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Cannabis Treatment For Lyme Disease

How Marijuana Can Help Treat Lyme Disease

Health

Cannabis Treatment For Lyme Disease

Cannabis Treatment For Lyme Disease

Marijuana has been known to relieve the symptoms of serious illnesses like cancer and Crohn’s disease. Now, it’s being used to help manage the pain brought on by Lyme disease, which infects nearly 300,000 people a year in the United States.

The disease is contracted through a tick bite and can cause people to have health issues that interfere with their day-to-day activities. Regular antibiotics have not solved the long-term effects associated with Lyme disease, causing people to look at other options.

How Marijuana Can Help Treat Lyme Disease
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What is Lyme disease?

Lyme disease in the United States is caused by two bacterium’s: Borrelia burgdorferi and Borrelia mayonii, which is carried by deer ticks.

People contract Lyme disease after being bitten by an infected tick. Unfortunately, these ticks thrive in wooded or grassy areas where people often choose to hike.

Considering the size of these ticks and possible lack of symptoms, many people are bitten and don’t realize it until they’ve contracted the disease.

The most common symptoms can take anywhere from 3 to 30 days to appear. People can see anything from a rash to flu-like symptoms including fatigue, fever, chills, anxiety, weight loss and body aches.

However, if the tick bite goes unnoticed (thus untreated), symptoms of the disease can include joint pain and neurological problems.

The bacterium attacks the central nervous system and can change shape every 21 days. Because of this, it’s able to “hide” in the blood, making it harder for a person to detect the disease. In fact, fewer than 50 percent of people with Lyme disease can remember being bitten by a tick.

Traditional Treatment

Oral antibiotics and also intravenous antibiotics can successfully treat early-stage Lyme disease. However, some people are still left with debilitating side effects despite continuously taking higher doses of these medicines.

The cause of these lasting symptoms are unknown, but what is known is that antibiotics don’t seem to be helping.

Cannabis Treatment

While some people continue to take antibiotics, many have tried other options, including marijuana.

THC, which gives people that “high” when they smoke, also has numerous medical benefits like being an appetite stimulate and a natural pain reliever.

Lyme disease often makes people tired, however, despite being tired, they are unable to get enough rest while sleeping. Cannabis allows people to get peaceful sleep.

Cannabis can fight anxiety, fatigue, joint pain, headaches and more; all long-term side effects of the disease.

While more research is needed to prove marijuana’s positive effect specifically treating Lyme disease, there is already evidence out there backing the use of marijuana for numerous illnesses. Further research is also needed for Lyme disease in general as it’s the fastest growing vector-borne, infectious disease in the U.S.

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