All posts tagged: Arthritis

A Flavonol from Sweetscented Marigold Alleviates Pain

Tagetes Lucida as a potential analgesic

In Summary:

Researchers have recently provided evidence that a flavonol extract derived from a common flower has antinociceptive (pain-relieving) properties. Sweet-scented Marigold has been used is frequently used in cooking techniques in South America and has now been found to alleviate pain through serotonin and opioid mechanisms of action. The antinociceptive properties of this flavonol, like those of many other plant-derived compounds, are ripe for testing in a clinical setting to determine their effectiveness in human patients. In this small animal study, it clearly demonstrates promise as a safe alternative to commonly used pain medications. 

Dr. Caplan and the #MDTake:

Modern medicine seems to have largely forgotten its roots. Long before pharmaceutical companies were the source of all medication, the earth served as a resource for medications, and apothecaries, pharmacists, and druggists, as they were known, supported the medical industry with formulations and a deep understanding of natural resources. As the greater scientific arena and dominant culture have lost touch with the earth’s natural medicinal resources, our culture has lost a deeply valuable reservoir of opportunity. As the fast-paced life of modernity demands faster results on an ever-greater, mass-production scale, the construction of sprawling cities, which often demands deforestation and destruction of natural resources, may turn out to be a greater threat to human health than most of us have yet to even understand.

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This paper is also stored here:   http://bit.ly/2Sn1qY9      inside the CED Foundation Archive

Benjamin Caplan, MDA Flavonol from Sweetscented Marigold Alleviates Pain
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Medical Cannabis for Adults Over 50

In Summary:

As with all elements of the aging process, the human endocannabinoid system loses tone over time. Whether it is a reduction in the numbers of cannabinoid receptors or a slow waning of the machinery used to create the signaling molecules that bind to the receptors or the natural senescence of the system that supports all of these normal signaling processes, the fact remains that adults over 50 are best-suited for external support for the endocannabinoid system.

Indeed, the average age at dispensaries is surprising to most who are not familiar with the modern medical cannabis arena. Baby Boomers, perhaps more than any other age group, tend to dominate the medical cannabis dispensaries. This is no new phenomenon, however. Through the ages, across cultures and around the globe, cannabis has been consumed primarily by older adults. Whether by tribe elders, wise councilmen, spiritual leaders, or the educated elite, cannabis has been an integral part of human aging for as long as we have recorded history.

Here, a review out of Israel followed at 184 patients over 65 (average age was 81.2) beginning cannabis treatment. 63.6% were female. “After six months of treatment, 58.1% were still using cannabis. Of these patients, 33.6% reported adverse events, the most common of which were dizziness (12.1%) and sleepiness and fatigue (11.2%). Of the respondents, 84.8% reported some degree of improvement in their general condition.”

Appropriately, the authors advise caution for older adults related to those adults who may be consuming multiple pharmaceuticals, for potential medication interaction effects, as well as nervous system impairment, and increased cardiovascular risk for those who may quire the concern. Wisely, they recommend that “Medical cannabis should still be considered carefully and individually for each patient after a risk-benefit analysis and followed by frequent monitoring for efficacy and adverse events.”

Dr. Caplan and the #MDTake:

At CED Clinic, we have long seen that the average age of medical patients is over 50. Whether for concerns related to sleep, pain, mental or physical health, it seems as though Baby Boomers have either weathered enough politics to have developed a healthy cynicism for the misinformation campaigns of the 1930s and 1970s, or they have direct or indirect experience with cannabis to have learned of its safety and efficacy. Either way, it is quickly reclaiming its historical place in the care of older adults, although oddly… it seems to be a demographic skipped over by the marketing systems of most establishments in the cannabis arena, at least for now.


suggested dose for elderly and cannabis
direction of action for cannabis treatments
bar of significant improvement with cannabis

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Benjamin Caplan, MDMedical Cannabis for Adults Over 50
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Participants in Cannabis for Chronic Pain Study Describe Life-Changing Results

Restored Self: A Phenomenological Study of Pain Relief by Cannabis

In Summary:

In an Israeli qualitative study investigating the impact of cannabis use on chronic pain patients, all but one of the nineteen study participants experienced pain relief after cannabis use. Participants explained how cannabis allowed them to not just discontinue medications treating their pain, but also medications treating secondary outcomes of their pain, such as poor sleep and anxiety. Patients described feeling “a sigh of relief,” being “reborn” or being saved by cannabis use after years of debilitating pain and medication side effects.

