Crohn’s Disease

Medical Marijuana and Crohn’s Disease

There is a growing awareness around alternative treatments for chronic diseases. Many patients are searching for natural remedies as a means of supplementing their current conventional treatments. Others are opting for herbal solutions because they aren’t responding to their prescription medications or they’re experiencing intense side effects from them.

This appears to be particularly concerning among Crohn’s disease patients. Many sufferers are pursuing medical marijuana for Crohn’s disease either as a primary or complementary treatment to this chronic and debilitating condition.

What Is Crohn’s Disease?

Crohn’s disease is an incurable chronic disease of the intestinal tract. Symptoms include abdominal pain, weight loss, fever, rectal bleeding, skin and eye irritations, and diarrhea. Crohn’s disease is one of two main types of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The other type is ulcerative colitis. Crohn’s disease affects the lining of the gastrointestinal tract (GI). Crohn’s disease causes severe pain, and in rare cases, is life-threatening.

Crohn’s disease can cause inflammation throughout various parts of the digestive tract from the mouth to the rectum. While it can affect each patient differently, it most commonly affects the part of the GI tract where the small intestine joins the colon. The inflammation can be so severe that it develops within the deepest layers of the intestinal tissues.

Crohn’s disease is a debilitating and painful disease that can cause fatal complications in some cases. It’s characterized by periods of flare-ups and remission. Flare-ups are periods where inflammation is at its highest and symptoms are most painful. Many patients achieve long periods of remission where they manage inflammation and symptoms. These fluctuations in disease activity can come and go several times throughout a patient’s life.