Medical Cannabis Effective in Treating Ischemia Caused by Smoking
It’s no secret that cannabis is considered much safer for consumers’ health than tobacco. While smoking cannabis does produce carcinogenic byproducts, the plant’s smoke contains far less tar and fewer addictive substances than traditional tobacco cigarettes. In addition to cancer risks, regular tobacco use can cause a range of other serious health problems. Notably, tobacco has a particularly negative impact on heart health and blood vessel function, leading to diseases such as thromboangiitis obliterans (also known as Buerger’s Disease), which involves inflammation of tissues around veins and arteries in the limbs.
This article focuses on this category of diseases, as researchers in Israel have recently discovered that cannabinoids may help alleviate and even reverse symptoms of ischemia. Buerger’s Disease is directly related to ischemia—a condition where body tissues gradually die due to poor blood circulation. The disease often develops because chronic tobacco smoking leads to narrowing and blockage of blood vessels. It’s important to note that this condition can affect not only those who smoke tobacco but also those who use it in other forms, such as chewing. Although doctors are still unsure why tobacco causes these effects, Buerger’s Disease is seen almost exclusively in chronic smokers. Men are more frequently affected than women, likely due to higher rates of tobacco use among men.
A Chance Discovery in Medical Cannabis Therapy
The beneficial effect of cannabis was discovered quite by accident. The study was conducted by a team of doctors specializing in the treatment of ischemia and related conditions. They noticed the potential of cannabis thanks to one of their patients, who insisted on trying this treatment method.
The case involved a middle-aged man, referred to as Bob for anonymity, who smoked about 2.5 packs of cigarettes a day. About three years ago, Bob visited the hospital where Dr. Dror Robinson, one of the study’s authors, worked. Bob was suffering from unbearable pain in his foot, which turned out to be an advanced case of Buerger’s Disease: blood flow to the limb had almost completely stopped, leading to infection and tissue death. Dr. Robinson immediately informed Bob that to save his life, the affected limb would need to be amputated below the knee. To the doctor’s surprise, Bob refused the procedure and told him he would try to self-treat the disease by using medical cannabis twice a day.
Six months later, Bob returned to Dr. Robinson in much better condition. He no longer felt severe pain in his limb and reported that during his self-treatment, he had regained much of its mobility. He continued this therapy for the next two and a half years and ultimately managed to completely overcome the disease that once threatened him with amputation. Additionally, using cannabis helped Bob quit smoking tobacco, which was also a significant factor in his recovery.
Medical Cannabis as a Potential Treatment
Recognizing the initial success of cannabis therapy, Dr. Robinson enrolled Bob in a medical cannabis distribution program, allowing him to use higher-quality material and gradually increase his dosage during treatment. After three years of abstaining from tobacco and regularly using cannabis along with antibiotics, Bob was able to recover from a life-threatening infection—without any noticeable scarring on his skin.
Dr. Robinson and his colleagues believe that cannabidiol (CBD) may have played a key role in Bob’s recovery by relieving numbness in muscles and blood vessels and restoring blood flow. While the team does not claim that cannabinoids are a definitive treatment for ischemia, they are confident that CBD had a positive effect in this case. Like other researchers studying the medical properties of cannabis, Dr. Robinson advocates for more comprehensive clinical trials of CBD to determine its true effectiveness.