Bling:
Bumper Promo:
Hello my friends,
I’m so excited and a little embarrassed at the same time because one of my favorite LI tribe members is on today… Dr. Uwe Blesching takes the time to have a cannabis powerhouse conversation in the middle of some pretty bad weather happening all around him… He’s sittin out in the car because they don’t have power inside!!
Farbeit from me to stop a few technical hiccups when Uwa is on the other side! He’s gonna tell you how to “spice the soup” but he’s talkin about a cannabis techniques… and he’ll make you think of the EndoCannabinoid system backwards! I know!! What’s that all about???
Come on in and experience the fun I have online with my LinkedIn cannabis tribe buddy… Dr. Uwa Blesching…
right after the intro…
Intro
Honey Smith Walls 0:00
Welcome to season four of the Cannaba Verum podcast, the cannabis truth podcast.
I speak the language of cannabis freely and uncensored while educating my audience on safe use of this live plant therapy. You should know what’s in your cannabis…what’s good and what’s not.
It does not come with an FDA stamp of approval yet. Using cannabis mindfully as medication is a different concept in Western healthcare philosophy, specifically of the past 100 years. There’s a lot to learn and reconsider.
The information you’ll find here comes straight from scientists and clinicians doing the work and reporting their findings in real time through various live online outlets.
The scientific truth of cannabis is finally getting out and is wide open for all to see at respected medical sites like pubmed.gov and JAMA, the Journal of American Medical Association… and I’m right there in the thick of it with all those titans of medicine… as a fly on the wall.
Because I’m not a doctor, nor did I go to med school. But I did take dozens of private cannabis courses and still engage in continuing education offered by cannabis expert scientists over the past few years and slowly began to see and understand the bigger picture.
Now I talk to people all day long about cannabis and hopefully inspire them to research the facts as we know them today. Cannabis is an amazing alternative in health remedies. It can reportedly alleviate typical disease problems and troubling side effects, even those caused by synthetic prescriptions.
This is Honey Smith Walls, a 21st century cannabis shaman, not a doctor, not a scientist, raised by nuns and wolves in the verdant cattle pastures of the Oklahoma oil fields. I’m here to amplify the truth of this great big story of cannabis in historical, political, scientific and spiritual terms, so you can make educated decisions about the medicine you choose to ingest.
Seg 1
No, it sounds like I have Dr. Blesching…
Dr. Uwe Blesching 3:50
Honey Smith Walls… it is.
Honey Smith Walls 3:55
It’s wonderful to speak with you.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 3:58
Likewise.
Honey Smith Walls 4:01
Pardon me… I’m struggling with pollen in my throat. I’m down here in Florida. Yes, yes. And Florida is big in pollen right now. Where are you sir?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 4:15
Well, I’m in Berkeley, California. And we just had a cyclone and so no electricity until tomorrow… but you know, it’s a pleasure to be with you and just go with the flow…
Honey Smith Walls 4:37
I understand you’re sitting out in your car because of the electricity problems so we really appreciate you.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 4:44
Oh, it’s my pleasure. I got nothing else to do. My computer’s down. So looking forward to chatting with you. Anyway, so this is a welcome distraction.
Honey Smith Walls 4:56
I’m glad to hear it. So my audience is mostly elders. Just learning about cannabis. But you may already know the guests I generally speak to are in the science tribe. So I’m very excited to have you. I can’t wait to talk to you about Cannakeys 360… an app… and the books that you’ve created… and are out in some… in their third edition. And what you’re doing when you go to work in the morning. Tell us to begin with. How did you come into cannabis? What would you do that made you want to come into cannabis?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 5:42
Well, as you may know by my odd name, (Uwe sounds like OOva) I was born and raised in Germany. And you know, after college I decided to go to medical school but there was a two year waiting list. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And so I decided to pack my motorcycle in you know, pretty much anything that I had and go traveling… see the world while I’m waiting for school.
Honey Smith Walls 6:11
My goodness.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 6:13
And so so when I came to San Francisco, I fell in love with the Bay Area.
Honey Smith Walls 6:19
I know what you mean, It’s exquisite out there.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 6:22
Oh my god, you know, and I never really left. You know, and so I love the Bay Area. And but you know, it’s prohibitive. I just couldn’t to go to med school. Here. And so a friend of mine said, Hey, Uwe, why don’t you go to Stanford, they have a great paramedic program. They have really good treatment algorithms and you might like this, you know, wow.
And so I did… and I finished their paramedic program and then straightaway got hired by the San Francisco Department of Public Health and have had the good fortune to work the streets of San Francisco as a paramedic.
Honey Smith Walls 7:07
And up did that for 20 years… Didn’t you? That’s amazing. I bet you knew everybody in San Francisco.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 7:17
Yes. And I loved it… it was like, every day was different. Every call was different. It’s not like going to an office. It’s like an adventure.
