Combating PTSD + Addiction with Cannabis + PT

BY ANTONIO DEROSE

United States Army Veteran, Jerry Dunn, has been known as America’s Marathon Man ever since setting a previous world record in 1993, when he completed 104 marathons in a single year. He then went on to complete several other endurance challenges, including running 26 consecutive marathons to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the world famous Boston Marathon, planning and executing a transcontinental run across America, and finishing a total of 186 marathons in the year 2000, in a righteous attempt to complete 200. Over the many years, Dunn has often told news reporters from around the world about how running was what allowed him to overcome his increasingly demanding addiction to alcohol. He’s always been very vocal about raising awareness for the mental and physical benefits of running and staying active. He’s a man who doesn’t just stand, but runs for what he believes in. Now he’s opening up about his relationship with cannabis, and one of the things he wants to accomplish, is seeing veterans have full access to medicinal cannabis. “I’ve stepped out and I’m going to do what I’m going to do, which is try to make a difference in veterans having access to medical cannabis.”

Running may have been what saved Dunn from his life as an alcoholic, and he is now an open advocate for the medical benefits of cannabis, but neither were always a part of his life. Dunn’s service in the Army actually had a negative influence on his perception of running. “It caused me to hate running. It was punishment. It was done in fatigues and combat boots, It was done on a track in the heat. Having not been a runner ever before in my life, this wasn’t my idea of a good time.” Dunn was drafted in 1966. He served 3 years in the Army working in administration. He was discharged 3 months early due to a return to college release program. It was in those 3 years of service, Dunn tells us his life as an alcoholic began. It was “the beginning of my issues with alcohol. It started in basic training. $1 pitchers of beer and peer pressure kickstarted my subsequent 25 years of drinking. I didn’t even know what pot was during those days in the service.” It wasn’t until 1970, when Dunn was 24 years old, that he first started consuming cannabis. It was right after his issues with alcohol led to a divorce, when he “ran into some guys who had been in the military about the same time as me and they introduced me to reefer.” This was long before Dunn got into running, and even longer before he would start consuming cannabis to help him train and complete his endurance challenges. At the time, he wasn’t aware of the plant’s medical benefits, but he remembers, “The very first time I smelled a joint being lit, I flashed back immediately to a smell I remembered from my childhood. My mother had asthma. She used to burn something in her bedroom at night. I’m not sure it was a form of cannabis. This would have been the early 50’s. I’ve done a bit of research, and it’s quite likely it was hashish.” These days, Dunn knows more about the benefits of cannabis for conditions like asthma and PTSD, and he believes it can also help with addictions to substances like alcohol and opioids. He’s even recently, just over the past decade, started to add cannabis to his training routine as an endurance athlete. He says his first experience with consuming cannabis for running was “about 10 years ago. I would occasionally take a toke before a long Saturday morning training run. More recently however, it’s a bit more than occasionally, but not habitually.” Dunn even tells us on his 200 marathons in the year 2000 campaign, “I was running in the streets of San Francisco, and I smelled marijuana. It’s just a guy in front of me, somebody walking down the street just smoking a joint. But I pulled up beside him and I said, ‘Is that what I think it is?’, and he said ‘Yeah,’ and I asked him if I could have a couple of hits and he did. Then, that happened to me again in Chicago, that same year. Those are just little quirky stories that happened.” When it comes to consuming cannabis, Dunn prefers vaporizing cannabis oil versus lighting up flower. “Not so much for the results of the usage of it, but just the convenience. The fact that it’s pretty much odorless, and it’s easier to carry in a sweaty fanny pack (while he’s running) than it is to carry a joint in a ziplock bag.” Now that Dunn is sharing more about his relationship with cannabis and how he feels it can benefit the veteran community, he wants to tell “our government that medical marijuana is proven to be one of the most effective treatment modalities for mental disorders, including, but not exclusive to, PTSD.” In addition to being a United States Army Veteran, an accomplished runner, and now an advocate for cannabis, Dunn also has a Master’s Degree in Psychotherapy and he wants to see the VA make some changes to their treatment plans for vets. “The VA hospital, which was primarily designed to deal with returning vets with mental disorders and PTSD. That whole program, up there on The Hill, all they do is a typical kind of counseling and some other types of counseling. There’s no physical component involved in the treatment plan for our vets who are dealing with psychological and mental issues. Running saved me from a serious life of alcoholism, and I’m going to press hard on that. I would add that running should be required in any and all treatment plans relevant to addiction and mental disorders.

Dunn’s ideas to incorporate physical training into treatment plans for veterans is supported by science. Research shows that exercise is proven to be an effec- tive antidepressant. There was a review examining the methods for assessing depression, current treatment approaches, and evaluating the evidence that exercise is an effective treatment option for patients published in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health Journal. This review concluded; “Exercise appears to be an effective treatment for de- pression, improving depressive symptoms to a compa- rable extent as pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. Observational studies suggest that active people are less likely to be depressed, and interventional studies suggest that exercise is beneficial in reducing depres- sion. It appears that even modest levels of exercise are associated with improvements in depression, and while most studies to date have focused on aerobic exercise, several studies also have found evidence that resistance training also may be effective. While the optimal “dose” of exercise is unknown, clearly any exercise is better than no exercise. Getting patients to initiate exercise ---and sustain it – is critical.” This is only one of many examples where exercise has been recommended for use as an antidepressant. With the positive effects of exercise being comparable to using pharmaceuticals, without having the harm- ful side effects that come from synthetic drugs, Dunn says it’s “a no brainer to accept” it as an underutilized tool to help veterans struggling with mental disorders. Although most of the research suggests physical ex- ercise in general, Dunn wants to focus on running and believes it can be specifically beneficial for veter- ans. “We were forced to run to go to war. We should be forced to run to find some peace in our heads. It worked for me.” One thing is certain, our country does need to take better care of our nation’s soldiers when they return home. I strongly believe in the benefits of cannabis to help with PTSD, mental disorders, and other injuries, and I also believe in the benefits of exercise for mood stabilization and overall fitness. This makes me a big supporter for Dunn’s idea to incorporate both canna- bis and running, into VA treatment plans. You can join Jerry Dunn, America’s Marathon Man, in his efforts to change the system at his soon to be produced, all vet- eran marathon on the 4th of July in 2020. It will take place in Hot Springs, SD at the site of one of the only two 5-Star VA hospitals in the U.S.