Today in Irvine I took care of a 56 year old man who has a herniated disc between his 5th and 6th vertebra in his neck and has debilitating pain, weakness and numbness to his right arm. He has been using medical marijuana occasionally for the past 12 months to treat his symptoms and wanted safe regular access to it because of how good it made him feel. He had been on a regimen of Tramadol (for sleep), Vicodin (for pain), Ibuprofen (for pain) and Prednisone (to reduce the inflammation). ALL of those medications were causing significant side effects and he no longer could tolerate them… read on.

Today in my Irvine office I took care of a 56 year old man who uses medical marijuana to treat his acute attacks of Gouty Arthritis. He has had 4 attacks since my initial evaluation last year and states that he can not take typical doses of NSAIDS (alleve/motrin/indomethicin) because of a history of gastric ulcers (as a result of overuse if NSAIDS). In addition to diet modification, alcohol elimination and regular exercise, this patient can expect to get moderate relief of his pain and inflammation with cannabis alone.

Today I took care of a 58 year old women who suffered from Sjogrens Syndrome and Rheumatoid Arthritis who had tried medical marijuana recently and found relief of her symptoms. Her arthritis mostly affected her hands and shoulders and required multiple drugs for pain management. She had been on Bextra then Vioxx then Celebrex but had to stop all of them because of kidney disease. She was at her “wits end” and wanted an alternative to help her get some relief and sleep throughout the night.

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.

I recently evaluated a 54 year old women for medical marijuana (cannabis) who suffered from Behcets Syndrome. Specifically she complained of painful arthritis in her knees and ankles. She had been taking prednisone and NSAID’s for many years and wanted to try an alternative more natural treatment. Her rheumatologist recommended she try cannabis for her persistent joint pain.

As medical director for medical cannabis of southern california I often evaluate patients who take regular high doses of prednisone. Prednisone is the atomic bomb for inflammatory conditions such as crohns, ulcerative colitis, sever asthma and many other medical conditions. Unfortunately it’s effects do not come without significant side effects. Many patients can get relief of these side effects by using cannabis.

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.

As medical director for Medical Cannabis of Southern California I often evaluate patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Let me discuss a case that I had yesterday.