According to the American Academy of Pain Medicine Facts & Figures on Pain page, over 100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain and it is estimated that 3-4.5 million from neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain is a result of damage or a disease that effects the nervous system. It is characterized as burning or coldness, “pins and needles” sensations, numbness and itching. My mother experienced horrific neuropathic pain when she battled lung cancer. It was constant. Cannabis was the only thing that really gave her any relief from the pins and needles and itching feeling. I cannot help but mention that according to a U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy 2007 report, over 28,000 Americans die annually from unintended overdoses and 12,000 of them involved prescription pain relievers. That is not the case with cannabis. In fact, there are no known cases of cannabis overdose. The lethal dose is not known but suspected to be approximately 1500 pounds consumed in 15 minutes which is simply not possible.
Dr. Donald Abrams is a well regarded Oncologist in practice in California. He is an outspoken advocate for cannabis as a safe and effective medicine. Watch and listen as he shares with you his insight about how cannabis has effectively relieved neuropathic pain for his patients.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2W6-VTiOt0?rel=0]
Cannabis & Neuropathic Pain, Dr. Abrams, Part 2: Click here
The video above feature Donald Abrams, MD, UCSF School of Integrative Medicine, introducing his study on smoked “Cannabis (marijuana) in Pain and Palliative Care”, presenting methodology to the Fourth Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics, Santa Barbara, CA – April, 2006.
Dr. Abram’s study was published in Feburary of 2007, as “Cannabis in Painful HIV-associated Sensory Neuropathy”, in the Journal of the American Academy of Neurology:
http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/7/515
Conclusion: Smoked cannabis was well tolerated and effectively relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated sensory neuropathy. The findings are comparable to oral drugs used for chronic neuropathic pain.
Conference hosted by Patients Out of Time http://MedicalCannabis.com
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