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.

As medical director for Medical Cannabis of Southern California I often evaluate patients who complain of muscle and joint pain. Two days ago I had a patient come into my office with the diagnosis of polymyalgia rheumatica who had heard that cannabis can help reduce muscle inflammation and pain.