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Smoking causing an increase in pain...

K

Krip

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Jun 16, 2011
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Hi!

I'm a tetra/quadraplegic, level C6/5 and have smoked cannabis for some years, not just recreationally but it also relieves muscle spasm. The last three years however I have been on and off bedrest due to a pressure sore which has spread to the bone causing osteomyelitis (bone infection).

Over the last 12 months or so I've had fairly mild hip and pelvis pain, however when I smoke the pain increases ten fold and will last for a good half hour before returning to "normal". The spasm does decrease but the hips can still be painful when I reposition my legs.

Does anyone have any idea why the pain would increase?

Cheers,
Krip.
 
Paradoxical effects can sometimes occur in long-term users. I have to ask, if smoking causes your pain to increase by an order of magnitude, why smoke?
 
I think it's more to do with the bone infection, I'm not exactly a long term smoker, I only started again around 5 years ago.

Why smoke? I ask myself the same at times. I mostly smoke in the late evening and before bed now. I still enjoy the head effects and it does relief the muscle spasticity and make me sleepy which all helps to sleep through the night.

Edibles do not give me the pain, so it must be something to do with the actual smoking, or tobacco. Maybe a circulation issue?


K.
 
You need to to think about switching to topical cannabis ointment rather than smoking.

Dump the tobacco if you can too, since doing so will improve the health of your body in general and possibly may affect pain tolerance in some way.

Ibuprofen is a good drug to take orally, but works really well as a gel or ointment. Likewise cannabis can be useful in the same way.

This is if you don't miss the high too much. But you have to choose which is more important - pain relief or getting high. Just keep trying different things until you find something that works for you. As said, smoking cannabis can have the opposite effect in some of exacerbating pain perception.

I would also recommend CBT for pain relief. Hypnosis can also be useful. And yes, they do work.
 
I agree that using other ROAs for marijuana help immensely. Even switching to a vaporizer may eliminate much of this, it sure did for me!
 
I'd bet it has more to do with the tobacco than the weed. I recently quit smoking tobacco, and a bunch of physical ailments have suddenly improved (I still smoke weed daily).

Tobacco can definitely cause problems with circulation. In fact, tobacco smokers are at a much higher risk of getting carpal tunnel for that very reason.

If I were you, I'd replace any tobacco intake with some good ol' marijuana, or maybe some oxycodone if you can get your hands on it.
 
Coming down always irritates my broken jaw. This is probably due to a feeling of more acute pain in a specific area, whereas while high I wasn't paying as much attention.
 
I've found indicas better than sativas for pain relief.

Also, when I overdo my smoking, being too high will make me more sensitive to pain, as well as more sensitive to music (good)/taste (good). So, I keep it between 0.15-0.2g (usually) of dank, and I get pain relief, AND I still get to retain the pleasurable sense enhancements (music, taste, etc.)
 
i'm not sure why and usually smoking helps my cramps and headaches but once in a while it will just make the pain more intence and i wanna know why too!
 
NarcoticNinja said:
I'd bet it has more to do with the tobacco than the weed. I recently quit smoking tobacco, and a bunch of physical ailments have suddenly improved (I still smoke weed daily).

Tobacco can definitely cause problems with circulation. In fact, tobacco smokers are at a much higher risk of getting carpal tunnel for that very reason.

If I were you, I'd replace any tobacco intake with some good ol' marijuana, or maybe some oxycodone if you can get your hands on it.
Click to expand...


Definitely, quit the tobacco, whether you're in tip top condition, dying of cancer or a quadriplegic.

You might just find that if you want relief as soon as possible, it might help to hit the problem at multiple angles (possibly all at the same time). Think hollistically.

Stop smoking, try hypnosis (which can be so effective people have had invasive surgery without general anaesthesia, or local anesthetics in some cases (research showed their brain was naturally producing neurochemicals such as endorphins which blocked the pain)). In fact, your pain perception can change so much, you can hack your own arm off without feeling much pain at all! That sounds rediculous, but there was a documentary recently in the UK about pain in general. Featured was this guy that got his arm caught behind a radiator, and he eventually realized his only hope of survival was to cut his own arm off with a saw. Because of the chemicals his brain was producing, he felt no pain whatsoever! Pain is incredibly subjective, and there are ways to control your perception of pain.

Glucosamine and chondroitin, as well as cherries (natural inflammatory-containing chemicals) are worth looking into.

Exercise, though, mundane, will work too.


BayHeath said:
i'm not sure why and usually smoking helps my cramps and headaches but once in a while it will just make the pain more intence and i wanna know why too!
Click to expand...

Because getting high enhances your perception of the world. You can smoke just enough to treat the pain, but not enough to get particularly high. High CBD strains are more likely to be of use since they put a damper on the effects of the major psychoactive cannabinoid, delta-9-THC.
 
I strained my rotator cuff recently and it took a good 3 weeks of inactivity to get it back to normal. During that time when i smoked cannabis the pain in my shoulder would get much worse to the point where i would think it was torn, then an hour later im almost back to normal.

