Cannabis Helps Dementia

In this episode we catch up with cannabis clinician and educator Dr. Sherry Yafai.

Sherry Yafai MD is a Cannabis and Board Certified Emergency Medicine physician at Providence St. John’s Medical Center since 2009. In 2017, after adult use cannabis laws had passed in California, Dr. Yafai opened her private Cannabis Clinic, the ReLeaf Institute, where she sees patients referred by physicians for cannabis education and treatment. Dr. Yafai is a former Co-Vice President and current board member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, the previous Director of Research and Development at High Sobriety, a member of the UCLA Cannabis Initiative and speaker for UCSD Center for Medical Cannabis Research. In 2018 she was accepted as an Adjunct Associate Professor at John Wayne Cancer Institute (now Saint Johns Cancer Institute).

Dr. Yafai works to educate physicians, clinicians, and other health care providers on the most up to date clinical data and research in the field of Cannabis.

Did you know that dementia disproportionately impacts women, black, and latino people? Did you know that cannabis was made illegal because of racist policy? 

Lives are still being ruined because of prohibitionist propaganda even after cannabis started to become decriminalized, and are still to this day. Racial groups targeted by these draconian policies seem to have lots of cultural stigma remaining that prevents them from making use of plant medicine.

Despite cannabis medicine being legal in more than 2/3rds of U.S. States, in order for people living with dementia to get some relief today, we need to get cannabis de-scheduled, and open up the Schedule I of Drugs for research. We must end the Drug War.

Contact your Senators, Representatives and the President to let them know that you want to de-schedule cannabis and open up the Schedule I for research at the very least.

Do you want to tell your story of how Cannabis Helps Dementia? Leave a voice message at Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia. Drop us a note or connect with us on the socials.

Subscribe to get notifications when new episodes drop. Check out the Society of Cannabis Clinicians website  and find real medical professionals familiar with cannabis medicine in your area like,  Dr. Sherry - cuz, you remember, we’re not doctors...just family caregivers turned advocates.

And, don’t forget! Download, like and share what you learned. Cannabis Helps Dementia.

We hope you’re inspired by Dr. Sherry Yafai! THANK YOU! Dr. Sherry Yafai, MD The Releaf Institute Society of Cannabis Clinicians Original Music by Doug Goodwin “Try Something That’s New” ...and thank you Mom , my greatest teacher.

In Solidarity,

Chela & Dave

We first met Dr. Genester Wilson-King through the Society of Cannabis Clinicians where she is the co-vice president. I had recently become an advocate member of the SCC, a non-profit that works to empower and educate healthcare providers on the use of cannabis medicine.  Dr. Wilson-King was presenting on cannabis medicine, pregnancy and breastfeeding - which as you know is not our area of focus but her presentation was incredibly compelling and opened our eyes to new things. Later, we connected in person at CannMed 2019. 

Dr. Genester Wilson-King, MD is a Board-Certified Obstetrician and gynecologist with over 25 years of clinical experience providing compassionate and research-driven care to patients. After years of working as a full-service OB/GYN, she founded Victory Rejuvenation Center, a private holistic and preventive medicine practice that provides life-transforming management modalities and customized medicines to patients. 

As the Medical Director of VRC, she helps her patients age gracefully and achieve holistic wellbeing. Her expertise focuses on plant-based medicine, integrated health, nutrition, supplements, cannabis education, and hormone balance. Dr. Wilson-King primarily uses FDA approved compounded plant-based medicines and pharmaceutical grade supplements. 

Dr. Wilson-King is a clinician advocate and educator on medical cannabis. She has spent extensive time in processing facilities, labs, farms, and dispensaries across the country and in Israel. In addition to being Co-Vice President of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, she is also on the Board of the Doctors For Cannabis Regulation (DFCR), the first and only national physicians’ association dedicated to the legalization and regulation of cannabis for adults. Advancing the DFCR’s commitment to addressing the disproportionate criminalization of cannabis use among communities of color and the nation’s poor, she regularly provides expert opinions for legal cases involving cannabis.

THANK YOU!

Dr. Genester Wilson-King

We first saw Dr. Bonni Goldstein at CannMed2018 speaking on Treating Pediatric Conditions with Medical Cannabis. But she also treats seniors! Dr. Goldstien is a world renowned doctor, educator and cannabis specialist who has treated thousands of adults and children and seen their quality of life improve with cannabis medicine. 

Dr. Goldstein created Canna-Centers Wellness, a medical practice devoted to educating and approving qualifying patients for cannabis treatment. Their Educational Center offers classroom seminars and live webinars about all things cannabis. 

