Health Benefits of Hemp Seed Oil

“Hemp”, a derivative of the cannabis or marijuana plant has been around for thousands of years and known to man for its medicinal properties. However, it is only now that mainstream medical organisations are taking an interest in Hemp Seed Oil commercially. In many countries, including the UK, cannabis is still an illegal drug and to those who know no better “hemp” is a dirty word. However, “hemp oil” is from the flower of the plant – not the leaf part that you can smoke.

What makes this plant so special is that it is so versatile and can be used for topical applications as well as being ingested and even vaped. By a process of washing, pressing and reduction, it is even possible to produce “hemp oil” at home or buy online from most reputable health-food stores. It can be bought in varying strengths from 1% right up to as much as 30%, which relates to the percentage of pure CBD, or Cannabinoids found in the resulting hemp oil, with CBD being the active ingredient. Commercially, available hemp oil contains none of the illegal hallucinatory THCs that make you “high”.

Hemp oil is truly a ‘superfood’! It contains amino acids, fatty acids, and globule edestin. It has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and is easily digested. Listed below are just some of hemp oil’s health benefits.

1. As hemp oil contains both Omega 3 and Omega 6 as well as linolic acid it makes a wonderful, non-greasy, easily absorbed skin conditioner and is useful in the treatment of acne, eczema, psoriasis and other skin conditions.
2. It also contains ceramides which can lock in moisture and so makes it also a brilliant hair conditioner. 
3. When used as a hormone supplement, the gamma-linolic acid (GLA), also an appetite suppressant, can help reduce pain and cramp during menstruation and additionally can help you lose weight.
4. Due to the high levels of fatty acids in hemp oil that contain endocannabinoids, the oil helps to balance the immune system.
5. As a brain-booster, the fatty acids in hemp oil, when taken as a dietary supplement, help our bodies to produce myelin which acts on the central nervous system and neurons.
6. Hemp oil can help us to reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering bad cholesterol and keeping our arteries clear. It also contains an anti-clotting agent so it could also be useful in helping to prevent strokes and heart attacks.
7. Improving our immune systems using hemp oil also helps us to reduce pain from arthritis due to its anti-inflammatory properties.
8. Hemp oil is rich in Vitamin E which helps to keep us healthy and feel young by reducing the anti-oxidants in our DNA.
9. The Omega 3 and endocannabinoids in hemp oil can also produce beneficial effects for sufferers of bipolar disorder, attention deficit disorder (ADD), depression and anxiety.
10. It has also been suggested that hemp oil can ease the symptoms of many other diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, asthma, epilepsy, atherosclerosis, and psoriasis.

By far the most controversial claims to date have been that hemp oil can potentially be used to cure certain types of cancer. It has been claimed to have cured many people with all types of cancer from skin cancers, brain tumours, breast and prostate cancers.

There is still much research to be done into this but even Cancer Research UK acknowledge that they “have funded research into cannabinoids in the past and if any future cannabinoid research proposals meet” their “high research standards then there is no reason why they would not be funded” but that, as yet, their “lab research conducted into cannabinoids have not been conclusive enough to say that they can effectively treat cancer patients at the moment”.

The debate continues but, having had personal experience of the effects of using hemp oil balm on external cancer, I can categorically state that it worked and significantly reduced the spread of the cancer cells.

As a food supplement, hemp oil contains a complete source of protein and is ideal for use by vegans and vegetarians. However what you might not know is that is it also a great lubricant and when mixed with lemon oil makes a fantastic varnish for wood!

With all of its wonderful healing properties, hemp truly is one of Mother Earth’s greatest gifts to mankind. As always, make sure you inform your doctor before taking this.

Affiliate link Buy Hemp Oils Here 

The NHS When Things Go Badly Wrong - Isn’t it time you made your Will?

My 71 year old partner, Jim, lost his mother to cancer in November 2017. She was 95 years old and suffered from a rare sarcoma on her arm. Jim had been her carer for 18 years and was devastated when she passed away.

