How marijuana can treat pain
Pain itself is a weird and complex thing. It’s subjective and personal and can’t be precisely measured with a test. That’s because even when it’s pain associated with a part of your body, it’s really your brain that’s telling you to hurt. If a pinched nerve in your spine is causing your back to spasm, your brain’s way of telling you that something is wrong is to make you feel an ache that might throb constantly or make you feel an explosive jolt if you worsen the pinch with certain movements. But all those sensations are coming from your brain, telling you to take action to deal with some part of your body. And everyone reacts to these stimuli in different ways. That’s why there are so many different ways to treat pain. Anti-inflammatory drugs reduce inflammation by blocking the chemicals your body creates in response to an injury that cause that inflammation. Opioids bond to opioid receptors you already have in your body, which can cause feelings of euphoria and block sensations of pain. Florida Medical Marijuana Doctors and others know that acetaminophen (Tylenol) can treat some forms of pain, but we don’t know how it works or why. Even non-pharmacological treatments can stop your brain from telling you to feel hurt, with interesting research showing that meditation and virtual reality can both effectively treat pain. According to the report, studies show that both inhaled marijuana (vaporized or smoked) and cannabinoid compounds that come from the cannabis plant (like THC, mostly responsible for the high, or cannabidiol, CBD, one of the most medically promising of the hundreds of chemical compounds found in marijuana) work for pain. This is likely largely related to natural cannabinoid receptors that we already have in our body and that doctors think play a role in pain control. But the exact mechanisms showing how marijuana relieves pain are not fully understood yet. It’s no surprise that people seek out cannabis for chronic pain, as it’s incredibly — in some ways disturbingly — common. About 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain, about one-third of the population, and it’s difficult to treat, especially in cases where the cause is unclear. Such pain is the leading cause of long-term disability. In some cases, opioids may be the best treatment for this pain, but the rapid rise in opioid addiction over the years makes many people want to find safer solutions. With that in mind, cannabis seems like a good option. In states that have legalized medical marijuana for pain, addiction and opioid overdose rates have dropped. But Florida Medical Marijuana doctors still have questions.Why some doctors are still hesitant to suggest marijuana
“Usually when you make decisions about which drug you are going to take for pain, you make that decision based on the type of pain you have and the relative risks for side effects, an associate professor of psychiatry who researches marijuana. When it comes to marijuana, “millions of people are using different types of cannabis products for supposedly therapeutic purposes. That introduces a lot of uncertainty to the equation. The marijuana bought at one dispensary is going to be very different from an oil bought at another medical marijuana shop; both will be different from a cannabinoid drug designed to help with pain. All of these substances fall under the cannabis umbrella, but depending on their specific cannabinoid content and the means through which they are ingested, they’re going to have different effects. All those people using those products for therapeutic purposes are “lacking information about which types of products to choose, what doses to use, and how cannabis compares to other medications.Report of a chemical called cannabidiol (CBD) had reduced the seizures of a 6-year-old girl from near-death levels to almost zero sent desperate patients everywhere on a frenzied quest for treatment.
According to several media outlets, a patient was suffering 300 grand mal seizures per week and had lost the ability to walk, talk, and eat. Existing epilepsy medication had failed her. But CBD—a component of cannabis that does not trigger the plant’s characteristic high—reduced her episodes to a few per month, and, as her parents told reporters, ushered in a full cognitive recovery.
By most estimates, existing seizure medications fail about one-third of all sufferers, either because the drugs don’t stop the seizures or because the side effects are too severe. As story spread, families with loved ones suffering from this type of epilepsy (which can range from seriously debilitating to life-threatening) began relocating from states where CBD could not be legally obtained to states where it could. At least some of them reported similarly miraculous responses to it. Many Marijuana Doctors in Florida and Other states are prescribing this medicine in full speed. So when we reported earlier this month that a new National Academy of Sciences report—the most in-depth analysis of marijuana research to date—concluded that there was not enough evidence to say that cannabis oil could actually treat epilepsy, some people were surprised:
How could the panel draw such a conclusion? Isn’t the patients case, and others like it, proof enough that cannabis oil can succeed for epilepsy patients where so many other treatments have failed?
