Thaindian News

Aug 31 (THAINDIAN NEWS) According to Reuters, “In a small study, people who had chronic pain as a result of damage to the nervous system reported feeling less pain, as well as less depression and anxiety, when they smoked marijuana compared to when they smoked a drug-free placebo.”

Although the decrease in pain levels were not great, those patients who smoked marijuna which actually contained at least 9.4 percent of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, reported much less pain than those subjects who were given a placebo, and those who had the greatest amounts of THC had the greatest benefits from the pot smoking.

Dr Mark Ware who is a neuroscientist who works at the McGill University Health Center located in Montreal, stated, “This offers another potential tool in the tool box for treating chronic neuropathic pain.” Ware and his colleagues performed the tests on 21 adults who suffered from chronic neuropathic pain because of an injury or after surgery.

The subjects who had higher levels of THC, were in less pain, slept better, were less agitated, and had much calmer nerves. There was no reduction in mood nor in quality of life by those who smoked pot. Although higher levels of pot showed improved pain relief, there were also a few side effects reported when higher doses were taken, “which included headaches, dry eyes, and a burning sensation in the regions where patients had pain.”

Since many of the remedies which are given for chronic neuropathic pain will cause a patient’s sleep to be disturbed, marijuana could be a way to relieve the pain and actually help the patient rest. The nausea and lack of appetite that can sometimes accompany chronic pain can also be relieved by smoking pot.

Studies are still being done to see what negative side effects will come from smoking pot. For most patients, the side effects of weed would be far less than those of the prescription drugs which they now take, and much more effective. In the words of Melissa Etheridge, “Instead of taking five or six of the prescriptions, I decided to go a natural route and smoke marijuana”

Often, veterans who suffer from chronic pain, and nerve issues which were sustained in the war turn to pot as a way to deal with the symptoms. One such veteran was given 15 bottles of different medications, for nausea, sleeplessness, chronic pain, loss of appetite, depression, anxiety, and more. Just by smoking pot, all of those symptoms were alleviated with far less risks of side effects.