Dosage of Medical Cannabis - Less is More

There are many reasons why most patients prefer less psychoactive varieties. High doses of THC are not as therapeutically effective and, in addition, have the potential to cause adverse, long-term or short-term side effects. Not to mention that THC's "overdose" is at least unpleasant, so why do growers continue to breed ever stronger THC varieties?

The importance of moderate dosing was understood by doctors around 5000 years ago. In the earliest edition of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia PenTs'ao (Herbarium), it is reported that ingesting excessive amounts of Ma seeds (Marijuana seeds) will cause one to see demons. Conversely, eating a smaller amount of "Ma" will allow a person to communicate with spirits. Of course, it is very unlikely that consuming large amounts of cannabis will allow us to see the demons, just as it is unlikely that the right dose will open the gate to the spirit world.

But what we should take away from this old wisdom is the fact that our ancestors already understood the concept of "less is more", which is doubly true in conjunction with medicinal cannabis.

Two Phase Effect - Less is More

As for substances that do us well in some way, we are like people prone to thinking like "if a little bit of it does me good, it makes me even better". But that's itrarely true. Cannabis, like many other substances, it has a so-called "two-phase effect".

Alcohol will serve as a simple example. What happens if you drink only one or two glasses of wine? You are relaxed and talkative and the effect is simply very pleasant. Conversely, if you survive and drink the wine a lot more, it may cause you to exaggerate emotions, aggression, or even physical nausea. This is an illustrative example of a two-step effect in action. Small and moderate doses produce the desired effect, but large doses produce the opposite.

The two-phase effect is far mild for cannabisthan alcohol but is not entirely without consequences. Too high doses of THC may affect cognitive function (short term) and even cause anxiety or panic attacks.

What about treatmentabout the effect, it is known that high doses of THC are not only therapeutically less effective than smaller doses - mit can also worsen the symptoms of the disease directly.

For example, in placebo-controlled a randomized study of researchers from San Diegoagain confirmed THC can be very effective for pain control - but this only applies to a certain dose range.

In placebo administration or a small dose of THC, study participants did not observe any bo relieflesti. The median dose was most effective, while the high dose THC worsened the symptoms. The drawback of this study, however, is that doctors only consider THC and not other cannabinoids or terpenes .

GW Pharma reached a similar conclusion in the Sativex oral spray clinical trial, which contains 1: 1 synthetic THC and CBD. The patients were divided into three groups, the 1st group of which should be used 1-4 times a day, the second group 6-10x and the last group 11-16x. As expected, the 1 st and 2 nd groups with low to medium dose had the largest success rate compared to placebo, while the 3 rd group experienced adverse effects (22% had prematurely discontinued the study).

"The two-phase effect has been observed in countless other studies dealing with a wide range of diseases, from depression to multiple sclerosis ."

Smaller doses = better therapeutic effect

Not only was the prioritization of smaller doses confirmed in controlled trials, badAtele also collected a lot of unofficial user data, most of which do not seek the strongest status but the most effective therapeutic effect.

Next, in randomised controlled study Donald Abraham, an oncologist from San Francisco and his team, had 18 active cannabis users to compare the effects of smoking and vaporization. The researchers then examined the subjective conclusions and feelings of the participants according to parameters such as "pleasantness" of the experience experienced or "feeling power" of the effect.

"Todays grass is not the same as the grass of your parents" - a popular argument of Prohibition supporters who want to suggest that high levels of THC in plants can be dangerous in some way. But what they do not consider is that higher concentrations may not always be bad. Scientific evidence (including Abrahams study) shows that if THC is higher, patients in the result in less smoke, which is healthier from a medical point of view. Even thoughThe concentration of THC in cannabis can reach a point where the therapeutic effects are essentially zerooBack" and for most users uncomfortable "marijuana overdose"prescription is not physically dangerous.

With the growing popularity of medicinal cannabis, there are a growing number of gourmets who choose their favorite varieties not only for their potency and strength, but also for the aroma, variety of terpenes and overall quality of genetics. In the future, we can expect growers withthey will no longer be pushing for the highest THC content, but they will He can concentrate his powers and um on bred a wide range of varieties with diverse content cannabinoids , terpenes and flavonoids .