By: Rachel Grano
I have always been drawn to cannabis, I grew up with her and she’s traveled with me most of my life except during pregnancy, early motherhood, and during jobs prohibiting it. I love her smell, the way she tastes and most importantly how she makes me feel.
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I had no idea why cannabis worked so well for me in managing my plethora of life debilitating symptoms, until my fascination with the Endocannabinoid System was revealed!
I am a self-taught cannabis educator, with the most important lesson being my own experience. Several years ago I was involved in a high-speed, rear-end collision leaving me in a constant state of severe pain.
I was prescribed an abundance of pharmaceuticals in an unsuccessful attempt to ease my severe, at this point, unexplained symptoms.
I was referred to every specialist imaginable and even completed over a YEAR of physical therapy before finally receiving the diagnosis of having Fibromyalgia. Not that having a label for a myriad of symptoms helped me in any way, since the cause of Fibromyalgia is unknown leaving treatment more than difficult.
I personally experience chronic widespread body pain, specifically in my neck, back and hips, as well as chronic fatigue, diminished cognitive ability, insomnia, anxiety and depression.
All these symptoms are indicative of a failing Endocannabinoid System according to Dr. Ethan Russo, a neuroscientist who is a pioneer in researching the ECS.
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He believes, as do I, that these conditions such as Fibromyalgia, migraine headaches and irritable bowel syndrome, with unknown epidemiology and no know cure, are caused by an underlying Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency.
My health was steadily declining and I felt lost, scared and alone. Then, my long lost sister, Mary Jane, re-entered my life and I started to see a change. Living in CA at the time enabled me safe and legal access to medical cannabis, which I began to use to self-treat my symptoms.
Even as a once experienced user, I had no clue how to get the full benefits from it and the products available at the time were mostly high in THC and didn’t contain the full spectrum of cannabinoids necessary to create the entourage effect.
This lack of guidance I experienced when I first started using cannabis medicinally instead of recreationally is what drives me to help teach others how to safely supplement with cannabis in self-treating various conditions.
What I did know, is that the pharmaceuticals I was being prescribed were causing more symptoms and actually making my condition worse! I effectively supplemented with cannabis to get myself off ALL of these DRUGS including OPIOIDS!
During that time, I also changed the other things I was putting into my body; I eliminated alcohol and consumed an anti-inflammatory diet, which led to the loss of over 60 pounds and to the start of getting my life back! Starting to feel better physically enabled me to start working on my mental health.
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With the help of cannabis, I was able to open mind further and look inward to find my own spirituality that had been missing throughout my entire life.
Having gained an understanding of how to utilize food as medicine and adding routines including self-love, meditation and a clean diet to my cannabis regimen, has created an over all sense of well-being that has brought me as close as possible to having a handle on this debilitating condition.
Unfortunately, financial circumstances forced us out of California back to my hometown in North Carolina, which is a prohibition state. Not having the safe and legal access to medical cannabis I once had, left me in quite a position and back in a substantial amount of pain.
I have dedicated the last year to researching legal CBD and other cannabinoids naturally present in hemp, which are not prohibited by law here, and how they can be combined with terpenes present in other foods to help enhance the legally low (0.3%) THC available.
This research inspired me to create Cannabliss Health, an education initiative in my area to teach the public about the Endocannabinoid System and how highly effective cannabis is at treating a vast majority of chronic conditions.
It is also what sparked my long time cannabis advocacy to be ignited into activism enabling me to speak out against the injustice of prohibition.
I recently took a position with North Carolina NORML (National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws) on the board as the communications director to really make an impact in changing the conservative minds and utilizing the platform to help educate others and empower them to change minds as well in hopes of restoring our fundamental human rights to cannabis.
This article first appeared on Lady Nowe
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