Dr. Goldstein’s 2020 book, “Cannabis is Medicine” explains the science of cannabis in easy to understand terms, and shares some remarkable stories of some of her patients' experiences. 

In this episode, we're connecting with cannabis educator, activist and entrepreneur, Jude Thilman

We first learned of Jude at a conference on cannabis medicine. She wrote a great article about her mother who had lived with Alzheimer's Dementia. 

In the article she referenced several studies including the 2016 Salk Institute study that showed micro-doses of THC reduces beta amyloid proteins in human neurons and a University of Bonn study of dementia in mice successfully treated with THC!

Jude is a long-time medical cannabis educator, policy leader, and entrepreneur in Mendocino, CA. In 2011 she founded Dragonfly Wellness, dispensary and holistic healing center, in Fort Bragg and has been at the forefront of the modern medical cannabis movement.

Jude is dedicated to changing the outdated narrative and resultant policy on medical cannabis and is heavily involved in California’s efforts to create a viable regulatory scheme for cannabis that includes medicinal cannabis - so far neglected by regulations.

Jude is a producer of the video series, “Cannabis is Medicine: Changing the Narrative,” host of “Cannabis News & Views,” a biweekly program on Mendocino TV, and a patient counselor who promotes cannabis as a viable, effective treatment option.

Jude comes from a lifelong commitment to social change and has been an activist on behalf of many causes. She strongly believes that healthcare is a human right and sees a return to traditional, herbal medicine as one means of achieving that right for all. Jude is also a cannabis patient herself.

Despite cannabis medicine being legal in more than 2/3rds of U.S. States, in order for people living with dementia to get some relief today, we need to get cannabis de-scheduled, and open up the Schedule I of Drugs for research.

Contact your Senators, Representatives and the President to let them know that you want to de-schedule cannabis and open up the Schedule I for research at the very least.

Do you want to tell your story of how Cannabis Helps Dementia? Leave a voice message at Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia. Drop us a note or connect with us on the socials.

Subscribe to get notifications when new episodes drop.

Fierce advocate, Harvard Medical School professor, Dr. Peter Grinspoon is a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and has been involved in cannabis research his entire life.

You might know of his father, Dr. Lester Grinspoon, who was also a Harvard Medical School physician. An Associate Professor of Psychiatry who, in 1971, wrote the revolutionary book that brought science to the modern cannabis legalization movement, “Marihuana Reconsidered.”

Dr. Peter Grinspoon is known as an authority on virtually all aspects of cannabis, including adult and medical uses, as well as political issues and social history as many of the thought leaders of the Cannabis Movement hung out in his parents living room and his older brother found some relief during his losing battle with childhood leukemia.

He’s served as an expert witness, as a consultant, and as a medical and scientific advisor. He also knows first hand how powerful cannabis can be in healing from opioid addiction, which he wrote about in his engaging memoir, “Free Refills: A Doctor Confronts His Addiction.”

https://www.petergrinspoon.com/

In this episode we’re connecting with Dr. Blake Pearson in Ontario, Canada. We learned about Dr. Pearson when he was presenting his findings on cannabis medicine in long term care at a National Canadian Medical Cannabis Conference.

In Canada, medical cannabis has been legal for about twenty years, and there are more than 350,000 registered patients. In October of 2018, cannabis became legal nationwide for anyone over 18, but the plant medicine remains highly regulated and controlled at the national and provincial levels.

And you can’t just go ask your regular doctor about it. Because of the lack of mandated training requirements for physicians on cannabis and the endocannabinoid system, they don’t know enough about cannabis medicine to talk about it. Few doctors take the time to do this extra training.

Cannabis medicine remains out of reach for many, even with a cannabis prescription, because even though they have Universal Health Coverage (and cannabis is recognized legally as medicine) it is NOT covered by Health Canada insurance. You still have to pay full retail price out of pocket.

BUT! Some doctors, like Dr. Blake Pearson, are passionately trying to change that.

Dr. Pearson is a global leader in the field of cannabinoid and functional medicine. Dr. Pearson and his team have successfully treated thousands of patients with a range of complex conditions and have extensive experience helping patients manage chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety, and dementia.

Dr. Pearson has significant expertise supporting patients living in long-term care with medical cannabis, including hundreds with living dementia! We are so happy to be connecting with Dr. Pearson today.

THANK YOU!