Honey Smith Walls 7:27
Yeah.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 7:29
On top of it is another country and medicine… and so I took to it and I really loved the challenges and the intensity. So you asked about cannabis and so my first contact with any drug…recreational or pharmaceutical, including cannabis had to do with my firsthand experiences in seeing what it does to the patients that use it.
And in the 90s when I started this work, AIDS had hit the Bay Area hard. Oh, wow. And so you know, HIV and AIDS. And the patients from that community and their caretakers and the advocates were one of the first to realize the potential of cannabis to mitigate a great number of the signs and symptoms that come with that pathology.
Honey Smith Walls 8:36
Yes, a terrible disease. horrible illness. Yeah, my husband had a son out there at that time in San Francisco with AIDS. Sorry, it was terrible. Yeah. I’m sorry for all these technical issues.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 8:57
No, I would just go with it. Okay.
Honey Smith Walls 9:00
So you were in San Francisco. Okay. And you were realizing the effects of cannabis on all the AIDS patients that you were having to help as a paramedic as opposed to the opioids that you were seeing too.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 9:15
Yes. But also in the context of cancer treatments. You know, like many people would take chemotherapy or radiation therapy and then suffer from severe nausea and vomiting or severe burns with severe neuropathies. And those patients that chose to use cannabis to mitigate those symptoms, you know, literally looked like a day and night when compared to those that chose not to use cannabis… and so these were the first…
Honey Smith Walls 9:49
Inkling…
Dr. Uwe Blesching 9:50
Yeah impacts and insights, you know, that I had the fortune to witness firsthand and so the other thing is, as you can imagine, when you work in a big city for 911… You get to see all kinds of types of patients. And so I quickly started to to judge drugs or their impact on people by the types of calls, 911 calls they generated.
So in 20 years, I only remember one or two patients who felt like they needed to call 911 because of cannabis alone.
There were other calls when one of several substances that caused emergencies but not by itself, and that one or two patients that felt like the need to ask for help after using cannabis alone? You know, they simply took too much THC. And so most of the paranoia or the anxiety, or the adverse effects that come with cannabis have to do with or are those dependent on THC… not any of the other cannabis constituents that we can also use to mitigate a great number of things including intense signs and symptoms such as those that I just described.
Honey Smith Walls 11:31
That’s what we love learning about… how to mitigate any kind of effects through the alchemy of cannabis. And learning the terpene profile and the cannabinoid profile and the percentages of all of that is not easy for a regular old fart patient who comes down here from New York and doesn’t know what the what to get or how to use it or anything!
Dr. Uwe Blesching 11:59
Absolutely. And, you know, seniors like us, we have grown up with this narrative of “war on drugs” and so it’s at the same time, seniors are the fastest growing group of patients that are new to cannabis that are asking their physicians that… in some cases demanding their physicians, not just pray, help them provide access, but also help them to find the ideal plant constituents.
In other words, ideal ingredients work best for each and all of them. And typically, and it has to start with educating people… that then people go to Walgreens or they go into a pharmacy and they look at the shelves full of drugs and they know instantly now… nobody has to explain to them that just because there are 500 pills on the shelves… Doesn’t mean that just they all do the same thing.
When they think about cannabis for some reason. They think all cannabis is the same and it’s absolutely not the case. Right?
Oh, so the fears that most seniors have, you know, like the addiction potential, or will I have changes in cognition… will I have falling or the dizziness or the loss of memory… all of the things that can be part of a cannabis experience. You know, all of these fears can simply be addressed by choosing the right chemo type of cannabis which is determined by the ratio of THC and CBD, which are the two most abundant compounds in Cannabis, right.
And so if we simply know if I’m a senior… any patient who has concerns… I want to… I need help. I have chronic issues. My doctor, it’s been a revolving door. You know, it’s just an ever growing list of pharmaceuticals and there is no hope of a cure… just managing symptoms with an ever growing list of pharmaceuticals right?
So if you’re one of the many seniors who are in that position, who also are scared of trying something new but are desperate…
Honey Smith Walls 14:36
The key emotion… desperate… for relief?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 14:41
It’s… I want relief. Yeah. So can cannabis help or not? And then the first thing I always point out is, teach seniors or any potential patient about the differences… the three basic differences about the broad distinctions between cannabis.
Because yes, if you’re afraid of changes in cognition or any of the adverse effects that are generally associated with cannabis, you can simply avoid them by starting with a type of cannabis that contains only tiny amounts… like small percentages of the compound THC that is responsible for most of these adverse effects.
And in that sense, there’s no worries about trying this type of cannabis. And see if it makes an inroad in such a way as to mitigate your symptoms in the safest possible way.
Now, if it turns out that that type of cannabis isn’t quite getting you to where you want to be as far as success in achieving a reduction in your symptoms, then you can always dial in gently and slowly…the other cannabinoids.
Honey Smith Walls 16:06
The other cannabinoids that will mitigate the effects of what you’re experiencing in a good way.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 16:14
Dial up the amount of THC until you until you get the sweet spot.
