May 19th, 2020
May 19th is Crohn's and colitis awareness day!
Awareness days are a good chance to learn about some of the many health ailments that our fellow Australians suffer from.
So let's explain what this disease is all about. Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, is collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). These are chronic inflammatory conditions that affect parts of the digestive tract, mainly the intestines. This can occur at any stage of life, commonly diagnosed between 15- 35 years old. There are nearly 85, 000 Australians living with this chronic and lifelong condition. There are many symptoms involved with IBD such as diarrhoea, urgency for bowel movements, chronic abdominal pain, fever, bleeding, loss of appetite, fatigue and weight loss. These commonly lead to secondary symptoms such as disrupted sleep, anxiety, and stress. Most symptoms come and go depending on if inflammation of the digestive tract is present, during these flare ups the condition is considered ‘active’ when inflammation is reduced or absent symptoms often disappear with it, this is considered in ‘remission’. Periods of remission are unpredictable and can last weeks, months or even years.
Most people living with this disease need to take ongoing medication to help control the disease, reduce inflammation and allow the intestines to heal. Due to symptoms ranging from acute - severe medication will need to be determined on a case by case basis with specialists. Unfortunately due to this being a lifetime of medicating there are occasions where patients build a tolerance or resistance to the medication and surgery may be required. This is where alternative medication begins entering the picture.
The results speak for themselves!
The University of Sydney has conducted a large survey of people suffering from IBD, they found that most people were self medicating with medicinal cannabis in the form of CBD oil.
90% of participants reported improvements in symptoms and symptom management and a reduction in the use of the prescription medications. Symptoms of chronic pain, stress, sleep, cramping and anxiety all reduced. This does not treat the condition and some of the other symptoms will still be present, diarrhoea and/or bleeding, however it does make some of the symptoms much more manageable giving back a better quality of life.
Results from the survey reveal reduced patient adherence to prescription medication guidelines and that they were also less likely to need to engage specialist care during flare ups.
Cannabiz Australia never recommends changing your medication without consulting with your prescribing doctor first. It’s also important to understand that all types of medication come with side effects and these all need to be considered before changing medication.
These results are reported from patients self medicating further studies are now being conducted by leaders in the medicinal cannabis industry and IBD specialists.
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