Medical Cannabis for Alzheimer’s - Does it work?

What is Alzheimer’s Disease?

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurological condition in which degeneration of brain cells causes memory loss and cognitive decline. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens progressively. It is the most common cause of Dementia.

This happens when proteins (called plaques) and fibers (called tangles) build up in your brain, block nerve signals, and destroy nerve cells.

Symptoms of Alzheimer's

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive condition, meaning that the symptoms get worse gradually, over months or years. But if they develop quicker, over hours or days, a person requires immediate medical attention, as this could be an indicator for stroke.

• Memory loss: Memory loss is a main and one of the first symptoms to develop. A person may have difficulty understanding new information and remembering it. It can lead to repeating questions, being forgetful, losing things, wandering around, or getting lost.
• Loss of balance and coordination: A person may experience reduced spatial awareness and balance. He/she may be unable to coordinate muscle movements causing trip overs, or spilling of things.
• Cognitive deficits: A person may find it difficult to do reasoning and judgment. This may lead to lower comprehension of safety and risk factors and difficulty in managing money.
• Difficulty in decision making: He/ she may have difficulty completing tasks, and this may have several stages. They may have difficulty in completing everyday tasks like getting dressed and using a remote control.
• Struggles while speaking, reading, or writing: A person may develop difficulty in recalling common words or face speech or writing mistakes.
• Lack of recognition: A person may find insufficiencies in recognizing faces or objects. One should not believe that these issues are due to eyesight.
• Personality or behavior changes: A person may perform socially inappropriate behavior, feel worried, upset, or angry, lose interest, feel less motivated for regular activities.
• Confusion in the evening hours: A person’s concentration becomes lesser in the later hours, and symptoms of mental confusion worsen.

Difference between Dementia and Alzheimer's

While these terms are often used interchangeably, they have different dimensions. Dementia is an umbrella term, not a specific disease. Dementia is a group of brain disorders that make it difficult for a person to think, recognize people and things, make decisions, control emotions, impacting a person's ability to perform everyday activities independently.

There are various types of Dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease is one of them. Alzheimer’s is the most well-known and common form of dementia, but not everyone with dementia has Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer’s vs. Dementia symptoms

The symptoms of Alzheimer’s and Dementia have an overlap, but there are some distinct differences as well. While both conditions can cause:

• A decline in the ability to think
• Memory impairment
• Communication deterioration

We have already read one of the Dementia types, Alzheimer’s symptoms above. The symptoms in Dementia vary with its type while sharing some common symptoms. The types of Dementia with its symptoms are briefed below:

Lewy body Dementia: Lewy bodies are abnormal balloon-like clumps of protein found in the brains. General symptoms include disturbed focus, uncoordinated movement, visual hallucinations, imbalance, and sleep disturbances.

Vascular Dementia: This type of dementia is caused by damage to the vessels that supply blood to brain. The common symptoms include slow thinking, impaired problem-solving, and loss of focus. These signs are more noticeable than memory loss.

Frontotemporal Dementia: This type of disease is characterized by the breakdown of nerve cells and their connections in the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. The signs include personality and behavior change, issues with judgment, speech, and movement.

Mixed Dementia: This type has a combination of several causes, such as Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, and Lewy body dementia.

Alzheimer’s Treatment through Medical Cannabis

Neither Alzheimer’s nor most other types of Dementia have a definitive cure. Therefore, doctors focus on providing relief from symptoms and preventing the disease from getting worse.

Medicinal Cannabis is derived from the leaves and/or flowers of the cannabis plant. The extract is used for medicinal purposes and given to patients under the supervision of a doctor. The Cannabis plant contains more than 100 different chemicals called phytocannabinoids. All phytocannabinoids have different therapeutic effects on the body. However, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the main chemicals that are highly potential in treating diseases.

How can Cannabis help Alzheimer’s patients?

• Alzheimer’s disease causes the buildup of clumps of a protein, called amyloid, in the brain. Some studies have shown that active compounds in cannabis, including THC, appear to remove this protein from nerve cells grown in the lab.
• Medicine containing both THC and CBD showed an improvement in learning and lesser evidence of amyloid clumps in
• Some early evidence suggests that CBD may reduce inflammation in the brain, although this has yet to be proven in humans.
• CBD in medical cannabis help manage symptoms of dementia such as agitation and anxiety.
• Clinical trials are going on to assess the effects of cannabinoids on behavioral symptoms of dementia.
• Studies suggest medical cannabis may be effective for treating agitation, disinhibition, irritability, aberrant motor behavior, and nocturnal disorders, which are neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with dementia.

Outlook

Talk to a Vedi Herbals doctor if you or a loved one is experiencing any symptoms of AD.  Before the symptoms worsen, it’s important to recognize the possibility and consult a doctor who can make a diagnosis and suggest cannabis medicines. Vedi Herbals has a range of cannabis infused oil and  Cannabis capsules that may help.

Cannabis oil in India is now gaining popularity because of its effectiveness. Vedi herbals offers cannabis oil in India and are available as Cannapain, Cannaflam, and Cannaron. Check it out and get help for AD today!