Medical Marijuana for Parkinson’s

For people diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, as well as, their family and loved ones, it can be a scary time. Parkinson’s leaves people wondering whether there are any alternative treatment options available outside of the traditional treatments recommended by their doctors.

What is Parkinson’s Disease?

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system and eventually alters the way a person moves, speaks and writes. Symptoms for this disease creep up very slowly and then lead to slight hand tremors or stiffness. Another symptom is bradykinesia, which is muscle stiffness and can make it hard for people to move.

Symptoms of Parkinson’s are characterized by movement disorders that are rooted in neurology. Similar symptoms include cerebral palsy and Tourette syndrome. Approximately one million adults in the US suffer from Parkinson’s disease along with tremors and slowed movements. In other cases, symptoms can lead to a lack of facial expressions. When Parkinson’s starts to show symptoms in older patients, they may neglect to seek treatments since they believe it’s part of the aging process.

Parkinson’s disease is believed to be linked to low dopamine levels in specific parts of the brain. People who have this condition, their dopamine cells have died out or are dying. When this happens, it becomes hard for people to control their body movements and do certain things. As the Parkinson’s progress, their dopamine levels follow the same path allowing the symptoms to become more pronounced.

Due to this incurable disease, a lot of research has been done for ways to treat Parkinson’s. This is where medical marijuana has become a popular topic of discussion.

Does Medical Cannabis Help Parkinson’s?

Medical marijuana has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, and research has shown this can help prevent neuron damage. This is essential with Parkinson’s since the inflammation can be responsible for causing damage to brain neurons that produce dopamine. Medical marijuana treatments may be able to slow some of the neuron damage in the brain and slow down the advancement of Parkinson’s.

Other benefits of medical cannabis can include pain management that can help with problems such as sleeping and nausea. Florida medical marijuana may be able to help people with Parkinson’s enjoy more natural movement since it contains muscle-relaxing properties.

Florida Medical Marijuana for Parkinson’s

Florida medical marijuana can be a great alternative or addition to the medication routine for someone who has Parkinson’s disease. Unfortunately, many of the traditional medications prescribed for a Parkinson’s patient may come with negative side-effects that are not present in cannabis. Medical marijuana provides a combination of anti-anxiety, antioxidant, and pain relief. The active ingredients in marijuana are cannabinoids. Depending on the strain and variety of cannabis, there can be 60 different kinds of cannabinoids present. The most known compound is tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. These cannabinoids are not just limited to marijuana. The brain itself can produce these compounds and contains them in the endocannabinoid system. This system has receptors that connect to cannabinoids. When this connection occurs, it can affect the levels of brain chemicals such as dopamine.

In some cases, cannabinoids can act as dopamine agonists. This means they imitate the chemicals, then connect to the same receptors and can create the same results as natural dopamine. The basal ganglia, the area of the brain that controls your movements, contains a vast number of cannabinoid receptors. People who have Parkinson’s often have fewer cannabinoid receptors than people without the disease.

Marijuana Care Clinic Can Help

Marijuana Care Clinic is a Florida medical marijuana clinic located in Orlando. Our group of medical marijuana physicianslicensed by the state of Florida can recommend a Florida medical marijuana card to patients who meet the proper criteria. Our goal as a marijuana care clinic is to provide our patients with the highest level of care and access to cannabis as a medical marijuana treatment, in an affordable manner.