Other Important Considerations

As with any medication, cannabis can help your conditions, but lifestyle accompanies with cannabis can enhance your outcomes. This information is meant to help guide you to optimize your Endocannabinoid system, your health, and wellbeing.

Stop using Nicotine

• The increase in inflammation it causes negates any possible benefit it provides to the ECS.

Sleep 6-8 Hours a day

• Bed is for sleeping or sex. Avoid any screentime
• Select a bed time and stick to it
• Create a space that’s uncluttered, dark, and quiet
• Clear your bedroom of electronics

Decrease your omega-6: omega-3 ratio

• Algae or wild coldwater fish
• Fatty acids DHA and EPA: 1000 mg of each per day
• Hemp seeds are excellent source of omega-3 and protein that can e added to salads, yogurt, and vegetables
• Extra-virgin olive oil for no to low heat avocado oil for high heat
• Eliminate vegetable, sunflower, safflower, and canola oils

Introduce more pants into your diet by increasing your fruit and vegetable consumption to 9-10 servings per day

• Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, apples with skin, and citrus are all knowns to have lower glycemic index will improve blood sugars
• Eat vegetables with every meal
• Try to buy organic vegetables
• Eat fruit as opposed to juice
• Lightly sauté and steam vegetables to maximize digestibility without destroying nutrients.
• If you eat animal protein, stay with local, pasture raised eggs and meat

Reduce natural sugars and eliminate refined sugar

• Refine sugars include table sugar, white flour, and pastas
• Stop drinking sodas- they are nothing more than liquid candy
• Natural sugars include honey, syrups, and fruit juice

Lose weight if you are overweight: a 10% decrease in body weight can correlate with as much as 50% decrease in pain levels

• Aerobic exercise 30 minutes 3-5 days a week

Supplement your meals with herbs

• Black pepper is rich in beta-caryophyllene and binds to CB2 receptors
• Ginger is known to reduce inflammation when consumed at 200-2000 milligrams per day
• Turmeric increases endocannabinoid levels in the brain and 1500-2000 mv per day can reduce inflammation. Taken with fat and black pepper will increase absorption and bioavailability.

Limit Alcohol intake

• Small amount may enhance your ECS
• Chronic and binge drinking downregulates the ECS

Reduce your stress by incorporating yoga or meditation to your daily routine and incorporate mind and body treatments

• Osteopathic manipulation therapy
• Acupuncture
• Therapeutic massage
• Biofeedback
• Cognitive behavioral therapy