Honey Smith Walls 16:21
Your sweet spot.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 16:22
Nausea is gone. You know whatever it is… Staying below the threshold of experience, what you don’t want to experience and that’s what I call it, a therapeutic cannabis experience, not one where you endure the side effects in order to get the benefits.
The ideal way to do that, of course is using tinctures because you can find tinctures or you can make tinctures that are 10 to one or one to 10 or five to one…. So you know it helps to learn a little bit about these two major ingredients THC and CBD.
And then titrate the ratios which is another way of saying “spice the soup”, until you get the flavor the way you want it. And so that is typically the best way to approach with you’re first time.
You start with a CBD abundant tincture and see if it helps… and if it doesn’t, then you can upgrade to a tincture that contains a little bit more THC. And then you keep track of it. You have a little bit of the session log you write down…how successful it was… and if there were any side effects… and then by the numbers alone, you know by the ratios alone. You get to fine tune… to titrate as they call it, the medicine, the ideal cannabis constituents that’s going to work best for you.
Honey Smith Walls 18:09
That’s just exactly how I talk to my audience about the alchemy of cannabis too and I’m so grateful that you said it out loud just like that. Because it’s always personal. You know, it’s always going to be personal for every person. Every patient… and you just have to work the cannabinoids until you find what is going to help you… but good knowledgeable doctors or nurses in the cannabis industry can really help you get there.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 18:42
Oh that makes a big difference to have a knowledgeable doctor and knowledgeable nurse who know cannabis and will hold your hand to make one change at a time… because there’s so many moving parts.
There are hundreds and hundreds of biologically active ingredients. Some of them can be harnessed to amplify in effect… some others can be used to take the harshness of potential other effects and in that sense, make it safer, make it gentler in terms of the experience because like you said, when it comes to using cannabis as medicine, there’s never going to be a silver bullet that’s going to work the same for every single person.
It’s very individualized medicine. Yeah, and you know, even doctors have to learn because they’ve been trained to prescribe medications by weight. And when it comes to cannabis, that’s not right, and so they have to adjust to the reality of how it works.
Honey Smith Walls 19:47
And I think that’s going to have to come from the top down. It’s gonna have to be mandated for doctors, don’t you think?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 19:53
Well, I think that is certainly one approach… is a top down education to let people know this is not going to be like a pharmaceutical. Even pharmaceutical versions of cannabis… trying to apply them by weight causes many times ill effects and so doctors then have to recalibrate their own methods because each person has different sensitivities.
Honey Smith Walls 20:25
It’s different for everyone.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 20:28
Specific to THC, which is the primary psychoactive ingredients of cannabis. So yeah, that is one approach… a top down educational approach. But you know, doctors… I believe that most doctors really got into medicine because they want to be of service and they want to help people and they want to be effective.
But those doctors that especially worked with chronic patient populations, Western medicine, isn’t that great when it comes to having a track record, not just approaching a cure, but even managing chronic diseases.
We can’t make the mistake and assume just because Western medicine is fantastic in the emergency room settings is fantastic with very specific high tech treatments with effective certain types of surgeries.
We can’t make the assumption that it’s also going to be the best approach when it comes to dealing with chronic diseases. Because for the most part, it’s more of a revolving door scenario and managing treatments rather than curing things and so with that in mind, the cannabinoid health signs which are a relative newcomer to the healing arts, is going to play a significant role going forward, as it has done looking back… cannabis has has been part and parcel of most healing traditions, all around the world.
It’s wonderful to see physicians stepping up and acquiring the knowledge by themselves, utilizing the various tools. And sometimes these tools are more limited than that. But you know, there are a number of really good books that are out there. There are a number of really good resources out there and the number of organizations physicians, organization, nurses, organizations, cannabis coaches, organizations that specialize in helping people or helping healthcare professionals to learn more about the use of cannabis so that people can stay on that. On one side of that fine line between therapeutic cannabis experience and an adverse cannabis experience. It’s not brain surgery. It’s not like super complicated. It’s just complex.
And so the more we know the more we learn, the more we are able to optimize patient outcomes and mitigate any adverse effects potential and that’s why podcasts such as yours, Honey is so important. Any educational avenue and any people such as yourself who have a passion for our favorite plant and create an outlet are of great service in the larger picture and can make a significant difference. So it’s always fun to meet people that are kindred spirits, and who spread the gospel.
Honey Smith Walls 24:04
What do you see for the standardization of cannabis across and around the world? How are they possibly going to standardize such a complex plant? And, do you see anything coming out of like the ASTI organizations for standardization or anything like that, recently?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 24:29
Well, here’s my thoughts on standardization. I think that there is a need and a place for it. To know exactly the amount of THC and CBD and all of the other constituents and having certified lab tested product in the body that you can rely on.
Honey Smith Walls 24:58
We talk about COAs all the time on this show.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 25:01
Yeah. So, you know, there is a need for that because it’s very difficult to track individual success unless we have some specific numbers to associate the changes that we’re monitoring. And so having said that, you know, having acknowledged the need for that, especially in the clinical setting, there is also something to be said for patients and caretakers who want to make their own medicine, want to work with and grow in their own right. And so, standardization in that context may not be necessary.
