Dr. Caplan emphasizes the shift toward personalized medicine and the need for a medical system that adapts to individual lifestyles. The episode also tackles the unique healthcare needs of the aging population, exploring the scarcity of informed providers and the potential benefits of cannabis for seniors dealing with chronic conditions like arthritis and dementia.
Dr. Caplan emphasizes the shift toward personalized medicine and the need for a medical system that adapts to individual lifestyles. The episode also tackles the unique healthcare needs of the aging population, exploring the scarcity of informed providers and the potential benefits of cannabis for seniors dealing with chronic conditions like arthritis and dementia.
The latter part of the episode delves into the significant role cannabis can play in managing symptoms of chronic illnesses, particularly in the elderly, and the historical context of its use in medicine. They discuss the need for open dialogue between patients and doctors regarding cannabis use, the transformative effects of cannabis in treating diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and the dignity it can bring to end-of-life care. Dr. Caplan also introduces his book, "The Doctor-Approved Cannabis Handbook," as a comprehensive guide for therapeutic cannabis use, product selection, and communication with healthcare professionals. Offering his insights and inviting listeners to reach out with their cannabis-related questions, Dr. Caplan's episode serves as an educational and empowering discussion on the versatile plant's role in senior health and wellness.
0:16 - Welcome to Your Highness Podcast
1:08 - Fave Pot
7:42 - Fave Not Pot
11:01 - Main Segment
32:17 - Tell Us About Your Book and Where to Find You
00:16 - Diana (Host)
Welcome to your Highness podcast. I'm your host, Diana Krach, and today I am joined by Dr Ben Kaplan. How are you doing today, Dr Caplan?
00:26 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Hi Diana, I'm great Thanks for having me. I'm going to start today.
00:29 - Diana (Host)
Same. So we're going to start this episode, as we do every episode, with our recurring segment. That acts as a bit of an icebreaker Fave pot, fave, not pot, and I love doing that with a doctor. Anyway, it's always interesting to hear what doctors have to say their fave products. Really, we've only had one doctor.
00:55 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
This will be an opposite in New York. For me, it's just narrowing it down. There's so many favorites?
01:02 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, and it could be. It doesn't have to be your fave pot of all time, it could just be what you're feeling right now. For me, my animals have been acting up a little bit more than usual. I think it's like the spring weather is starting to kind of peak, it's a little bit. It's getting warmer, the days are getting longer and the animals are fighting more than usual, itching more than usual. So that is all to say that I've been leaning very heavily on treatables, which is my favorite CBD pet line, specifically the soft chewables, because my dog is extremely picky and he doesn't eat any treats really except for these, and they have salmon oil in it, which is another thing. I'm surprised.
01:48
Maybe he thinks it's cat food because he loves to try to eat the cat's food, but anyway, it works a lot. It works a lot, it works really well. It has seven milligrams of CBD per chewable and it's just easy to pop in their food if they're refusing to. Let you give it to them the regular way. So anyway, that's treatables, and I'll put the link in the show notes for that. What is your fave pot right now, dr Kaplan?
02:19 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
So you might not know this, but as time goes on there are trends in cannabis with what people find helpful, what people find interesting. Of course there are new companies that come out with new products. Last year it was all about drinkables. There are a bunch of new companies that came on with cans of seltzer water or other kinds of drinkables. This year the trend is shifting a little bit. I've seen sprays and patches take over this year. So my fave I guess this year would be sprays.
02:51
For those of your audience who are old enough to remember, binocca sprays, the old breath mint freshener, those are back with force and now medicated in some markets. They've been in Colorado and California for quite some time, but they're reaching the East Coast this year. And the reason they're a fave is because they work differently than other forms of cannabis. They work quickly and they don't last very long. For example, if someone's waking up in the middle of the night, they could reach on their bedside for a spray, and each spray is only about a milligram or two. They're very low dose, but because you spritz into the back of your throat, you get a quick onset of the effects in about five minutes and they don't last longer than about an hour. So people can get the effects that they want to have and they're not committed through the rest of the morning. So it's not like an edible, where you might then feel the effects till noon. These are quick onset, quick off, and then you're done. Wow, so super convenient. It's kind of its own niche.