Dr. Blake Pearson

Dr. Babak Baban is a highly accomplished researcher and has been studying CBD and cannabinoids at the Dental College of Georgia at Augusta University for years where he is Associate Dean for Research, a professor and immunologist. One of Dr. Baban’s studies on how CBD helps reduce cytokine storms in COVID-19 made headlines last year, and that’s how we first noticed his work.

More recently, I was blown away by a revolutionary study on mice that had severe familial Alzheimer’s Disease. Two weeks of high dose CBD seemed to reset how proteins are made in those Alzheimer’s impacted mouse brains!

Dr. Baban has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, presented at dozens of national and international research conferences and has served on international study sections and editorial review boards. He is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, American Heart Association, and the International Cannabinoid Research Society among others.

Study links:

Cannabidiol Ameliorates Cognitive Function via Regulation of IL-33 and TREM2 Upregulation in a Murine Model of Alzheimer's Disease

In this episode, we’re talking with Registered Nurse, Kebra Smith-Bolden, who created CannaHealth - the first and only Connecticut cannabis business owned by an African-American. Nurse Kebra began her career 22 years ago as a CNA specializing in home care. She’s now an exceedingly skillful RN who has always had a passion for community and held the highest standard of care for her patients.  Nurse Kebra leveraged her medical knowledge and decades of professional experience to create CannaHealth. Its innovative community-based business model offers disadvantaged communities, disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs, education about how cannabis is medicinal, as well as safe and legal access through medical marijuana program evaluations.  Referred to as the “Marijuana Guru in Connecticut”  Kebra has taken the state’s Cannabis Industry by force. She’s a member of numerous industry organizations including the Connecticut Coalition to Regulate Marijuana, Connecticut NORML, Women Grow and The Minority Cannabis Business Association, whose mission is to create equal access and economic empowerment for Cannabis Businesses, their patients, and the communities most affected by the war on drugs and in 2019 Kebra was named Connecticut Activist of the Year. Kebra Smith-Bolden is an expert. Her work as a hospice and psychiatric home care nurse, specializing in patients with mental health issues is how we learned about her.  Despite cannabis medicine being legal in more than 2/3rds of U.S. States, in order for people living with dementia to get some relief today, we need to get cannabis de-scheduled, and open up the Schedule I of Drugs for research.  Contact your Senators, Representatives and the President to let them know that you want to de-schedule cannabis and open up the Schedule I for research at the very least.  Do you want to tell your story of how Cannabis Helps Dementia? Leave a voice message at Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia. Drop us a note or connect with us on the socials.   Subscribe to get notifications when new episodes drop.  Check out the Society of Cannabis Clinicians website  and find real medical professionals familiar with cannabis medicine in your area like,  Dr. Grob - cuz, you remember, we’re not doctors...just family caregivers turned advocates. And, don’t forget! Download, like and share what you learned. Cannabis Helps Dementia. We hope you’re inspired by EP14 with Kebra Smith-Bolden, RN THANK YOU! Keebra Smith-Bolden  https://www.visitcannahealth.com/ Anchor.fm  Society of Cannabis Clinicians Original Music by Doug Goodwin “Try Something That’s New” ...and thank you Mom , my greatest teacher.

In Solidarity,

Chela & Dave

We first learned about Dr. Melanie Bone’s work through an article that Abbie Rosner wrote in Forbes about MorseLife, a West Palm Beach, Florida senior health services organization doing incredible work breaking the stigma around cannabis medicine through education, research and clinical practice.

Dr. Bone is a board certified Ob Gyn with 30 years of personal experience in women’s health care. She started a medical cannabis practice in 2016, treating women, men, and children. Dr. Bone has a unique background as a cancer survivor, a mother of five children, public speaker, and a women’s health care advocate.

We talk with Dr. Bone about her work at MorseLIfe as well as her expertise in women’s health and the endocannabinoid system. Bottom line is we need more studies, more research, and the only way to unleash research is to change how cannabis is Federally scheduled.

Despite cannabis medicine being legal in more than 2/3rds of U.S. States, in order for people living with dementia to get some relief today, we need to get cannabis de-scheduled, and open up the Schedule I of Drugs for research.

Contact your Senators, Representatives and the President to let them know that you want to de-schedule cannabis and open up the Schedule I for research at the very least.

Do you want to tell your story of how Cannabis Helps Dementia? Leave a voice message at Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia. Drop us a note or connect with us on the socials.

Subscribe to get notifications when new episodes drop.

In this episode, we’re connecting with Steven and Tracy Barbieri. Steven appears to be living and thriving with CTE dementia.

