Cannabis and pain: The facts
A one thing fix all? Or just another pipe dream for vulnerable people?
Hey All!
With more people realizing that taking painkillers every day is not helping to manage their pain but making it worse, many are looking for alternatives.
With cannabis being hailed as a cure-all for almost every type of problem including pain. Some might consider this as an option. What other choice do they have?
By cannabis, I mean the whole plant, not the CBD oils.
Furthermore, news that the government has released a bill for comment that will allow people to grow and use cannabis in the comfort of their own home has recently come out.
But what are the facts? Does it even work?
How we think it works
That is right, we do not know for sure how taking cannabis works to decrease pain. What we know is that the body has receptors on the nerves and cells responsible for healing and inflammation called Endocannabinoids.
When the body gets injured, we naturally release substances that active the Endocannabinoid receptors.
These receptors when activated desensitize the nervous system to pain signals as well as decrease inflammation.
It suggested that the substances found in cannabis can also activate these receptors and therefore create the same effect.
Plus, when you are high laughing at how your and moves through the air, you are not overly concerned about your pain.
What the research says
So far there has only been researching studies on healthy people that do not have pain. Pain is then induced (temporary pain that does not cause injury) and then the subject is given various doses of cannabis in various preparations and tests their subjective experience of pain. The study showed that increasing the dosage increased the effectiveness of pain relief.
The second type of study was done on people who are in pain as a result of a spinal cord injury. The kind that leaves some people paralyzed.
They were testing to see if cannabis was effective in alleviating nerve pain. This study showed some success in alleviating nerve pain.
The big drawbacks of the studies done so far is that they have not tested cannabis as a treatment in chronic pain like that in back and neck pain, headaches and chronic pain syndromes like fibromyalgia.
There is also no consensus on what type of cannabis to take, how much, how often and in what preparation.
As an example, when you go to the doctor and ask for Pain killers for a new injury. They will prescribe to you a specific medicine in a specific dose to be taken in a specific way at specific times of day for a specific time. This is because we know from researching and testing that medicine that if it is taken in those specific ways it is most effective for treating the condition it is given for.
Lastly, the researchers believe that if taken for a long time for chronic pain it will lead to the same issues that opioids cause. Addiction, tolerance and worsening of pain.
Soya…. We don’t currently know the basics on how to use it to get the best result for pain or if it works for specific kinds of pain.
The downside
• Cannabis makes you high
Yup. Try getting stuff done while you high as a kite for hours, laying on the floor laughing at how funny your hand looks as it moves. Its also hard to lose weight when every time you come down from the high, you eat everything in the house.
• It is addictive
There is a reason our parents warned us about taking drugs including cannabis. You can become so dependent on cannabis that you cannot make it through the day without taking it. Does that sound familiar to how your pain pills make you feel?
You will keep needing more and more to feel just a little better. That little better you feel will be less the longer you take it.
If you do not take it soon enough that causes another problem. You might end up focusing on getting your next hit rather than anything else important. If you do not, you will start to get sick from withdrawal for not taking it.
If you have ever had a friend or family member that is addicted to a substance or alcohol. You know what they turn into when they do not get it when they want it.
• Withdrawal from it is a certainty
This goes hand in hand with addiction. Withdrawal when the person gets sick if they try to stop taking cannabis. Your body craves it. The withdrawal process is often described as feeling exactly like the symptoms of chronic pain.
• It causes psychosis
Yes, that true. Using it one time can make you crazy. You can hallucinate, feel paranoid that someone is going to get you. You will see, hear and feel things are not real.
I once had a patient who came in that tried it for his headaches. He Hallucinated that the devil was on his way to come to his house and tie him up and force him to watch as he mutilates his children. To him, it was as real as you are reading this article.
This was so traumatic for him, 6 months later he has still traumatized.
• Getting it from your friendly neighbourhood drug dealer
Where else are you going to get it right?
Just think about it, who are the customers of your Friendly neighbourhood drug dealer (FNDD). Is it you? The first-time buyer who just wants to try it? Or the guy who is been on cannabis for years and consumes it by the kilo?
Many strains that are available from your FNDD have been bred to be as strong as possible. Have the highest levels of THC (a drug that makes you high) and lowest CBD (the part that counteracts THCs negative effects). They want it that way so that their customers keep coming to them as they have the “strongest, best shit in the whole of……”
Their goal is to have customers for life by providing the most addictive substance possible. That is IF you are getting what you pay for. Or maybe you are getting heroin and fentanyl-laced weed they made just to give it to the newbies for laughs.
Do you want to be their customer?
Worse of all selling Cannabis might only be their side business. You might be unknowingly financially supporting the same criminal organization that kidnaps young girls to sell them into slavery by prostitution. This could be their main source of income.
Considering all that the rewards of “it might help” do not out way the risks of taking it to me.
More likely, you are just replacing one drug with another. Like many of my clients have been doing for years with no success.
Many people who come to me want to stop taking drugs for their pain because the drugs make them sick and their pain worse. How will cannabis be any different from what you are already taking?
I do not think it will be.
If you are ready to stop taking drugs just to make it through the day, start by getting some advice on your pain. CLICK HERE to get it
If you want to contact us and ask us about what we can do to get you off pain killers naturally without taken more pills, CLICK HERE.
BYE FOR NOW
Jason
IF you want to read the research paper yourself, click this link
