Canadian Study: Three Puffs a Day Helps Chronic Pain Sufferers

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 11:30:45 AM EST
Tags: medical marijuana (all tags)

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Via Web MD: A new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal finds that marijuana relieves chronic nerve pain and aids sleep. Three puffs a day is all it took for patients to find relief.

The study involved patients with chronic nerve pain due to injury or accident. Some received placebos and others received three different doses of cannabis.

How it worked: [More...]

'Each person was in the study for two months, and used all four strengths [including placebo]," Ware says. He rotated them through the four strengths in different orders, and they didn't know which they were using.

The cannabis was put into gelatin capsules, then put into the bowl of a pipe. Each person was told to inhale for five seconds while the cannabis was lit, hold the smoke in their lungs for 10 seconds, and then exhale. They did this single puff three times a day for five days for each of the doses and the placebo.

The results:

After each of the five-day trials, participants rated their pain on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the worst.

The highest dose, 9.4%, provided relief, Ware says. "They reduced their pain down to 5.4," Ware says. "Those on placebo were at 6.1."

The import, according to a doctor involved with the study:

"We've shown again that cannabis is analgesic," Ware says. "Clearly, it has medical value."

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Canadian Study: Three Puffs a Day Helps Chronic Pain Sufferers | 21 comments (21 topical)

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Pretty good results for the placebo (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by oculus on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 11:47:30 AM EST

aslo. Kind of surprising.

Placebo effect (5.00 / 1) (#4)
by CST on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 11:57:37 AM EST

is really interesting to me. I was reading an article a few months ago about how doctors are looking into trying to take advantage of the placebo effect - because it actually works, rather than just using it to discount other treatment.

The power of the human mind is pretty incredible.


: The human mind (5.00 / 1) (#16)
by Jen M on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 05:20:14 PM EST

is the best pain reliever.
The trick is... well... tricking it.

No Kdog? (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by Yman on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 04:40:30 PM EST

Thought he'd be all over this ...

Same here, (none / 0) (#12)
by jeffinalabama on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 04:42:21 PM EST

I haven't seen him post today, though.


They killed me today... (none / 0) (#13)
by kdog on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 04:50:52 PM EST

off the wall zero downtime...lets just say chronic pain is not all a certain plant eases...rat race therapy.

It's been medicine for millenia...a buncha morons in the 20th century decided it was bad news and sold prohibition with lies....now the money is too good for police and thieves to pass up.


If three puffs a day can cure chronic pain (none / 0) (#14)
by dead dancer on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 05:00:00 PM EST

Just think what four could do.

Maybe we could get the chronic pains to start puffing three a day and they would go away!


: no more chronic pain, (none / 0) (#15)
by jeffinalabama on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 05:08:11 PM EST

just chronic, eh kdog? ;-)

Well (none / 0) (#1)
by squeaky on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 11:39:31 AM EST

US government tests have shown that smoking three MJ cigarettes a day does nothing to alleviate pain.

Of course the US uses ditch weed in its tests which has almost zero active ingredients.

On a more positive note the US has found that ditch weed makes for great rope...

Thanks for the post (none / 0) (#3)
by Dadler on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 11:56:02 AM EST

While I support MJ legalization (and an end to narcotic prohibition in general), I only wish the great Dr. John Sarno would get as much play. The good and brilliant doc has been healing people with chronic pain at an astonishing rate for decades out of NYU Medical Center, with nothing more than equipping his patients with the knowledge of where their pain is truly originating from. I suffered from everything under the sun, all to the mystification of my normal docs. Sarno's psychosomatic/mind-body prescription could help so many more people, soldiers returning from combat especially. Post WWI, it was a bright and shining development in the treatment of post-traumatic stress (not known as such back then). But then the pharmaceutical industry begain it's "there's a pill for everything" paradigm, and this vital area of medicine was all but forgotten. 'Tis indeed a terrible shame.

What else to explain the (5.00 / 2) (#5)
by Anne on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 12:11:55 PM EST

fact that some people who are suffering no pain at all can clearly be seen to have, for example, significant disc herniation, while those whose MRI's and scans and other tests show no visible problems are experiencing debilitating pain?

It's not just a matter of having a high pain threshold, that's for sure.

I found it fascinating how the mind uses the body to distract us from problems and issues we don't want to face; if nothing else, exploring the possiblity of the mental origin of chronic pain can be a great help in dealing with life, in general.


it literally saved my life (none / 0) (#7)
by Dadler on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 03:27:53 PM EST

glad you're investigating the good doctor's work and methods. his big problem is that since he's not peddling expensive therapies or pills, well, there ain't no real money in his medically vital truths -- and what for-profit outfit wants anything to do with that?

i couldn't walk for more than ten minutes a few years ago. then i read and comprehended and absorbed what Sarno was saying. and, boom, it all went away. and not just leg pain. stomach pain, joint pain, viscious plantar fasciitis, headaches, "allergies"...you name it, I had it. No more. Yes, I have flare-ups, but since I know the origin of the pain, I can essentially meditate on the situation and, amazing as it sounds, the physical symptom ceases. And if you looked at my back on an MRI, holy sh*t. As my surgeon said: "I've never seen such an ugly mess." Still is, but I am no longer controlled by the pain or the fear of it.


