Beginners Info
The endogenous (internal) cannabinoid system or endocannabinoid system is perhaps the most important physiologic system involved in establishing and maintaining human health.
Heightened media coverage and state legislators responding to demand with CBD-only laws have given rise to a few pervasive myths, including one that equates the sole medical value of cannabis with CBD. Who Benefits from CBD? Epileptics; some patients with auto immune disorders; patients with bi-polar disorder; schitzophrenics, and people with ADD come to mind. CBD is particularly well suited as an anti-spasmodic and anti-anxiety remedy. It can also work in fighting pain and inflammation, though we find THC more consistently effective in this regard. Interestingly, research is showing that THC nor CBD act alone to achieve the miracles being seen using "Rick Simpson" style full extract cannabis oil.
Health is a direct result of rigorous self-care that is necessary for optimal survival. A rise in sedentary lifestyle, health misinformation, and increase in variables contributing to negative impact on health are creating a serious crisis. The world's leading health and wellness experts attribute most diseases and ailments including cancer, diabetes, mental issues, and other debilitating conditions to deficiencies in, physical activity, proper nutrition, and psychological and mental self-care. Cardiovascular Training, Strength Conditioning and Muscular Development/Stretching, Core Stability, Proper Nutrition, Mental/Spiritual Relaxation, and Sleep. These changes do not have to be drastic to begin with, and should be things you enjoy and look forward to doing. The most important thing is to make an effort at improving all areas of your personal fitness and well-being, even if changes are gradual.
In his report, titled Introduction to The Endocannabinoid System, Dr. Dustin Sulak summarizes his view of cannabis as medicine. “As a physician, I am naturally wary of any medicine that purports to cure-all. Panaceas, snake-oil remedies, and expensive fads often come and go, with big claims but little scientific or clinical evidence to support their efficacy. As I explore the therapeutic potential of cannabis, however, I find no lack of evidence. In fact, I find an explosion of scientific research on the potential of cannabis, more evidence than one can find on some of the most widely used therapies of conventional medicine. How can one herb help so many different conditions? How can it provide both palliative and curative actions? How can it be so safe while offering such powerful effects? The search to answer these questions has led scientists to the discovery of a previously unknown physiologic system, a central component of the health and healing of every human and almost every animal. The endogenous cannabinoid system, named after the plant that led to its discovery, is perhaps the most important system involved in establishing/maintaining health. In each part of the body, the cannabinoid system performs different tasks, but the goal is always the same: homeostasis, the maintenance of a stable internal environment despite fluctuations in the external environment. Endocannabinoids are also found at the intersection of the body's various systems, allowing communication and coordination between different cell types.” writes Dr. Sulak.
“Cannabinoids fit perfectly into receptors found throughout the nervous and immune systems, serving to enhance, or improve upon, the body’s own ability to maintain homeostasis and health,” says Dr. Ethan Russo.
Any extract containing cannabinoids (constituents of cannabis found only in cannabis and the human body) such as THC or CBD is beneficial, but there are over 400 cannabinoids that most extractions leave out. Cannabinoids work in synergy and all are needed to produce the best medicine and miraculous results sought after here. For an exponentially more effective approach, we recommend using properly/safely made and full analysis lab tested full extract (Rick Simpson) cannabis oil.
From Rick Simpson: It takes the average person about 90 days to ingest the full 60 gram treatment. Gradually work your way up at a comfortable pace as you become acquainted. Best stored in a cool, dry place. If needed, run warm water over the applicator to help soften the oil. Following proper dosage instructions, most people have reported that they did not get high or experience psychedelic effects during treatment. Cannabis oil is non-addictive and does not cause your body to crave more. It is harmless and effective for practically any medical condition. Health food stores sell oil that is made from hemp seed. Although seed oil is very beneficial, it does not contain near enough THC or other cannabinoids to have any effect on cancer and other serious illnesses. When first starting this protocol, cannabis oil might make you very sleepy. This is good as getting rest is crucial for getting better. I would like to stress that whatever amount a patient chooses to take, it is an important part of the treatment protocol (for serious illnesses) that they take the oil every day several times a day. In this way, the body is getting a constant barrage of THC/CBD’s.