Dr. Caplan and the #MDTake:

The pathway through which cannabis works to combat pain is different from the usual pathways doctors have used for the last 90 years. Prior to the 1930s, cannabis was used routinely, just about everywhere, but political and social agendas kidnapped the medicine and hid it away from most of the mainstream and from routine medical education.

Patients often describe typical pain relievers as adjusting the impact of the pain. Reducing or quieting the pain, softening discomfort, allowing the sufferer to perform previously typical tasks without debilitation or dysfunction. Cannabis, on the other hand, is sometimes described as “taking the sufferer away from the pain,” rather than the other way around. The effects that cannabis can have on the reduction of inflammation, attention, memory, and relaxation, provide a new type of opportunity for relief.

Still, other patients describe the effects of cannabis through a lens of mental focus. Whereas in daily use we typically open a standard set of drawers, some have said, the use of cannabis allows the consumer to open up a different set of draws, and through this adjusted lens, to see discomfort from a different perspective.

For those suffering with chronic pain, years upon years of discomfort, suffering that, when paired with modern medicines, has only met frustration and further discomfort, cannabis is frequently seen as a welcome “sigh of relief.”

different types of  pain
Discussion  from text of research  doc
Sample of text discussing lack of adverse  side effects of cannabis

This paper is also stored here:     http://bit.ly/32FZkUU    inside the CED Foundation Archive

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Benjamin Caplan, MDParticipants in Cannabis for Chronic Pain Study Describe Life-Changing Results
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Extensive Cannabis Studies Underway Globally

Current Status and Prospects for Cannabidiol Preparations as New Therapeutic Agents

In Summary:

As of 2016, upwards of 60 clinical trials relating to the use of medical cannabis were in progress. The scope of clinical trials included conditions such as anxiety, cocaine dependence, infantile spasms, schizophrenia, solid tumor, and many more. The status of cannabis as a Schedule I drug, under the Controlled Substance Act, limits researchers’ ability to freely collect data if they require support from NIH funding. While there are opportunities for researchers to study cannabis and its derivatives with the support of private funds, this typically risks an appearance of sacrificed scientific integrity and independence. Very few private entities would condone research which might shed an unfavorable light on their products. On the other hand, current NIH-funded research requires the use of the national supply of cannabis, a crop well-known to be very limited in quality. Increasingly, more states have been legalizing the medical and recreational use of cannabis in recent years, allowing scientists with more opportunities for private funding in which to shed more light on the vast medicinal benefits of cannabis. Animal models and human trials have pointed toward clinical applications of medical cannabis including anxiety, nausea, seizures, and inflammation, although the array of competing and synergistic compounds within the plant seem to continually open new doors to relief from a large array of illnesses.

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This paper is also stored here:     http://bit.ly/32HVVpc    inside the CED Foundation Archive

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Benjamin Caplan, MDExtensive Cannabis Studies Underway Globally
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Pre-clinical Evidence for Analgesic Effects of Cannabis Doesn’t Match Human Trial Results

Current evidence of cannabinoid-based analgesia obtained in preclinical and human experimental settings

In Summary:

Pre-clinical animal models of pain provide a wealth of data supporting the pain-relief capabilities of cannabis; however, reproducing this data in human clinical trials has proved difficult. Data from the animal pre-clinical trials point to cannabinoids reducing stress responses and pain-evoked stress, desensitizing pain receptors, and increased pain sensitivity in animals that lack cannabinoid receptors. However, human trials present conflicting results: several studies have shown dose-dependent relationships, and in the current review this was experienced by many participants, wherein lower and medium doses provided pain relief, but higher doses triggered increased sensitivity to pain. Controlled studies may show a lack of impressive pain relief effects, personal reports of pain relief associated with cannabis use are nearly universal in retrospective reports. This suggests that there may be an important effect on well-being or mood, rather merely sensory pain. Furthermore, the relieving effects of cannabis appear to impact men and women differently.

Dr. Caplan and the #MDTake:

Additionally, much of pain relief is subjective, in both sensation, description, and inside the study environment. The description of pain varies from person to person, and researchers may be asking the wrong questions to the right people or the right questions to the wrong people. In fact, a growing perspective is that this mismatch may be more common and more pronounced than previously recognized. The makeup of pain is also quite complicated. For instance, a limb might hurt, but if there is swelling or tenderness nearby, those may amplify the discomfort. How can we take the full picture into account in the form of helpful data points? What of the emotional or psychological impacts of pain? Is it even possible that such things can be fully understood, let alone measured reliably? Assuming that emotional phenomenon or stress/suffering can be conveyed to research scientists, how can we ever hope to compare one person’s experience to another’s? For example, one would imagine that frustration associated with the pain experienced by a venerable world war veteran, who has previously endured tremendous and complex pains and associated psychological trauma may be quite different from someone who has never experienced a particular pain before.

