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This guest column is from Scott Mazza, co-founder of Buffalo-based Vitality CBD. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of NY Cannabis Insider.
An estimated 4 million Americans battle the intricate condition of fibromyalgia. They grapple with unanswered questions regarding its causes and the widespread pain it inflicts. Regrettably, a cure remains elusive.
The current battle against fibromyalgia and its debilitating symptoms relies upon a combination of medications and lifestyle adjustments. Yet, in today’s landscape of chronic pain management, research is centering around the promise of cannabis-derived compounds. In fact, patients in a new study report a significant improvement with pain, depression, and quality of life following cannabis treatment.
Let’s dig into the science and consider what the future holds for treating fibromyalgia with cannabinoids like THC and CBD.
The mystery of fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, along with issues like fatigue, sleep disturbances, memory problems, and mood fluctuations. It’s believed to heighten the perception of pain by altering how the brain and spinal cord process pain signals.
But there’s still plenty we don’t know about this condition. For example, symptoms can onset after events like trauma, surgery, infection, or extreme stress, or they may gradually accumulate over time. Additionally, women are more prone to developing fibromyalgia, and symptoms are more likely to occur in middle age, but this doesn’t exclude men or children from the condition.
Scientists can’t say for sure how it develops. But the resulting symptoms are life altering, including tension headaches, temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorders, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, and depression.
While there’s no cure, some medications can help manage symptoms, alongside approaches like exercise, relaxation techniques, and stress reduction.
Increasingly, science is looking into the potential of cannabis and its cannabinoids to fight fibromyalgia.
New insight into the potential of cannabis
A German study published earlier this year in Pain focused on fibromyalgia patients treated in a multidisciplinary setting. Of the 120 participants, roughly half received THC treatment.
The findings revealed noteworthy improvements in pain intensity, depression, and overall quality of life for the entire group, with significantly greater enhancements observed in those treated with THC. Additionally, THC use led to a notable reduction or discontinuation of medications in five out of the seven groups studied.
It’s also important to stress that, with a statistically significant “p-value” of less than .01, the findings aren’t outliers.
This research backs up earlier investigations into the potential of oil containing THC and CBD.
This 2020 study in Pain was a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial focused on a group of women with fibromyalgia over eight weeks.
Again, the group reported significant improvement regarding pain, fatigue, and stamina. The researchers concluded that “phytocannabinoids can be a low-cost and well-tolerated therapy for symptom relief and quality of life improvement” in patients with fibromyalgia.
Now, sufferers deserve more research and better products
These studies are excellent first steps to understanding fibromyalgia and how to best treat it. But since medication and lifestyle tweaks are the only treatments available at this time, it’s incumbent upon science to further explore cannabis and consider its application.
But in doing so, cannabis needs to meet science halfway.
As I’ve written time and again, most CBD products aren’t third-party tested for purity and potency, and this often leads to unreliable and inconsistent output. So, there’s a significant quality gap in the market right now.
And if healthcare professionals are to leverage oil and cannabinoids, producers need to up their game.
This simply isn’t good enough, especially in medicine. I do hope that change – in the form of production thresholds – is on the horizon with the Farm Bill 2023.
In the meantime, producers should do their best to hold competitors and fellow creators accountable.
Advertise your test results and call out those who don’t.
Consumers can then make an informed decision and ensure their hard-earned money goes to a trusted producer.
Moving ahead, let’s look forward to more research in this direction. Fibromyalgia is a complex condition afflicting millions – and they deserve more answers and better treatments.