Today in Long Beach i took care of a 54 year old female who has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Bipolar since 1994. She is currently seeing a psychiatrist every month who has her taking 5 (FIVE!) different medications to manage her symptoms. Since starting her medication she has gained 120lbs (known side effect of two of the medications) and states she is “a walking zombie”. She has very little quality of life and now wants to do something about it. She had use marijuana in the past when first diagnosed and managed to only need to use 1 medication but stopped when she started having children. She is now at her wits end and wants a better life. READ ON

Today in my Irvine office I took care of a 71 year old man who suffers from Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) and wanted to see if medical marijuana could reduce his symptoms and decrease the amount of prednisone that he is taking. Specifically, PMR is characterized by pain in the muscles of the neck, shoulders, lower back and hips/pelvis. It’s key pathology is inflammation which in turn leads to pain. The reason why medical marijuana works so well is because the cannabinoids(medically active ingredients in the marijuana plant) have both anti-inflammatory and analgesic (pain reduction) properties.

As medical director for medical cannabis of southern california I often evaluate patients who take regular high doses of prednisone. Prednisone is the atomic bomb for inflammatory conditions such as crohns, ulcerative colitis, sever asthma and many other medical conditions. Unfortunately it’s effects do not come without significant side effects. Many patients can get relief of these side effects by using cannabis.