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AIDS patients take a lot of pills. The HIV virus attacks the body’s immune system on multiple fronts, causing intense nausea and lack of appetite. What that often means is, AIDS patients rarely feel like eating, and if by some miracle they manage to choke something down, it’s more likely than not to make them feel even sicker. Commonly referred to as AIDS wasting, dramatic weight loss is a common side effect for patients with end stage AIDS, but even those less far along experience issues with their appetite, as well as the ability of the body to process nourishment.

This is where the pills come in. Since the immune system in an AIDS patient is so compromised, numerous pills – colorfully called a cocktail – are devised to keep the blood flowing properly, maintain an even keel amongst the body’s working organs, and stabilize nausea to a reasonable level.

With the use of many prescription drugs, a ‘reasonable level’ of nausea is often still uncomfortable and the idea of consuming food of any kind may still seem unappetizing. Everyone’s body is different, but many AIDS patients have found great relief in nausea, and an increase in appetite, by the medicinal use of marijuana.

Medical marijuana has a unique ability to interact with many other prescription drugs without adding a laundry list of side effects to the already growing total. Studies have been done on Marinol, a prescription drug that essentially synthesizes THC, the primary active substance in marijuana. While the drug does help, many believe it doesn’t help nearly as much as the real thing.

They posit that simply isolating one chemical does not produce the same clear-cut relief patients who have in some way inhaled pure medical marijuana have received. Research has simply shown that there is no combination of other drugs that provide the same pain relief, nausea suppression, and appetite increasing properties as cannabis. In addition, anything taken in pill form is naturally harder for the body to absorb, and the time delay can often mean the difference between eating and not eating for an entire day.

Due to the frequent application of medical marijuana to treat AIDS patients in the US, AIDS wasting has decreased. The numbers in other parts of the world, where marijuana is too costly to obtain, remain unchanged. This sort of very simple, easy to understand data, is impossible to ignore.

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Source by Niko Nikolaou