According to Dr. Terel Newton, medical director of Total Pain Relief in Jacksonville, medical cannabis possesses the potential to help relieve various pain issues, ranging from migraine headaches to spinal cord injuries and everything in between.
Dr. Newton also serves as the Florida medical director for Trulieve, the largest licensed operator of medical marijuana dispensaries in Florida. He is well-versed in conventional and alternative treatments and explains that medical cannabis holds a distinct advantage over pharmaceutical drugs, which are often prescribed to relieve pain and related side effects.
“The great thing about cannabis is you can coordinate what I call ‘monopharmacy.’ With traditional medicine, there's polypharmacy. So, it's one medicine for your pain, one medicine for your sleep, one medicine for your anxiety. But you can have cannabis treat all of those things,” he says.
Dr. Newton says there also is a psychological benefit to using medical cannabis instead of opiates for pain treatment. Cannabis is “more powerful than opiates because it can also treat the emotional component of the pain as well, where opiates don't treat the emotional component. Actually, opiates often make it worse.”
Clinical nutritionist Abbey Folsom shares Dr. Newton’s preference for low-THC cannabis over powerful and potentially addictive pharmaceuticals in pain management. Ms. Folsom says a healthy diet plays a big part in relieving inflammation, the most common source of pain.
“The Western diet is notoriously high in n-6 fatty acids, so we want to focus on omega-3 or n-3 fatty acids, which the Mediterranean diet is high in. I would actually recommend the Mediterranean diet, a diet high in n-3 omega fatty acids to support the endocannabinoid system,” she adds.
Dr. Newton and Ms. Folsom agree that combating chronic pain takes a multiprong treatment strategy. Medication alone likely will not get the job done. Physical therapy and activity, weight loss, and healthy nutrition should be considered, too.