03:52 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, I have to try that. Well, I don't think they're here yet, but I love that idea, especially if it's like a breath spray. I remember those.
04:03 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
And you get fresh breath at the same time. I used to love the mints.
04:07 - Diana (Host)
I haven't seen any recently the one that I was getting ran out, or they're no longer stalking them but the mints were great.
04:14 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Yeah, that's the struggle I think a lot of people have had with the cannabis industry is that once they find something they like, it disappears, and that's partly because the stores are following the trends and trying to produce something which is organic and doesn't always grow every season, or maybe didn't grow as well this season as it did in the past.
04:31 - Diana (Host)
Or that company goes out of business.
04:32 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Oh, that's right, or it goes just flat out, yeah.
04:38 - Diana (Host)
Unfortunately, that happens quite often, but yes, that is a big struggle. Every time I'm telling someone about my transition into plant medicine who isn't there yet, they'll ask me what are you doing Exactly? They want specifics and it changes so often because it's about availability, as you know, that is not consistent in this space, unfortunately, right.
05:05 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
And I think deeper than that, diana. The population is sort of sick of the old tropes and I think we find that the medical industry is sort of broken because it treats me like every other 70-kilogram white guy, and guess what. That actually doesn't apply to all people. There are a lot of people Most people don't fit that bill and I think, as time has gone on, people are curious about what else might be real. And that's one of the advantages of plant medicine.
05:33
Natural medicine is that, because there's so much which is unknown, simply because it's been kept out of the main fray, out of the box for so many years, that now there's a solution which is doctors have to talk to patients and learn about who they are, and learn about their daily routines and the differences. And none of us have the same experience one day from another. One day is stressful, one day you sleep well or don't sleep well, one day you exercise well, and guess what those things affect the way medicine works. So you need a system that adapts to your everyday life, which is real and not all the same.
06:09 - Diana (Host)
Absolutely. I agree so much and I love what you said about it's forcing doctors well, not all the way across the board, but there is some movement in that direction, which is very exciting for someone like me, because I have been trying to shout off the rooftops for a long time and a lot of times my doctors just write it in the notes but it's never really applied to the care, and I'm excited for the day that that changes Totally totally.
06:40 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
I mean, that's exactly why I wrote the doctor approved cannabis handbook is actually. It's a book written for everybody. But I want the doctors to be like, hey, wait a minute, I didn't write that. What is really there and the point I deliver in this book is good medicine. Like, hey, let's pay attention to what people want, what people are experiencing in real time, let's adapt to what their needs are. I'm bringing that stuff through a natural medicine lens. So, yeah, no, I think it's really an important time for our culture. We came through the genetic stuff where people are like, oh, can I do a test for my DNA and see all the things I need and what's wrong and what's right, and we kind of realized that was more hokey and a fad than real medicine. But I think there is an interest in personalized medicine, where we know so much now about individuals and how they're different from the average that let's treat this as serious medicine.
07:30 - Diana (Host)
Yes, and I think it empowers the patients as well to have autonomy over their own care. But we didn't get to the Fave Knot Pot. We're getting off topic, but actually not really, because my Fave Knot Pot is a book about I'm showing you people can't see. It's a handbook of herbal tinctures and so basically, my Fave Knot Pot is making my own tinctures, which is what I am setting out to do this spring. I'm going to start with dandelion, an easy one, but I'm really excited about it and I've been doing a lot of research and I'm trying to just study as much as possible and, yeah, I'm excited about making my own tinctures. So what's your Fave Knot Pot right now?
