Today in Irvine I took care of a 32 year old man who was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, a specific type of non-hodgkins lymphopma. It is a cancer that typically effects older men (mid 50′s) but he was diagnosed a month ago. he was in my office because of a lack of appetite, difficulty sleeping and general malaise. He had been using medical marijuana with good results and wanted safe access to the medicine. This is fairly common with my patients. They try it first and get good results and then come into the office. READ ON….

Iit seems like these days physicians have become people who chase and treat symptoms. Patient comes in with a symptom and we give them a pill to treat that symptom. Then they get a side effect and come back in. What happens is we give them another pill to treat that side effect and so on and so forth.

Today I treated a 43 year old women who came to me to try medical marijuana as an alternative to Wellbutrin, Xanax and Ambien for her insomnia, anxiety and depression. She states that this has gone on for about 15 years. She was tired of how those medications made her feel. “Like a zombie” she said. Then she asked me “do you think this will help.”

My first response to her was: “Let me ask you this question. What do you typically eat throughout the day and how often do you eat?”

That is when her husband started shaking his head and she became reluctant to discuss her diet with me. To put it mildly; she ate like shit. Skips breakfast, drinks soda and coffee, eats a ton of candy and ice cream prior to going to bed.

Today in my Long Beach office I evaluated 15 patients for medical marijuana recommendations per proposition 215. All had been previously diagnosed and had gone through traditional western medical treatment. I have been reading a lot lately on the internet from people in other states considering passing medical marijuana laws. Most of the opponents claim that medical marijuana is purely a smokescreen fro people who want to use marijuana recreationally… and “especially in california where 66% of the recommendations are to patients WITHOUT serious medical illness.” I would like to educate them that cannabis has many uses/applications in medicine and that being seriously ill is VERY subjective. READ ON….

Recently I have taken care a handful of HIV+ patients who are taking the medication Atripla and also using medical marijuana to combat it’s side effect. HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is a virus that attacks the bodies immune cells leaving the patients susceptible to infection. Treatment has come a long way and today patients can live practically normal life expectancies if they follow a medication regimen to keep the viral activity down and their immune cells up. Unfortunately many of these medications have severe side effects that affect a patients overall quality of life. Nausea, lack of appetite and weight loss are just a few of the ones I have been seeing patients for.

As medical director for Medical Cannabis of Southern California I often evaluate patients who are having either difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. They try all sorts of medications (Ambien, Xanax, Trazodone, Lunestra, Tylenol PM) and remedies and do not get the results they hoped for. Many times the side effects of the medications are worse than the insomnia itself. DO YOU REALLY UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT A GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP IS TO YOUR OVERALL HEALTH? Apparently most people do not based on the fact that I keep reading law enforcement and opponents of Prop 215 speak on how this law was supposed to be for “seriously ill” and is being used for “insignificant illnesses such as insomnia.” In this blog I am going to educate you on sleep and GROWTH HORMONE… read on

I can’t tell you how many times in the last month when speaking to both my parents where I’ve hung up the phone and said “My Nana/Granny should be using medical marijuana to be more comfortable.” Both of my grandmothers are still alive but both suffer from severe pain secondary to arthritis and degenerative disc disease. One takes morphine 4 times per day and the other is on methadone and a fentanyl patch. Both have horrible constipation and nausea secondary to their pain medications and both have a hard time getting rest at night. I AM SURE THAT MANY OF YOU READING THIS CAN RELATE.

Last week I had a patient who suffered from Transverse Myelitis come in for a medical marijuana recommendation. She was the first patient that I have taken care of with this problem. However today I had a 61 year old women who came in with a 10 year history of Transverse Myelitis and she complained of a burning pain in her left leg that makes it extremely difficult for her to sleep. She also has complete numbness to pressure in that leg. It wasn’t until recently, after her sons begged her to try, that she found cannabis not only reduces the pain but allows her to sleep through the night! Amazing.

Lately I have been seeing more and more patients with PTSD looking to medical marijuana as an alternative to the medications that their psychiatrists have prescribed. Because I have an office in Long Beach next to the VA and also take care of many Marines from Camp Pendleton I am seeing more and more how cannabis is helping them.

As medical director for Medical Cannabis of Southern California I often evaluate patients who had used cannabis extensively for a long period of time prior to using is as a medication. Many of these patients do in fact discuss similar withdrawal symptoms if they abruptly stop medicating. Common complaints are irritability, anxiety, insomnia and difficulty focusing. Although cannabis as a medication is generally very safe I think these withdrawal symptoms warrant discussion.

As medical director of Medical Cannabis of Southern California I often evaluate patients suffering from ADD/ADHD who are taking stimulants like Concerta and want a medical marijuana recommendation to combat its side effects. Today I evaluated a 21 year old male college student who had been taking Concerta for the past year but had to stop because it was causing a significant lack of appetite, weight loss and insomnia. These are very common complaints from patients who are treated with stimulants. Although he said he could focus slightly more the insomnia and lack of appetite was causing more difficulties than the ADHD itself. He had been using cannabis for the past month with excellent results and wanted to speak with me about getting a medical marijuana recommendation.