I have questioned people that the oil did not work for, and ALL of them had failed to take the oil per protocol. For many, it will require some willpower to keep taking the oil around the clock. Companies that produce cell phones do not like to talk about it and would prefer that we did the same. But our bodies run on electrical impulses. Now do you think it’s a good idea to put something against your head that produces an electromagnetic field which can interfere with the electrical impulses in our bodies that keep us healthy? Look at studies of cancer rates of people who live near and around high tension power lines. I myself did not understand the importance of all this until a friend of mine cured his heart condition by having two electrical problems in his home repaired. It´s frightening that so many things we come into contact with frequently can harm our health. Nowadays, we have fluoride and dangerous levels of pharmaceuticals in our water, nuclear radiation, and the meat that is sold to the public in Canada, The United States, and some other countries cannot even be sold in Europe. It seems that this beef is looked down upon by Europeans because it has too many contaminates like antibiotics and growth hormones. Do you not find it strange that our meat is deemed unhealthy in Europe? Yet it is freely sold to anyone that is dumb enough to eat it here. Now what about fruits and vegetables and all the other fare we find in supermarkets in North America. Pesticides, additives, preservatives, genetic modification – does this not all sound somewhat deadly?
It’s also important to keep in mind that there are thousands of cases of spontaneous regression that do not involve cannabinoids. Medical researchers have documented these cases and seek to understand common factors linked to these examples of spontaneous healing, which often occur in the absence of anti-cancer treatments. Dr. Kelly Turner identified these 9 factors common to most of the cases she evaluated:
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radical diet change
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taking control of their health
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following their intuition
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using herbs and supplements
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releasing suppressed emotions
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increasing positive emotions
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embracing social support
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deepening their spiritual connection
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having strong reasons for living
Full extract cannabis oil is a FULL spectrum organic extraction (as opposed to more common isolation extractions available in most dispensaries and recreational settings) of high grade (20%+ THC) cannabis indica buds only. It is made with polar, organic and food grade solvent only. These are the two main differentiations between full extract cannabis oil and recreationally geared concentrates such as bho (wax, dabs, hash oil), co2, solventless, and more. You can be sure you have this only with verifiable full composition analysis test results from a reputable and long established laboratory. Full composition analysis results include values and percentages of major cannabinoids, potential residual solvent screening, chemicals/nutrients/pests encountered during growing process, potential organic and inorganic contaminant ppm screening, moisture and acidity levels in relation to a designated intake sample, and often much more. This caliber of testing, along with firm knowledge of your source’s integrity is the best way to know if your oil is properly made. When making it yourself, it is just as important to full composition analysis test your own oil. Test results should show sufficient cannabinoid content and proper ratio of cannabinoids for each respective ailment, no moisture or acidity, and no contaminants or residuals.
Any psychoactive effects of cannabis can be overcome by overhydrating with kangen water, lemon peel zest, chamomile tea, staying extremely well nourished, splitting up doses into smaller doses taken more often, or most effectively by supplementing with naturally occurring CBD and/or citicoline. The generally accepted rule of thumb is that a full protocol is 60 grams consumed within a 90 day period. This amount may be doubled or even tripled for those who have been so badly damaged by conventional treatment that major rebalancing is necessary before healing. Many people achieve full remission in LESS than 60 grams consumed within 90 days, so always remember that cannabis dosing depends largely on your own body and situation.
Do over-hydrate with Kangen (living) water, avoid sugar, anything processed/unnatural, and anything containing preservatives. Alkalize the body, and support it with natural dietary therapies. Organic and healthy home cooking are your best friend no matter what your ailment. After eliminating poor diet habits, work to eliminate poor stress habits. Mental and spiritual relaxation & balance are key to effective healing of the body. Exercise your cardiovascular system, core, & practice muscular development/stretching. REM Sleep is more medicinal than fathomable. Stimulate your cannabinoid receptors. Make yourself especially happy/joyful and practice good habits more and more often each day.
