You can get a medical marijuana card for a spinal cord injury in New York. The Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine in Sweden says that people with spinal cord injuries who use marijuana can get relief from different kinds of pain, sleep problems, and mood swings.
When the body is in pain, it emits endocannabinoids, which help the body’s immune system to relieve pain. When you use cannabis, it will aid your endocannabinoid system via cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CBD2 in the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system, respectively.
Patients with spinal cord injuries will have a hard time moving their whole bodies.
Whether they are fully or partially paralyzed, they suffer from chronic symptoms such as spasticity, which limit their quality of life. These patients will benefit from using medical marijuana because it helps curb pain.
But it is always best to talk to a professional healthcare worker before using medical marijuana.
How to treat spinal cord injury using medical marijuana
Although there is no present cure for patients with spinal cord injuries, cannabis can help provide relief from the different symptoms associated with them. Here is some help medical cannabis can provide patients with:
- Treats chronic pain
- It doesn’t cause constipation or limited breathing
- Helps remove nerve or neuropathic pain by eliminating inflammation,
- Can Help with anxiety and depression problems associated with spinal cord injury (SCI)
- Relieves patient from Muscle spasms
- Assists with sleeping disorders common with spinal cord patients.
Various Treatments Recommendations for spinal cord injury
Patients with spinal cord injuries are advised to start with small marijuana doses, especially if they are beginners. It’s best to look for cannabis strains with low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) but high cannabidiol (CBD).
You can keep a log for tracking dosing. It’s not compulsory to get the psychoactive effects of marijuana before benefiting from it.
Moreover, spinal cord injury patients aren’t advised to smoke cannabis. This is particularly true for those with compromised breathing problems.
Vaporizing is a better option than smoking, and you can also take tinctures. Smoking sometimes irritates the lungs of many spinal cord injury patients.
While it might be difficult to get the right cannabis dose with edibles, they might take a long time to relieve pain.
Spinal Cord Injury and CBD: Important considerations to have in mind
Spinal cord injury patients who live in states with recreational cannabis dispensaries need to speak to a qualified doctor before using medical marijuana drugs. This is because several medical strains have a high level of CBD and other cannabinoids.
Also, people with spinal cord injuries have benefited from having several pathologists, therapists, and professional medical teams. The cannabis plant may be a useful medicine to help treat people with spinal injuries.
Complications that arise from spinal cord injury
If you are suffering from a spinal cord injury, here are some areas that will be affected:
Bladder control
The bladder is still one of the most affected body parts in people who have had a spinal cord injury. While the bladder will still store urine, control will be very difficult. This is because your brain will be unable to process messages passed via the carrier (spinal cord). Due to this, there is a high risk of urinary tract infections, kidney infections, and stones in the bladder.
Bowel control
When you have a spinal cord injury, your intestines and liver will still work, but their operations will be hampered. To keep your bowels regulated, eating high-fiber foods will go a long way.
Pressure injuries
There will be some skin sensitivity that will be common among people suffering from spinal cord injuries. Your skin will find it hard to send a message to the brain when there is an injury. This in turn will cause pressure sores, which will cause discomfort.
The different kinds of spinal cord injuries
Spinal cord injury comes in two main categories, which include complete and incomplete (SCI). Also, there are spinal cord concussions that can cause sensory and motor functioning issues. Here are the main kinds of spinal cord injuries (SCI) available:
Complete Spinal Cord
A person has a complete spinal cord injury when they lose all of their motor, sensory, and pain functions. Even when a spinal cord injury patient has a total SCI, the spinal cord doesn’t cut easily.
However, most people with spinal cord injuries suffer from paralysis and loss of function in their spinal cord. This is usually caused by a bruise, which affects blood flow problems to the spine.
Incomplete SCI
This type of spinal cord injury affects some motor and sensory functions below the spinal cord. Sometimes, some patients can’t move any part of their body. Also, they might have too many functions in other parts of the body.
Spinal Concussion
This is a spinal cord injury that can be either complete or incomplete. A spinal concussion has symptoms that can be treated within 48 hours. This type of spinal cord injury is common among sports players.
The Grades of Spinal Cord injuries
Spinal cord injuries can be graded by the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA). These grades are based on severe spinal cord injuries.
ASIA A
This is a type of SCI that doesn’t show any preservation of sensory or motor function.
ASIA B
This is an injury where there is complete motor function loss. However, there is a light sensory function.
ASIA C
This is regarded as an incomplete motor function injury,” where the muscle function is below 50%. The muscle can only move when in gravity-free or full-range motion.
ASIA D
This is also a spinal cord injury with incomplete motor function; however, approximately 50% of muscle groups are antigravity.
ASIA E
Those in this group have normal motor and sensory functions.
Conclusion
Spinal cord injury patients in New York can get a medical marijuana card. Cannabis can be beneficial for people suffering from spinal cord ataxia. It helps deal with the several symptoms associated with the ailment.
Avoid self-diagnosis and talk to a professional doctor when making decisions about your spinal cord injury.
