The Current Buzz
The Voice of Cannabis
Volume 1 Issue 1
RELIEVE STUBBORN PAIN WITH MEDICAL MARIJUANA
Medical marijuana is an effective tool for mitigating pain.
Finding the right cannabis product for your type of pain
can sometimes be time consuming and difficult. To make
this easier, we will go through the different types of pain
and the strategies to treat them more effectively.
There are 3 accepted categories of pain.
1. Central pain (fibromyalgia)
2. Nociceptive pain
3. Neuropathic Pain cal damage to the body, Neuropathic pain comes from
diseases like Multiple Sclerosis, HIV, Parkinson’s, Lupus,
diabetes, and shingles. Chemotherapy also causes
neuropathic pain.
Cannabis reduces this type of pain by activating the CB1
receptors in the brain. This weakens the pain signal that
travels to the brain. As with nociceptive paint, too much
THC can over-activate the CB1 receptors in the brain
leading to lessened pain relief over time. Balancing CBD
and THC consumption can help stave off this tolerance.
Nociceptive pain is best described as inflammatory pain.
It is the resulting pain from tissue damage. The sensa-
tion of pain in this case comes from inflammatory and
immune cells that repair tissue damage. These cells
discharge certain proteins and chemicals that interact
with the brain, giving the sensation of pain.
With this in mind, reducing the sensation of pain is done
by either blocking the signals themselves or reducing
inflammation. THC, and CBD are used to target both of
these processes resulting in less pain. Human clinical tri-
als have shown the effectiveness of these cannabinoids
at reducing pain.
Tolerance can become an issue with THC. To avoid this,
it is important to start low and maintain a good balance
of CBD to THC content. By using higher doses of CBD
to manage pain, THC content can be kept lower to avoid
developing a tolerance.
A great benefit that comes from CBD is mood-improve-
ment. CBD can mitigate anxiety and stress through
serotonin activation. Anxiety and depression are side-ef-
fects of chronic pain. This makes CBD a valuable tool in
managing nociceptive pain in the long term. Although there are various terms for this type of pain,
central pain refers to pain that results from a malfunction
in the nervous system. It can sometimes be difficult to
determine why a patient is experiencing central pain, and
thus it is difficult to treat. Fibromyalgia is an example of
central pain where the underlying cause is unknown.
There is not a lot of data concerning cannabis and
central pain at this time. Cannabis has, however, been
demonstrated to effectively treat pain from fibromyalgia.
Although the function of why it treats this type of pain is
controversial, cannabis is an effective option. Experiment
with high dosed of CBD, and low to medium doses of
THC. Long lasting edibles are a great option for manag-
ing pain all day long without having to re-dose.
Nociceptive Pain and Cannabinoids
Neuropathic Pain
Neuropathic pain is extremely difficult to treat because
NSAID’s like ibuprofen and Tylenol are basically useless
to treat it. This type of pain affects about 7 to 10% of
the world’s population. Instead of resulting from physi-
Central Pain
How Medical Marijuana Works
Cannabis has 450 ingredients, of which 80 are
chemical compounds called cannabinoids.
The human brain has cannabinoid receptors, which
control physiological processes such as appetite,
pain, mood and memory, together called the
endocannabinoid system.
The cannabinoids from cannabis interact with
the receptors in the brain and work as a smooth
muscle relaxant and receptor blocker, alleviating
pain, and symptoms of arthritis, diabetes, glaucoma
and neurological conditions such as epilepsy and
Parkinson disease.
Source: Dr Sameer Kaul, senior consultant on surgical and
clinical oncology at Apollo Cancer Institute, New Delhi
Practical Application
Keep in mind that use of high-THC/low-CBD strains may
have the opposite affect in treating pain. Too much THC
has been shown to worsen pain and other adverse side
effects, as well as create tolerance on the CB1 recep-
tors, reducing long term efficacy. A better strategy is to
use a balanced THC/CBD strain and to supplement with
pure CBD products. This strategy may result in a better,
longer lasting treatment for pain.