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Benjamin Caplan, MDPre-clinical Evidence for Analgesic Effects of Cannabis Doesn’t Match Human Trial Results
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Arthritis Sufferers Lead the Way for Advancing Cannabis as Pain Medicine

A Weedmaps News piece, looking earnestly at cannabis and arthritis. As the title suggests, arthritis sufferers are, indeed, leading the way for advancing cannabis as pain medicine.

https://news.weedmaps.com/2019/10/arthritis-sufferers-lead-the-way-for-advancing-cannabis-as-pain-medicine/

“We know cannabis is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent that functions differently from other drugs like Tylenol, Ibuprofen, steroids, or the biological options that work on the immune system and can present severe side-effects,” Caplan told Weedmaps News. “We don’t see that w/ cannabis”

“There is still not enough of what modern medicine calls the gold standard- randomized trials or review trials that collect multiple studies – but anecdote is not meaningless,” Caplan said.

“Stories we hear from individuals are very meaningful and worthwhile,” Caplan said. “We live in a scientific culture that thinks we should discount anecdotes and only pay attention to the highest quality data, which I think is misleading and not fair.”

Benjamin Caplan, MDArthritis Sufferers Lead the Way for Advancing Cannabis as Pain Medicine
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Informing Doctors and Patients on Cannabis Use for Pain

Paper Title: Cannabis and Pain: A Clinical Review

Although results from many bench-scientific and preclinical animal trials support the use of medical cannabis for pain management, there is not yet an equal body of evidence in human clinical trials. However, this is, in part, due to the fact that, despite millennia of accounts supporting the use of cannabis to treat a large number of medical concerns, in the shorter history of cannabis research, the number of controlled, double-blind, placebo studies are limited, and to some points of view, may not even be possible. Additionally, in an era where increasingly more patients request cannabis therapy from their clinicians, health professionals are catastrophically undereducated on the topic. Furthermore, given the status of the modern opioid crisis, there is a growing need for alternative pain management strategies: states with medical marijuana laws experience significantly fewer opioid-related deaths than states lacking them. Additional research could reduce these deaths further and provide viable alternatives for patients seeking pain management when other therapies have failed. 

Below are interesting clippings from this article, points that are either described eloquently or bring a welcome addition to the ongoing discussion:

Benjamin Caplan, MDInforming Doctors and Patients on Cannabis Use for Pain
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California veterinarians & Cannabis

Vets in CA can now discuss the use of cannabis for patients and their pets legally and soon, prescribe cannabis medication. Although there is still more much research to be done, adults can already legally buy products, so involving professional vets can help keep pets safe http://bit.ly/33dmbIK

Benjamin Caplan, MDCalifornia veterinarians & Cannabis
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Medical Marijuana Offers Benefits Comparable to Prescription Medication, Without the Side Effects

Title: Preferences for Medical Marijuana over Prescription Medications Among Persons Living with Chronic Conditions: Alternative, Complementary, and Tapering Uses

In a survey of 30 patients using medical cannabis for a range of diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, hepatitis C, PTSD, among others, patients reported an array of benefits they have reaped from cannabis use. Patients successfully used cannabis in several ways: as an alternative to prescription medication, complementarily with prescription medicine, and to gradually replace use of prescription medication.

Benefits described by participants included the effects of cannabis lasting longer than that of opioids, lower risk of addiction, fewer side-effects. Patients also saw their sleep, anxiety, appetite, and adverse reactions improve with the use of medical cannabis. Larger, more controlled studies may suggest cannabis more affirmatively as an alternative or complementary therapy with prescription medications.

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This paper is also stored here:    http://bit.ly/2wqDDdQ     inside the CED Foundation Archive

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Benjamin Caplan, MDMedical Marijuana Offers Benefits Comparable to Prescription Medication, Without the Side Effects
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Video: Do-It-Yourself Cannabis Tinctures

One of the terrific realities of modern Cannabis is that it is possible, and often quite simple, to make effective products at home. With suitable education and access to testing facilities, the soil, nutrients, and plant growth can be supported at home, lab-tested for make-up and potency, as well as safety-checked for potential microscopic contaminants, and ultimately, individualized medicine can be created right at home!

Here is a sample instructional for just one way that cannabis tincture can be made at home. There are countless others and hopefully, many that are yet to be discovered!

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Benjamin Caplan, MDVideo: Do-It-Yourself Cannabis Tinctures
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