Many people who use marijuana, whether for recreational or medicinal purposes, say that “Mary J” is excellent for relaxation. You will, in fact, likely be given a long list of problems that the drug has helped alleviate or relieve completely.
You might be skeptical if you are an arthritis patient searching for an alternative to synthesized medicines and are not physically receptive to traditional medication or cannot use traditional medications. You might disbelieve. You might consider those who use marijuana to lack intelligence and are just trying to make their use of drugs acceptable.
However, as indicated in the article’s title, scientifically proven evidence shows that medicinal marijuana relieves arthritic pain. It is also highly recommended to grow marijuana indoors if it is permitted in your state.
What Is Medicinal Marijuana?
The first thing that needs to be noted is the two main differences between “street” or commercial marijuana and medicinal marijuana.
- Commercial marijuana comes from many different types of cannabis strains. Various strains have different anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving, etc. potencies. Commercial marijuana’s potency cannot be guaranteed. On the other hand, medicinal marijuana strains are specifically selected for their effects and potency.
- Some commercial marijuana is fertilized using unsafe fertilizers. Those fertilizers might contain metal derivatives as well as other toxic by-products or substances. Medicinal marijuana is carefully fertilized using nontoxic fertilizers while keeping the patient’s health in mind.
It is not recommended that you purchase commercial marijuana as a replacement for your medicinal marijuana prescription.
Proven Marijuana Benefits For Arthritis Patients
Although in numerous countries, the funding, legal aspects, and other issues can inhibit how many studies are conducted on marijuana’s therapeutic aspects, there is still a great deal of available information. So far, the facts are obvious.
– It has been shown that marijuana is anti-inflammatory
– It has been proven for many illnesses that using cannabis can potentially help muscle spasms and inflammation
– For hundreds, or even thousands of years (with some records dating back to B.C.), people have been using marijuana to treat pain.
– It has been suggested by studies that in addition to helping with inflammation that marijuana might also help to lower the growth of the actual disease
In 2002, Dr. Mikuriya, who is a member of several renowned organizations that study medical marijuana as well as Mensa, wrote:
Clinical interviews of more than 6,500 of my patients and members of cannabis buyers clubs led to this generalization: many conditions or illnesses present with muscle spasms and inflammation. Cannabis is both an anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic.
Dr. Mikuriya is a respected and well-known authority on marijuana’s therapeutic uses. He says that chronic inflammatory conditions such as lumbosacral disease and arthritis respond quite well to cannabis as compared to other types of analgesics.
Rheumatology Advance Access Online published a study by Dr. Blake et al. from the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases. It was the first controlled trial of a cannabis-based medicine (CBM) for symptomatically treating RA in humans. There were several facts that this study was based on:
– Historically, marijuana has been used for treating pain in rheumatoid arthritis, although a clinical study has never evaluated its therapeutic potential.
CBD and THC, the main marijuana components, are recognized as key therapeutic constituents that act together synergistically and other constituents of plants.
– It has been shown that THC has pain-relieving abilities for neuropathic as well as nociceptive pain.
– It has been shown that CBD can block rheumatoid arthritis progress, while both CBD and THC have anti-inflammatory effects.
Compared to the placebo, statistically significant improvements were produced by CBM in SF-MPQ and DAS28, quality of sleep, pain at rest, and pain on movement. There were no morning stiffness effects, although the baseline scores were low. A vast majority of the adverse effects were moderate or mild, and the active treatment group showed no serious adverse effects or adverse affect-related withdrawals.
Due to these surprising responses, the researchers called for additional studies at the end of the study. They said they believed their study was the first controlled study focused on a CBM in rheumatoid arthritis and showed encouraging results. The beneficial effects happened within a dosing regimen restricted to evening doses to minimize any potential intoxication-type reactions. The 24-hour dosing with Sativex (CBM) that used a self-titration regimen within a multiple sclerosis context resulted in minimal intoxication scores. More prolonged, larger CBM studies in rheumatoid arthritis are needed.
A study was published by the Center of Drug Discovery in 2006 called “The Cannabinergic System as a Target for Anti-inflammatory Therapies.” It has been proven that the immune system is affected by using cannabis regularly. Endocannabinoid research helps to understand these effects through in vivo or cell-based animal testing.
The study suggested that nearly all immune system-associated major functions can be impacted by regulating the endocannabinoid circuity. These results suggest therapeutic opportunities for various inflammatory diseases, including autoimmune diabetes, allergic asthma, atherosclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis through modulating the endocannabinoid system.
Although many naysayers bring up the potential of overdose, it needs to be noted that there has not been even one documented case of anyone overdosing on marijuana, either through medicinal or recreational use. Also, many people are concerned with cancer-causing agents that come with inhaling smoke — however, a comprehensive study conducted in 2006 showed no proof that lung cancer was caused by marijuana.
Finally, keep in mind that it is best not to smoke medical marijuana. However, using it in a vaporizer or baking will provide therapeutic benefits for alleviating arthritis symptoms.
