Can Medical Marijuana Help With Epilepsy?

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August 14, 2020

Epilepsy is a common neurological issue that affects millions of people around the world. Epilepsy causes seizures that can be completely random, which lasts a few seconds to several minutes. The seizure can be small without the person’s knowledge or strong enough to have the sufferer lose consciousness alongside uncontrollable muscle spasms.

Many people assume seizures are just violent spasms. However, seizures come in many different forms. One example of a seizure is called “absence seizure,” where someone stares blankly, losing all awareness while performing a repetitive motion. Tonic seizures, ones that mostly occur during sleep, causes stiffness in the extremities. Epilepsy can encompass these different types of seizures. While there are medications for the different types of seizures, they have uncomfortable side effects from upset stomach to liver failure. These side effects for epilepsy medicine that can sometimes be fatal is why many are looking at medical marijuana for help.

While medical marijuana is mostly known for alleviating symptoms and increasing one’s quality of life, it may be a treatment for epilepsy because of its key ingredients: CBD. Those with severe epilepsy are prescribed an FDA-approved CBD drug as CBD has shown to reduce epileptic patients’ seizures. CBD can help restore the brain’s rhythm after suffering from a seizure, which helps reduce its severity and occurrence. However, you don’t want to pick up CBD from any store. You’ll want to use specific CBD prescriptions or use a strand of marijuana leans more towards CBD.

It is possible to find strands high in CBD to help with seizures, anxiety, inflammation, and pain relief. Taking medical marijuana can help drastically improve the quality of life of someone who has epilepsy. However, it’s essential to speak with a healthcare provider to see if medical marijuana can be added to (or replace) existing epilepsy treatments.