Photo by Natanael Melchor on Unsplash

Two weeks ago, after suffering from severe congestion and a terrible cough, he went to his doctor for advice. We suspected C.O.P.D. and the doctor concurred. She sent him for a chest x-ray, which was very quickly followed by a scan. The results of the scan showed two areas that the consultant said were most probably cancer.

That diagnosis was scary enough but what happened next almost took his life much faster than any of us could have predicted.

He was asked to go to hospital as a day patient for a routine biopsy on his lung and when I left him he was in good spirits. I was told he would probably be ready for home within a couple of hours. When I rang 2 hours later I was told that he was still in surgery, but thought nothing of it because the ward was busy and there were a lot of people waiting for similar procedures.

After 5 hours has passed, Jim rang me and he sounded weary! He explained to me that they were keeping him in hospital for at least five days because something had gone wrong during his operation.

I rushed over and was shocked to see him looking grey and ashen in bed with a tube coming out of his left hand side ribs and wearing an oxygen mask. He told me that he was in a lot of pain and that he felt like he had an alien inside his chest trying to break out. He had been given morphine to help alleviate the pain.

It transpired that during the procedure, after taking a series of biopsies, something went wrong and Jim ended up with a life threatening collapsed lung (tension pnuemothorax). This is caused when air enters the space between the chest wall and the lung (pleural space). He was unable to breathe and was immediately rushed into A&E where he had to be recusitated by having an emergency decompression catheter forced into his lungs through his ribcage to relieve the build-up of pressure on his lung and re-inflate it. Details of this life-saving procedure can be found here. https://goo.gl/izbKs2

The surgeon who performed the biopsy informed us that she had done 1,000's of these procedures over the years and this was the first time anything like this had happened.

When I visited him the day after, he was confused and kept insisting he was at home saying he wanted to go outside for some fresh air but they wouldn’t let him. The nurses informed me that he was “very poorly” and that they were concerned at his confusion and asked me if he was normally this way. I told them most definitely not but I thought it was a combination of the shock, lack of sleep for 72 hours and of course, the medication.

Thankfully, the following day, after accidentally removing his own tube and whilst waiting for it to be re-fitted, but definitely no longer in pain, he seemed to be improving and on my second visit, the tube had been re-inserted but it was much smaller than previously so not as invasive and Jim was feeling much better. I was grateful to note that he was back to being “Mr Grumpy” again!

It looks as if he may be able to come home later today. The fluid that was coming out of his lungs seems to have cleared up so most likely the tube can come out and assuming that his chest x-ray is showing that his lungs are clear, hopefully they’ll send him home to recover.

The moral of this story is: never assume that a routine procedure can’t go terribly wrong. 99% of the time everything goes fine but if you are unlucky enough to be in the 1%, be prepared to spend some time in hospital and make your will today just in case!

Whilst we are not happy that Jim was knocking at death’s door due to an NHS mistake, I must make it clear that he could not have had better care whilst in hospital. The doctors and nurses were amazing — nothing was too much trouble for them.

Jim’s next hurdle will come in a week’s time when we find out the results of the biopsies. Until then, I am just grateful to still have him around for a while longer!

You can also read this article on Medium

Hemp Seed OIL Balm - NHS Says No and Goes Into Meltdown - Part Two

In my recent blog, Part 1 of this series, I wrote about 95 year old Sylvia, who has a rare cancer on her arm that was being successfully treated with hemp oil balm by her 70 year old son, James. He had received a visit from the Social Services and together with one of his GPs they managed to convince James to take his mother to A&E with a suspected minor stroke. You can read Part One here). This is what happened next.....

As our local A&E in Chorley is closed overnight from 6pm due to the NHS cuts we had to take Sylvia to the Royal Preston Hospital which is a 20 mile round trip from home. There she was examined thoroughly, and after 5 hours and several tests and scans later we were informed that she was medically fit but that they wanted to admit her overnight for observation and further tests. She was admitted to the EDU ward around 11pm.

