Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a sight-threatening disease that causes damage to the optic nerve in the eye adding excessive pressure on the eyeball (intraocular pressure or IOP) and may lead to blindness if left unattended. The symptoms begin slowly and some people don’t notice until there is major discomfort or their vision starts becoming poor. The best thing you could do is go for regular eye checkups with an optometrist yearly and/or if you notice any unusal symptoms see a doctor immediately. If left untreated glaucoma can destroy your vision completely resulting in blindness! There’s no cure for glaucoma yet but early intervention can often stop its progress before it’s too late.

Consuming cannabis has found to reduce inocular pressure in the eyes and offers some relief. The main cannabinoid THC has been shown that when consumed by patients that have been diganosed with glaucaoma as well as patients undiagnosed lowers intraocular pressure in 60-65% of people. The average reduction in the pressure was 25% of IOP and lasts for three to four hours which is one of the drawbacks the medical community sees.  To manage the discomfort daily a person would need to smoke the equivalent of 8-10 marijuana cigarettes daily which isn’t very feasible. 

Glaucoma increases pressure in the eyeball, which can lead to vision loss. Smoking marijuana reduces pressure in the eyes. Your doctor can prescribe other medications to treat glaucoma, but these can lose their effectiveness over time.

The jury isn’t out yet and more research needs to be conducted to know for sure if cannabis is the best treatment remedy for Glaucoma.