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Ushering in Natural Medicine: An Interview with Charlie Piermarini

By Victoria Cook and Brianna Connors

Devil's lettuce, weed, pot - all of these names are associated with recreational marijuana and often carry unhelpful negative stigmas associated with medical cannabis. Enter Charlie Piermarini .

Piermarini actively promotes holistic

education and healthcare utilizing

natural medicine, focusing on medical CBD (cannabidiol). He is a PA, co-founder of The Healing Joint and Integrative Medicine, and founder of Restorative CBD. He has three Masters in Physiology, Public Health, and Physician Assistant Sciences.

Piermarini remembers what he first thought of marijuana before learning about the medicinal benefits of marijuana's cousin, hemp. "I thought people were just trying to get high, " he said. "They [medical schools] don't teach us anything about the endocannabinoid system, so I researched it and started learning what I could. "

Integrative Medicine

The Western approach to medicine, Piermarini found, was limiting. It focused on solving a specific problem instead of looking at the body and its issues as interconnected and fluid. His research, coupled with mentorship from Dr. Jyotiy Patel, inspired Piermarini to expand into integrative medicine.

"She instilled in me that you have to look at the patient as a whole. For example, you can't just give diabetic people Metformin and talk about glipizide and send them on their way, " Piermarini said. Instead of just prescribing medicine for an ailment, he also talks with his patients about their lifestyle choices what they are eating, how they are exercising, and other related questions.

"We've talked about high dose, 20,000-milligram vitamin C IVs and supplements, doing micronutrient testing and testing functional pathways for deficiencies in vitamins and micronutrients, and keeping you on a good regimen, " he said. "People are searching these things out. So I kind of want to meet patients where, you know, where they needed to be met. "

Piermarini pointed out that some medications may not work on a patient because they are vitamin and nutrient deficient. Focusing on the health of their gut and that they are synthesizing their intake properly, Piermarini believes, gets to the root of many patients' health problems.

Improving Health with CBD

Cannabis and CBD provide unique opportunities for improving patients' health because they can act as stimulants to the brain.

"We have a whole system in our body that is made to just respond to plant-like molecules like cannabis, " Piermarini said. "There's a lot of healing properties behind cannabis. "

According to Piermarini, cannabis has zero overdose deaths. "There are no receptors on your brain stem that will suppress your breathing, unlike opioids, " he explained. Cannabis affects the brain and helps increase energy production. It also has shown to be a suitable replacement for opioids because it helps rewire the brain's neural pathways and doesn't pose the overdose risk.

Piermarini also offers a more controlled environment for patients to try cannabis as a natural alternative to their ailments. In integrative medicine, medications and dosages are tailored to the patient's needs and then tailored again after monitoring the first-round results. This involved process can reap better results, as all of a person's health variables are considered.

"It's more of a

collaborative authoritative one, " he said. effort than an