Glad it worked for you. (none / 0) (#8)
by jeffinalabama on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 03:58:39 PM EST

First time I ruptured a disk, my hand went numb, and within days I was virtually incapacitated. Knowing where the pain came from didn't do me any good, with the seeping fluid pressing on a nerve.
I had to have a diskectomy and fusion... immediately after waking up from the surgery i knew it was what I had needed.

For different problems there are different solutions. Sometimes there are different solutions for the same problem, depending on approach.

I have a pretty high pain tolerance. For examply, I generally don't think I'm in pain any more, even after destroying my ankle last year. But for a time, during the colder months, were it not for the various drugs, the pain was unbearable.

After examining some of the comments about the doctor, and there seemed to be a lot of voluntary testimonials about his work. I'm on the other side, giving a voluntary testimonial about my surgeries. i won't say a whole lot in favore or against the (sometimes-weekly) epidurals-- effectiveness varied. Of course, none of my injuries were chronic conditions, so it might be an apples and peaches comparison. there was chronic pain, but it was directly related to the injuries. for me it either disappeared following surgery or faded over some months. Glad I didn't have to endure chronic daily pain for years.

Doctors in the US are known worldwide for cutting first, or prescribing first, and not necessarily looking for alternatives or for holistic approaches, but I think the medical climate is changing as the knowledge base changes.


all i can say (none / 0) (#9)
by Dadler on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 04:06:51 PM EST

is i was cured of my ailment, which manifested itself in several insidious ways. and this was ONLY possible because it was the correct diagnosis. that i could have cured myself by an incorrect diagnosis, or one which simply worked by some inexplicable magic, seems simply irrational.

also, chronic pain to me is CONTINUAL pain, not recurring. if you have a legitimate injury, then it will hurt, by definition, until the physical injury heals itself.

the brain controls everything in the body. that simple fact is the starting point for me. and the fact that human beings, by nature, are emotional creatures.


: I tend to agree with your statement (none / 0) (#10)
by jeffinalabama on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 04:17:21 PM EST

that the brain controls the body, but I wouldn't say everything, based on pathologies and based on, for instance, autonomic responses,or 'brain stem' responses. Of course, I'm looking at the deviations, the 5 percent or 1 percent that's different. I've talked myself out of sickness and tiredness before many times, and found out that people can continue doing things long after one would expect them to drop from exhaustion. But these also stress the body, and the body itself does wear out. I think we might be talking past one another, or at tangents-- I think I might purchase a copy of the book, or see if my local library has one.
shoot, high stress has long been linked with cancer and other severe illnesses. Pain is another manifestation-- not of those illnesses, but of holistic consequences. emotions, injury, and more. I'll withhold more comments until I read his work. I've read 'about' it, but it's time to go to the source.

Yes (none / 0) (#6)
by squeaky on Tue Aug 31, 2010 at 12:12:11 PM EST

My guess is that he came up with his theory while smoking a doobie... lol

Of course his extensive research and work on patients with back problems also helped...


The laugh on all of us is that Tylenol (none / 0) (#17)
by Mr Natural on Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 01:02:10 AM EST

(Paracetamol), which has been used to relieve pain for about one hundred years, is turned by the brain and spinal cord into an endogenous cannabinoid - and the "the analgesic effect of paracetamol is due to the indirect activation of cannabinoid CB(1) receptors"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17227290

OK (none / 0) (#18)
by Patrick on Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 01:22:01 AM EST

so three puffs a day equals maybe 365 grams (more likely half that) per year. Why are 18 year olds getting recommendations for 25 pounds a year from "doctors" in California? I forgot to mention, the recommendation was for "anxiety". I've seen this personally more than a dozen times. Medical marijuana is a joke.

: Joke (none / 0) (#19)
by squeaky on Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 02:07:22 AM EST

Well the real joke is that Marijuana use and sale is a crime.
The WOD is a ridiculous waste of resources and lives.

metered dose inhaler (none / 0) (#24)
by diogenes on Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 08:07:17 PM EST

So put it in a metered dose inhaler to take three puffs a day, and prescribe a 90 inhalation supply supply per month.

: Good Idea (none / 0) (#25)
by squeaky on Wed Sep 01, 2010 at 10:44:34 PM EST

And if you try to take an extra hit, you get tasered.
Bet you could design and market the inhaler, 10,000 volts..