HCM sits down for a one on one interview with of our favourite advocates for cannabis products!
Dr. Dani Gordon’s explains why she turned to cannabis and cbd products for her patients health & wellness needs!
Dani Gordon is a double board certified medical doctor, specializing in botanical medicine, integrated medicine (evidence based natural medicine) and specifically in cannabis medicine and cbd.
Before attending medical school Dani was always interested in natural health, evidence based nutrition, and herbal medicine. Helping people feel healthier and happier has always been a top priority. Dani saw that medical school typically focused on drug therapies and down stream diseases, although critically important, she had a keen ambition to help get people healthy and teaching them how to stay healthy!
‘Expanding her medical toolkit’ quickly became Dani’s focus, and after leaving medical school, as a now practicing doctor, she addressed the issue. Hoping to help serve her patients wellness needs, mental health, and chronic illness and symptoms (chronic pain, fatigue, fybromaliga, stress etc.) the goal was to seek alternatives to her well established ‘Western medicine’ training.
Dr. Dani delved headfirst into seeking herbal remedies, and it was no surprise that this led her to look into the benefits and effects of cannabis. She was pleasantly surprised to learn of the endocannabinoid system and the amazing way in which we respond to phytocannabinoids (cannabinoids that occur naturally in the cannabis plant).
Wrapping her head around herbal medicine that “didn’t play the same rulebook” left Dani seeking mentors and eventually moved abroard to attend the Academy of Integrated Medicine in the US. Honing her skills and now practicing, treating patients with herbal medicine in collaboration with more typical of western approaches Dani took a few years to finally introduce cannabis.
Introducing cannabis based treatments came after seeing her own patients experience good results and also after suffering a bad accident and experiencing a chronic neuropathic pain in her hand. After failed surgeries, high cbd topical cannabis helped give Dani the inspiration to now use cannabis based medicines in her own practice.
Although colleagues at first treated her new perspective as a bit “whoo hooh”, Dani found more referrals started coming her way for friends and patients who hadn’t enjoyed much success from western medicine and before long she started bringing colleagues on board with her journey.
Dani refers to a problematic start in her endeavors to introduce cannabis to her practice with the lack of a training base and even basic knowledge of doctors who, at the time still did not know the difference between CBD and THC. (even since doctors were legally able to prescribe cannabis since 2001 – similarly to the scenario currently unfolding in the UK at present) Dani headed back to the states to take more courses and began partnering with her patients, all the while using her fellowship in herbal medicine to grow her understanding of the cannabis plants uses, and training others in her circle along the way.
Where Dr. Dani Gordon sees the industry going in the next decade?
Dani predicts the growth of the industry to be “astronomical” and sees CBD playing a big role in health, and an even greater role in wellness, two words we typically interchange without much differentiating. Another area of interest is her belief in a shift of ‘lifestyle’ as millenials look for alternatives to alcohol for social lubrication – avoiding the negative effects and downsides to drinking in excess.
After the decades of not even being able to grow or produce hemp, and admitting that we are ‘playing catch up’ Dani looks to the positives, pointing to the exponential rise in research studies for both medical cannabis (also containing THC) and also for CBD by itself.
When asked about her accomplishments, Dani is proud of her extremely high success rate in using cannabis medicine to bring a majority of long suffering patients of chronic pain, completely off the high dosage opioids they were previously using. No longer needing to rely on them as a last resort to manage the pain, patients could utilize cannabis without side effects that Dani explains get worse over time. Dani also highlights the trend in which areas in Canada in which cannabis is prescribed directly correlates with dramatically falling opioid rates.
Come and meet Dr. Dani Gordon!
Dani will also be speaking at our upcoming September 14-15th Hemp & CBD Expo at the NEC, Birmingham UK, and always finds time to chat to those looking for insight on medicating themselves in more holistic ways so make sure to come visit! www.hempandcbdexpo.com
Lots more to come from our new #hempandcbdmedia project we’ve been setting up lately so go follow the Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to be kept up to date on the Hemp & CBD industry!
