Wellness Concepts-
Spectrum
Outdated
Concepts
Most of us are locked into an outdated illness concept of human health that views us as either sick or healthy. If we are sick we go to the doctor who writes us a prescription or recommends a procedure. After which we are supposed to recover and go back to being healthy, if we are lucky.
Over the last few decades it has become obvious that we operate on a spectrum of wellness. That spectrum occupies the space between perfect health and acute illness and it is where most humans spend the majority of their lives. The best ways to preserve health and wellness are safe and non-invasive. We have learned that diet, exercise, acupuncture, chiropractic, meditation, and other holistic healing techniques are effective alternatives to pills and operations.
The diagram below is a visual sample of what that spectrum of wellness might look like…
Self - Care
An individuals health can fluctuate within this spectrum on a moment to moment, week to week, month to month, season to season, year to year basis. Each unique individual is best at determining where they are at on this spectrum given their own intuitions and view of past and current health.
With this innate ability the individual is best to determine what is beneficial to adjust where their health is on this spectrum, based upon education and the tools at their disposal.
This is the principle of self-care. As defined by the Oxford Dictionary self-care is the practice of activities that are necessary to SUSTAIN life and health, normally initiated and carried out by the individual for him- or herself.
The Entourage Effect
Cannabis, through a method of self-titration, is one self-care tool an individual can use to bring change to their own current position in the spectrum of health. Natural occurring compounds called cannabinoids fit like lock and key into existing human receptors. These receptors are part of the endocannabinoid system which impacts physiological processes affecting pain modulation, memory, and appetite plus anti-inflammatory effects and other immune system responses. Cannabinoids are not the only compounds found in the plant Cannabis sativa that can have this affect; Terpenoids (Terpenes), flavonoids, and the combination of all of these together, called the “Entourage Effect”, can also have a modulating effect on an individuals position on the spectrum of health.
This is the principle of the wellness theory of cannabis use.