The following day James received a call informing him that she had been moved to Gynaecology. When we visited her later that day she was hooked up to an intravenous drip which turned out to be saline and were informed that she was dehydrated and anaemic and that she was to be given a blood transfusion overnight. Gynaecology Ward at the Royal Preston hospital appears to be used as an overflow ward and nothing to do with having babies! Sylvia was in a ward with five other ladies of varying ages and degrees of illness. While we were there we noticed that it stated on her records, "Safeguarding from son - dressing with hemp"!

Yes - you read that right! Safeguarding from her 70 year old son, her carer for the past seven years, who has only ever had his mother's best interests at heart and whose medical intervention had been containing the damage to her arm caused by the cancer! James was devastated and when questioned about this, the staff on duty promptly told him off for looking at the notes and his questions were met with a wall of silence!

He was informed that his mother would not be released from hospital until a suitable care package was in place at home with District Nurses calling three times a week and carers coming in every day to see to her needs like washing and dressing. When he asked how long that would take he was again met with the silent wall but given the impression that it would be weeks, not days, because they were under pressure and it was not something that could be sorted out overnight.

In the meantime, Sylvia, who is almost blind, extremely deaf and suffering from mild dementia, was left to fend for herself in a hospital bed along with a ward full of strangers, being nursed by an ever-changing supply of bank staff who knew nothing about her or her case, miles away from home and her son, who felt that he knew what was best for his mother and who wanted her home just as much as she did!

In the meantime, the hospital began to dress the arm every day with twice as much bandaging as James had ever used and at the beginning of week two, we noticed that Sylvia's hand had swollen to twice its normal size. No-one on the ward had noticed this even though it was plainly obvious to anyone who happened to compare it to her other hand. We also noticed that her ankles were swollen. The diagnosis was that this was because she was in bed most of the time and not getting any exercise, which James said she would have had if she had been at home with him! It was decided to put the arm up in a sling and to elevate it. They also provided a foot stool for her to put her feet up when sat in her chair.

At this point, we were also given the opportunity to see the wound on Sylvia's arm as we were visiting her when the dressings nurse came to change her bandages. It was a horrific sight! The wound was oozing and slimy and totally unlike it had been when James was tending to it himself. It was heartbreaking to see. It was also apparent that none of the staff on the ward had ever seen anything like it and that no-one really seemed to know what they were doing. At one point Sylvia was surrounded by six different nurses, many of them trainees and of course, James, who was trying to educate them as best he could on how best to care for the arm.

The next day when we visited she was hooked up to another IV and we were told that she the wound was infected so they were giving her intravenous antibiotics which would take at least a week to work. The arm was not elevated and the footstool was not being used. James went ballistic!

In week three, after repeatedly pointing out numerous failings of basic care for his mum, including the fact that the fingers on her swollen hand were becoming rigid due to lack of exercise and, in his opinion, tight bandaging, and pointing out that his mother was rapidly losing weight due to the fact that she couldn't feed herself properly, James gave the staff an ultimatum - either they discharge his mum by the end of the week or he was taking her home himself! Sylvia by now was constantly repeating that she hated being in hospital and wanted to die. She was obviously not getting the standard of care she would possibly have had in a Geriatric Ward where her needs would be better understood.

Something must have worked because the very next day a meeting was called between James, the District Nurse and a social worker and it was agreed that everything would be put in place for her to go home, probably within days. The very next day Sylvia contracted another infection and was back on the IV antibiotics. James called for a meeting with the senior doctor who explained that as soon as Sylvia was medically fit she could go home. The course of antibiotics would take at least another five days to work.and as soon as she could be put onto oral tablets he would be able to discharge her. When we asked why the fingers on her hand were going rigid like a claw, he explained that it was because although the tendons in the arms were still functioning, there was very little muscle left to open the fingers due to the cancer. Once again, James was convinced that if she had been at home, this would not have been the case.

At the end of week three we had still not heard anything further about the care package but we did hear from the hospital that Sylvia was being moved into the Rehabilitation Ward, a positive step in our eyes. Rehab was supposed to be a stepping stone to finally going home....wasn't it?

In Part Three I will tell you what happened next.....you can read it here .

For more info on Hemp Oil or to make a purchase follow this link http://lddy.no/3huk

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