Marijuana Vs. Migraines: Modern Medical Miracle

[Jim Finnel]

Migraine headaches are possibly one of the most misunderstood maladies of man. The Merck Manual states “The cause is unknown and the pathophysiology (mechanism) is not fully understood.” Except that it has something to do with brain blood vessel dilation/constriction; nobody seems to know what is going on here. If I’m wrong about this I’m sure I will hear plenty.

To save myself professional embarrassment, I checked the Merck Manual. One would think some mad scientist produced the highly diverse pot pourri of drugs which have been used to alleviate these severe and paralyzing headaches, with nausea and vomiting, which affect some 10 million people in the U.S.

To start with, migraines are headaches but not all headaches are migraines. Many headaches can be successfully treated with aspirin or Tylenol but, if my patients are correct, they don’t touch migraines. Because of the extremely wide variety of non-effective medicines, which have been used, I take a dim view of any new medicine being heavily advertised on TV.

In my own regular medical practice I discovered that an injection of Demer*l with Ben*dryl was effective but the patient was out of action for at least 24 hours.

When I stared seeing patients for Medical Marijuana permits, I was surprised when the first migraine patient showed up. I knew that marijuana worked for severe pain, nausea and vomiting and I knew that it also causes vasodilatation but I couldn’t quite put the two together, pharmacologically, for migraines.

The light bulb over my head lit up and I said to myself “if the patient says marijuana works for this, and they were willing to pay the $300 clinic and State fee, it must work”.

I ended up with about 30 migraine patients out of 4,000. I have since heard that the California Marijuana doctors, with some 300,000 patients, have the same experience.

Phillip Leveque has spent his life as a Combat Infantryman, Physician, Toxicologist and Pharmacologist. He is an expert in medical marijuana treatment.


News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: Salem-News.com
Copyright: 2008 Salem-News.com
Contact: adsales@salem-news.com
Website: Marijuana Vs. Migraines: Modern Medical Miracle - Salem-News.Com

 

[CAoutdoor]

I was stricken with this unenviable malady as a young person. I found only one medication that would work for me as a juvenile - cafergot -and I don't remember the dosage (also comes with side effects). My migraines would come on with a three day progression and get progressively worse until I found myself in such torture, I wished someone would kill me....not a good thought for a 12 yr old (34 now).

I began experimenting with Cannabis at *edit- a young age and found that it, too, alleviated my symptoms. Fortunately, now, I have grown to no longer have regular migraines, but any time that I have a serious headache (for me, this means one that I can not ignore); I self med with a few tokes and its gone. I also find comfort in knowing that Cannabis is not adding to the side effect equation.

Roboreno, if your migraines are like I remember, just "taking the edge off" is a level of comfort that is welcomed. I hope you find a cure!!!!