08:21 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
I think my Fave Knot Pot is ironic. It's going to be unplugging, and I think so many of us are so tuned into our technology, and me especially. I'm constantly trying to educate the public in any way I can, and I've created now chat bots to teach people through AI, and, of course, I have my iPad and my phone. Yeah, but one of the ironies about cannabis is that when someone's taking the right dose for them, when they know what product is right for them, it feels like unplugging. You really focus in on who you are, where you are, what your needs are, how you're feeling internally, in a way that's totally unique. It's very much like yoga and meditation and everybody sort of reports that. But unplugging once in a while, especially in this culture that's so inundated with news and media and all these things kind of picking at our attention that's my favorite is just those times where I get to unplug, be where I am, be with my kids, be with my friends and not worry about the notifications of a minute.
09:22 - Diana (Host)
I love that too and I'm trying to do it more myself. And, being neurodivergent, sometimes unplugging for me requires my devices, actually most of the time because if I have too much silence I get more distracted and I'll start looking at the notifications more. But I'm like trying to really hone in on like what, how I can unplug while I'm still plugged in, if that makes any sense.
09:52 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Yeah, no, for some people that's audio books, that's podcasts. You know, listening to our voices and our conversation lets them feel like they're part of the discussion and learning from us, and I think that's super valuable, really an important blessing from the last couple of years.
10:05 - Diana (Host)
Absolutely. I love that. Ever feel like life stress gets to be too much. Welcome to Meet your Gaia, your natural wellness partner. We are the number one rated provider of Kratom, a 100% natural plant based solution used in Asia for centuries to help increase focus, energy and relaxation. Want to know more? Use the code YHPOD to get 10% off your first order today. That's meetyourgaiacom and code YHPOD for 10% off. So, switching gears a bit, you are bringing awareness to a topic that is not often discussed which we love to do here and we have gone into it on this show in the past and that topic is senior accessibility in cannabis, and you have a lot going on there. So there's a lot to unpack, but can you just start with what drove the research about this community that is so underserved in cannabis?
11:33 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Sure, sure, more than 50% of the population is over 65 now. This is the fastest growing population around. Wow, and yeah, really it's shocking. But as we all get older, there are fewer providers out there supporting this aging population, and folks who are over 65 are easily misled. I mean, this is a generation that followed what they were told paternalistic medicine, and this older population sort of grew up together. But now who's guiding them with cannabis?
12:08
The doctors who are out there at pot shops or throwing cards at people barely are educated themselves. They don't follow patients with any scientific rigor. It's sort of an embarrassing representation of what the profession of medicine really offers, and I don't begrudge my colleagues who have taken the leap into it. I don't wanna create enemies, but there really is a scientific rigor here that could be relevant that patients are hungry for, and I saw that early on and that's kind of what drove me to help serve this underserved population. They're also, you know, more importantly, the population with the most to gain. As we all get older, the ailments of aging whether it's arthritis or dementia, cancer, kind of you know really looms ahead of most of us. They stand to gain the most by understanding cannabis and finding products that they want or that work for them.
13:05 - Diana (Host)
Absolutely, and I think a little bit more to that point. There is a lack of education for what can work for them. There's a lack of accessibility, with products being, you know, accessibility, products, accessibility I'm just saying accessibility a whole bunch. But, like with the childproofing regulations, it makes the products difficult to open, it makes the availability is not there, they don't have the access to. How can I make this? Where can I start, you know? And actually we just had an instance where my husband's grandmother was scammed by some CBD like MLM. I'm not sure exactly what the company is, but you know she's paying a fortune for a subscription that she's not. She has no idea what she's, you know. She could have talked to us, obviously, but when does that happen?
14:09 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Right? No, I think that's really true. And you know I wasn't educated about cannabis myself in medical school and growing up you know I was subject to the same ridiculous stigma that we all grew up with that this was a pathway to heroin and obviously going to be a prostitute and a drug dealer. You know just by enjoying this product. And of course that isn't true. But now you know, my teachers are the 10,000 patients. I see, the seniors who I see, and I've supervised nearly 150,000 others, which is really quite remarkable. I mean, I really dedicated myself and my career to learning from real people in real experiences, real time, and I think that's a gift that I've been given, the privilege that I have that most clinicians out there don't yet have, that they haven't seen how cannabis is working for seniors. They haven't seen the problems, whether it's opening jars or feeling like they're taking too much because the doses aren't appropriate for seniors. There's a lot of individualization, the personalization that's important and still missing from the common dialogue.
