Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 30, 2026 3 min read Add topic to email alerts Receive an email when new articles are posted on Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on . ” data-action=subscribe> Subscribe We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Key takeaways: Cannabis use is associated with relief from pain and nausea\/vomiting among patients with GI disorders. These benefits are tempered by potential side effects, including cannabis hyperemesis syndrome. NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014 As cannabis is increasingly used to address pain, nausea and vomiting among patients with gastrointestinal disorders in the U.S., discussion of its role in practice intensifies. Two experts debated the issue at ACG Annual Scientific Meeting. David J. Levinthal, MD, PhD, FACG, speaks at the podium during ACG Annual Scientific Meeting. Photo: Octavia Feliciano. \u201cCannabis is here and it\u2019s not going anywhere \u2014 and our patients are using [cannabinoids],\u201d David J. Levinthal, MD, PhD, FACG, director of the Neurogastroenterology & Motility Center at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told attendees. \u201cThe [number] of patients using cannabis grows year on year. \u201cIt\u2019s across all age groups,\u201d he added. \u201cEven older individuals are using cannabis much more frequently than they were even 10 years ago.\u201d \u2018Friend\u2019 Levinthal, whose stance is that cannabis is a \u201cfriend\u201d to patients with GI conditions, emphasized the positive biological effects cannabis use can have on the endocannabinoid system. \u201cThere are [cannabis type 1] and [type 2] receptors on almost every target along the brain-gut axis, so it\u2019s not surprising that taking in extra doses of a cannabinoid has a broad range of effects biologically,\u201d he said. \u201c[Cannabis use] can decrease colonic tone and motility, so it is particularly helpful for someone with intestinal spasms.\u201d Cannabinoids can also decrease gastric tone and contractility while stimulating appetite, according to Levinthal. \u201cMost importantly, I want to draw everyone\u2019s attention to the idea that [cannabis] really reduces nausea and visceral pain perception, because these receptors are widely expressed in neural circuits that are important for nausea and emesis,\u201d he said. Patients have told Levinthal that cannabis has been \u201cmore effective than the other medications that [gastroenterologists] have to offer them\u201d in providing symptom relief. \u201cCannabinoids already sit in our neuromodulator toolkits,\u201d he said. Levinthal highlighted the prescription cannabinoid medication dronabinol, noting that he has seen it benefit patients who have not responded to other medications. \u201cI see a very affected patient population, but when I think about patient care for nausea symptoms or pain, for example, in functional dyspepsia, gastroparesis, overlap syndrome or even outside of other [disorders of gut-brain interaction] illnesses, these are some of the agents we have at our disposal,\u201d Levinthal said. He acknowledged the risk for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), a condition characterized by cyclic periods of vomiting and abdominal pain, associated with long-term, frequent cannabis use. However, he emphasized that CHS is treatable with standard interventions for cyclic vomiting syndrome and cessation of cannabis use. \u201cMillions and millions of people use cannabis,\u201d Levinthal said. \u201cIt\u2019s only a small percentage of people that [develop] CHS illness, so I don\u2019t think we should be scared away from using cannabis just because CHS exists. \u201cCannabis is not a panacea, but if we dismiss it outright, we lose a major tool to help patients,\u201d he told attendees. \u2018Foe\u2019 Thangam Venkatesan, MD, professor of clinical medicine at The Ohio State University, countered that cannabis is a \u201cfoe,\u201d but acknowledged that its role in the care of patients with GI disorders is \u201cnuanced.\u201d She emphasized that while cannabis\u2019s impact on the endocannabinoid system can benefit patients by easing pain and nausea, chronic daily use can have negative biological effects. \u00a0 Thangam Venkatesan, MD, speaks at the podium during ACG Annual Scientific Meeting. Photo: Octavia Feliciano. \u201cWe all produce marijuana-like substances in our body, so we\u2019re happy and healthy, but when you throw cannabis on top, it actually causes downregulation of these [cannabis type 1] receptors,\u201d Venkatesan told attendees. \u201cThey do recover after 4 weeks of abstinence, but as you can see, [studies] looking at multiple brain areas with PET scans indicate the hippocampal deregulation might persist.\u201d Venkatesan also described CHS as \u201cdebilitating,\u201d and noted its association with abdominal pain, nausea, sweating, diarrhea, photosensitivity, headache and vomiting. Given that there is an ICD-10 code for CHS as of October 2025, Venkatesan anticipates better data and documentation of CHS will be available in the near future. In addition to CHS, Venkatesan highlighted a bevy of side effects associated with cannabis use, including anxiety, psychosis, sleep disorders, delirium, cannabis withdrawal and cannabis use disorder. \u201cWhenever you\u2019re seeing a patient with a problem with cannabis, I think one of the most effective recommendations is abstinence, but it\u2019s important to at least tell them to reduce [usage],\u201d she said. Venkatesan also suggested advising patients to select low-potency products with limited THC and CBD concentrations. However, she acknowledged that patients will likely have difficulty finding these products. \u201cGrandma\u2019s cannabis had about 4% THC,\u201d she said. \u201cBut now, even in medical dispensaries, the proportion of THC is about 25%, and the amount of CBD has gone down.\u201d The \u201cbest\u201d harm-reduction strategies for potential side effects of cannabinoid use include \u201cabstinence and avoiding early initiation, high potency THC and daily use,\u201d Venkatesan told attendees. Published by: Sources\/Disclosures Source: Levinthal DJ. Cannabis: Friend or foe? Presented at: ACG Annual Scientific Meeting; Oct 12-14; Nashville, Tenn. (hybrid meeting). Reference: Disclosures: Healio could not confirm relevant financial disclosures at time of publication. Ask a clinical question and tap into Healio AI’s knowledge base. PubMed, enrolling\/recruiting trials, guidelines Clinical Guidance, Healio CME, FDA news Healio’s exclusive daily news coverage of clinical data Learn more Add topic to email alerts Receive an email when new articles are posted on Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on . ” data-action=subscribe> Subscribe We were unable to process your request. Please try again later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drsoniafawad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Healio](\"https:\/\/www.healio.com\/~\/media\/h5\/feature\/news\/publogos\/hgld\/healio_gastro.svg?la=en&h=40&w=152&hash=2C654A538F2E250F5183D42A89FE0EC0\")
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n