Cannabis and How it Helps Anxiety

 

Cannabis Treatment for Anxiety

  Anxiety is a natural experience for most of us. It makes us feel uneasy, stressed and agitated. When anxiety disables someone from carrying on a normal life, it becomes a disorder.  Cannabis is a safe and natural way to cope with the symptoms of Anxiety Disorder. OUTCOin San Diego is a legally licensed dispensary which provides cannabis for a variety of medical issues, including Anxiety Disorder.

What is an Anxiety Disorder
  Anxiety disorder can occur as a panic, social, phobia or a generalized worry that won't go away. Symptoms include fear, panic, insomnia, quick breath, racing heart, inability to self-sooth, dry mouth, nausea, tense muscles, dizziness, and clammy or numb hands and feet. Environmental stress, heredity, and trauma are factors that contribute to this disorder.

Anxiety and the Brain
  Receptors in the brain that control fear and emotion contribute to the feeling of anxiety.  Prolonged stress can alter the way these nerve cells transmit information leading to a long lasting anxiety disorder.(Source)

  Commonly prescribed drugs to treat anxiety such as Valium and Librium block the GABA receptors. When these receptors are blocked, the body can calm anxiety and fear-based emotions.  Cannabis has been shown to regulate anxiety by blocking the GABA receptor.(Source)

  The CB1 receptor also controls anxiety in the brain functions.  Studies have shown that regulating the CB1 receptor reduces anxiety.(Source) Cannabis has been continually proven to affect the CB1 receptorthrough research studies.(Source) Cannabis regulates mood and anxiety by controlling the CB1 receptors.(source) 

   Sachin Patel, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Psychiatry and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics in Vanderbilt, has been at the forefront of research for the benefits of cannabis relating to brain function. Published in the March 2014 issue of Neuron he writes about endocannabinoids in the amygdala. The amygdala regulates memory, anxiety and the "fight or flight" response in the brain.

   Long term stress and trauma can result in a reduction of endocannabinoids being produced in the amygdala resulting in an increased feeling of anxiety. Light users of marijuana can experience treatment in anxiety by increasing the endocannabinoids needed to regulate the emotion. In contrast, chronic marijuana users reduce the effectiveness of the endocannabioids creating a paradox of an increase in anxiety.(Source) 

   Cannabis regulates the brain function to aid in the treatment of anxiety disorder.  OUTCO dispensary in San Diego has knowledgeable staff that can discuss which options are right for each patient.

Source:
http://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/guide/mental-health-anxiety-disorders
http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_04/d_04_m/d_04_m_peu/d_04_m_peu.html
http://outcoca.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-marijuana-effects-gaba-in-nervous.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23647582
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16148437
http://news.vanderbilt.edu/2014/03/discovery-sheds-new-light-on-marijuana-anxiety-relief-effects/