This year, news broke that more than half of British MPs are backing a call to legalize marijuana for medical use. Now, many users are coming forward to voice support for the measure. One such supporter, 55-year old Ian Frizell, took to YouTube to demonstrate how cannabis has dramatically improved his life.
Frizell suffers from Parkinson’s Disease, which causes frightening symptoms such as full-body tremors and Dystonia, which causes the muscles in his foot to curl over, becoming unusable. Frizell explains that earlier this year, he underwent brain stimulation surgery to implant a medical device that masks the effects of Parkinson’s.
Frizell said he wanted to show how even a small dose of medical marijuana takes quick and positive effects on his condition. First, he stopped taking his prescription medication, and turned off his brain stimulation device.
“What you are seeing here is my Parkinson’s tremor with absolutely no medication whatsoever. I cannot tolerate the prescription medication for Parkinson’s disease. They make me feel extremely unwell,” Ian explained.
Truth be told, about 10 seconds later, Frizell began tremoring with violent intensity. Frizell then self-medicates by vaping 30mg of weed. The results are completely mind-blowing. Not only does his tremoring stop, he says he feels more relaxed and his symptoms have totally subsided.
“My tremor has calmed down significantly. In fact, it’s almost completely under control. The sense of relief is overwhelming.
Frizell also explained that his Dystonia had lessened considerably and his voice was stronger, making it easier to get words out. Watch the whole video, which is truly impressive, here.
There’s no doubt that cases like Frizell’s could sway Parliament’s decision to legalize medical marijuana, but what does science say about Parkinson’s and cannabis?
In 2004, The Movement Disorders Journal published a study that showed that 45.9% of Parkinson’s suffers showed mild or substantial alleviation of all their PD symptoms after medical marijuana use, 30.6% showed improvement of tremors, 44.7% showed improvement of bradykinisia, or slowness of movement. Additionally, patients who continued use for 3 months after the study showed significantly more alleviation of their symptoms.
It’s not crazy to think that cannabis could have positive results for PD sufferers: there are cannabinoid receptors in the brain’s basal ganglia, which is also an area important to Parkinson’s disease. Thus, when THC goes to the brain, it also goes to areas where Parkinson’s is present. As for UK’s legalization process, the chairman of the group leading the way towards Parliment’s approval said that the refusal to acknowlege cannabis’ medicinal value is “irrational.”
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