My sister has lived with her epilepsy diagnosis since elementary school. She’s tried every drug available in various combinations and doses, she’s consulted with surgeons, she has a nerve stimulation implant. She’s gained weight. She’s lost weight. She’s learned how to live with her disorder, and how to cope with the costs of medication.
Nothing, though, has stopped her seizures totally.
Which is all to say, if cannabis oil had been an approved therapy when she was a child, there’s a good chance my parents would have jumped at the chance to try it – at the chance for her to return to some semblance of a normal childhood.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0lfEB-AfkA/
Until recently, the studies promoting the use of cannabis oil to treat seizure disorders had been small and based on wobbly evidence and conclusions.
A recent study, published in Frontiers in Neurology, is changing all of that.
The article reveals that cannabis oil significantly reduces the rate of seizures in children with severe epilepsy and, in some cases, helps eliminate the presence of those seizures entirely.
Amazing.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0lc5IpB_5W/
The treatment protocols have faced challenges during development, largely from groups concerned that the children being treated will become “stoned” due to THC content (the psychoactive component of the marijuana plant), but the researchers in this experiment found success with an extract that contained only 5% THC (the remaining 95% was CBD).
Like my sister, the children in the study had not found success with any other treatment regimen.
They were given an initial dose of 5 to 6 mg of cannabis extract per kg of body weight every day, and at that minimum dose, over half of the participants saw a reduction of more than 50% in their daily seizures.
When the dose was doubled, all of the participants saw marked improvement, with 3 of the 7 kids ceasing to have seizures at all.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B0lQi9og1Vf/
“Some of the improvements in quality of life were really dramatic with some of the children having huge improvements in their ability to communicate with their families,” author Richard Huntsman said in a statement. “Some of these children started to talk or crawl for the first time. They became more interactive with their families and loved ones.”
THC levels remained below the threshold for intoxication, eliminating the concern that getting kids “stoned” was the only way to stop or improve their epileptic episodes, and study authors propose there is no need to attempt treatments with an oil containing more than 5% THC.
More and bigger studies are needed, and surely will follow, but this good news for anyone watching their child struggle with seizures on a daily basis – and anyone who struggled for years without ever getting the help they themselves needed.
