Marijuana Treatment: Cannabis Extract or Cannabinoids (THC & CBD)?
- Patients interested in cannabis treatment often do not know whether to choose treatment with a complete hemp flower extract or to look for an individual cannabinoid - such as CBD
Cannabis Extracts
The cannabis universe is currently undergoing rapid development, new derivatives, extracts and oils are emerging, scientists are discovering new terpenes, testing their therapeutic effects.
Knowledge of cannabis and its effects on the human body is deepening daily.
A frequent question from patients and researchers is however:
"...should we focus on treatment with isolated cannabinoids such as THC or CBD, or is it necessary to use the complete spectrum of substances in cannabis for maximum effect?"
Medical Marijuana with THC, CBD or Oil? What to Choose
As a simple example, we can imagine the biochemical structure of an apple. Do you think it's healthier to extract pure sugar from an apple, separate vitamins and fiber, and consume only sugar?
The same applies to some extent to cannabis flowers. The only problem is that cannabis is not food, but a potential therapeutic agent.
Returning to the apple example. Consuming pure sugar (especially in excessively high amounts) is likely not ideal. But what about vitamins?
Supplementing vitamins like C and D is a common practice. The same applies to CBD and THC.
However, as you might suspect, in most cases, a complete varied diet wins. Just as the full spectrum of substances from cannabis - terpenes, cannabinoids, flavonoids and their chain effect wins.
Effects of THC and Other Cannabis Substances
Cannabis plants contain up to 400 different chemical substances.
These include CBD, CBN, THC and other cannabinoids.
Additionally, we find terpenes such as Myrcene, Limonene, and others.
Moreover, different cannabis genetics and varieties contain different terpenes and varying ratios of individual cannabinoids.
As you can imagine, the diversity of resulting therapeutic effects and impacts on the human body is enormous.
Effects of Natural Cannabis
For preventive treatment and general therapy, according to current studies, the most suitable approach is using the complete spectrum of substances available in cannabis flowers, where a so-called "chain effect" of substances occurs in the body.
A well-known example is the study by researcher Ethan Russo, who compared the effects of CBD alone and CBD combined with THC.
"Ethan Russo's research allowed researchers to realize that it is possible to achieve better treatment by combining THC and CBD extracts."
Through interaction between individual cannabinoids (by adding sufficient CBD), it is possible to achieve a much more effective use of THC for treating chronic pain.
In such a case, the CBD cannabinoid can reduce the negative (highly psychoactive) effects of THC sufficiently to achieve a high enough THC dose to suppress pain in patients' bodies.
Combination of THC and CBD Cannabinoids
Due to the above-mentioned results, subsequent testing of various combinations and ratios of individual cannabis cannabinoids occurred.
Furthermore, scientists began to more fully understand the therapeutic role of individual plant cannabinoids.
For example, one of the current research targets is to determine which combinations of terpenes and cannabinoids are most advantageous in treating carcinoma and other cancer types.
Also, cannabis extracts with high CBD content that simultaneously contain diverse terpenes and other natural substances from cannabis plants act therapeutically more effectively than isolated CBD alone.
Moreover, the superior effect of combined THC and CBD compared to isolated cannabinoids was clearly confirmed during a study of cannabis extract effects on children suffering from epilepsy.
"A cannabis extract containing the complete spectrum of cannabis substances was effective in 70% of cases."
Modern marijuana varieties with high CBD, THC, and other contents...
One reaction to the insights from the above research was an immediate effort by cannabis growers and global seed banks to develop modern medicinal cannabis varieties.
Currently, very diverse types of marijuana are available on the cannabis market, from which almost every patient can choose.
The basic categories of modern cannabis varieties include:
For example, Purple Orange CBD or CBD Skunk Haze.
- Cannabis varieties with high CBD and THC content
For example, Royal Highness.
- Cannabis varieties with high THC content
For example, Auto BlackBerry Kush.
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