15:12 - Diana (Host)
And especially because that generation specifically has been conditioned to believe that their doctors are the ones that they should believe, right, like, whatever they say, that is that's what they trust implicitly. And so when they're on a bunch of pharmaceuticals that could be creating countless side effects they might use like for my grandmother she used I gave her some salves and she wasn't impressed and I said well, you're on other medications. You know it's hard to actually pinpoint how this will help you when you're on so many other medications that are kind of masking the benefits, and so that's another issue I think that comes up. So, to that point, how can cannabis treatments offer a paradigm shift in healthcare for seniors over 65? Like, how, how do you get them to switch from that pharmaceutical?
16:15
I don't even know what you call it. I know my grandmother had a huge basket it's probably three baskets now of medications that she took on a monthly basis. I mean, how, how do you show those benefits when you know what I'm saying? I mean, I'm not anti pharmaceutical all the way. I understand people need pharmaceuticals, you know, to survive sometimes. But like, how do you have that balance between the two and still show them the benefits?
16:46 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Right, I mean that's that's. One of the strange things about me is I'm not a quacky doctor, I'm not sold a cheerleader for cannabis. I'm a family doctor and board certified, licensed, normal sort of guy. But I see the benefit of cannabis in my patients and I think that is really the the area where the rubber hits the metal hits the pedal. What's the expression?
17:05 - Diana (Host)
The rubber meets the road.
17:07 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Yeah, people who experience cannabis immediately discover the benefits personally and no matter what I say, no matter what what I tell them about the thousands of people I've seen, once someone can make that leap and try something which is appropriate for them. You know, of course there are, there are outliers, people who try products that are too strong or have too much CHC or they take too much of a dose. Those are not going to usually have a good experience. But the people who try low doses, or do so under guidance, find that their experience is revolutionary. I mean, I have thousands of people who tell me this has changed my life. Can't believe I didn't know about this. I'm angry that my doctor didn't teach me about this. I'm angry that the culture misled me to think that this was somehow an evil thing. You know, I'm not addicted. I can take it or leave it, whatever I want. It's just a benefit for me that I have full control over. And those are.
18:05
Those are amazing things in our medical culture where we're so disempowered by listening to whatever the doctor happens to say. We follow their instructions, we hope the pills they prescribe work and if they don't, we go back and get new pills or new doses. It's totally. It's totally sapped the agency that people feel over their own healthcare, and not only is cannabis more effective, but it gives that onus of control back to the patients.
18:31
That's just miraculous and I've watched that and it's just. It becomes for me a joy of working where I get to support people becoming the masters of their own fate. It feels great to me as a doctor because I know I'm doing the right thing. I read the literature, not just the stuff that says it's bad, but the stuff that says it's good too, and I get to share that and educate my patients. They get to go home and decide what they want that evening and next day maybe they have a totally different product and they get to understand what those products do, how they make them feel and they benefit from it. It's just a really wonderful circle.
19:05 - Diana (Host)
That is amazing. I mean. That really warms my heart as someone with chronic illness like I. Just I wish, I wish I could see you as a doctor, okay, so, um. So, do you have any specific examples of the positive impact of cannabis on seniors?
19:26 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Oh boy do I. So. I've overseen close to 285,000 patients and collected the data from them. That's not me necessarily personally, but I've supervised, in leadership roles in companies, a huge number of patient files and learned from them, and what I've learned is as follows Cannabis consumption leads to people taking less medicines, including opiates, including addictive medicines, as well as over-the-counter medicines.
19:59
That's, people needing less ibuprofen, less Tylenol, because they get what they want from a pain perspective, from an anxiety perspective, from a sleep perspective, out of the cannabis. I mean full stop. That's enough to make it like let's all celebrate. Let me go on. Cannabis helps to safely and effectively manage the symptoms of nearly all chronic illnesses, and guess what? Those predominantly affect people over 65.
