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When Does Medical Cannabis Actively Reduce Stress?

Medical Cannabis

When you take a look at what people say about using cannabis products, you almost always hear about cannabis helps relieve stress. Many start using such products because they feel anxiety, too much stress and just want to relax. What should be known about this subject is that this is true but not as some may think of it. According to one of the world’s leading cannabis consulting services, cannabis does reduce stress but only when doses are low.

Reduce-Stress

The problem with studying marijuana, cannabis and other such items is that laws are highly restrictive. Obtaining permits to study cannabis effects on humans is very hard. However, this is sometimes possible and one of the biggest questions that scientists want to answer is whether or not cannabis actually helps release stress.

Researchers from the University of Chicago and from UIC managed to get permits and investigated THC effects on people. THC is the active cannabis ingredient and it was reported that it is the reason why cannabis reduces stress.

Stress Relief And Cannabis

Medical CannabisDifferent doses were used in tests in order to determine stress relief offered by cannabis. Some cannabis experience existed for all volunteers that participated in the test but none were daily cannabis users. There were 3 groups determined:

  • Low dose cannabis group – one capsule of 7.5 mg THC was used daily.
  • Placebo cannabis group – no THC was present in the capsules offered.

When comparing smoked cannabis with ingested cannabis there are clear differences but the doses used are basically the same as a few cannabis cigarette puffs. The scientists did not want to use larger doses so that potential adverse side effects would not be in place. No participant or investigator was aware of doses.

Initially, it was predicted that people that received low THC doses would experience less stress. This is exactly what happened after psychosocial tests when compared with people that received placebo capsules. Stress levels also ended up dropping a lot faster than others.

Other studies conducted in the past showed that people receiving higher THC doses reported negative mood changes during and after various tasks. A more moderate dose showed that people ended up pausing much more than others in mock interview situations, even more than those that took placebos.

The great thing about the results of the tests was that no significant difference was measured between participants when referring to heart rate, cortisol levels and blood pressure.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that the claim that cannabis reduces stress, tension and anxiety is correct. However, this is not the case with people that receive more THC. It was shown that only participants that took lower doses had significant decrease in negative mood and anxiety. The exact opposite happens when doses are higher.

Studies conducted till now were done at smaller scales than what many want. However, findings are really important. Regulatory obstacles do exist but they are quickly changing. So far, we know that lower cannabis doses can help people deal with stress, actively reducing it.

Article Submitted By Community Writer

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