes of inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease. It also found that cannabis works by stimulating endocannabinoid signaling and that this stimulation significantly reduces symptoms caused by IBD in the digestive tract.