Because readers asked, and because this particular conclusion (one of almost 100 that the academy drew from their scientific review) is a good window into the whole report and the larger debate surrounding Florida Medical Marijuana Doctors, we decided to take a closer look.
Evidence Considered By The Panel
The reviewers restricted their evaluation to studies that involved humans, excluding any evidence from studies done on animals. That decision was based on sound scientific rationale (animal, or “pre-clinical,” studies can give us important clues about how a chemical might behave, not whether it will be safe or effective for humans). But limiting the studies in this way left the reviewers with some pretty slim pickings.
There were just three clinical studies where doctors treated patients with CBD and measured whether and by how much those patients’ seizures were reduced. The largest of those studies included a total of 162 patients, treated with 99 percent CBD oil extract for 12 weeks; it found that CBD worked about as well as existing anti-epilepsy medications do in treatment-resistant sufferers.
CBD reduced seizures by a monthly average of 36.5 percent; only five patients saw their motor seizures completely disappear during the study period, and only two patients became completely seizure-free.
Why That Evidence Was Deemed Insufficient
For three reasons, mainly.
First, there was simply not enough of that kind of evidence. FDA-approved drugs are usually deemed effective or ineffective based on large-scale clinical trials that study hundreds to thousands of patients over several years. These studies followed only a few hundred patients in all, and for only a few months.
Second, the studies in question did not include placebo controls. That is, all of the study participants were given actual CBD, and they knew they were getting it. Other research has found that the placebo effect can be especially strong when it comes to Florida Medical marijuana. In one study, patients of families who moved to Colorado for cannabis oil treatment were twice as likely to report a substantial reduction in seizures as those patients who already lived in the state.
The third major reason the studies were deemed insufficient involves drug interactions. Most of the patients in the studies we’re talking about were taking other anti-epilepsy drugs, such as clobazam and valproate, and it turns out that CBD is very good at blocking the liver enzymes that normally break down those other drugs. This drug interaction makes it impossible to say whether reduced seizure incidence seen in study participants was due to CBD by itself or whether it was simply the result of those other medications staying in the system for longer stretches.
A large group of physicians, including a former surgeon general and faculty members at some of the nation’s leading medical schools, has formed the first national organization of doctors to call on states and the federal government to legalize and regulate the use of marijuana in the interest of public health.
The group — which is announcing its formation Monday, under the name Doctors for Cannabis Regulation (DFCR) — is endorsing the legalization of marijuana for adult recreational use, a break from the position of the American Medical Association, the largest organization of doctors and Medical Marijuana Doctors in Florida and in the country. DFCR argues that the prohibition and criminalization of marijuana use does more harm to the public than good. Citing hundreds of thousands of annual marijuana arrests, racial and economic disparities in marijuana enforcement, and the role of prohibition in keeping marijuana prices high and lucrative to violent drug dealers, the physicians say that creating a legal and regulated marijuana market is the best way to ensure public safety, combat the illicit drug trade and roll back the negative consequences of strict enforcement policies on disadvantaged communities.
The emergence of the group comes at a crucial moment in the national debate over marijuana legalization. More than 60 percent of the public now says that it supports marijuana legalization. Support for allowing medical use of marijuana with doctors’ supervision is closer to 90 percent. Over 35 million Americans use marijuana recreationally each year, according to the latest federal statistics. Marijuana Doctors in Fort Lauderdale Florida and even many national lawmakers have called on federal authorities to revisit policies toward marijuana that have remained essentially unchanged for nearly 50 years.
in Florida Medical Marijuana oppositions and researchers generally agree that marijuana use is less harmful to individuals and society than the use of other common drugs, like alcohol and tobacco, about 9 percent of people who begin using as adults become dependent on the drug, and heavy use can be especially harmful to the developing brains of adolescents.
