Contributor: Eric Bloom
There’s really no end to what marijuana can do. The list of benefits is truly limitless. And, what’s even crazier, is we’re still learning more and more about this wonderful plant, especially how it can be used as a medicine. One of the more “hot button” subjects that has been surrounding the medical marijuana community lately, is how cannabis for arthritis is probably one of the most natural, effective, non-addictive, and safest ways to treat your symptoms.
Now, before we get into how marijuana for joint pain is one the most popular trends in the medical community, let’s first make sure we all understand just what arthritis is, and how it affects the body.
First off, you should be aware of just how common this ailment is. Currently, over 50 million people suffer from this truly painful condition. What’s worse, is as our country’s baby boomers continue to age, the number of arthritis sufferers is expected to climb right along with it. Experts believe that, by 2030, there will be well over 67 million people who will have to endure the painful symptoms of this incurable ailment that directly affects joints.
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In most cases, as you can tell by these enormous numbers, getting arthritis may be inevitable. Along with a number of painful symptoms, people who endure the hardships of arthritis also have to go through stiffness in their joints every single morning. This could lead to their joints locking in an extremely painful way.
In addition to that, these people, should they ever endure an injury, the chances of those injuries healing properly go down severely. This specific joint-related ailment could result in carpal tunnel syndrome, peripheral neuropathies, and even plantar fasciitis.
In short, this is a major problem, and the sooner the medical (and scientific) community can discover a more reliable way of dealing with the pain, the better off millions of people will be.
For the moment, the only real option that people are left with is prescription pills. In other words, a number of different opioids.
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As I’m sure you’re already aware of, opioids are one of the biggest problems facing this nation. These super addictive, incredibly expensive pills rarely provide the relief they promise. Instead, they leave the user far worse than they were before, often riddled with a myriad of painful side effects. Also, like I just alluded to, these pills are insanely addictive, and they are the cause of thousands of deaths each and every year.
Which is abundantly sad.
Not only because of the massive amount of lives lost, but because those deaths could’ve been easily avoided. But, sadly, this country’s government is tremendously corrupt. The pharmaceutical companies are in the pockets of many Congressmen and women, who will always push for their agenda, so long as the bribe money is collected.
And, one of the major ways they’ve been able to do so, is by outlawing cannabis for decades. But, now that marijuana is becoming more and more accepted, the average citizen is starting to realize how they’ve been misguided by the government for years.
Marijuana isn’t a dangerous, Schedule One substance, it’s a super-safe, naturally-growing medicine that has the potential to help millions of people live better lives, with absolutely no side effects.
But, if the government ever came to their senses, and legalized it across the board, it would only serve to anger those pharmaceutical companies, who in turn, would stop bribing and funding these corrupt politicians. So, as you can see, they didn’t exactly have the “motivation” to make the right move.
Luckily, somehow, we were able to get state after state to ignore the federal government’s wrongful distinction of cannabis, which resulted in legalization taking place within their borders. That turned into a slippery slope of progress, and now, after years of being legally prohibited from doing so, labs across the country are starting to do in-depth research on cannabis, and how it can be used as medicine, like for arthritis, for example.
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So, with that in mind, researchers, scientists, and doctors from all over have started to conduct their own studies on this topic, and what they’ve learned could help change the course of cannabis medicine forever.
Now, as encouraging as these findings are, it still must be repeated that a lot of studies are still required before you can officially set anything in stone, so to speak. But, even taking that into consideration, it’s hard not to get excited at some of things that are coming out of the cannabis community in this regard.
Look at the work being done by Dr. Jason McDougall, for instance.
McDougall, a researcher and professor of pharmacology and anesthesia at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, has found that cannabis molecules can actually latch onto nerve receptors, and in doing so, can take control over the pain signals that otherwise would’ve been firing non-stop.
When asked about his findings, McDougall first felt obligated to explain how the nerves of a person with arthritis work.
Specifically, he said, “[The nerves are like] wires that have been stripped of their coating. They’re all bare, they’re all raw, and responsible for feeling a lot of pain. What we hypothesize is that by locally administering these cannabis-like molecules to those nerves, we’d actually be able to repair them and reduce pain of arthritis.”
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And he’s not the only scientist and researcher to share such an opinion. Many others in the field are starting to conjure up the same results through various other tests and studies on the matter. We’re even starting to hear positive results from the arthritis sufferers, themselves.
Look at Katie Marsh from Maine.
She was enduring the hardships of rheumatoid arthritis for a long time, and the only way she knew how to deal with the pain was through doctor prescribed opioids. Not liking how the pills were making her feel, in addition to their lack of effectiveness, she decided to take a more herbal approach.
So, every morning, she would juice a specific amount of raw marijuana plant into a smoothie, and go about her day. And, in doing so, she saw a dramatic improvement in her condition, and her symptoms seem to be lessening more and more each day.
Now, if that isn’t a good sign of marijuana being useful for arthritis, I’m not sure what is.
Personally, I’m just excited to see the medical community work together to learn as much as we can about cannabis, and how it can help those millions of people who suffer from this affliction live better, more pain-free lives.
