90 CANNABIS FOR SENIORS
SENIORS
Cannabis
for
BOOK REVIEW
CANNABIS
FOR
SENIORS
the condition. This chapter leads into a chapter on the “Senior Opioid Epidemic” and points out some frightening statistics. Did you know that “from 2006 - 2012, a Towson University study found that ER visits for prescription overdose jumped by 78%”? Also, I was unaware that “the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality shows rates of adults 45-85 being hospitalized for opioid use to have risen by 500% since 1993”? Finally, that “a 2009 American Geriatric Society reversal in their policy to no longer recommend over-the-counter meds (such as NSAIDs) before prescribing opioids, which hastened the rise in opioid use”. Easy to see how, with the rise in population of baby boomers combined with the decision to recommend opioids over over-the-counter medications caused the explosion in opioid use, and addiction in the senior community. Also how a recent Journal of Psychoactive Drugs study concluded that cannabis can both substitute and totally replace opioids as well as enhance their effectiveness in order to decrease the sheer quantity of opioid consumption. The importance of decreasing the intake of opioid consumption, in all age groups, is vital to the future of our Country.
Cannabis and Depression:
“According to Gregg Easterbrook, author of The Progressive Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse, depression is a growing problem, especially among seniors.” Symptoms of depression include pessimistic thoughts, feeling useless and helpless, chronic unhappiness, no interest in hobbies, feelings of anxiety or grumpiness, changes of sleep patterns, changing in eating habits and thoughts of suicide. Popular treatments, within western medicine, are “the use of antidepressant medications such as Prozac, Lexapro, Zoloft and others”. However, “many are turning to cannabis for relief from depression because it enhances mood and well being”. Did you know that in the early 17th century Indian doctors used cannabis as a treatment for depression? Dr. Potter points out that “cannabis stimulates the body’s endocannabinoid system, hastens the development of nervous tissue, boosts energy, improves focus and decreases anxiety”. Studies from Montreal’s McGill University show that “low doses of THC generate the happy chemical known as Serotonin within the brain”. Some seniors may choose to consume through inhalation, eating or tinctures but it is important to make sure that the dose of THC is low, in order to benefit from the cannabinoids in the plant.