Muscle Pain and Medical Marijuana
Dealing with tight, sore, contracting muscles is life for many of the 2.5 million people around the planet suffer from Multiple Sclerosis. Such is the case for many of the 15 million patients with spinal cord injuries who also suffer from the same symptoms, which cause pain, limit movement, and rob people of needed sleep.
Many of the conventional medications can reduce the patients discomfort-yet taking them rarely provides complete relief. Often the drugs cause weakness, drowsiness, and other side effects that some patients find intolerable such as always being constipated.
With an outlook such as this, many patients with both spinal chord injuries and MS have sought out medical marijuana because of the complete decrease in pain.
Patients of spinal chord injuries and MS also said they valued the drug because it relieved nausea or helped them sleep. A 1982 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 1997 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.
Researchers are still unsure of the exact mechanics behind the cannabinoids effects. With all of the findings that show marijuana contains anecdotal evidence, it’s properties still go untested.
The few existing reports are extremely limited in scope.
There is a lack of good universally medication available for muscle spasticity so it makes a very compelling argument in research cannonaded compounds.
