Can CBD Help A Loved One With Dementia?

An estimated 50 million people around the world have been diagnosed with some form of dementia, and every year, there are approximately 10 million new cases. There is no cure, current treatment options are limited and it’s been described as a global health crisis requiring urgent action. Despite this, like so many issues affecting our seniors, it doesn’t get a lot of airtime.

Kudos to Amy Marturana Winderl and Health Central for this extremely informative article about how advances in research are showing cannabinoid medicine to be a safe and effective treatment option in the management of behavioural and psychological symptoms associated with dementia. I was really pleased to be a part of this story.

Every 65 seconds someone in the USA is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease - and after age 65, 1 in 5 women have a chance of developing the disease. This is a topic we should all care about.

Read the full article here.

The #CoverCannabis Project: A Look Into Long-Term Care

According to a recent report from the Ontario Long Term Care Association, approximately 64% of residents living in long term care have been diagnosed with dementia and 90% have some form of cognitive impairment.

This is one of the first areas that the Government should consider covering.

Not only have we seen that cannabinoid medicines have a strong treatment success rate, they have a safer side-effect profile compared to other traditionally used medications and are multi-modal, meaning we can often treat more than one symptom at a time and reduce other meds. This is super important amongst the elderly, as polypharmacy (taking multiple medications) is the number one cause of hospitalizations due to adverse drug reactions amongst seniors.

So, not only can we improve quality of life and decrease side-effects through cannabinoid therapy, we can often reduce other medications, which has an inherent cost savings. Who else sees this as a win-win?