Honey Smith Walls 25:49
Right. We need small farmers and original cannabis plants.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 25:57
And there is room for both. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So there are people who don’t really care about standards.
Honey Smith Walls 26:05
What happens over here in Florida with our vertical medical marijuana patient system is that we can only get so many on a menu, so many things on a menu. I can’t consistently get a CBG product down here that’s a full spectrum. I can’t get a CBD full spectrum whole plant products down here. In my dispensaries, they don’t carry them. They carry high THC products.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 26:32
Yeah, and that is a sad trend that I know you’re experiencing in Florida, or you know, pretty much anywhere. The trend towards more THC is better, when in fact, that’s a fallacy.
Well, for some people, that’s true. And for some patient populations, that’s true, but it’s certainly not true for all and I mean if you look at pharmaceutical versions of cannabis products that is legally available in the United States, it mirrors the cannabis chemo… the three cannabis chemo types, finding by their ratio between THC and CBD… and when you look at the FDA recommendations for these three different types of cannabis, they’re clearly defined in terms of what FDA will throw their weight behind in terms of recommending.
So the emerging literature makes it pretty clear that certain types of cannabis tend to work really well for certain types of patients. And so that’s why it becomes important to look at these and have access to not just THC. Like to give you an example, a chemo type one contains mostly THC and you know, only small amounts of CBD and the pharmaceutical versions of that would be like Marinol, and they are prescribed for patients who are suffering from chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting… patients that need these strong THC… the strong altering sedative effects are for patients that, for example have withdrawal effects from hardcore addiction, heroin, opioids, methamphetamine, even alcohol addictions, those type of patients. They really need high concentration on the high levels of THC.
Honey Smith Walls 28:54
Is that Dranabinol a synthetic?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 29:00
Yes. Right now there is no full spectrum. Full plant extract containing only or primarily THC. These are all synthetic versions.
Honey Smith Walls 29:13
I’m sorry, what about RSO or Rick Simpson oil?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 29:19
Rick Simpson oil is an extract and that is a highly traded form of THC. I’ve not seen any Rick Simpson oil that contains mostly CBD for example. And so Rick Simpson oil and the methodologies that you’ll find online that promote the use of Rick Simpson oil use mostly highly concentrated THC.
Honey Smith Walls 29:49
So my question is, would RSO Rick Simpson oil be as appropriate for that patient taking Nabilone?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 30:05
Rick Simpson oil and the way it’s promoted by Rick Simpson and some other websites that are out there that are promoting the use of concentrates are most of the time in the context of treating cancer.
Honey Smith Walls 30:23
Cancer… right… not opioids.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 30:28
You know, there you may find some some information on the net for using concentrates to mitigate the adverse or the withdrawal symptoms from hardcore addictions. You might find it there too, but here’s the issue with Rick Simpson oil, and why you can’t throw one product at everything, right?
To achieve the best possible results… I have spent significant time with people who specialize in the cancer setting in oncology and they are very familiar with the Rick Simpson approach and here’s the thing… I’m going to try to present it without using too much terminology that may be off putting or are too complicated.
Rick Simpson oil has shown in about half of all cancers to be potentially effective in terms of mitigating the cancer itself.
However, in the other half, it has actually shown to increase the cancer or metastasizing the spread of the cancer.
And so while 50-50 is still a good response rate, the reason why it’s with certain cancers, it gets worse to utilize a Rick Simpson oil has to do with one particular receptor.
Sites that THC binds with, which is called GPR 55 or G-Protein Coupled Receptor 55. I know THC binds with that receptor site, and here’s the thing. Not all cancers… but there’s certain types of cancers… I think they’re about five or six certain types of cancers that we know about… that metastasize using 55 as a means of spreading.
Now if these types of cancer utilize high THC… a kid may actually make the cancer spread more rapidly. And so what THC has shown in certain preclinical trials to kill cancer cells via classical receptor sites, CB one and CB two… it may make it worse for these types of cancers because it also binds with 55. and so the ill effects of binding with 55 out power… if you will, the potential positive effects of CB one and CB two. That is not true for all cancers. So okay, so here’s another example of… you can’t just…
Honey Smith Walls 33:28
Use a shotgun blast…
Dr. Uwe Blesching 33:31
Or throw THC and Rick Simpson oil at all cancer… right? It may work for somebody but doesn’t work for all. Here’s the good thing… if you’re trying Rick Simpson oil, you will quickly know if it gets worse or if it gets better. The symptoms gonna get worse or they’re gonna get better within a two or three times per week time. Okay. Okay. So that is one observation.
Yeah. Now, the other thing is, if it turns out that you’re getting worse using high concentrate, dropping down to less than 20 milligrams a day produces mostly positive effects, maybe not enough to kill the cancer itself, but to kill the adverse effects of chemo therapies that you’re having. Right?
