Can Cannabis Help People With Diabetes? The Answer is Yes

Diabetes has become a serious problem in the United States over the course of the last few decades. In fact, it has become such an issue for Americans that it has been named the “silent killer” by medical professionals and organizations who regularly treat diabetes patients. So what makes it the “silent killer”? Well, one of the reasons is that it can be hard to notice the symptoms of diabetes until the disease has really taken its course, because it can often be misdiagnosed as other diseases due to the nature of its symptoms.

In other cases, you may not even notice the symptoms at all. It is true that some states in the United States have diabetes listed as one of the qualifying conditions on their medical marijuana programs, which means that many Americans struggling with diabetes have a variety of treatment options in the form of medical grade cannabis.

However, like we are all aware of, not every state regards medical marijuana with the same reputation, and you may not be able to get a medical marijuana card in the state that you are living in, even though your symptoms qualify you for a card in a different state. When it comes to diabetes, there has been a lot of research done by medical professionals into how cannabis can help as a treatment option. Today we are going to be talking about those studies and learn more about how medical marijuana can help medical patients dealing with type 2 diabetes, not only to manage pain and other symptoms, but also to protect and heal nerve damage caused by diabetic neuropathy. 

There are approximately 34.2 million Americans in the United States who have diabetes, either type 1 or type 2. Of those people, only 26.9 million people have been diagnosed with the chronic disease. The scariest part is that the other 7.3 million people may not even know that they have such a life-threatening health condition, due to what we talked about earlier. Diabetes can be hard to notice sometimes, as well as hard to diagnose because of the way it mimics other diseases. With that in mind, it is important to note that there are 3 different types of diabetes: general diabetes, type 1, and type 2. Type 2 is actually the most common according to a study done by Iowa University, which states that over 91% of all diabetes cases in the United States are type 2. So how can medical marijuana help patients that have type 2 diabetes?

Well, we first have to identify and define some of the symptoms related to this disease. One of the more common symptoms of diabetes is dry mouth and persistent thirst, which is the body's natural reaction to your blood sugar levels getting too high. That is why it is so important for people with diabetes to drink lots of water! One of the most severe symptoms of type 2 diabetes is neuropathy, which causes the patient to feel painful pricks and stabs all over their body. This pain can last through the day and make it hard to function, and most diabetics attest to the pain worsening at night and making it very hard to sleep. 

We already know that medical marijuana can be a very effective way to treat and manage physical pain. Diabetics neuropathy is caused by nerves that have become damaged due to high levels of glucose in the body. Medical marijuana is already used for patients dealing with neurological pain in other chronic conditions and diseases, so it just makes sense that it would be an effective treatment for people with type 2 diabetes.