The Benefits of Medical Marijuana for Pain

Pain is a response that occurs in our body as a result of an unnatural occurrence. Pain is often a symptom of the disease or sickness and it lets us know that there is something that is affecting our bodies or a reason that we should be seeking medical assistance. Pain is caused by many different triggers and we still have not begun to fully understand the reason why our body is so affected by pain.

We have discovered that there are a number of effective medicines for treating pain but often it is difficult to seek relief without experiencing some type of debilitating side effect especially with chemical relief agents. Finding better pain relief methods that come without side effects has been one of the greatest focuses on medicine.

Marijuana has been used for pain throughout centuries. It treats a wide array of conditions of pain and it can assist with every frame from managing headaches to minimizing pain during traumatic events like childbirth. People worldwide regularly use marijuana to manage their pain. Whether they suffer from migraines, cancer patients, or those affected by AIDS or a variety of other conditions, marijuana is one of the best forms of medicine to treat pain and diverse circumstances.

The performance of marijuana, as well as cannabinoids in pain relief, has been well documented.

How Pain Starts

Nerve signals throughout our brains begin the process of sending signals to cells throughout our body. When these receptor-bearing cells are affected by chemical changes, movement, touch or temperature we received pain signals that travel to the brain. Pain can be intense, acute or even persistent.

It’s common for doctors in the form of acute pain to prescribe narcotic drugs or opiates. These are products that are designed to help individuals quickly overcome acute pain. Chronic pain often requires the ongoing use of opiates or other pain medications which can have a long-term effect on people taking them. Better pain medication could lead to the same pain remedy without having all of the side effects.

Cannabinoids and Pain

Cannabinoids have been shown to block out peripheral nerve pain in a variety of animal testing. Opioids and Cannabinoids both worked to suppress pain but they do so through different methods. Marijuana-based medicines could even be combined with opiates in order to boost the effectiveness of pain medication.

Only a few studies have been conducted using marijuana’s potential for pain relief. Studies today have been massively improved especially with the regulation and measurement of THC in medical cannabis. However, what has been shown is that with THC and pain relief there is moderate relief from pain. Regular use of marijuana can actually offer pain relief that’s on par with codeine.

In studies on chronic pain in cancer patients, it was determined that cannabis could bring about relief in a number of ways. As cancer affects the body in multiple ways including nerve injuries, inflammation and sensitive tissue growth, treatment with marijuana was able to deliver an improved level of pain relief. Those that are undergoing treatment for pain with cancer often grow resistant to opiate painkillers and require an increase in their dosage. Receiving THC pills or dosing with medical marijuana is a more effective treatment over the long term and with fewer side effects.

The Future of Research

What many medical scientists have learned about pain relief with marijuana is that it definitely requires more studies to further understand. Boosting research in this area should explore which types of cannabinoids could be properly modified to reduce the mildly un-harmful side effects like sedation and light amnesia. Removing some of the brain chemistry effects and focusing on pain relief could be widely beneficial for those that are seeking treatment.

As well as acting as a pain reliever, cannabinoids deliver a number of other helpful effects including a reduction in nausea and improvement in appetite. It’s possible to see improvements in patients that are undergoing cancer treatment as well as conditions like AIDS. There are a number of different negative symptoms with these conditions that with regular marijuana use we can improve them.

For individuals that have chronic pain that is difficult to treat with conventional medications, further clinical trials using medical marijuana and cannabinoid products could serve as a beacon of hope. The creation of an individual clinical trial program could improve the lives of patients across the world. This would allow patients to regularly use marijuana in controlled conditions. Adding in these types of trials would allow us to access more concrete facts about cannabinoids in pain as well as an expansion of cannabinoid products that target pain relief.

If research is allowed to go forward with this we could see more future relief in the form of medical cannabis products targeted at people that suffer from conditions that cause chronic pain.