So here again, it’s a complex plant, and it’s not a silver bullet. It’s not gonna work for everybody’s body in the same way. And so we have to be mindful and we have to be cautious and we have to take the complexity into account. And we have to play devil’s advocate when you when you ask Dr. Google or somebody who promotes Rick Simpson oil as a silver bullet…or throw high concentrate… no… because it can make it worse.
So please be mindful of that. And if you want to use it to not just mitigate the adverse effects from cancers or from cancer type treatments, but if you want to use it to mitigate cancers itself, it really helps to have an oncologist that is well versed in utilizing cannabinoids, either alone or in conjunction with chemotherapies because there are a number of preclinical trials that also have demonstrated that the use of cannabinoids can amplify the good positive that therapeutic effects of pharmaceutical anti cancer drugs… so that you can actually utilize them at a less concentrated version to get the same therapeutic effects all the while mitigating the adverse effects potential. So where do you find somebody like that? That is the trick.
You have to ask around and you have to look for organizations that have cannabis experienced medical professionals and coaches, right…. Get in touch with folks like that. And then utilize whatever signs we have available and whatever experience of these professionals we can… then utilize to optimize patient outcomes.
Honey Smith Walls 36:40
Yes, we have wonderful science over the past 20 30 40 years, especially out of Israel, but we’re still so new at cannabis science and there is so few… so little human testing happening…
Dr. Uwe Blesching 37:02
It’s changing and it’s changing faster than we think. Then what many times we tend to believe, you know, when you look, for example, at PubMed, which is a repository of scientific studies… and it’s the largest in the world that’s maintained by the Department of Health in the United States. It’s a federal organization and when you look for cannabis, you get over 20,000 hits. If you trace the speed with which cannabis related studies are published, you’ll find that there are about 10 or 11 trials published on a daily basis, which with roughly about half of them with potential relevance in the clinical setting. And if you track the science as we do here at CannaKeys for example, you also know that there are a growing number of conditions for which we now have clinically relevant information that helps physicians and patients to make more informed and discerning decisions using the currently available science as a starting point to then begin this type of cannabis… we want to start with… according to the site. Then we can use… depending on on its impact on each individual patient… We can use that as a starting point to then fine tune the process of dialing in the optimal plant constituents that are going to work best for each individual person.
Honey Smith Walls 39:03
It’s such an exciting time in science with cannabis. It seems to me there’s so many new discoveries, like you said, at least almost a dozen daily coming in.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 39:16
Yeah, and the great thing about cannabis, unlike stem cells, there’s a lot of really exciting stuff, high tech stuff that comes out of stem cells technology, for example. But you know, most people don’t have access to it. You know what’s different with cannabis? Anybody with a little backyard or with a with a big pot of soil can literally grow their own medicine… make their own tincture or oil from it. And then literally…equipped with the knowledge, the more we know, the more we are able to create the therapeutic cannabis experience.
So anybody pretty much can have access… unlike some of the high tech stuff we learn about… we’d like to consider… but it’s gonna take another five or however many years to where it becomes readily available.
And so what do we do until then? And that’s one of the more exciting things about working with cannabis because you can acquire the knowledge and generate the access. Granted, there’s still states and countries where it’s dangerous too… but even that is changing. Places like Uganda, for example, tend to have very strict laws but have made significant changes. And now for example, the federal government in Germany is using highly developed greenhouses in Uganda with cannabis that they want to use to make their own federally regulated medicines. Thailand, for example, another country that yes, have very strict approach to any drug…. and now is stepping up to not just do some really good clinical trials, but also generating access and changing the laws and policies around it. And so it’s nice to see.
Honey Smith Walls 41:44
They are changing I agree with you.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 41:48
The horrible lack of access and lack of quality information is changing and and I think that anybody that’s really committed to finding the data will probably find a way to make it happen.
Honey Smith Walls 42:08
Does your company Cannakeys 360… Is it a competitor of PubMed and Jama?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 42:16
No… we consider ourselves unique in the sense that we are utilizing most of the repositories out there to partner with… to pull data and to make them available in such a way so that anybody who is new to cannabis can use Cannakeys as a way to demystify the complexity and the science… the language. Yes. It is off putting to somebody who’s got no clue on how to use it and so we try to make it as easy as possible. (Sirens from ambulance heard…) As my my former colleagues drive by.
Honey Smith Walls 43:08
Right. I see your little ears perking up and wandering. Right.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 43:13
So, yes, we only publish trials that are relevant to the cannabinoid Health Sciences including terpenes and including science or studies that have been published in what has been termed the Endocannabinoid dome. Yes an ohm. You know, with endocannabinoid dome referring to a new environment.
Yeah, that is much broader than the classical endocannabinoid health science. And it’s really exciting to newcomers who know nothing about cannabis. And here’s why… because the Endocannabinoid dome and this is like a long word yes… which describes the larger environment that responds to the endocannabinoid system.
And let me break it down for those of you who are curious. Let me break down the term endocannabinoid… the prefix endo simply means within… the middle section is in reference to our favorite plant cannabis. An ohm simply means like or similar.