20:24
So I've mentioned before the ailments of aging, like arthritis, like stress, like poor sleep. As we get older, our bodies start to fail us and they hurt and they feel stressful and we're depressed that we're getting older. And cannabis, if it's only working for pain, does a fantastic job there. If it's only working for stress, wow, does it make people feel better in the moment. But you know what? It also helps to feel good and sometimes people taking cannabis feel like they get a vacation from whatever thoughts are bothering them, and that I mean all together. This is one product doing so much. That's incredible for the patients consuming it. Imagine that this is illegal. It's just crazy the culture we live in and how we've come so far away from the reality of what cannabis is doing for people. You know I don't know if you know this, diana, but over the last 100 years, this is the only time in human history where cannabis was excluded from the mainstream medicine. Yes, I do know that no over 12,000 years.
21:27
This has been part of medical care Right and we're under this silly bubble.
21:32 - Diana (Host)
And so to that point, sorry to cut you off, but I'm going to ask you what I ask every doctor about this who's pro cannabis. What do you do when you go to a doctor who refuses to acknowledge how beneficial this is? Okay, for example, me, I have moved away from all of the pharmaceuticals. I mean, I was on Xanax, I was on prescription pain medicine and yet every time I go to quote, unquote mainstream doctor, you know I don't get the questions that I expect to get from them, such as how are you doing so well? What is changed? Why don't you have a ton of ulcers in your body anymore? Why aren't you in the hospital all the time? And they just write it under supplements or illicit drug use.
22:31
So what is your advice to people who are in areas where they have really no access to doctors, who are, like pro cannabis, or if they are, they're very far away. Let's just say that it's not accessible for whatever reason. Insurance location how do you manage? How do? What would you say to that patient to empower them in their next visit?
22:57 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
If only I'd written a book that was exactly for that. So the doctor approved cannabis handbook is literally. It's not just for patients to knock their doctors over the head with it. I instruct people in the book how to deal with this kind of predicaments. I think, first of all, I'm not. I'm not just self promoting. I don't want people to actually learn and feel empowered. I hope people don't mishear this. But to answer your question concretely, I think it's important for patients to ask their doctors if they're curious. Are they humble enough to realize that they don't know everything? And if patients can say look, I'm hearing that this is helping other people or I felt that this is good for me personally. Can you tell me what data drives your decisions to say that this is not good for me, or do you not know and can you refer to me? Can you refer me to someone who can advise me?
23:53 - Diana (Host)
And that's good. I like that. I like that Right.
23:57 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Doctors are supposed to be data driven, they're supposed to be patient centric, and if you feel like your doctor is not being, either call them on it and say, look, I find benefit, or I've heard someone that I know and I trust finding benefit. Can you point to studies that show you a reason for me to have pause, because you have my best interest at heart? Right, you're trying to help me. And that really kind of puts doctors, reminds doctors that we have an oath. We take an oath to serve patients for what is most ethically correct for their treatment. And sometimes that's things we don't know about or we weren't taught about, and a doctor should have enough humility to look that straight in the eye and say, look, I don't know, I'm not sure I wasn't taught about this. I'm hearing about it a lot, but here's where you can go. You know, oh, there's this clinic, CED clinic that serves people everywhere they are, nationally and internationally. All this Dr Kaplan he's wacky but he can sure help you.
24:54 - Diana (Host)
Can we FaceTime you next time? Yeah, man, I'm totally.
24:59 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
I offer my services all across the country because I've seen this this happen too often that doctors are clueless and they're dissuading people. They're saying do this. And that's not right. I know from the data I'm collecting. Cannabis, as we just talked about, is saving people from medicines. It's getting people off of other addictive medicines and you know what it's helping people in the long run. So why shouldn't we, as doctors, be recommending this?
25:22 - Diana (Host)
Absolutely, and so to that point about the research and the CED clinic. How? What did you find about cannabis therapy and illnesses like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's dementia cancer? How did that play into it?
25:42 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm.
25:44
I'm sitting in front of people who are telling me that cannabis has changed their life, and I'm hearing it from the children of older adults that have dementia and they just the end of their life was so peaceful and calm and they were lucid instead of being snowed at their deathbed.