We met Steven in Sacramento last year right after my mom passed, when we were lobbying the California Senate & Assembly with the Alzheimer’s Association asking our electeds to be bold and fund more research for dementia. Steven gave an inspiring speech explaining the benefits and urgency of an early diagnosis.  He was so engaging and entertaining in relating his journey. He spoke about the benefits of early diagnosis and a good diet and lots of exercise, he is “The Kick Master” after all… So after his speech, I asked him if he had ever tried cannabis medicine. He told me, “My wife won’t let me go a day without it!”

Despite CBD being legal across the country and cannabis medicine being legal in more than 2/3rds of U.S. States, in order for people living with dementia to get some relief today, we need to get cannabis de-scheduled, and open up the Schedule I of Drugs for research. We also need to break the stigma of nearly a hundred years of propaganda.

Contact your Senators, Representatives and the President to let them know that you want to de-schedule cannabis and open up the Schedule I for research at the very least.

Do you want to tell your story of how Cannabis Helps Dementia? Leave a voice message at Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia. Drop us a note or connect with us on the socials.

Subscribe to get notifications when new episodes drop.

Dr. Jeffrey Hergenrather introduced me to Kelly Sturgeon, J.D. Kelly is the Creator and Administrator of Creekside Cottage and Creekside Place Assisted Living homes in Petaluma, California and she is also the President and manager of Community Caregivers of Sonoma.

Kelly has created a high standard of care in a charming, home environment and applies 20 years of experience as an Administrator, educator and expert in the eldercare field. She provides exceptional care through meaningful activities, home-cooked meals using local, organic ingredients, and using Teepa Snow’s Positive Approach to Care. Although she has a very traditional background, she has seen how cannabis helps dementia and knows it is a valuable tool for helping people in relationship with dementia.

Despite cannabis medicine being legal in more than 2/3rds of U.S. States, in order for people living with dementia to get some relief today, we need to get cannabis de-scheduled, and open up the Schedule I of Drugs for research.

Contact your Senators, Representatives and the President to let them know that you want to de-schedule cannabis and open up the Schedule I for research at the very least.

Do you want to tell your story of how Cannabis Helps Dementia? Leave a voice message at Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia. Drop us a note or connect with us on the socials.

Subscribe to get notifications when new episodes drop.

Dr. Sherry Yafai is an Emergency Medicine Physician who has transitioned into Cannabis Based Medicine at the RELEAF Institute in Santa Monica, CA. Roughly 75% of her patients are over the age of 50 and prefer to use non-smokable Cannabis products.

We met Dr. Yafai because she is the Co-Vice President of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians. I’m on the SCC Outreach Committee, and so is Dr. Yafai. We love that

Dr. Yafai works to educate physicians, clinicians, and other health care providers on the most up to date clinical data and research in the field of Medical Cannabis.

One of the goals of this podcast is to connect people in relationship with dementia with health care professionals knowledgeable in how cannabis can help. 

 For some doctors, dementia hits closer to home than others.  

We heard Eloise Theisen speak about how cannabis helps seniors at CannMed2019 - a huge, very serious medical cannabis conference where we also met Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, the Godfather of Modern Cannabis Research. Every one who is anyone in the medical cannabis space attends this conference!

Eloise Theisen, is a board-certified Geriatric Nurse Practitioner who has cultivated a wealth of knowledge and data for using cannabis to treat a broad range of conditions and diseases, especially those that commonly affect seniors. She has helped patients use cannabis to help treat chronic and age-related illness and was one of the first healthcare practitioners to bring a clinical dosing regimen to the cannabis space. She’s treated more than 5,500 patients using cannabis. Eloise previously served on the board of the American Cannabis Nurses Association and is now the President. She helped in the development of ACNA’s first online core curriculum, providing over eight hours of educational content as well as continuing education credits for nurses. Her work has been featured in Newsweek  and the SF Chronicle, among others.

There are very few healthcare practitioners in the US with a comparable level of cannabis expertise and experience. She is available via telemedicine to consult globally, and can be a patients’ clinician if they live in California.

Links to some referenced information in this episode:

May is Mental Health Awareness month in the US, but if you have a loved one living with dementia, you are acutely aware that mental health is largely ignored every day. In this episode, we share a personal story of how the US Health System fails people living with dementia.

My mom’s old friend, “Evelyn”, has been experiencing increased anxiety and confusion since the coronavirus pandemic shut down the world. Evelyn is like many people, but she is living with an underlying mental health condition that is destroying at least two parts of her brain. Evelyn is living with Alzheimer’s Disease, but on the outside she looks “normal.” This is one of the hardest aspects of mental illnesses.