So if you read it backwards, it means “like cannabis within”. So what it means is that we make our own versions of cannabis in our body which responds in very complex ways to these types of cannabis that the body makes itself and it is a crucially important system.
The endocannabinoid system is to maintain equilibrium or homeostasis or balance. And so when we are sick especially when we are chronically sick, we are out of balance some organ system or all of our organ systems are out of whack, and our capacity for resilience and our our capacity for recovery is clearly diminished.
And so one of the primary functions of the endocannabinoid system… and that’s why it works for so many different types of patients… is because it has to reestablish and maintain equilibrium and or balance and that’s true in the individual cell. It’s true in specific tissues, organs, organ systems, and the whole body. That’s why Cannabis worked so very well for so many different types of patients.
SSo the Endocannabinoid dome is the larger environment that also interacts with the endocannabinoid system, the system that creates balance that is natural to all human beings. And here’s the wonderful thing. Here’s the great thing. If you’re in a state or in a country, where they have very strict policies where access is very limited, you can actually utilize it you know, insights from research into the Endocannabinoid dome to facilitate therapeutic effects. Are you still there?
Honey Smith Walls 46:38
Yes, yes. I’m sitting here like a Cheshire cat with the biggest grin on my face. Because I love everything you’re saying. I’m, I’m sorry, but I’m, I should have said something but I’m just enthralled with you. I’m just enthralled with you.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 46:56
Yes, thank you. Here’s some interesting things I wanted to share with you. Turmeric for example…
Honey Smith Walls 47:07
Oh, God love you. I was just going to ask you if you’d seen Dr. Phillip Blair’s stuff on Beta Caryophyllene (BCP)? So tell us… Okay, okay. Talk to us about it.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 47:17
Yes. Turmeric for example… there are a lot of studies that clearly indicate that Turmeric has wonderful therapeutic effects for a great number of different types of patients.
But one of the reasons we know now that turmeric works so well again, with so many different types of people is because it binds with the endocrine… it interacts with the endocannabinoid system and more specifically, by binding with CB two which produces potent anti inflammatory affairs.
Turmeric works so well for anything having to do with inflammation and so if you have a condition that shares the underlying pathology of inflammation… Turmeric is a wonder compound and you can get anywhere in the world. You don’t have to worry about laws or policies. You can use Turmeric to stimulate the endocannabinoid system… to support anti inflammatory effects. And so that is one compound, one food-based compound anybody who has access to… that you can utilize to support and fortify the endocannabinoid system, which specifically reduces inflammation but also enhances endocannabinoid signaling, and therefore it supports an out of balance endocannabinoid system, which of course cannabis can be used to support and fortify the endocannabinoid system to reestablish equilibrium. But if you don’t have access to cannabis, you can use turmeric.
Honey Smith Walls 49:10
And you can get that in your grocery store.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 49:12
Especially when you buy nutriceuticals with highly concentrated forms… there is a form of turmeric. The same is true for beta caryophyllene.
Honey Smith Walls 49:23
Which has amazing anti inflammatory stuff.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 49:26
It’s a wonderful compound and there are a lot of different spices that contain beta caryophyllene. But the the compound that contains the highest concentration of beta caryophyllene is essential oil of Copaiba, which really depends on where you are if there is a health food store that contains an organic version of an essential oil of Copaiba oil. Copaiba is a tree from Brazil. I’m spoiled here in Berkeley. We have a lot of access to really good health foods. But any place with a Whole Foods or with a with a good herbal store where you should be able to access Copaiba oil. Copaiba oil contains huge amounts of beta caryophyllene and also binds with CB two for the same reason. It’s a very potent anti inflammatory and it supports endocannabinoid signaling and so it reduces inflammation. It supports your endocannabinoid system.
Honey Smith Walls 50:44
And it tames THC.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 50:46
No, there are lots of cannabis based remedies that are rich in beta caryophyllene that then of course contain THC but beta caryophyllene is a terpene that shares the ability to bind with CB two receptor sites, but beta caryophyllene does not contain THC… does not contain THC.
Honey Smith Walls 51:17
No, that’s not what I… Excuse me. I said it poorly… I have heard Dr. Ethan Russo state that it tames THC… calms THC down in your mind… the effects of anxiety, the anxiolytic effects of THC can be calmed by using beta caryophyllene. And where do you find beta caryophyllene? Just about everything you eat, black pepper, lemon, you know, citric stuff and just lalala but my point was that it tames THC and that’s why it’s one of my favorite terpenes because it can help settle THC effects.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 52:04
It is not something that I remember but I tend to trust Ethan.
Honey Smith Walls 52:11
Me too.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 52:15
Beta Caryophyllene tames the otherwise harsh effects of THC. Yeah, it’s a possibility.
Honey Smith Walls 52:22
You’ll find his white paper on it in PubMed.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 52:27
CBD, you can take, but not after. After the effect becomes harsh…. Once the effect of THC becomes harsh… I’d taken it afterwards… taken CBD afterwards… and it does not mitigate it. But if you use it at the same time it will mellow the otherwise harsh effects of THC. That’s another really good one. But you have to take it together.
