September 03, 2020 Picture Source: Adobe Stock
“…Cannabis is mostly eliminated by the liver and excreted into stool, Miller Hedin said. “Very little is eliminated by kidneys or dialysis.” Cannabis is lipid soluble and can stay in a patient’s system for 80 days, she said. Hedin said monitoring cannabidiol (CBD) levels – the second most prevalent of the active ingredients of cannabis – in important to prevent drug interactions. “CBD is a hot spot for your CKD patients because it is not regulated and there are so many bad products out there,” Miller Hedin said. “Our patients can truly get into trouble if they are using a bad product.”Patients also should research where the hemp used in the cannabis comes from because of the potential of earth-based additives in the plant. “You want to make sure a lab test has been done to show that they have extracted the heavy metals, the toxins, the bacteria – anything that was in the earth where the hemp was grown,” Hedin said. “You want to see a lab report that these materials have been removed…”
Use of cannabis has also been endorsed by the American Nurses Association, Hedin said. In a position statement cited by Miller Hedin, the organization said, “Marijuana and its derivatives continue to be used to alleviate disease-related symptoms and side effects. The findings of anecdotal and controlled studies regarding the efficacy for patient use are mixed. Current federal regulations impede the research necessary to evaluate and determine the therapeutic use of marijuana and related cannabinoids … The goal is to develop an evidence-based approach to its use in the treatment of disease and symptom management.”