Medical Journal Houston | Page 6

Medical Journal - Houston

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . June
. .2015
.

Page 6

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
INTEGRATIVE
MEDICINE

Medical marijuana in
cancer patients

Distinctive Residential Settings | Chef-Prepared Dining and Bistro | Pool
Premier Health and Wellness Programs | Award-Winning Memory Care
Professionally Supervised Therapy and Rehabilitation Services

West University [phone]
Hunters Creek [phone] Schedule a tour today!

BY Victor S. Sierpina,
MD, ABFM, ABIHM,
Director, Medical
Student Education
Program, WD and Laura
Nell Nicholson Family
Professor of Integrative
Medicine, Professor,
Family Medicine University of Texas
Distinguished Teaching Professor
Recently, I was making a house call. The
family of a hospice patient with metastatic
lung cancer asked me about using marijuana
as part of her plan to manage pain, anorexia,
nausea, weight loss, and sleep problems. I
discussed with her and the family some

offer a broad spectrum of benefits, especially
for cancer patients. Cannabinoids are
psychoactive or somatically active chemicals
that give marijuana its clinical effects. The
human body has natural cannabinoid
receptors, and there are endogenous
cannabinoids even in breast milk, in women
who are not using marijuana. No wonder
nursing infants seem so happy!
Marijuana has multiple effects in the kinds
of problems cancer patients suffer from
insomnia, lack of appetite, anxiety and
depression, pain, neuropathy, and nausea.
While there is a genomic variability in
response, with some people getting very
stoned quickly and others getting more
anxious or even paranoid, it turns out that

© 2015 Belmont Village, L.P. | ALF 030197, 106016
Hou