26:01
And I think, of all things, we deserve to have a good death, and opiates, you know, is sort of the standard of making people comfortable now, and that's not right. I mean, they aren't who they used to be. You know, we feel like their personalities are sapped or they're not able to communicate properly or they're just, you know, gone from what we knew them to be. And I see, on the other hand, families that embrace cannabis and their dying adults are comfortable, they're happy, they're remembering fond moments, they're sharing new memories in their last moments, and it's so sweet and the families come back to me and I get the biggest hugs ever that they got to spend a couple last really great moments with their loved one. And imagine this is not part of the mainstream. I'm the weirdo on the outside of the box.
26:53 - Diana (Host)
That's crazy you know, that is crazy. Oh that, just that's sad. That's really terrible. Because, I've seen it happen time and again and to imagine a different scenario where it is peaceful, they have dignity, they aren't, so it's suffering so much. You know, I mean oof, it's not a one-size-fits-all thing, no, right.
27:21 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
I made chapter 16 of my book, Creating an End of Life Plan, because we all should have the maturity and the responsibility to figure out what we want for ourselves, for our loved ones, and how do we make that a reality, and I spent a lot of time researching what people have found helpful in terms of specific routines and doses, and I put that into the book. I want people to have all of the information they can to make cannabis a part of their lives, and that doesn't necessarily mean making their father high or their mother stoned at the end of their life. A lot of cannabis products you know, as I'm sure you've talked about on your program, aren't about being high. It's about embracing the endocannabinoid system that we're all born with and understanding what treatments can help get you where you want to be.
28:05 - Diana (Host)
I don't think it's about getting high at all. Most of the time I think it's just about finding your relief. I mean, that's what I had to keep repeating at my last in-person event, because people are so afraid of getting high and out of control and I had to say look, when you're suffering this much, when you're in so much pain, when you have so much anxiety, all this will do is level you out and make you feel better. It's not going to make you high when you're in that much pain or in that much distress. You know, yeah, exactly.
28:40 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
On page 88 and 89 of my book I talk about okay, this cannabinoid mildly euphoric, this cannabinoid not euphoric, this cannabinoid mildly euphoric. I want people to have the information because they're not getting it from their doctors, they're not getting it from the buddenders who are selling these products. You know, we need to have an evidence-based guide that teaches people what they understand about cannabis, what they should understand, and that's why I put I saw that deficit in the literature out there and I made that clear in this book so that everybody has the same tools. I think it's so important.
29:14 - Diana (Host)
I love that and I love your book, and we're going to talk about that more in a second. Before we do that, though, because I'm really interested in hearing what you have to say about this. So, given the unique challenges faced by seniors, what role can cannabis play in providing better therapies at a lower cost while reducing the risks associated with alternative traditional therapies? I mean, I'm really interested because that is a huge issue in the senior community, especially with insurance restrictions.
29:44 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Folks over over 65 are in a unique way on government funded insurance, medicare, medicaid serves over 65 crowd. They're the ones that stand to benefit the most and also for a culture. There's a disproportionate amount of the money that we save as a people going to seniors who are either more ill or spending more money on medicines. It's a huge problem both from an individual perspective as well as a public health perspective. Cannabis over the last 10 years has been really expensive. But some of these shops which have spent tens of millions of dollars to open, charging customers really more than they should, but trying to recoup their investments, that has settled out.
30:27
For those who don't know that, cannabis industry has struggled financially a lot in the last couple of years. Prices have come way down, so cannabis from normal regulated dispensaries is much more affordable than sometimes even over the counter medicines. But cannabis is also a unique entity of medicine because people who like or have the ability to grow can grow their own medicine. They can choose which products that work for them the best. They can tend to those plants and there's something therapeutic about caring for a plant that then serves you. There's a whole ecosystem there that's really sweet and very special and unique in terms of its medical qualities.
