Stroke / Traumatic Brain Injury Information: Stroke Recovery and Medical Marijuana

A stroke is a medical emergency. Strokes happen when blood flow to your brain stops. Within minutes, brain cells begin to die. There are two kinds of stroke. The more common kind, called ischemic stroke, is caused by a blood clot that blocks or plugs a blood vessel in the brain.

Recent years have brought a wealth of new scientific understanding regarding how medical marijuana or cannabis can be beneficial for treating Stroke / Traumatic Brain Injury.

The other kind, called hemorrhagic stroke, is caused by a blood vessel that breaks and bleeds into the brain. “Mini-strokes” or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), occur when the blood supply to the brain is briefly interrupted.

Symptoms of stroke are:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg (especially on one side of the body)
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

If you have any of these symptoms, you must get to a hospital quickly to begin treatment. Acute stroke therapies try to stop a stroke while it is happening by quickly dissolving the blood clot or by stopping the bleeding. Post-stroke rehabilitation helps individuals overcome disabilities that result from stroke damage. Drug therapy with blood thinners is the most common treatment for stroke.

Clinical Information Related to Stroke / Traumatic Brain Injury and Marijuana Cannabis

• Cannabidiol administration after hypoxia-ischemia to newborn rats reduces long-term brain injury and restores neurobehavioral function
• Cannabidiol prevents infarction via the non-CB1 cannabinoid receptor mechanism
• Repeated treatment with cannabidiol but not Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol has a neuroprotective effect without the development of tolerance
• Cannabidiol, a nonpsychoactive Cannabis constituent, protects against myocardial ischemic reperfusion injury
• Palmitoyl Serine: An Endogenous Neuroprotective Endocannabinoid-Like Entity After Traumatic Brain Injury
• Endocannabinoid Degradation Inhibition Improves Neurobehavioral Function, Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity, and Neuroinflammation following Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
• Endocannabinoids and traumatic brain injury
• Endocannabinoids and Neuroprotection