Honey Smith Walls 52:54
I’m actually not aware of that little factoid. I thought you could take it after.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 53:01
Well, if you take it together… Yes. But after the effect it doesn’t, but it helps to mellow the effects of THC now. Beta caryophyllene is one of my favorite terpenes… you can also get it online just as a terpene. But try to find it from a really good source because they extract and the isolates not full spectrum like a Copaiba oil. And so make sure it’s either lab tested and there are no residual chemistry that you don’t want to put into your body.
Honey Smith Walls 53:47
You have to be careful about what you’re ingesting. And this whole new cannabis industry… there’s a lot of recreational attitude going on and disregard for the science of cannabis… but the smart people who are listening always protect themselves and research their medication right now.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 54:16
Especially since we’re dealing with cannabis or cannabis-based products that are not subject to stringent regulations.
Honey Smith Walls 54:25
Molds, mildews pesticides, herbicides, fungicides…
Dr. Uwe Blesching 54:28
Every single product that had been tested containing Delta eight THC has significant amounts of horrible things.
Honey Smith Walls 54:36
You don’t want contamination. I’m so glad you said that out loud. I just don’t like to advocate use of D8 to anybody unless there’s an extremely special circumstance. And that D8 product has lab tests attached to it, but you can’t find those.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 54:58
Yeah, no, I just looked at this at a very recent trial and they literally looked at nearly 100 different products, selling Delta 8 THC and all of them were contaminated.
Honey Smith Walls 55:10
And the same thing with with grinders, steel metal grinders, you know that that people use for grinding up their weed… they’re all contaminated with lousy metal that flakes off when you grind your cannabis.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 55:29
I haven’t heard that but that sounds horrible.
Honey Smith Walls 55:32
It does. I know.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 55:35
You know, we want to be careful. You know, I mean, even if it’s regular, you’re gonna use it recreationally… you want to use the cleanest whatever you put in your body… you want to keep it as as close to nature as possible.
Honey Smith Walls 55:48
That’s right. That’s right. Dr. Blesching… You’ve been such a delight. I’m sorry… what did you start to say?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 55:57
I forget.
Honey Smith Walls 56:01
I interrupted you. You’re so delightful to just hear and you speak so passionately about this plant and how it can help people… and how we need to be careful of its use, using it for ourselves and understanding the alchemy. Everybody needs to find somebody to hold their hand to do this. Absolutely.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 56:24
Honey, you know, we all should have a team… a Healing Team and cannabis is just one member… No healer, one member of that team. Yeah, yeah. And the more people the more knowledge would bring into the picture. You know, the more likely it’s going to work in the best possible way for the patient benefiting from the wisdom that comes out of the collective mix of that team.
Honey Smith Walls 56:57
It’s a very exciting industry for both patients and professionals alike. And I think we’re lucky people to be kind of right in the middle of it all in the beginning of the discovery. That’s exciting. It is. It’s just really exciting. Is there… I was watching your YouTube video… you’ve got some pretty wonderful YouTube videos out and is there a way that somebody in my audience can reach you if they have a question?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 57:35
Yeah, you know, feel free to shoot us an email. CannaKeys.com and you can look at the Cannakeys social media on Instagram.
Honey Smith Walls 57:50
Okay, great.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 57:51
Also LinkedIn and Twitter. I believe we’re just starting to build up a bit more of a presence using social media… trying to share some nuggets.
Honey Smith Walls 58:05
Yes, that’s a takes a team to do that too.
Dr. Uwe Blesching 58:09
Yes. Please feel free to reach out. And if you have a question, we might even put it in our FAQ question because sometimes it inspires an answer that we really want to share and all that sparks some conversation that we hadn’t thought about. So exactly. Love interacting, not just with you, Honey, but also with your audience in any way, shape, or form we might be able to connect.
Honey Smith Walls 58:39
Well, thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure just to sit and chat with you about about cannabis. We appreciate your outlook on it and where you are positioned right now in this industry. It’s very exciting science and brand new technology that you’re throwing together… not throwing but putting together and it’s a very creative space to be, isn’t it?
Dr. Uwe Blesching 59:06
Yeah, absolutely. And thanks for having me on. It was a pleasure.
Honey Smith Walls 59:09
My pleasure. Take care. We’ll talk to you again soon. Bye bye.
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FINI:
You’ve been listening to another cannabis truth podcast with 21st century cannabis shaman Honey Smith Walls, about the importance of using verifiably safe products.
The process of getting a diagnosis from your family doctor and taking your records to a cannabis specialist can lead you to the correct cannabinoid therapy for those issues. Otherwise, you’re just your own guinea pig looking for answers without any foundational knowledge or ability to determine the best choices or strategies.
To find a qualified cannabis expert to help you in your area, check out cannabisclinicians.org. It is a national Society of cannabis experts and you’ll see that link down below in my show notes.
