Innovating health care from the inside out

After 25 years of performing ear-nose-throat and facial plastic surgeries, Jeff Hausfeld, MD, put down the scalpel and went back to school -- business school.

Like many doctors who practice for some time, Hausfeld found himself wondering how to "leave a larger footprint" with his career. "How do you affect more people with the time that you have?" For him, the answer was entrepreneurship.

This complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) information summary provides an overview of the use of Cannabis and its components as a treatment for people withcancer -related 

A NORTH-EAST pensioner dying from liver cancer is begging the authorities to legalise cannabis.

Days after the Government issued a damning response to campaigners, a terminally ill woman has backed growing calls to decriminalise the class-B drug.

In response to a pro-legalisation petition with more than 200,000 signatures, the government issued a statement earlier this week outlining the alleged dangers of cannabis use, saying legalisation would “send the wrong message”.

The pensioner, who does not wish to be identified, has criticised the Government’s stance, saying the opposition is hypocritical given the fact they allow pharmaceutical companies in the UK to harvest the plants.

Mettrum Begins Cannabis Extracts Production

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Aug. 31, 2015) -Mettrum Health Corp. ("Mettrum" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE:MT)(TSX VENTURE:MT.WT), a vertically integrated agri-pharmaceutical company focused on research, development, production and distribution of medical cannabis products, is pleased to announce that it has received a supplemental license from Health Canada for the production of cannabis extracts effective immediately. 

A Hawke's Bay mother wants people to know what drove her to break the law by giving her daughter cannabis oil.

Toni Matich told TV One's Sundayprogramme she had no regrets because she eased her daughter's suffering.

Ms Matich said she had "spectacular" results after supplying her 17-year-old daughter, Monique, with cannabis oil to alleviate the pain from enduring more than 1000 seizures a day.

Monique was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that begins in infancy.

Every seizure carries the risk of causing severe brain damage.

Ms Matich was told by doctors she had exhausted all treatment options and her daughter had only months to live when she began researching medicinal marijuana.

One unexpected benefit of medical marijuana legislation appears to be a decrease in painkiller overdoses, perhaps because some chronic pain patients are turning to cannabis instead of powerful opioid drugs.

In states with laws legalizing medical marijuana, new research shows there are nearly 25 percent fewer deaths from painkiller overdoses. Opioid painkiller overdoses are a growing problem nationwide. More than 16,500 Americans died of opioid drug overdoses in 2010, and the numbers continue to rise.

Although a casual relationship hasn’t been proven, there appears to be a significant association between marijuana legislation and a fall in overdose deaths.

The potential effect of cannabis on brain structure remains a subject of intense scientific scrutiny, but mixed results have emerged from two of the latest studies on the topic.

The effects that marijuana has on a user’s brain have been one of the major questions when it comes to legalizing the drug.

Study participants who’d used pot had on average, a slightly smaller amygdala and a slightly smaller right ventral striatum (another brain region, associated with the reward system). Their brains showed lower cortical thickness when they used marijuana. And several studies have found that people who smoke pot are more likely to develop schizophrenia than those who don’t use the drug.

For awhile now Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP) has had a distinction that no other state’s medical marijuana program has – it allows non-Oregon residents to become a patient or grower in the program. There are multiple states that recognize out of state medical marijuana cards, but Oregon will allow you to become a patient in Oregon (but has never recognized out of state medical marijuana cards). There are not a lot of out of state patients in the OMMP, but there are some nonetheless. Per Oregon Live:

Despite a pop culture reputation for paranoia or the munchies, millions of anxiety patients worldwide are turning to modern formulations of medical marijuana.

Cannabis’ ingredients have been proven to act on nerve cells to dampen anxiety and provide relief to sufferers — no smoke or high required. More and more patients are using sprays that sit under the tongue or medicated food. These products are often non-psychoactive, drawing in seniors, parents professionals and others turned off by a potential stone.

A PARAPLEGIC man who is calling for the right to be able to take cannabis for medicinal purposes says he is considering selling his home to move to a place where the drug is legal.

Daniel Clark, who has been paralysed from the waist down since a motorbike accident ten years ago, said that his quality of life is worsening by the day because, he claim's the ‘man-made drugs’ he is prescribed do not work.

The 28-year-old said he used to be able to go to the gym to keep fit and socialise, but he is in so much pain now that he can no longer do so. He added that last year he took an overdose of his prescription drugs because he could no longer handle the pain.

‘My quality of life is going down,’ he said. ‘My pain is getting worse and I am depressed.’