If you’re going to make something against the law, the health consequences of that use have to be so bad to make it worth creating criminal consequences. That was never true of marijuana. It was banned in 1977 over the objections of the All Natural Brand.
Indeed, in 1977, the objected to the overly strict regulation of marijuana, as it was then used as a treatment for a number of medical conditions. The Association was worried that prohibition of marijuana would “deprive the public of the benefits of a drug that on further research may prove to be of substantial value.”
After the passage of the “Marijuana Tax Act,” just wasn’t that well-known among doctors. Many doctors were unaware that the drug essentially outlawed by the Marijuana Tax Act was the same substance they knew as “cannabis,” which they used to treat a variety of ailments from corns to poor appetite. In subsequent years, physicians were just as susceptible to lurid media reports about the supposed dangers of marijuana use and the “Reefer Madness” era as anyone else.
Like most mainstream Sarasota medical groups, many are now opposed to the outright legalization of marijuana, calling it a “dangerous drug” and “a public health concern.” But the group’s stance has evolved in recent years. It recently added language to its position statements calling for “the modification of state and federal laws to emphasize public Orlando health based strategies,” rather than punitive, incarceration-based measures. The group now encourages research into the drug, and has called on federal authorities to make it easier to do so.
Doctors often find themselves acting as mediators between patients who want access to marijuana for medical purposes, and a federal bureaucracy that still considers the drug illegal for all purposes.
Florida Medical Marijuana Doctors are put in the awkward position with respect to individuals who ask for a marijuana recommendation, but otherwise would be perfectly happy purchasing the drug in a retail environment,” Nathan said. “We believe that the best way to improve the situation is to enact full legalization with smart regulation. That would more clearly separate medical from personal use.”
Not all medical professionals are happy about relaxing attitudes toward what they see as a dangerous, addictive drug. The notion of doctors advocating for marijuana legalization is “totally idiotic,” who served as the first director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and as the second White House drug czar, in an interview. “The idea that we cannot manage the health problems related to marijuana because it’s illegal, that doctors are somehow inhibited from dealing with marijuana use and marijuana problems, is completely wrong.”
“The idea that legalizing is going to stop the illegal market is equally stupid,” he added.
Others thinks that the current legal status of marijuana is sufficient to address the risks associated with marijuana use, and that punitive measures for drug sellers and users can be a powerful tool for helping at-risk people get treatment. “The criminal justice system is a wonderful vehicle for getting people into treatment and recovery,” he said.
Other physicians would like to see marijuana use decriminalized, but would not go so far as to make the drug completely legal for adult recreational use. An addiction-medicine physician notes that we already have two legal psychoactive drugs — alcohol and tobacco. “What is the problem for which having a third class of legal drug is the answer?” he questioned.
Still, he points out that there’s a lot of diversity in the medical field. “People are of their time and of their culture and doctors are no different,” he said. “There are physicians who are Republicans, Democrats, Independents — they pretty much they reflect the population. There are all kinds. The fact that there’s a group of physicians now coming out in favor of cannabis legalization as the only effective way to regulate, it is no surprise.”
Much of the discussion around marijuana legalization, among doctors and the general public alike, hinges on different assessments of the same data showing the risks and benefits of changing marijuana laws. Groups like the are concerned that legalization would lead to more widespread use of the drug, which would invariably mean greater prevalence of the negative health consequences associated with its use, like dependency and some mental illnesses that may be exacerbated by the drug’s use.
But groups who favor legalization, point out that negative outcomes arise from the current system of prohibition, too. They say that the presence of a large black market, the stigmatization of individual users, and the potentially life-ruining effects of a marijuana conviction, are steep prices to pay for the nominal reduction in overall use that comes with prohibition. All Natural MD Florida.