How to Use Medical Marijuana for Healing - a podcast by Dr. Kondrot Americas Favorite Eye Doctor

Cannabis and Pain

Dr. Dotson: “I had a private practice of my own and did Lasik and cataract surgery for years in east Tennessee. A couple of years ago, that proved to be financially unsustainable. More practitioners in all fields are being forced out of practice by the changes in reimbursement and the oppressive regulatory atmosphere we’re in.



“I relocated to the northwest. A friend and I traveled to India, and much to my amazement, cannabis grows wild there. Its 10 feet tall in the ditches for miles. My friend who was with me had bad shoulders and chronic pain and said, ‘I’m going to try eating some of these leaves and see what that does for my pain.’



“We stopped, and she did indeed try some. Immediately, her pain went away. That was the first time she’d been pain free in a decade. She didn’t want to take any opiates, for obvious reasons. When we returned to the northwest, we began to explore and look into cannabis. It was a real light bulb to me.”

Using Marijuana for Medical Purposes

Dr. Dotson says that they encourage using a vaporizer for medical marijuana because it’s healthier, but often people are simply using it in an edible form, whether it’s butter or oil. Tincture drops can be made. There are all manners of ways to ingest it.



It’s really not about getting high. It’s about the medicinal properties of the plant. You have to realize, which I didn’t know, that cannabis has been a medicine for humankind for the past 7,000 years that we know of. It may be 8,000 years. It has a long history of use as both a medicine and, years ago, for spiritual applications. Even the Bible cites anointing oils. It appears, on examination of the original language that this is talking about cannabis.



It’s really a remarkable plant. It’s a natural thing. For the believers among the listeners, God put that here just like he put us here. It’s not a dangerous drug, unlike what you’ve been told since you were a kid.

What is Medical Marijuana Good for?

Dr. Dotson shares with us that the number-one thing patients use medical marijuana for is pain. He shares that he also sees a lot of Wounded Warriors suffering from PTSD.



Following that would be cancer-related issues. Many people who go through conventional chemotherapy or radiation have terrible problems with nausea or pain, and this is a miracle for these folks. They can eat and get rid of the nausea and pain.



He also says that a lot of patients with migraines and chronic headache issues use cannabis. He’s also worked with a variety of other diseases such as multiple sclerosis, ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease. All these are immune dysfunctions, if you will. Cannabis is a great help for these.

Is Medical Marijuana Good for Glaucoma?

Listen in as Dr. Dotson shares his findings related to healing glaucoma and what information is available. He does point to various studies, including one which found that intraocular pressure drops up to 40 percent by using cannabis.

What About People Who Have Had Bad Experiences with Marijuana?

The problem is that looking back, you don’t really know what you were smoking or what was in it. The problem I see today is that a lot of the street drugs and stuff are contaminated with all sorts of unknown things, like extenders and other chemicals. Some of these drug gangs are salting the marijuana with heroin and everything else.



Marijuana does drop blood pressure but more in an orthostatic hypotension sense. If you’re lying down and stand up quickly, your blood pressure can drop briefly, but typically it comes back to your normal. That’s not the same on everybody. The other thing it does is increase heart rate and ocular blood flow.

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