Cannabis Benefits for Paraplegic Patients

Cannabis Benefits for Paraplegic Patients

Cannabis can Benefit the Paraplegic As Well from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

The concept and application of medical marijuana has got many thinking about this highly contested drug. One major development is what has been realized with paraplegic patients. These are people whose spinal cord and nerve roots have undergone severe injury leaving them under a condition known as paraplegia. Ideally, it leads to the paralysis of a person’s lower limbs and the general cause is injury to the spinal cord. So, what does marijuana do to such a condition?

Medical marijuana users claim that weed works well in relaxing Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) spasms and again in relieving SCI pain more effectively than when using narcotics. Additionally, marijuana treats both the pains and the spasms. The only side effect that comes with the use of pot is euphoria. Well, this is not a problem to some people and they have shown a high tolerance to that.

Reports of Cannabis Use among Paraplegic Patients

With credible results from studies in the recent past, medical marijuana has been considered an effective regimen for paraplegic patients. It does not only deal with the paraplegia condition, but also with the side effects that come with it. Research from the Switzerland Center for Spinal Cord Injury conducted in 2007 made conclusions that THC was an effective method to treat paraplegic patients. The study used 25 paraplegic patients where an oral THC was administered to each one of them in the nature of oil. In this study, there was a significant drop off in the spasticity sum score (SSS). The same results were realized by J. Malec and RF Harvey, back in 1984 after using weed for all the 43 participants in their study found to be having a paraplegic condition.

The University of Manitoba goes down in history through their Department of Medicine to have tested weed use among patients with spinal cord injury-related conditions. The research was conducted among 12 volunteer paraplegic patients who were given a synthetic cannabinoid known as Nabilone to use. About 92% of the patients recorded advanced improvement in alleviating their spasticity. The Switzerland Centre for Spinal Cord Injury is apparently leading in this area of research with another study that was conducted back in 2001. In this case, there were 15 paraplegic patients suffering from overactive bladder as an SCI side effect. THC was administered to them either rectally or orally for about a month and 2 weeks. The findings showed that oral administration of THC did not have much improvement of the condition. However, over 83% of those administered rectally showed positive developments.

There is yet another study that was conducted from the Medical College of Augusta in 1995. The research involved 5 quadriplegic persons who were given Dronabinol. There was a marked improvement of spasticity across two of these patients and another two recorded slight positive developments. Only one recorded no improvement at all. However, all showed a decreased verve in inconsistent mood states. Well, the study may have been limited by the small sample choice of 5 patients and could have yielded much more reliable and positive results of cannabis use in the treatment of paraplegic patients has the number been more.

Important Findings Advancing the Use of Medical Cannabis

Paraplegic patients have been among the largest group of beneficiaries of medical marijuana especially with the use of cannaboids. So, how do they work? From the 1960’s marijuana has found medical use despite its criminalization for many years. Studies have shown that weed components tend to bind themselves at specialized regions on the nerve cells of a patient’s body hence activating his or her biological processes. The binding locations are known as cannabinoid receptors and are available all through the human brain, the immune system and the spinal cord. Well, there may not be full research to explain the use of these receptors in the daily functioning of the human body especially on emotional and physical grounds.

Your body makes its cannabinoids also known as “endocannabinoids” and work by activating, changing or shutting off these receptors. There are scientist reports that have shown that the cannabinoid receptor framework does significant roles in cognition and motivation such as in learning and remembering things that were taught. On the other hand, they do have some physical influences in protecting immunity, protection from any kind of inflammation, metabolic and gastrointestinal effects. Additionally, it has been proved to deal with pain among SCI patients. It is important to note that the spinal cord is a part of the signaling pathway for pain that causes you to take action after suffering an injury. As a result, the SCI community is committed towards establishing facts about SCI effects on the human endocannabinoid system.

Continuing Cannabis Benefits to Paraplegic Patients

Despite having some proof in administering treatment among paraplegic patients, cannabis is still put under test by the SCI community to see what forms can be administered without producing any side effects. More than that, there is also a need to come up with products that have a low potential of addiction. The good news is that, there have been positive results so far. Since the 1970s, there have been lots of documentations on the ability of cannabis to deal with spasticity and pain among paraplegic patients. As a result of this continued research work, there have been alternative solutions to pain and other unpleasant symptoms made possible through the use of cannabis.

Whether cannabis can benefit paraplegic patients or not is a non-issue – we already have an answer that for sure, it does. The reason why it does is what has not been told fully and it is apparently that paraplegic patients are going to use cannabis as long as it is addressing their uncomfortable condition. The political gate is not yet convinced to allow the development of medications based on cannabis despite advanced research into this subject. Paraplegic patients have had a lot to smile about as a result of these medications and the only hope that is there is that, a perfect solution will come to be very soon.