31:08 - Diana (Host)
Yeah, and I think especially for the senior community. I mean, that was one of my grandfather's favorite things to do and if only I could have convinced him to grow a campus. But anyway, for those who do love to grow, I mean it is very simple and it's becoming simpler over as things progress. So yeah, absolutely yeah, and I've dedicated some time.
31:36 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
I mean, I educate as much as I can online and I actually have brought in professional growers to teach whole seminars on my YouTube channel. So it's totally free, like you just sit there and listen to how oh, I don't have a big garden, how can I grow cannabis? And there's a lecture about a closet, and you just buy the right supplies and you can grow in a closet space. It doesn't take a lot of space, it doesn't take a lot of expense. It takes knowledge and I think that's the real missing piece from this culture and cannabis is how do I understand what cannabis is out there? What's right for me? How can I make it mine? How can I make it work for me?
32:11 - Diana (Host)
Absolutely. I couldn't agree more and I love that. I love that answer. Ok, so tell us more about your book before we end, and also, where can people find you?
32:22 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Sure, so I was telling you before we started. I hate self-promoting because it's not about me. I am a nerd, I'm a normal doctor Study through normal channels. I just discovered that there was a mountain of research and knowledge about cannabis that I wanted to translate to everybody. So this book the Doctor Approved Cannabis Handbook.
32:42
The full title is Reverse Disease, treat Pain and Enhance your Wellness with Medical Marijuana and CBD. The massive title is just good for people searching online, but the contents of this book is everything I saw missing from the literature out there. It's not pretty pictures, it's very simple knowledge. Half of the book is explaining how individual illnesses respond to cannabis, what the protocols are to take advantage of those Are. I have stories in almost every chapter about real people and what they found useful for them. Whether it's for cancer, for dementia, whether it's for gastro GI stuff, whether it's for headaches, body pain, depression, mental health all of that disease-specific stuff is in the book. But then I also have chapters that guide people with how to shop for this. You know, it's like going into Toys R Us now when you go to these stores.
33:34
There's so many different colors and names, and what does it all mean?
33:37 - Diana (Host)
If you're even able to look at them, because in some of them you can't even see anything in some markets Exactly.
33:45 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
Exactly so. Half of the book is guided overview of how the industry works. How does this stuff fit into mainstream medicine? How do you whack your doctor over the head with this and talk about this stuff in the same way? And then half of it is look, if you're not getting the help you want, how can you serve yourself All of the tools someone would need, even if they don't have THC accessible, if they only want to pursue CBD, how do you understand how to make that useful?
34:10
There's so many companies out there trying to sell products. How do you distill that into something that's useful for you? So I think this is the best 20 bucks that someone could spend for their health. It's sold everywhere. Books are sold, so Amazon and you can go to my website if you want me to sign the book and write something personal. My website, for people that want it, is KaplanCanabiscom. It's CAPLAN, so Kaplan, and then cannabiscom, or my homepage, benjamin Kaplancom. That's just my name. I'm here. I'm all online trying to be personal and available to people. If someone has questions they're afraid to ask their doctor, please reach out.
34:49 - Diana (Host)
I'm not high on my own supply. I'm here to help people.
34:53 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
I want everybody to have the same level of knowledge, and I'm trying to put it out there in any way I can.
34:58 - Diana (Host)
That's amazing. Thank you, thank you.
35:02 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
There's also an audiobook for people that don't read anymore. There's an audiobook. It's on Spotify now.
35:07 - Diana (Host)
There's all ways you can take this knowledge. Interest. Ok, I'm going to add that to my Spotify list because, yeah, I'm reading it, but also I'm finding it's good to have audio versions of what you're reading so that you can kind of reread it in the background. Anyway, thank you again for spending time with us today. I appreciate it.
35:29 - Dr.Caplan (Guest)
I learned so much Likewise. Yeah, no thanks. I hope we get to talk again.
35:33 - Diana (Host)
Thank you for listening. Until next time, stay high and beautiful. This episode was produced by your Highness Media. Audio editing by JR Krach. Intro music by your Mom Likes my Music. Subscribe to our sub-stack your Highness Newsletter for the latest announcements and event updates.