Role Model: How Playboy Bunny, PhD Candidate Danielle Lupo Advocates For Medical Cannabis In Healthcare

Healthcare worker and model Danielle Lupo has been working in the healthcare field for almost 10 years now.

These days, the former Playboy bunny — now a Psychology PhD candidate — is a coach and mentor for children and adults of all ages. And she is a fan of cannabis and CBD.

“I definitely have a deep appreciation for the impact cannabis has made in the medical realm,” Lupo told Benzinga. “My autistic brother takes medical marijuana, and as for my tutoring/mentoring service, I definitely recommend medical cannabis and CBD oil to my stressed out and anxious peers.”

Empathy In Therapy

“I have always been a strong advocate of incorporating medical marijuana use to patients' treatment plans,” Lupo explained. “It is definitely a more natural and healthier option, versus prescription medication.”

The model has seen the effects of cannabis firsthand many times. She’s seen it help people with stress management, anxiety, high blood pressure, OCD, ASD, depression, eating disorders and insomnia.

“The diverse range of people with whom I have associated through modeling as well as in the medical field even helps me to better empathize with my patients' needs,” she added.

Lupo also likes to work with CBD, which — she says — health professionals underappreciate and often overlook.

“I definitely recommend CBD to many of my clients and patients," she says.

The CBD receptor is the most abundant receptor in the human body, yet the health industry "is fast to prescribe pharmaceuticals, based on the research of the same types of receptors used in other pathologies," she explained.

This is the type of information that Lupo hopes to encourage within the industry, she adds, citing the efficacy of CBD in treating chemotherapy-induced nausea and Dravet syndrome, among other ailments.

“I believe the biggest issue people take with marijuana is with the THC part of the molecule that gets you high,” she continued. "It should definitely not be in the Schedule 1 category of drugs at the very least. Especially considering its healing attributes acknowledged in modern medicine."

Progress Is Unavoidable

Touching on federal legalization, the model explained progress is unavoidable.

“As old-school and as conservative as the medical field is, there is more and more research being done every day to concur with how medical marijuana is valued and can improve a patient’s quality of life," she says. "Unfortunately, this slow legalization process has caused a major lack of controlled studies to provide the hard-hitting scientific data still needed."

Lupo hopes to see the day when medicinal marijuana can gain "the platform, respect and acceptance it truly deserves."

“I don’t see why all hospitals can’t at least offer cannabis or CBD as continued use,” she adds.

Continued use is a term used to describe the situation where you check into a hospital and they ask you what are you taking at home so they can try to replicate your regimen throughout your stay.

“In controlled dosage, CBD is said to be one of the safest drugs out there," she says. "This should be a given for the healthcare business."

Original publication: 2021.