Do not use medicine that is extracted improperly, unsafely (inorganic or toxic), or of substandard quality. Do not use cannabinoid isolations or synthetically derived cannabinoids. Do not use untested medicine, or medicine that is not potent or of proper type/spectrum/delivery method for your ailment. Do not dose incorrectly, or use cannabis as your sole form of working to heal the body (all natural treatment options help and often work in synergy). Inaccurate and improper testing, dosage, extraction, handling, and administration all can potentially inhibit results or worse, lead to a medicinally ineffective product or dangerous toxicity from contaminants. Most importantly, do not settle for lack of education, misinformation, or not doing the crucial and widely available research to learn everything you possible can about how cannabinoids work so effectively as medicine FOR YOURSELF! Misinformation, misconceptions, and false pretenses are the number one cause for why people who try cannabinoid medicine don’t succeed.
Though we encourage everyone to make this amazing medicine at home, our recommendation is to thoroughly research (from a scientific and common sense standpoint) how to make this oil correctly and be sure you're completely comfortable with the steps before risking expensive raw high grade cannabis and food grade solvent and attempting making this yourself. The science behind healing with cannabis medicine is advancing each and every day.
Cannabis Safety
Cannabis and THC, both have an excellent safety profile. The Drug Awareness Warning Network Annual Report, published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), contains a statistical compilation of all drug deaths which occur in the United States. According to this report, there has never been a death recorded from the use of cannabis.
DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young, in response to a petition to reschedule cannabis under federal law concluded in 1988 that, “In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume.... Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.” Research on the long-term effects of smoking cannabis that studied thousands of users over decades has shown that smoking moderate amounts of cannabis (equivalent to a joint a day) has no negative effects on lung function, even in those who have consumed more than 10,000 joints. Cannabis has an extraordinarily high estimated lethal dose, equivalent to smoking approximately 1,500 pounds in 15 minutes, a physical impossibility. Scientists have had to estimate the LD50, or Lethal Dose for 50% of the human population, because it has never been demonstrated.
This puts cannabis in a class of its own, since even relatively safe medications such as aspirin have a lethal dose. Dr. Grinspoon had this to say in a 1995 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association: "One of marihuana's greatest advantages as a medicine is its remarkable safety. It has little effect on major physiological functions. There is no known case of a lethal overdose; on the basis of animal models, the ratio of lethal to effective dose is estimated as 40,000 to 1. By comparison, the ratio is between 3 and 50 to 1 for secobarbital and between 4 and 10 to 1 for ethanol."
Conclusion
"Cannabis medicine has been used for over five thousand years; longer than any other form of medicine. Industrial and government profiteering have motivated countless negative stigmas and alternative industries have even successfully passed laws making cannabis illegal to study for any purpose. Information currently available about medical properties of cannabis is about as much fiction as fact. Cannabis has many hundreds of uses including but not limited to medicine, sustainable energy, and multifaceted natural resources. Cannabis is quickly re-surfacing as one of the top most effective and completely natural forms of medicine known. New research and studies are coming to light each and every day, proving cannabis' prohibition was nothing short of a huge, immoral detriment to society.” - Alex Gellanor (CMM Editor)
To explain why whole plant oil was more effective than pure CBD or THC alone, scientists surmise that it is likely that other medicinal components in cannabis synergize (with primary cannabinoids such as THC and CBD) to achieve the desired endocannabinoid system response. ”By “other components,” they refer to the approximately 420 additional medicinally effective compounds, including other many other cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, amino acids, proteins, enzymes, fatty acids, waxes, and so forth. Scientists call this phenomenon in which all the constituents of the cannabis plant work together, “the entourage effect.”
Acidic Cannabinoids - It has been found that acidic cannabinoids hold great medicinal value. However in the sense of full extract cannabis oil, we believe from our experience that they are desired in their naturally occuring amounts AFTER decarboxylation. Though this process greatly reduces the quantity of acidic cannabinoids by converting them into non-acidic cannabinoids, we believe this is the far MORE medicinal approach. We surmise this due to the fact that more than 85% of endocannabinoid system function (including most primary pathways for inducing apoptosis and autophagy) in all mammals is regulated by CB1 and CB2 receptors. For THCA to fit the CB1 receptor it has to be heated (decarboxylated) to burn off the carboxyl group (COOH). Once the cannabinoid hits a CB1 or CB2 receptor, a large number of primary core healing processes are invoked. – Dennis Hill
"Raw (non-decarboxylated) or "acidic" cannabinoids should be used as a seperate therapy in conjunction with other delivery methods. Raw or acidic cannabinoids are most often consumed via juicing raw fresh harvested cannabis.
