Could medical marijuana help patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)? It turns out that marijuana pills and sprays might ease MS symptoms while other complementary and alternative medicine treatments do not. The findings reveal how medical marijuana could help those in pain from MS.
MS occurs when an abnormal response from the body's immune system is directed against the central nervous system. This can cause numbness, impairment of speech and muscular coordination, blurred vision, and severe fatigue. It's estimated that MS affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide, and many of these patients seek alternative treatments in order to help deal with their condition, according to HealthDay. In fact, between 33 and 80 percent of MS patients are estimated to use alternative therapies.
In order to find out how alternative therapies might help those with MS, researchers reviewed more than 40 years of research on alternative medicine treatments, according to WebMD. In the end, they found that medical marijuana pills and sprays could help relieve symptoms of MS, in addition to ginkgo biloba. More particularly, marijuana can lessen the pain and muscle rigidity that can accompany the disease.
"We're at a place where we need to continue to understand and better appreciate the benefits of what we know and don't know about [alternative medicine], said Timothy Coetzee, services and research officer for the National MS Society, in an interview with HealthDay. "I view it as integrated care. It's important we continue to keep our options open so people with MS can live their best lives."
The findings reveal that marijuana may indeed have a future for helping relieve some of the symptoms of MS. As more and more states legalize the drug, marijuana's use in medical treatments is likely to become more widespread. That said, it's important to note that only the sprays and pills seemed to relieve MS symptoms, while smoking marijuana didn't have any real discernible effect.
