Posted on August 30, 2013 at 9:14 am by David Downs in Health
Hepatitis C is an often-fatal viral disease of the liver afflicting about four million Americans. Chronic hepatitis C infection causes fatigue, depression, joint pain and liver impairment, including cirrhosis and liver cancer. There is no cure.
Interestingly, patients diagnosed with hepatitis C often report using cannabis to treat both symptoms of the disease and the nausea associated with antiviral therapy, and there’s some science to back it up.
“An observational study by investigators at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) found that hepatitis C patients who used cannabis were significantly more likely to adhere to their treatment regimen than patients who didn’t use it,” writes TheAnswerPage.com today. TheAnswerPage.com is co-sponsored by The Massachusetts Medical Society, publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine, as part of their continuing medical education of physicians.
“Preclinical data indicate that the endocannabinoid system may moderate aspects of chronic liver disease and that cannabinoids [– the active ingredients in pot -] may reduce inflammation in experimental models of hepatitis,” TheAnswerPage.com writes.
“Cannabis use improves retention and virological outcomes in patients treated for hepatitis C,” one study concludes.
“Writing in the October 2006 issue of the European Journal of Gastroenterology, investigators from Canada and Germany concluded that cannabis”potential benefits of a higher likelihood of treatment success [for hepatitis c patients] appear to outweigh [its] risks.’
“Nevertheless, no clinical trials assessing the use of cannabinoids for this indication are available in the scientific literature,” TheAnswerPage writes, and “some experts discourage the use of cannabis in patients with chronic hepatitis, until further studies are performed.”
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