Michael Vipperman explains cannabis and its inner workings;
The “simplest” accurate description of the effects of marijuana in humans is that it modulates the regulation of homeostasis. Homeostasis is what Goldilocks seeks in the children’s story: not too hot; not too cold; just right. More than just heat and cold, the human body contains many systems which must be held in relative balance. The balance between inhibition and excitation, bone formation and resorption, inflammatory/anti-inflammatory signalling, fat storage and release, blood sugar, blood pressure, hormone levels; all these systems are held in balance by the endocannabinoid system. This system, though involved in maintaining nearly every biological process in all humans, has only received scientific study for roughly the past 20 years, and it was discovered because it’s the site of action for marijuana.
Marijuana does not simply activate (agonise) this system. In addition to full cannabinoid agonists (chemicals which stimulate — agonise; antonym: antagonise — receptors), it also contains partial agonists, antagonists (Thomas, 2007), reuptake and transport inhibitors, enzyme modulators and much else besides, (Russo, 2011) including an assortment of terpenoids and flavinoids responsible for the odour of the flowers; how a marijuana strain smells indicates what mix of chemicals (all of which appear to be pharmacologically active in humans) are present, beyond the most famous two, neither of which have an odour: THC and CBD. The most studied receptors in the endocannabinoid system are called CB1 and CB2, both of which inhibit the other (Callén et al 2012), and both of which are stimulated by THC (a partial agonist at both and other sites) and antagonised by CBD (Thomas et al, 2007). There are also believed to be numerous other receptors involved (Petrocellis, 2009), and their scientific study is yet only preliminary and largely speculative. Far from a single chemical with a single mode of action, marijuana has an entourage effect: many chemicals working together to produce effects not reducible to the action of only one or two of its constituents. Summary: it rebalances almost every system in the body through multiple inter-related effects which move in several directions at once and which compensate for each other’s effects (confused yet?)
Only in the last two decades, a natural cannabinoid receptor system has been discovered in the human body. It is by interacting with these receptors that cannabinoids exert many of their pharmacological effects. The discovery of the cannabinoid receptor system has sparked renewed interest in the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids by providing important new targets for drugs. There are at least two types of cannabinoid receptors in mammalian tissues, CB1 and CB2. CB1 receptors are present in the brain and spinal cord and in certain peripheral tissues. CB2 receptors are expressed primarily in immune tissues. There is preliminary evidence to suggest that additional cannabinoid receptor types may exist.
CB1 receptors are widely distributed but are particularly abundant in some areas of the brain including those concerned with movement and postural control, pain and sensory perception, memory, cognition, emotion, autonomic and endocrine functions. They are also found in appetite regulating areas such as the hypothalamus as well as reward centres such as the lymbic system and have therefore been implicated in food intake. More recently, CB1 has been isolated in tissues that are important for energy metabolism such as the liver, adipose (fat) tissue and skeletal muscle. The second type of receptor, the CB2 receptor, can mediate regulation of cytokine release from immune cells and of immune cell migration in a manner that seems to reduce inflammation and certain kinds of pain.
So although the endocannabinoid system interacts with many neurotransmitter/neuromodulator systems it is important to note that phytocannabinoids have the ability to interact with all sorts of cellular pathways implicated in a range of diseases such as cancer and metabolic syndrome.
Cannabinoids act as ligands (a small molecule able to dock onto the binding site of a protein) conferring their ability to modulate a receptor’s behaviour and consequently their downstream biological pathways. Although the phytocannabinoids all have similar structures, they display a remarkably wide array of actions at each of the different receptors that are now thought to contribute to the endocannabinoid system (such as cannabinoid receptors, transient receptor potential [TRP] channels, melatonin and serotonin receptors, the PPARs and a host of orphan G-coupled receptors).
ASA, the nation’s largest medical cannabis patient advocacy organization; American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), the principal U.S. trade association and voice of the herbal products industry since 1982; the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP), an organization that has developed qualitative and therapeutic monographs on Western herbs since 1994; and many similar organizations have laid in place rigorous quality control standards for the industry. We strive to bring awareness to and increase adoption of and coordinate further new industry standards.