[Info] Why are doctors still not warning about the 'new Thalidomide'?

[Matt521]

Why are doctors still not warning about the 'new Thalidomide'? Mother tells how taking an anti-epileptic drug while pregnant devastated the heath of two of her children

Read more at the dailymail Why-doctors-warning-new-Thalidomide

I just saw this, and I was wondering what everyone here thinks about the idea of anti-epileptic drugs as opposed to other methods of treatment like cannabis oil, CBD tinctures, and acupuncture? Would you move to a state like California to treat your epilepsy with cannabis products? I'm new here, and I took dilantin but the side effects were awful, and I'm not on any allopathic medicines, and I'm really thinking about moving. So please don't get angry at me if I've posted in the wrong section, as it seems like news to me. Thanks.


Father gives his 5-year-old cannabis on reality show....to ease his severe epilepsy

Read more at the daily mail Weed-Wars-Father-Jason-gives-epileptic-son-Jayden-5-cannabis

Can Acupuncture Help Epilepsy? Read more at the healing well dot com site


Rick Simpson’s Hemp-oil Medicine
Why is the Canadian government persecuting him, why does the media ignore him, and where is the American Cancer Society when you need them?

read more at high times dot com


"Within a year, Simpson was having trouble remembering anything because he was taking 1,000 milligrams of Tegretol a day. Reading was out of the question, because by the time he got to the end of a sentence, he’d already forgotten what the sentence was about. Then, one day, he watched an episode of Dr. David Suzuki’s The Nature of Things, Canada’s longest-running documentary series. The episode was about the enormous promise of marijuana as a medicine."--by Steven Hager

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2146918/Why-doctors-warning-new-Thalidomide.html

 

[Nakamova]

Hi Matt521 --

The article is more or less accurate, except that its tone is a bit over the top. Thankfully, the vast majority of doctors are now aware of which anti-seizure meds are better or worse for the fetus. Obviously any birth defects that can result from the mother's use of Epilim are devastating.

The use of marijuana to treat epilepsy has been extensively discussed here at CWE. You may be interested in the following threads:
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/does-medical-marijuana-help-8816/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/marijuana-use-epilepsy-9278/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f20/medical-marijuana-10362/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f36/medical-marijuana-9649/
http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/supreme-court-ruling-medical-marijuana-578/

 

[epileric]

If the doctor did not mention this to the patient then action against him should be taken. I know that both the American FDA and Canadian Health Canada have put out warnings regarding the birth defects of Depakene (epilim). I know that topic has been discussed here on CWE.

Personally I don't believe in acupuncture being used for seizures. I'm a trained to perform acupressure and have not seen any way it can help epilepsy. Even while being an acupuncture patient for a few years I saw no change in my seizures.

As for cannabis, I know that its efficacy is still being researched. The main problems I see with it are that by using the "natural" plant there can be no consistency in the dosage of THC which was found to be the active ingredient. Some crops can be very strong & others weak. Also the side-effects such as fatigue, lack of co-ordination, memory loss, slowed reflexes are very much the same as most ant-epileptic drugs. As well, marijuana has been proven a long time ago to cause birth defects as well

Smoking marijuana during pregnancy may affect your baby's growth and the development of his nervous system. Studies have shown that children who were exposed to marijuana during pregnancy sometimes have problems focusing their attention and solving problems.

Children of heavy pot users may also have problems with short-term memory, concentration, and judgment. (There's no evidence so far, however, that marijuana use during pregnancy causes attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).

One study even found that young children whose mothers smoked marijuana during pregnancy had a higher risk of leukemia than those whose mothers did not.

http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-safe-to-smoke-marijuana-during-pregnancy_2490.bc

Effects of Long-Term Cannabis Use

As for other marijuana products like hash/pot oil, there is no way of insuring that how they are made is safe. I do know that pot oil is made with rubbing alcohol, something I see as harmful. Also with the oils there is nothing insuring that the dosages or consistent.

 

[acpollard2010]

not really im not gonna get into the mj part of it besides wouldn't recommend a pregnant women to try it nor aed s though i see crap all the time about topamax,lamictal all these different drugs im on they are sueing for malpractice.drs are not doing there job when it comes to what they give a patient god forbid my wife gets pregnant she dont have e so this means nothing to me besides it's ridiculous they want us to put our kids on stuff we can't even recover from half the time is my point.

 

[Abynorml]

This has been covered in other threads, but I'll just say this, Marijuana is not a simple medicine, the dosage is hard to regulate and the active compounds differ from plant to plant, in my own experience cannabis saptiva actually aggravates my condition, while cannabis indica make my brain relax, knowing the difference between the two takes experience and reliable dispenseries or dealers, and even then your kinda playing a guessing game, unless you can get the exact same strain every time, which isnt easy to do unless your growing it yourself, which requires experience and a fairly costly setup, it shouldn't be grown in your home, as it can lead to mold, and the lights can be a fire hazard. I endorse the use of it, but only by responsible well informed people. Please be careful out there folks, there are people who will take advantage of you, while its impossible to overdose on marijuana, theres plenty of ways for it to cause harm, you could get moldy product, or stuff that was grown or sprayed with chemicals.
We need the federal government to get its head out of its ass, reclassify marijuana from a class 1 substance, and have tighter regulation of the market if were going to use it as a medicine.