Not a wonderfully organized article, just a few comments from the blog:
06-17-23: watching a couple of videos from/of Andrew Huberman today, they are looong format, they are like mini-seminars/101-courses without teaching all of the uber-technical vocabulary... he's a good teacher, speaks at a decent pace, and know's how to simplify the technical language... anyways... there is a commercial now, so i'm using this opportunity to get a post started on the subject, you know, while some knucklehead is trying to sell me something via recorded video--i won't pay for the no-Ad youtube...
... OK, he could further simplify some things, he could use more efficient terms without dumbing-down or mis-representing findings...
... i would have hoped that he spoke in more detail about the significance of cannabinoid ratios of various strains (20:1 CBD-to-THC as recommended for certain head ailments vs. higher THC ratio for many body ailments), as well as terpene profiles (olfactory stimulation/therapeutic)... i used canna recreationally in my youth, and then later in life self-medicated with it for a long season while i weened from some nasty prescribed molecules that had become more harmful than helpful, it also helped subdue hyper-vigilance—weird, right… the impairment from canna actually helped me regulate over-sensory issues, it's not just hyper-vigilance, in my case it's more of hyper-sensory in general—think ‘ADD’ difficulty in focusing on things that may require more attention, because there are so many distractions and possible threats going on around me… maybe it's some paranoid sort of thing, but sometimes i just can't turn off my sheep-dog antenna, canna-impairment helped with the over-stimulation and sensory-overload/anxiety... canna was far more effective for some of my ailments than professionally-prescribed laboratory-contrived molecules, that's all i'm saying... actually, one more thing—inhalation is a terrible delivery system, especially for folks with respiratory issues.
… part of my motivation for tapering off the canna was due to second amendment concerns, fortunately the 4473 doesn't ask if 'you never, ever, ever, ever consumed' canna, so i qualify again, but i do not qualify for a security clearance anymore because i admit to prior use, i'm not ashamed or scared to answer former drug-use questions, but the feds don't like folks that 'used' canna in the past, regardless if it was a positive therapeutic or not, and whether or not government employees prescribed worse things to me in the past, and whether or not the canna was more beneficial than the laboratory molecules were for me... hyper-alertness is different than hyper-vigilance, i think my issue is more of the hyper-alertness/hyper-sensory, then the anxiety kicks in when i get exhausted/overwhelmed from everything i'm taking in, it's malfunctioning to a certain degree... i’m wired for physical security, but was cautioned against it by a former Dr/therapist/RX-prescriber…
… bad sleep, low exercise, poor hydration, poor nutrition, any of those things make everything written above worse, pick just one of those things and you DO NOT run at an optimum, or even just a high-level, you harm yourself when those things are chronically deficient--you get exhausted more quickly and have less resistance to stress and stimuli, your body over-produces bad hormones, and cells just don’t behave as you’d hope...
… but, HEY, slowing down to smell the roses is pretty helpful too, so is meditation/prayer... it's easy to get on a bad cycle when your body, mind, or soul are malfunctioning somehow, and the more we ignore the pain, or malfunction, or deficiency, the more we get ‘stuck’, or the more ill we get... sometimes i'm pretty smart, sometimes i'm the village idiot--call me the village idiot for ignoring too many problems/malfunctions for so long and expecting them to get better on their own somehow, i think Einstein called that the definition of insanity... anyhow, feeling much better these days, despite my aging body... besides pain, most of my other problems really hinge on sleep (i think), out of all of our physiological requirements sleep has got to be my worst, and they say it gets worse with age, good grief...
… the soul could always use room for improvement as well, i’ve found that it's easy to get busy/distracted/caught-up in ‘temporary’--possibly ‘insignificant’--things, and those distractions can really draw us into ourselves, and out of the mindful presence of God, that alone is enough to screw with someone's ego/cognition/priorities/logic when you quit appreciating, and lose sight of our Creator, people can get weird in hurry when that happens… i know plenty of 'non-religious' people that appreciate God, some know God through nature/environment/creation, and it's self-evident beauty and order, i finally quit criticizing non-religious folks whose words/actions/deeds typically show that they understand more about God than many religious folks do, some of those folks could/would probably discern the words/stories/teachings/metaphors/analogies/cultural-examples found in the 'red-print' bibles, they'd probably 'get it', a bunch of those folks really aren't into the continual rituals... anyways, my Christian friends may have more to say about my opinions, i'm fine with that, they may even think i'm a bad Christian because i consumed cannabis, i'm fine with that too, i make no apologies to anyone regarding this matter... but hey, i'm not a professional religious person, i'm not a professional anything, i just wanted to comment on the subject of cannabis as a therapeutic, and to mention that—just as any therapeutic—it's most-likely not a forever solution, there are usually other physical/physiological, psychological, or meta-physical things that are probably better long-term strategies or solutions to seek-out, but sometimes folks need something to help regulate something that is malfunctioning... i'm not a professional anything, but i speak from experience, and just reporting on observed cause and affect, as well as information that i consumed/read... everyone is unique, certain genetics/personalities respond differently to various molecules, Dr. Huberman's video on cannabis related studies is pretty good, he covers some good data, findings, and variables to consider, if you use cannabis regularly/chronically you owe it to yourself to know exactly why you use it, and what your exit strategy looks like, and whether or not you are suffering/neglecting any other teleologic necessities. -- ct