Single as long as I’ve known her, Evelyn was on track to move to Assisted Living for a while, but the pandemic accelerated that timeline. Have a listen to this episode and find out how, working with her out-of-state family, we helped get Evelyn to safety, against all odds. And how her story continues...

In this episode we reference this study:

Featuring Primrose, Engaged Living Executive Director, John Wotring and Dan O'Brien, RN

Primrose Engaged Living is a beacon of hope for how care could be delivered to those living with dementia. When I first learned about Primrose, and the leading edge work they are doing, I sent a couple emails to the Executive Director, and left a couple voicemails. It did not seem like they were very interested in talking with someone making a documentary, or podcast. Finally, we connected in real life at a Teepa Snow event in Santa Rosa, CA. The epicenter of medical cannabis, apparently.

Medical cannabis experts Dr. Hergenrather (EP3) and Dr. Grob (EP4) introduced us to Primrose. Gary and Becky Beal (EP5) were a Primrose Family. Dr. Grob introduced us to Dan at The Medical Cannabis 2.0 Symposium produced by Home Instead Senior LIving Sonoma County and Hospice Services of St. Joseph’s Hospital. And we finally met the Executive Director I had left messages for at a Teepa Snow event in Sonoma County.

Meeting face to face and showing John our research book with all the studies that show that cannabis helps dementia and sharing our family story was our common ground. John agreed to let us visit Primrose and do an interview. The first ever interview Primrose has given discussing any aspect of their medical cannabis program, that began at the behest of a savvy hospice nurse.

We talk about the Wotring family’s personal story of why Primrose was born and how their medical cannabis program was developed in 2008. Despite cannabis being legal for medical use in California since 1996, and despite cannabis being legal for adult use in California since 2018, the stigma and Schedule I status of cannabis has made John reluctant to speak out publicly about how cannabis helps dementia, until now, for fear of being a target. Primrose is a beacon.

It’s a powerful episode, especially for anyone with a loved one in Assisted Living.

Do you want to tell your story of how Cannabis Helps Dementia? Leave a voice message at Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia. Drop us a note or connect with us on the socials.

Subscribe to get notifications when new episodes drop.

On my mom’s journey through dementia, we were forced to look outside-the-box for solutions to her extremely agitated behavior and crippling anxiety.

We learned there was going to be a Medical Cannabis Symposium in Northern California called “Cannabis as Medicine, Changing the Face of Aging” produced by  Home Instead Senior Services, Sonoma County and Hospice services of St. Joseph’s Hospital. Two “traditional organizations” that are working within the U.S. allopathic medical system to amplify the message that cannabis helps dementia. Tricky business when the best medicine for many conditions near the end of life remains on the Controlled Substances Act Schedule I of Drugs, making cannabis inaccessible in any Federally funded institutions like Nursing Homes, VA Facilities, and hospitals.

The designation of “Schedule I of Drugs” refers to “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Some examples of Schedule I drugs are: heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote.”

Despite cannabis medicine being legal in more than 2/3rds of U.S. States, in order for people living with dementia to get some relief today, we need to get cannabis de-scheduled, and open up the Schedule I of Drugs for research.

Contact your Senators, Representatives and the President to let them know that you want to de-schedule cannabis and open up the Schedule I for research at the very least.

Do you want to tell your story of how Cannabis Helps Dementia? Leave a voice message at Anchor.FM/cannabishelpsdementia. Drop us a note or connect with us on the socials.

Subscribe to get notifications when new episodes drop.

I was so excited to go to our very first big-time-legit medical cannabis conference because they were going to have a panel on Cannabis and Alzheimer’s Disease! Dave was not as excited as I was cuz it was really expensive. We put it on a credit card, dressed in our cannabis-best and headed out to this very expensive medical conference that we below-the-line-film-workers had no real business attending. But I just HAD TO go!

There were literally thousands of doctors, nurses, and researchers from all over the world gathered at one of California’s most prestigious universities to talk about how cannabis heals. Incredibly powerful and validating experience for me.

The meeting space for the Cannabis and Alzheimer’s panel was huge, and it was packed. People lined the walls and every seat was taken. It was clear that people are looking for answers to what might help dementia. The panel had no doctors in practice, no clinicians. There was a well known Alzheimer’s researcher, a plant researcher and a research doctor from Canada. And their message to the thousands in attendance was grim…”well, maybe there might be some help, but we need more studies before we try it...and big pharma won’t ever do it cuz you can’t make money on plants...” was the gist.