Finding Alternative Ways to Deal With Pain
Dealing with stiff, cramping muscles, and daily aching is just another way of life for 2.5 million people who live with MS. Another 15 million people who suffer from spinal chord injuries have similar pains on top of limited movement and the lack of sleep they most desperately need.
Traditional medications do help minimize some of the discomfort that these patients suffer from however, they rarely provide complete relief. Many times the traditional drugs cause the user to feel weak, lethargic, as well as other side effects that some patients find intolerable such constipation.
Given this outlook, it is not hard to understand why some people with multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries have sought relief through marijuana as it has shown to reduce pain and muscle spasms.
Patients of spinal chord injuries and MS also said they valued the drug because it relieved nausea or helped them sleep. A’82 study of people with spinal cord injuries, found that 21 of 43 of the case studies reported that marijuana lessened muscle spasticity (a condition in which muscles tense reflexively and resist stretching), while nearly every participant in a’97 survey of 112 regular marijuana users with multiple sclerosis replied that the drug lessened both pain and spasticity.
This study is not intended to show that all people who suffer from MS find relief simply those who use marijuana do.
Animal research demonstrates that marijuana reduces muscle spasticity. Spasms are theorized to occur in areas of the brain that manage movement, including various areas that have abundant cannabinoid receptors.
One such experiment showed that when rodents receive small doses of cannabinoids they become more active, yet when they receive higher doses they are less active
Many marijuana users also note that the drug affects movement, making their bodies sway and their hands unsteady.
It’s still unknown how the compounds of the cannabinoids create this effect. With all of the findings that suggest the plant has anecdotal properties, clinical research remains largely untested.
Very few reports are helpful because they are limited in the amount of people and in general hard to find.
Still, the lack of good universally effective medicine for muscle spasticity is a compelling reason to continue exploring cannonaded drugs in the clinic.
For three decades, Dr. Julian Reindhurst has studies the medicinal benefits of marijuana. He currently has a blog that gives the historical perspective of how nirvana seeds benefited other ancient civilizations. He also has a website site that looks at the medicinal benefits of the nirvana seeds.