Unless otherwise proven by a reputable third party lab test, please regard all street weed as contaminated. It may do grave harm to a patient with a delicate immune system who already has inflammatory issues like arthritis, IBS, fibromyalgia or worse. Thanks so much for your time today. I hope you found value and understanding through conversations you’ve listened to on this podcast. Pax Vobiscum yall. Oh, I hear the cows calling. Moooooooo.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Bling
Anchor Commercial
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Dr. Mazo Commercial
By Honey Smith Walls
Hey, my friends, I want to give you a tip about a neurologist I know and trust.
Dr. Anthony Mazo is a highly rated specialist here in Melbourne, Florida.
One of the first physicians to research and study cannabis since 2016 when it was legalized in Florida, Dr. Mazo is not quick to prescribe traditional synthetic chemicals when he knows that this gentle live plant therapy will likely give the needed relief.
I know this to be true because I had to see him for my own old lady neuropathy issues. He did not prescribe the usual synthetic stuff. He told me to go get a particular kind of cannabis instead… and use it in a specific way to find relief.
And that is what every doctor in America should have in their little black bag.
His clinic details will be in my show notes for you. Why? Because he’s a trusted cannabis expert in the field of neurology. Dr.Anthony Mazo in Melbourne, FL at the Brevard Neuro Center.
Sources
Cannaba Verum is Latin for Cannabis Truth. Sourcing factual information about cannabis hasn’t always been easy for a variety of reasons. However now because of modern innovations, it is. My sources are from leaders in cannabis science like:
Roger Adams, U.S. Organic Chemist who isolated the structure of CBD,
Raphael Mechoulam, Israeli Organic Chemist who isolated the structure of THC,
Ethan Russo, Dir R&D International Cannabis and Cannabinoids Institute
Dustin Sulak, DO – my favorite doctor at healer.com, teaching the art of Cannabis Healing to the world, and other industry greats like:
Rev. Dr. Kymron DeCesare, Ed Rosenthal, Jack Herer, Michael Backes, and Michael Pollen and so many more… plus I use classical sites like: PubMed.gov, JAMAnetwork.com, ResearchGate.com. I listen to several daily podcasts to keep up with the latest cannabis news across the nation and throughout the world like: Dr. Codi Peterson et al on The Cannigma Podcast, MJTodayDaily.com and MarijuanaMoment.net. I trust the CBDProject.org and CannabisScienceTech.com. I watch the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) at: thecannabisindustry.org and many more like: NCIA’s Cannabis Industry VOICE (CannabisRadio.com)
Over past episodes of Cannaba Verum, we’ve listened to some amazing scientists and medical professionals talk about their discoveries and patient successes as hundreds of questionable compounds rise to the public grasp. I am especially interested in the pharmacists movement becoming an integral part of this new medicinal choice.
Watch this machine roll into action through conversations with pharmacy doctors all over the nation like Dr. Leah Johnson and Dr. Codi Peterson out West and Dr. Alan Ao up North. There are so many more getting involved now… these are just a few who have come on my show to explain the situation and it’s fascinating.
You’ll find citations available on my podcast blog at cannabaverum.com
PS: Helping society get past the fear of using cannabis will be a lifelong journey for me. This industry is just opening up and most patients and doctors are seriously cannabis naive and need help understanding where to turn for trustworthy information.
If you need help opening that cannabis discussion with your family doctor, please reach out and grab the Dear Doctor Letter I wrote for this exact purpose. It will explain your decision to try cannabis and ask for their help in monitoring your labs and progress. It will also show them where they can find medical research on the subject of your diagnosis and the effects of cannabis.
You’ll find that letter at cannabaverum.com
My specialist in hormonal help: Dr. Genester Wilson-King, M.D. and Founder
Victory Rejuvenation Center – Orlando, Florida
My Neurologist and Cannabis Expert Medical Marijuana Doctor in Melbourne, FL:
Anthony Mazo, M.D.
Brevard Neuro Center
(321) 733-2711
315 E. Nasa Blvd.
Melbourne, FL 32901.
All opinions are my own and should not be mistaken as medical advice.
Here are some other helpful links as well:
(1) Microdosing – https://healer.com/cbd-cannabis-dosage-guide-project-cbd-interview-with-dr-sulak/
(2) Concentrates – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29307505/
(3) Cannabis Helps Dementia Podcast – Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia
(4) Society of Cannabis Clinicians – https://www.cannabisclinicians.org/
(5) Take the Pledge – GreenTakeover.com
(6) Handbook for Clinicians – Principles and Practice – https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393714180
(7) Dr. Angie Krause, DVM – BoulderHolisticVet.com
(8) The Cannigma Podcast = https://cannigma.com/podcast/behind-the-scenes-on-cannabis-normalization-with-jm-pedini/
(9) Curious About Cannabis Podcast = https://cacpodcast.com/
(10) The Big Book of Terps by Russ Hudson = thebigbookofterps.com
(11) Learn Sativa University = SativaUniversity.com
