GET YOUR MEDICAL CARD
New Year’s Resolutions Time Again…
If you are anything like me, you often set a list of resolutions before the New Year that you may not necessarily follow through on completely. Like many people, I often set goals to reach a certain level of fitness and attempt to cut back on sugar or some other fat-inducing food product. Year to year though, there is one resolution that follows me, and that is to be happier and more mentally present in the moment than I have been during the previous year.
Everyone experiences hardship in their daily life and stress and depression can suddenly begin to weigh on you. As much work as I do to create a healthier mental state, there is always room for improvement. Learning from experience, I now go easier on myself when I make mistakes and I respect my intuition when I think I need to take a day off for my own mental and emotional health. I've also realized that part of creating my happy place comes from a healthy dose of exercise and sound nutrition. These are tools in my toolkit, but there's also one more.
My Cannabis Resolution
I'm going to say it out loud and stay proud, cannabis helps me improve my own mental health and well being. For this reason, I plan to continue to incorporate cannabis into my daily routine during coming year. Cannabis is praised for its ability to relieve pain and tension, but it can also help ease stress and anxiety that is part of everyday life.
Cannabis’s mental health benefits do not stop with anxiety, however. Marijuana has been found to lead to an overall more positive mood. A 2012 study, which was published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology, found that when the endocannabinoid system is crucial in emotional processing. Essentially, when THC is administered they responded less to negative stimuli compared to people who received a placebo.
Improving Mood & Outlook
When people are more responsive to negative stimuli, they are more likely to have mental illnesses like depression, which cannabis can help to combat. Stimulating the the endocannabinoid system through THC consumption can help improve the mood through leading people to have more positive associations compared to negative associations. This study not only found that cannabis can help improve a persons mood, but it also found how deeply the endocannabinoid system is tied into emotional function.
RELATED: WHY DOES CANNABIS MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD?
The mental health benefits of cannabis do not stop with its most prevalent cannabinoid THC, but extend to the more than 80 different cannabinoids that are found in different plant strains. Non-psychoactive cannabinoids like CBD and THCA are gaining traction as elements in cannabis that can help improve your overall health. If there is one general health concept that everyone knows to be true, it is that inflammation is bad for you. Tumeric gained traction this year as a superfood that reduces inflammation, but CBD and THC-A both have similar anti-inflammatory properties. I don’t know about you, but when I don’t feel inflammation I tend to feel great!
Incorporating CBD & THCA
Part of my New Year’s resolution to bettering my health involves consuming THCA and CBD that both will help improve my overall health. Reducing inflammation in my body through consuming these two cannabinoids also helps improve my mental well being and improve my happiness. CBD also helps relieve anxiety and causes calming feelings without being psychoactive.
Getting the full benefits from cannabis involves embracing the whole plant, not just the components that are the most well known. Cannabis is also full of terpenes alongside its cannabinoids that help provide even more benefits. Terpenes may give cannabis different strains their signature smells, but they also provide effects like alertness, relaxation, mood elevation, and stress relief. Terpenes like limonene and linalool are particularly helpful at relieving stress and promoting relaxation.
Let’s Allow Ourselves to Feel Good!
Let's be honest, cannabis just makes you feel good in general. Whether you're affected by stress or depression, cannabis can just take the edge off when you are having a hard day. Cannabis helps decrease the production of FAAH, fatty acid amide hydrolase, which breaks down anandamide in the body. Anandamide is a endocannabinoid that our body naturally produces that leads to euphoric effects. THC activates the same receptors in the body that anandamide does, naturally stimulating happy and joyous effects.
Cannabis is a great component to add to your New Year’s resolution on health, whatever it may be. To me, one of the most amazing benefits of cannabis is its ability to help me move away from pharmaceutical medications. Whether it be non-steroidal anti-inflammatories, anti-depressants, or opioids, cannabis is a great natural alternative to possibly addictive and harsh pharmaceuticals. Join me in making your new year one filled with health by embracing the amazing and wide-ranging benefits that cannabis can provide.
Happy New Year to you from everyone at HelloMD and wishing you optimum health and wellness throughout 2017!
FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM
If you are new to cannabis and want to learn more, take a look at our Cannabis 101 post. HelloMD can help you get your medical marijuana recommendation; it's 100% online, private and efficient.
