As October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we at Realm of Caring want to shed light on the potential role of cannabis in supporting cancer patients. Our Executive Director, Sasha Kalcheff-Korn, recently shared valuable insights on the Believe Big podcast about cannabis use in oncology.
Understanding Cannabis and Its Benefits for Cancer Patients
Cannabis, with its various strains and compounds, offers a range of potential benefits for cancer patients. Sasha explains:
“Cannabis has over 400 different compounds and over a hundred different cannabinoids. So we have these different cannabinoids that are extracted that have an abundance of health benefits.”
These benefits include anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, sleep improvement, pain relief, and anti-anxiety effects. For cancer patients specifically, research has shown promising results:
“The anti-cancer potential of the cannabis plant is anti-tumor, anti-proliferative, so helping to stop the spread of cancer cells from getting into tissue or from multiplying within the body, helping to decrease tumor size or inhibit tumor growth.”
Quality Matters: Choosing the Right Cannabis Products
When it comes to using cannabis, especially for cancer patients, the quality of the product is crucial. Sasha emphasizes:
“Especially for our immune sensitive and medically sensitive populations, it’s really, we can’t stress enough how much the quality of your product matters.”
She advises looking for products with up-to-date certificates of analysis that show testing for heavy metals, pesticides, and residual solvents, as well as accurate cannabinoid content.
Cannabis as Part of a Holistic Approach
While cannabis shows promise, it’s important to view it as part of a comprehensive treatment plan. As Sasha notes:
“There’s also been a lot of research to support using cannabis as an adjunct therapy to conventional treatments and actually helping to potentially improve the treatment’s efficacy while decreasing the side effects that the treatments might cause.”
Join Our Research Efforts
At Realm of Caring, we’re committed to advancing cannabis research. We’re currently collaborating with Johns Hopkins on observational studies to better understand how people use cannabis in their everyday lives.
Help us further this important research by joining our observational research registry. Your experiences can contribute to advancing our understanding of cannabis use in cancer care and beyond.
To learn more about cannabis and its potential role in cancer treatment, listen to the full Believe Big podcast episode here.
