What Is Lupus?

Hey Did You Know?

Cannabinoids play a huge role in repairing damaged tissues. Perhaps this is why it is so prized by people who have lupus. Lupus sufferers have to deal with their own bodies attacking their tissues due to an overactive immune response. Here’s what you need to know about lupus and how cannabis can help.

What is Lupus?

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease in the body. It makes your immune system unable to tell the difference between viruses, germs and bacteria and your body’s own healthy tissues. This makes your immune system create antibodies that attack and destroy healthy tissue, leading to inflammation, pain, and damage to body parts. Lupus is characterized by flare-ups of this response. Put simply, people with lupus have an overactive immune system.

Lupus is characterized into several types:

• The most common is Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) which attacks body parts.
• Discoid lupus erythematosus targets the skin and leaves rashes.
• Subacute cutaneous lupus erythematosus causes skin sores on areas exposed to the sun.
• Neonatal lupus affects newborns.
• Drug-induced lupus can be caused by certain prescription medicines.

Symptoms of lupus can include

• Pain in the whole body
• Rashes
• Swelling
• Nausea
• Depression, anxiety
• Weight loss
• Ulcers
• Swollen lymph nodes

How Does Cannabis Help With Lupus?

Cannabis increases the level of an anti-inflammatory protein called Interleukin 10 and decreases the inflammatory protein Interleukin 2. It also suppresses the immune system’s response by activating myeloid­-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs). Active MDSCs dampen the hyperactive immune system caused by lupus.

How Should I Take Cannabis For Lupus?

It’s recommended to vaporize cannabis for lupus. It acts faster than smoking and can work faster than prescription medications. Plus, you don’t have to worry about the side effects of smoking cannabis.

Smoking cannabis releases toxins similar to cigarettes which cause lung irritation. Also, smoking generates so much heat that it destroys most of the active ingredients in cannabis. Vaporization heats the air around the cannabis, which causes it to release more cannabinoids than smoking would while still delivering a quick effect.

However, vaporizing cannabis can make you feel high. As an alternative, you can get raw cannabis and juice it. To become psychoactive, cannabis has to be heated. Raw cannabis has chemicals called THC-A and CBD-A which convert into THC and CBD on heating. These precursor chemicals do not cause a high yet still have an anti-inflammatory effect.

As a general rule for lupus treatment, here’s a regime you can use:

1. Use cannabis cream for achy joints during the day ( Cannabis creams have no psychoactive effects.)
2. Vape whenever pain or other symptoms arrive.
3. Eat an edible at night to help you sleep and to relieve pain.

You should choose high-CBD products for the strongest reduction in inflammation. However, if pain is present then a product with a 1:1 ratio of THC to CBD will help control pain and inflammation at the same time.

Lupus is a disease that was very hard to treat before cannabis was legalized. If you suffer from this disease, we recommend that you investigate the benefits of using cannabis to control your flare-ups.