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Cannabis and Pain Management: Can Cannabis Help Treat My Disease?

Cannabis and pain management go hand-in-hand with various ailments. That is one of the key factors in why it is so amazing to those it helps. Maybe you have thought about trying cannabis for your disease but are scared it won’t work. 

You won’t honestly know until you try it yourself. There aren’t many studies out there yet about how cannabis can help, but they are growing in numbers. Despite the lack of studies, many people have found cannabis useful in their lives. 

What can cannabis offer to you, though? Which ailments can it help? 

Chronic Pain

According to the CDC, over 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. About 600,000 of those have taken to using cannabis to help their pain rather than take pain medications like opioids.

Chronic pain can easily reduce the quality of life someone has and limit what they can do in a day. With the help of cannabis, more people can be pain free without relying on a highly addictive substance like opioids. This led to more and more people using cannabis to treat their chronic pain. 

If you are someone who suffers from chronic pain from various illnesses, then cannabis can be worth a try. We have even seen it to help arthritic rats in various studies. 

Anxiety, Depression, and PTSD

Anxiety, depression, and PTSD can all benefit from the use of medical marijuana. A 2018 study found that 81% of people found that marijuana had one or more benefits to use, making it a great tool for helping symptoms. 

Cannabis helped introduce a feeling of calmness, improved relaxation, and helped improve sleep for those who suffer from flashbacks or night terrors. However, for a few people, cannabis makes anxiety and depression worse. Sadly, there is no way to know until you try it.

The downside is there aren’t many studies out there. As of right now, the studies are scarce as more and more states legalize cannabis for medical use. Once the stigma of cannabis being a gateway drug is gone, more studies can be done.  

Many people have found that most cannabis users never use harder drugs. Most stick with cannabis for the long run and only a few end up using more illicit drugs later on in life. 

Cannabis and GERD

If you aren’t aware of what GERD is, it is Gastroesophageal reflux disease. This is a chronic reflux disease that is a type of acid reflux. Through diet and lifestyle, the symptoms can be managed, and some medications can help treat GERD, but there is hope for another tool in cannabis. 

Cannabis comes into the picture as a pain management tool to help those with GERD get relief from the inflammation of the damaged esophagus. The most common method to use here is CBD oil, as it can be easily ingested. However, other methods are just as effective. 

Cannabis is also known to help reduce stress for many people. Stress is a huge factor in what causes GERD flare-ups to last longer than usual. When you stress about something, it makes the problem worse as it just prolongs it. 

Not only can cannabis help reduce pain, but it also lessens the dependence on pain medication. With GERD, four main types of pain medication only aggravate the problem. Ibuprofen, Aspirin, opioids, and sedatives are all going to make the reflux pain worse.

Cannabis and Cancer

How helpful do you think cannabis is when it comes to cancer? The truth is, it can help many types of cancer patients with their treatment. The main points that cannabis helps are stress management, pain management, and nausea from treatment. 

Using CBD and some THC, the treatment of cancer can go smoother. Considering the cannabis plant’s ability to help reduce pain and nausea, it makes sense. Not only that, it helps with sleep as well.

One significant cancer that is seeing the benefits of using cannabis alongside standard treatment is mesothelioma. This is cancer that attacks and kills lung tissue after asbestos exposure and develops years after exposure. Many blue-collar workers are at risk for this cancer. 

Other Ailments Cannabis Can Help

There are many other ailments that benefit just the same from cannabis use. Illnesses like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, dementia, migraines, and Crohn’s are all examples of ailments that haven’t been extensively treated with cannabis and the results studied. Information is slim to none for most of these. 

For Parkinson’s, a study indicated that doctors believed cannabis would improve certain symptoms of the disease.  Things like appetite, pain, anxiety, and depression were all marked as improving with cannabis use, but hallucinations were marked as increased with use. 

There sadly are few studies out there for various ailments. One study on dementia found that cannabis could lead to improved irritability and agitation, but more research is needed. However, despite that, there is still so much to learn about how cannabis can help. 

Cannabis and Pain Management

Cannabis is a great tool to help those who are in pain get some relief. There are many ways that cannabis can help you or someone you love to get relief. However, do so responsibly.  

If you are having issues with your disease, then it may be worth looking into. Talk to your doctor about the use of cannabis and see if you can benefit from it.