Feeling foggy, irritable and overweight?

These could be signs of early dementia and while we generally associate the disease with age, it is not a normal part of ageing.  Patients experience dementia on various levels and in different forms, but sadly most of those affected will eventually need assistance with all of their daily tasks.  As of 2020, more than 55 million people worldwide suffer with some form of dementia.  As you can imagine, with age comes higher risk and after all, dementia is the leading cause of disability and dependency among the elderly.  The terpenes and cannabinoids found in medical marijuana might help to slow or deter the onset of dementia. In fact, “a new study by Salk scientists shows how CBN can protect nerve cells from oxidative damage, a major pathway to cell death.”

What are the early WARNING signs of dementia?

• Loss of memory
• Challenge to keeping track of things
• Misplacing things
• Challenges performing common tasks
• Impaired speech/language problems
• Being disoriented
• Poor judgment
• Mood swings/changes in behavior
• Challenges understanding visual and spatial information
• Withdrawal

Demetia is chiefly a genetic disease and many health-conscious people take daily supplements to maintain optimum brain function and vitality.  They do this because they realize if dementia is left to spiral, this progressive and irreversible deterioration of brain cells will affect memory, judgement, behavior and psychological wellbeing. Dementia is an umbrella term used to include neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), Lewy body dementia (LBD) (including Parkinson’s disease (PD)), and frontal temporal lobar dementia (FTD) (including Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)).

While Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease are commonly associated with dementia and cognitive dysfunction, ALS is also an associated disease.  “Although prospective, population-based studies are few, the most recent studies suggest that up to 50% of ALS patients demonstrate mild to moderate cognitive and/or behavioral impairment that departs from longstanding levels of function, with up to 20% of ALS patients meeting criteria for full-blown dementia syndrome.” And “when dementia or cognitive impairment is present, it typically resembles the symptoms of Frontal Temporal Dementia (FTD) syndromes.”

What are common symptoms of advanced dementia? Symptoms vary by disease, but there are common symptoms, which include irritability, memory loss and anxiety, as well as weight gain and chronic pain.  According to Alzheimer’s Disease International, some risk factors associated with dementia include:

• Lack of physical activity
• Head injury
• Isolation
• Obesity
• Hypertension
• Depression
• Hearing impairment

Medical marijuana patients have raved about the use of this hemp-derived supplement to gain control of pain, brain clarity and social anxiety, all common risk factors of dementia.

What cannabinoids might offset the risk factors associated with dementia?

CBN is becoming a popular herbal remedy for its neuroprotective qualities as well as pain and sleep management. In fact, the current information available indicates that CBN could delay diseases that affect cells in the brain and “it is believed that Cannabis could be useful in the symptomatic treatment of ALS.”  Findings in the journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine (January 6, 2022), indicate that the lesser known cannabinoid CBN, has the potential to treat age-related neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.

“Cannabidiol (CBD), the major non-psychoactive component of cannabis, has recently emerged as a potential prototype for neuroprotective drug development due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and its well-tolerated pharmacological behavior.” “Other studies confirmed … that Cannabis is remarkably safe with realistically no possibility of overdose.”

Today there are many forms of legal cannabis consumption as medical marijuana patients explore new ways to medicate discreetly while getting a precise dosage.  Tinctures and other edibles are becoming a popular way to dose medical marijuana.  Medical marijuana patients like Mark B. (October 19, 2022) wrote, “great product helps with sleeping, pain and anxiety,” in reference to a cannabis tincture that contains a high percentage of the hemp-based chemical compounds called cannabinoids CBN as well as CBD.