Marijuana Benefits

Headaches & Medical Marijuana

Headache pain is caused by stimuli from irritated, inflamed or damaged nerves about the skull.

Brain tissue itself does not and cannot generate pain. Rather, the brain's sensation of pain originates from the feedback of nerves about the muscles and tissues of the skull, eyes, ears, neck, spinal column and shoulders.

Common causes of headaches include, alcohol and drug abuse, fatigue, sleep deprivation, dehydration, stress, infections, lymph and sinus conditions, head injury, ingestion, dental and hormonal problems.

"It was discovered that people who quit Marijuana developed severe headaches. Later it was found that withdrawal was not the cause of the headaches, rather, it masked a preexisting condition."

-- Mental Health Daily (paraphrase)

Headaches and Cannabis

A variety of nerve-related disorders, including headache, contribute to bacterial and viral infections, brain hemorrhages, tumors, trauma, and muscle disorders. Most headache remedies and treatments work to reduce pain stimulus by addressing the cause or reducing symptoms, by blocking nerve receptors and signal pathways.

An understanding of the imbalance in the brain or body chemistry is fundamental to the effective treatment of headache disorders. Cannabinoids in Medical Cannabis work to modulate brain receptors that control pain and inflammation. Researchers have found that components of Medical Marijuana, Cannabinoids, work in a very similar way to chemicals (endocannabinoids) that exist naturally in the human brain.

"Reports and surveys suggest a possible benefit of Cannabis for the treatment of acute headache."

-- Uri Napchan, MD

How Medical Cannabis Work to Stop Headache Pain

Relax inflamed and hyperintense muscle
Block nerve signals from pain centers
Reduce inflammation
Lower arterial pressure

"A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache."

-- Catherine the Great

Cannabis is Tailor Made for Headaches?

Medical Marijuana is said to be tailor made for headache; many patients, physicians and scientists find that MMJ effectively treats the myriad of interrelated conditions such as muscle hypertension, pain, inflammation, and high blood pressure.

Case Studies - Headaches and Medical Marijuana

Case 1: A thirty eight year old professional female with a long history of serious headaches.

Hospitalization was often required. This patient responded to painkilling drugs dihydroergotamine, meperidine, and trimethobenzamide but experienced horrendous side effects. Her quality of life and work were extremely compromised by both headaches and drug treatment.

"THC (Marinol) oral dose at 40 mg daily afforded effective relief of headaches - for four years. without any significant side effects reported. Attacks returned after the patient ran out of THC capsules. Due to the cost of Marinol, she switched to Medical Cannabis."

-- MMJ Doctor

Her mother, also suffered similarly from migraine headaches . A 10 mg daily dose afforded relief from her neck numbness, anorexia, water retention and double vision were reversed with normalization of constipation, excess urination,and peripheral low blood pressure. This patient felt happy and comfortable with the THC produce, with transient blurred vision being the only side effect reported.

Case 2: A 44 year old female teacher with a lifelong history of severe headaches.

She tried self-medicating with Marijuana after getting fed up with nasty side effects of painkiller drug meperidine This patient found that MMJ greatly reduced debilitating pain and promptly threw her pharmaceutical nemesis in the trash. Later, this same teacher's daughters successfully used Marijuana to treat similar headache issues.