We hear a lot about how smoking marijuana is bad for us and that we shouldn’t even smoke it (presumably especially if you’re a teenager and just got caught). But with so many more states making the drug legal these days, people are slowly realizing weed does a lot more than just make your eyes glossy or cause a cloudy state of mind.

Surprisingly, though we don’t hear much about them, there are a lot of benefits of doing marijuana. From easing stress to nausea and more, here are the top benefits of our friend Mary J.

1. Helps with chronic pain

   A large review from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found that marijuana, or even just products containing cannabinoids, the active ingredients, worked to alleviate chronic pain. Studies have also suggested marijuana helps pain specifically associated with arthritis.

2. Alleviates stress and depression

   Marijuana could be a good alternative if you’re anxious about a presentation coming up or feeling particularly blue. A review published in Clinical Psychology Review found the use of marijuana to bring down stress and depression levels. 

3. Helps with nausea

   The reason a lot of people smoke after a night of drinking? It can help cure that awful queasy feeling by stimulating an appetite, research shows. That’s why cancer patients sometimes get prescribed medical marijuana.

4. Helps fight addictions

   Marijuana may help people with alcohol or opioid dependencies to help fight their addictions, according to a review published in Clinical Psychology Review. (Though we recommend getting a doctor’s opinion on that one).

5. Good for gut health

   Marijuana may help with inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, British Pharmacological Society suggests.

6. Reduces PTSD symptoms

   Though research is still preliminary, it’s becoming more and more commonplace to prescribe marijuana for people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. In New Mexico, PTSD is the number one reason for people to get a license for medical marijuana.

7. Helps with epilepsy

   Some studies have shown that cannabidiol (CBD), a major compound found in marijuana, may help people with with epileptic-related seizures.

8. Slows progression of Alzheimer’s disease

   One study published in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, found that THC works to slow the formation of amyloid plaques (which kill brain cells and are associated with Alzheimer’s) by blocking the enzyme in the brain that makes them.

9. Helps with Parkinson’s disease

   One Israel study suggests that smoking marijuana can reduce pain and tremors and improves sleep for people with Parkinson’s disease. It even had the power to improve fine motor skills in patients.

10. Increases eye health

    Medical marijuana has been used to treat and prevent the eye disease glaucoma, which increases pressure in the eyeball, damaging the optic nerve and causing loss of vision.

11. May stop cancer in its tracks

    While we’re still looking for a way to cure cancer, researchers at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco found that cannabinoids may help prevent cancer from spreading.

Did you have any idea that marijuana could have so many advantages for your own health? Which one surprised you the most?