Why Medical Cannabis Makes Sense As Part Of An Expanded MBody360

I’m feeling a strong sense of Déjà Vu and it’s big!

After I was introduced to the idea of including “MMJ” (medical marijuana or medical cannabis) as part of the MBody360 platform, I quickly realized I’d experienced the same feeling of enlightenment when I first started the company.

Years ago, I discovered the power of fruits and vegetables mainly from juice through the documentary Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead. And in the mysterious way the universe works I met the filmmaker Joe Cross, who offered me a job, and I switched from a career working on Big Data projects in telecom and the financial markets for a more meaningful career in health and wellness.

I’m one of the odd integrative health proponents who didn’t have my own personal health revelation. I fortunately have been relatively healthy as has my family.

Instead, working with Joe, I was privileged to witness the incredible healing of others who were able to stop taking prescription medications, lose weight, and reverse chronic illness after seeing a film that sparked a new way of thinking about health and wellness.

These weren’t abstract stories. These were names with faces who stopped having seizures, went from wheelchairs to running marathons, from housebound to playing at the playground with their kids.

Their stories were dramatic, transformative and heart-affirming.

I was then introduced to Functional Medicine – a “root-cause” resolution approach of treating the cause not the symptoms, using lifestyle and integrative therapies (acupuncture, massage, supplements) not pharmaceuticals — and a whole community of doctors, nutritionist and health coaches.

Most of them are extremely passionate about the power of food to heal either because they have their own incredible health stories or have witnessed it over and over again in their patients. Most of them were also facing a good deal of skepticism from their peers in healthcare. There’s not a lot of empirical data to show that food, supplements, mindfulness can reverses chronic illness, and nutrition isn’t even taught in any depth in traditional medical schools.

Flash Forward to 2018: The Power of Medical Marijuana

Everyday, now, I’m witnessing more amazing stories – parents who stopped their children’s seizures with a simple plant when no other drugs would work, people who have overcome pain without using opioids, individuals finally getting a solid night’s sleep without sleeping pills because they are not longer plagued with anxiety, and one person who is now symptom free from colitis without expensive medications.

Once again, these stories are dramatic, transformative and heart-affirming.

When we started developing MBODY360 our mission was clear – to build a client engagement and coaching platform that provided the support that client’s needed to be successful and that empowered the practitioner. We needed to deliver the practitioner’s program (not ours), strengthen the client-practitioner relationship and provide insights to the practitioner that helped them coach that one specific client to a better outcome. Along the way, we’d be collecting data about lifestyle medicine that validates outcomes and provides for better protocols.

MBody360 is now part of an even larger, more inspiring community of doctors, nurses, acupuncturists, health coaches, and former patients who are all incredibly passionate about the power of the cannabis plant to heal.

For most that passion comes from personal experience — they healed themselves or witnessed the power in the journey of a family member, friend or patient. Most face a good deal of skepticism from their peers and lack empirical data to validate efficacy and refine protocols.

We are having a blast introducing friends and clients in Integrative Health with new friends in Medical Cannabis .

They are natural friends and allies in healing. In fact, they’re really partners, more successful together. For the patient with colitis, you can’t validate the efficacy of the cannabis in alleviating symptoms without looking at what the patient is eating and whether they are meditating, receiving acupuncture or other treatments.

And for the Functional Practitioner treating chronic pain or colitis, might cannabis be one of the most important items in their toolkit?

We couldn’t be more excited about adding Medical Cannabis to our platform. Patients need information and coaching support. Practitioners need to understand what their patients are taking, how they are dosing and how they are they actually doing. And the cannabis community needs to understand the efficacy of cannabis and what protocols will create the best outcomes.

Cannabis itself is an extremely complex plant, add in lifestyle and integrative health and the complexity grows exponentially. What cannabis product, what are the percentage of cannabinoids, when was it taken, in what dose, what supplements were also taken, in what dose, what was eaten, how much mindfulness was practiced and when, what are the sleep trends, what are the movement trends…?

The questions we can ask! The questions we can answer!

Big Data is what I’m returning to, but with a health & wellness bent, as my life in technology comes full circle.

If you’re as excited about Cannabis as we are, or even just CannaCurious, let us know! We have features and resources for every level of patient and practitioner. And we’ll enter and succeed in this brave new world together.

With appreciation,

Kari

Co-founder & CEO