Medical Cannabis Effects on Opioid and Benzodiazepine Requirements for Pain Control.

There is currently little evidence regarding the use of medical cannabis for the treatment of intractable pain. 

Literature published on the subject to date has yielded mixed results concerning the efficacy of medical cannabis and has been limited by study design and regulatory issues. 

The objective of this study that was published on 25 March 2019 in PubMed was to determine if the use of medical cannabis affects the amount of opioids and benzodiazepines used by patients on a daily basis. 

Methods:

This single-center, retrospective cohort study evaluated opioid and benzodiazepine doses over a 6-month time period for patients certified to use medical cannabis for intractable pain. All available daily milligram morphine equivalents (MMEs) and daily diazepam equivalents (DEs) were calculated at baseline and at 3 and 6 months.

"CBDA for Psoriasis, Arthritis and Anxiety...???"

Cannabis research pioneer hopes latest discovery is not overlooked again...

Raphael Mechoulam, an Israeli organic chemist and professor of medicinal chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, remembers the letdown after his groundbreaking discoveries surrounding the structure of the cannabis compounds CBD and THC in 1963 and 1964, followed by clinical tests with CBD published in 1980.




In a 2018 British Journal of Pharmacology study, Mechoulam and his co-authors wrote that their synthetic compound, cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) methyl ester (HU-580) could be more effective than existing CBD remedies, making it “a potential medicine for treating some nausea and anxiety disorders.” Those initial clinical tests found the acids have yielded results on par, and even exceeding, existing treatments, without the side effects.

The naturally occurring but unstable CBD acid (CBDA) is a thousand times more potent than CBD in binding to a particular serotonin receptor thought to be responsible for alleviating nausea and anxiety.

“It’s an interesting molecule that potentially doesn’t have side effects,” said Dan Peer, managing director of the Center for Translational Medicine and head of the Cancer Biology Research Center at Tel Aviv University.

"Israeli Researchers Find Cannabis Therapy Reduces Fibromyalgia Pain"

Cannabis could be a treatment option for fibromyalgia,  one of the most common chronic pain conditions in the world, according to a new Israeli study. 

Characterized by widespread musculoskeletal aching, fatigue, poor sleep quality, and cognitive difficulties, fibromyalgia has no specific causes and no known cure, but  a prospective observational study, “Safety and Efficacy of Medical Cannabis in Fibromyalgia,” has given fibromyalgia patients some hope. The researchers found significant improvement in pain intensity and fibromyalgia‐related symptoms among patients after six months of medical cannabis therapy.

“It's commonly accepted that chronic pain can be treated with cannabis, but there has been less evidence to support the role it plays in specifically treating fibromyalgia,” said Lihi Bar-Lev Schleider, one of the lead authors on the study and head research scientist at the Tikun Olam research department in Tel Aviv, Israel, where it was conducted.

“Our data indicates that medical cannabis could be a promising therapeutic option for the treatment of fibromyalgia, especially for those who failed on standard pharmacological therapies. We show that medical cannabis is effective and safe when titrated slowly and gradually,” concluded the study, published in June 2019 in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. 

"I Tried Medical Cannabis During Chemo, and Here’s What Happened"

Health and wellness touch everyone’s life differently. This is one person’s story.

At the age of 23, my world was completely flipped upside down. Just 36 days before I was planning to walk down the aisle, I was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer.

Before receiving my diagnosis, I was a fitness social media influencer, with a YouTube channeland Instagram account that chronicled my fitness regimen and my journey to my first National Physique Committee competition. How could a very healthy and active 23-year-old woman’s world flip upside down in a matter of seconds like this?

Raphael Mechoulam on Medical Cannabis “Why Did We Have to Wait 35 Years?”

Decades before legislators in Colorado or California even began to consider medical marijuana, Raphael Mechoulam was investigating the biochemistry and pharmacology of cannabis-derived compounds, and urging the global medical community to shed their preconceptions about this plant, and to take it seriously as a source of safe and effective medicines.

In the early 1960s, Raphael Melcoulam & his team became the first who isolate, characterize, and synthesize THC,one of the main psychoactive compounds produced by cannabis.

His subsequent work included the discovery of endogenously produced cannabinoids and the characterization of the endocannabinoid receptor system within the human central nervous system and peripheral tissues.

Dr. Mechoulam is currently a professor of medicinal chemistry and natural products at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His total synthesis of THC, as well as other cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD), is the cornerstone of the burgeoning medical-cannabis industry. Furthermore, his major contributions in the field of organic chemistry and the interaction of human and plant biology have led to the discovery of cannabinoid receptors in the human brain and the endocannabinoid system in the human body.

Dr. Mechoulam was kind enough to give his time for an exclusive interview with Holistic Primary Care’s cannabis correspondent, Laura Lagano.

Lagano, an integrative clinical nutritionist and co-founder of the Holistic Cannabis Academy, got Mechoulam to share his views on the current state of medical cannabis research and the appropriate clinical applications of cannabis-derived compounds.

Here are excerpts from their conversation: