So you're saying... Marijuana, taken orally (via baked goods, or synthetic)... is not going to:
- Stop my persistent headaches
- Decrease my nausea (near inability to eat anything solid for 3 days)
- Extend my sleep from 3 straight hours to something better
- Help me deal with the severe aches I get after Interferon treatment weekly
Do you understand how frustrated, depressed, and irritable these symptoms can make you when you have to experience them consistently week after week?
Now don't you think that this stress would have a negative effect on a persons mental and physical (immune) health after a while?
So it would be logical that a substance which can help me cope with the majority of these effects could have a broader benefit.
Some research indicates increased liver damage. Other research indicates decreased liver damage. More research indicates a better sustained virological response when marijuana is used along side treatment. There is no research to suggest that marijuana decreases the effectiveness of HCV treatment.
The fact of the matter is that my liver is being damaged so long as I am infected with Hepatitis C. Treatment further strains the liver while fighting the virus.
It's hard enough to maintain a positive attitude through all of this when I have a history of diagnosed depression which is exacerbated by the severe effects of this treatment.
If my liver has to sustain marginal damage (not even proven) due to minimal (0.5g) Marijuana use 3 days a week --- to help me get through treatment and see that I am able to take my medication with the required 20+ grams of fat 3 TIMES DAILY ... then the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
I would love to see you handle an injection of interferon and have to throw back fatty foods when the sight and smell of food is putting you on the verge of vomiting.
Yes, my doctor is trying to fix my liver. With a treatment that is extremely difficult to stick with.
Who are you to say it won't help with symptoms? Do you have any experience or credentials you can back up that opinion with?