Dr. Phillip Blair, MD

Dr. Blair talks about the effect of cannabidiol on Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis,

We’re Talking About Crohn’s Disease and Cannabis Oil Tincture

I think a really classical example that I see is inflammatory bowel disease. So we’re talking about Crohn’s disease, we’re talking about ulcerative colitis.

Cannabidiol Reduces a Severely Inflammed Situation in the Gut  

Three weeks of cannabidiol has, I’ve seen in patients, absolutely normalize their gut function, to the point where at six weeks they have a normal endoscopy. So you’re talking about a severely inflamed situation in the gut. Dealing with tumor necrosis factor, this kind of cytokine, a number of the other cytokines that are circulating in the body, and CBD has the effect of calming that all down, and restoring the tight junctions that are involved in the intestines, and restoring balance to the gut, as well as reducing the motility – the typical hypermotility that’s giving people frequent diarrhea. So you have this wonderful balanced effect that’s going on with the inflammatory bowel disease. Highly effective.

How do I manage Crohn’s Disease with Cannabis Oil?

Typically patients who are having inflammatory bowel disease have… an autoimmune disorder has been initiated. Something has triggered that. In my perspective, I see that as a combination of factors. It’s not one thing, but these people already prone to it. So yes I would say they need to continue it but not at the same dosage level. They may be able to drop down and I typically will tell people you only need about a quarter of what you were taking for the acute problems in order to maintain and sustain the benefits that you’re receiving, and the anti-inflammatory effects, and prevent the recurrence of the autoimmune.

What is the Correct Cannabis Oil Dosage?

What would be an initial dose or the recommendation? Twice a day? And how much? For inflammatory bowel disease where I see that as a crisis point. And one of my clients is a 14-year-old girl in hospital and they’re contemplating removing her colon because she has Crohn’s disease which is in an inflammatory state and has not been responding to steroids or any of the other medications. To me, at that crisis point, I want to use maximum therapy, and I want to get that under control. A lot of people are just introduced at that point in time. I’m going to recommend 90 milligrams of CBD coming typically from the tincture because I know that that’s highly effective. Now after they’ve been on that for a while and they have got some decrease in the inflammation and they’ve had some improvement then we can drop that down, they can drop it down to 60 milligrams a day. That would be the 300? Well, all I always put things in terms of the number of milligrams of CBD and you can just calculate it from the concentration of the bottle that’s there. For a systemic disease like Crohn’s disease, probably talking about twice a day, but maybe three times a day.

Does Cannabis Oil Affect Everyone the Same Way?

See the other thing that goes on with cannabidiol is its unique. Every individual is different in terms of its effect and how you are going to respond, or where you are deficient in your own personal cannabinoids. I don’t know, and you have to find it. You have to find that by a little bit of dosing. I mean I can give you a guide some guidelines, Bruce, that this is what works in most people but I don’t know what happens in any individual.