MÜV Mondays with DocMJ Part 4: How in the World Do You Find the Right Product?
How in the world do you find the right product?
The Office of Medical Marijuana Use currently allows for Inhalation, Sublingual, Oral, Rectal and Topical use of THC and/or low-THC (CBD) products. These consumption routes can be approved by your physician and easily accessed via the Medical Marijuana Use Registry website. Identifying the routes you have been approved for is a great way to begin exploring products available on the medical cannabis market.
Getting started with medical cannabis can be overwhelming. There is a variety of products available – significantly more than just your standard dry herb.
We followed the MÜV team through their grow and extractions process to see the life cycle of the plant. As part of our joint series, we will take a closer look at the products MÜV creates with their premium flower and extracts. The MÜV Metered Dose Inhaler and Cannabis Tincture are two products that are ideal for newcomers to the world of medical cannabis.
MÜV Metered Dose Inhaler
One of the first delivery systems to come from the MÜV Products line is the Metered Dose Inhaler (MDI). Inhalers are a familiar medical device to many, making this an ideal option for patients new to cannabis and those already using an inhaler.
The MÜV team certainly did their homework prior to creating the MDI. Studies have shown that the efficiency of inhaled medications are less effective when the measurement of medication is greater than 5 microns (a unit of measurement equal to one hundredth of a meter) – the medication tends to hit the back of the throat and not travel much farther [1]. Alternatively, particles less than 1 micron are exhaled; think of a vape pen where the vapor is exhaled as medication that has not been absorbed!
The MÜV team developed a way to optimize the particle micron size of THC and CBD in order to meet this ideal threshold, allowing for maximum delivery of cannabinoids into the bronchial tubes and airways. The MDI dispenses 2.4 mg of cannabinoids per inhalation, without the harshness typical of inhalers.
The MDI is available in THC and 1:1 (equal parts THC:CBD) formulations.
MÜV Cannabis Tincture
MÜV Cannabis Tinctures are a great product for patients starting a medical cannabis regimen. The cannabis tincture is administered using a clearly measured and graduated dose eye dropper.
The tinctures use a patent-pending technology allowing for more accurate dosing and to increase bioavailability.
“Bioavailability is a measure of how much of a compound that you’re taking gets into your bloodstream,” says Dr. Chris Witowski, Ph.D and Chief Scientific Officer at AltMed. In short, the efficiency of the product itself.
The encapsulation technology utilized by Dr. Witowski and the team behind MÜV products essentially creates a little envelope around THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids allowing them to be absorbed more efficiently when consumed orally or sublingually. This encapsulation also allows for rapid onset of effects, beginning at roughly 15 minutes and lasting for 4-8 hours depending on patient cannabinoid tolerance levels, and features an orange-ginger flavor for THC and 1:1 formulations, and peppermint for CBD.
MÜV Cannabis Tinctures are water-soluble, and are a wonderful addition to juices, smoothies, water and tea.
Dr. Brian Szabo of DocMJ says, “It is always important to know how many mgs are in each ml. Most oral tinctures, like the ones sold at MuV, use pipettes in order to transfer the cannabis oil from the bottle to a patient’s mouth. The pipette is used to draw up the liquid into a slender tube via a pressurized bulb. On this tube there are markings (0.25, 0.50. 0.75, 1.0) signifying how many ml of liquid you have measured out. Every patient should be well versed, by a dispensary such as MÜV, to know how many mgs are in each marking on the pipette. On average, MÜV’s all natural tincture oils usually have a concentration of 10 milligrams per 1 milliliter. Make sure as a patient to always ask your dispensary what is the concentration of milligrams per milliliter of your tincture oils to ensure predictable accurate dosing results time after time.”
Bear in mind that when beginning a medical cannabis regimen, the rule of thumb is start low and slow. You want to begin with a low dose of cannabis, wait 30 minutes to an hour, then gauge your symptoms and how you feel overall. If you feel that the dose was not effective, try increasing your next dose until you find what is right for you.
Join us next MÜV Monday when we explore the world of topicals – both traditional and transdermal.
A special thanks to Dr. Brian Szabo for his contributions to this weeks article.