Welcome to Natural MD Radio, your place to hear the whole truth on health and medicine for women and children and get the tools you need to take back your health naturally starting now. I'm Dr. Aviva Ral. My introduction to GANibis began probably not too dissimilar to many people who have used it recreationally.

I was a hippie teen and smoking it was part of my then social scene.

I had a low threshold for getting high, which for me was more of an uncomfortably low experience fraught with anxiety.

So I quickly left smoking behind me.

But, hippie that I was, I was also studying to be an herbalist and midwife at the time, and the medical history of cannabis, the genus name of the herb, we more commonly know as marijuana, weed or pot, fascinated me, particularly because of its long documented use for

women's gynecologic concerns, then and still now relevant to my work in women's health.

As an herbalist for nearly 40 years now,

I've learned a great deal about this controversial medicinal plant,

but it was in my medical residency at Yale

that I really saw the light. I worked with many patients who shared

their experiences of getting relief with cannabis from pain to the extent that allowed them to reduce use of narcotics.

This was before the opioid epidemic hit in full, but I saw it brewing.

So I got permission from Yale to embark on a study into the use of cannabis for pain relief

which ultimately convinced me that it had enough scientific merit as a pain

relieving medicine to warrant inclusion in my textbook, Botanical Medicine for Women's Health.

Yes, I actually wrote the textbook on women's herbal medicine and for my patients in my practice.

So if that time of the month and period pain gets you curled up in a

ball or stretched out on your sofa binge watching Netflix, hugged up with your best friend

at the moment, your hot water bottle.

Have a listen to this podcast or read the accompanying article.

This may be an herbal medicine that you'll find fascinating also,

and perhaps one that brings you some relief when you need it.

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