Today in my Irvine office I took care of a 71 year old man who suffers from Polymyalgia Rheumatica (PMR) and wanted to see if medical marijuana could reduce his symptoms and decrease the amount of prednisone that he is taking.   Specifically, PMR is characterized by pain in the muscles of the neck, shoulders, lower back and hips/pelvis.   It’s key pathology is inflammation which in turn leads to pain.   The reason why medical marijuana works so well is because the cannabinoids(medically active ingredients in the marijuana plant) have both anti-inflammatory and analgesic (pain reduction) properties.

PMR typically affects patients older than 50.  It is very common that patients also have giant-cell arteritis (temporal arteritis) which is inflammation of the medium and larger arteries.   Commonly patients have headache, jaw claudication (pain) and sometimes visual changes.   The reason for these is that the artery most commonly affected runs across the temple’s bilaterally (temporal artery).

PMR is difficult to treat.  Typically patients get placed on a course of prednisone which is a big gun drug to reduce inflammation in the body.    PMR symptoms will usually improve dramatically when given prednisone.   The duration of initial treatment can be weeks to months.   50% of the patients will have flare-ups when the prednisone is tapered.

The problem with prednisone is that is has A LOT of side effects. Weight gain, psychosis and mood swings, fluid retention, increased appetite,  swelling, easy bruising, headache, insomnia and muscle weakness (there are many more but these are the most common).  My patient was having a lot of edema (swelling) and his mood swings were unbearable (according to his wife)   He had been using medical grade marijuana for the past two weeks and has had good results.    His pain has been reduced dramatically and he is sleeping much longer and throughout the night…. something he hadn’t done in “years”.

The goal for a patient like this is to help him wean off the prednisone, pain killers and sleeping pills and substitute with cannabis.  Certainly it is a very obtainable goal.

If you suffer from arthritis or muscle pain and/or have been diagnosed with Polymyalgia Rheumatica and would like to see if medical marijuana could potentially help you feel free to contact us by calling 877-721-0047 or through our website at www.mcsocal.com

Be blessed,

Dr. Breen