Does weed make inflamation worse? because for me it certainly feels like it.
 
^no. GW pharma are looking into a cannabinoid that treats inflammation and it'll be a new drug produced that's in the pipeline.

As said:

Because getting high enhances your perception of the world. You can smoke just enough to treat the pain, but not enough to get particularly high. High CBD strains are more likely to be of use since they put a damper on the effects of the major psychoactive cannabinoid, delta-9-THC.
Click to expand...
 
Artificial Emotion said:
^no. GW pharma are looking into a cannabinoid that treats inflammation and it'll be a new drug produced that's in the pipeline.
Click to expand...

It was more than just a perception change. I would go from almost pain free to having significant pain when i raised my right arm after smoking.

I suspect it has something to do with my specific injury. The rotator cuff muscle is pinched tightly in between two bones and any change to it makes it push against the bones.

After doing a google search I found this, someone claiming basically exactly the same thing as me.

http://www.marijuana.com/medicinal-...ase-pain-severely-inflamed-muscle-tissue.html

Certain pain conditions may actually become intensified. Cannabanoid receptors are spread throughout your body, they do a wide range of functions, it's quite possibly in your body that they would increase the pain. There is enough genetic variation out there to create problems in medicine called paradoxial reactions - a very minor sequence of a gene, a minorly different grouping of receptors - and drugs can have very different effects in this population than in the majority. It's also possible that in this particular type of pain cannabanoids have a normal effect that would work to increase the pain. I've talked to a few people who have TMJ, and several of them have told me that marijuana made their TMJ pain worse even though it stopped the muscle spasms.
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Im no expert on cannabis or medicine and ive definitely noticed that cannabis is great for most pain. But this specific injury seemed to react very badly with cannabis.
 
^TMJ is predominantly a neurological condition. I have a bit of jaw popping myself and notice it flares up more when I smoke. The reason seems to be that being high makes some people chew differently.
 
Pegasus said:
^TMJ is predominantly a neurological condition. I have a bit of jaw popping myself and notice it flares up more when I smoke. The reason seems to be that being high makes some people chew differently.
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About this...CD seems to attract those with severe TMJ problems, but I have to regularly pay attention to my jaw and keep it relaxed when I can, sometimes sticking my tongue in front of it. But when I'm not paying attention I clench my teeth really hard, and it starts to hurt quick, and then I realize it and undo it but hey, when I'm stoned it gets annoying. I'm gonna start seeing how I chew when I'm high versus when I'm not now, interesting...

On the idea of pain increase with pot use, I find pot always always works for period cramps (and nausea and general bitchiness too!) and aids in back pain relief. However, if I have a headache and I smoke, the pain gets almost intolerable. Smoking weed definitely seems to make a headache MUCH MUCH worse, and I've never really been sure why. Sometimes I'll get a come-down headache but that's not really related I think. I tend to get headaches somewhat regularly so, I've had plenty of times to test this out and a large majority of the time I've insisted on trying again, it made the pain worse. IF the headache initiates from the TMJ joint, then my jaw hurts like hell after that, but if it seems to come from elsewhere, my jaw doesn't seem nearly as irritated.
 
Care said:
It was more than just a perception change. I would go from almost pain free to having significant pain when i raised my right arm after smoking.

I suspect it has something to do with my specific injury. The rotator cuff muscle is pinched tightly in between two bones and any change to it makes it push against the bones.

After doing a google search I found this, someone claiming basically exactly the same thing as me.

http://www.marijuana.com/medicinal-...ase-pain-severely-inflamed-muscle-tissue.html



Im no expert on cannabis or medicine and ive definitely noticed that cannabis is great for most pain. But this specific injury seemed to react very badly with cannabis.
Click to expand...

Well your case would be more the exception to the rule.

Sativex, the first cannabis extract to be licensed in the UK in god knows how long, is indicated for neuropathic pain in MS patients as a matter of fact, showing that the strain they use at least, has been proven highly effective for it's indication at least. It is also showing very good results in trials with patients suffering from neuropathic pain in other conditions.

Despite the narrow indication of the licensed Sativex drug, I believe the right cannabis strains taken in the appropriate manner can help more people with neuropathic pain than it hinders. So either you are a very unlucky person with a unique biochemistry that differs from the norm, or you're just not getting on with the strains you've been using (which probably have been bred and grown to have a disproportionately high level of delta-9-THC compared with CBD and other lesser cannabinoids). Paradoxical reactions are not unheard of, such as the odd individual who is made hyperactive by benzos or sedated by speed (and no, I don't necessarily mean those with ADD/ADHD, I'm talking about the population as a whole).

So before you write cannabis off, I suggest at least trying a few medical strains that a lot of patients have benefited from. It could be that the extra CBD would completely change your experience with the drug. I would add that cannabis is no panacea. Although it can help many, it's definitely not for everyone. But then that's the same with every drug available.
 
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