Cannabis – A Solution to the Polypharmacy Problem

By Dan Reich

Polypharmacy – the situation that arises when someone is prescribed multiple prescription medications – has been a problem plaguing medicine since the emergence of Big Pharma. It is estimated that 36% of adults over 60 take five or more prescription medications. If you include over-the-counter remedies and supplements, the figure climbs to 67%. Many seniors have needed to be hospitalized due to adverse reactions to medications, and the more one takes at a time, the greater the chance that a problematic or even deadly reaction can occur. Much of the problem is caused by “prescribing cascades” in which side effects from one medication are addressed with another medication, such as laxatives being prescribed for constipation resulting from opioid use, or blood pressure medicine given to those who develop hypertension from taking NSAIDs such as Ibuprofen.

Sir Munir Pirmohamed, a British professor of molecular and clinical pharmacology, has suggested that pharmaceutical drugs are “poisoning” the elderly: “Those drugs are used at conventional doses and those doses have been tested in younger populations who had exclusion criteria for trials – so they have been tested in people who don’t have the multiple diseases. So when we use a drug at a dose which is licensed at the moment, we are often ‘poisoning’ the elderly because of the dosing that we are using.”

Compounding the problem is the fact that many patients are being treated by multiple practitioners, who don’t always share information and may or may not know what other medications the patient might be taking.

And it’s not just older people who are at risk…young people with conditions such as epilepsy and autism are frequently given drug after drug in the hopes that some combination will be what works, instead of trying them one at a time. It is common for physicians to prescribe a combination of antipsychotics, anti-seizure drugs, benzodiazepines, and antidepressants.

Cannabis – An effective alternative to multiple prescription medications

In recent years, research and changing attitudes have led to many practitioners using cannabis as an alternative to adding more pharmaceutical solutions. Cannabis is a very complex medicine, combining many cannabinoids and terpenes, which enables it to address a variety of symptoms, such as pain relief, insomnia, inflammation and anxiety. This versatility is key in its ability to address multiple symptoms without a drug needed to be prescribed for each.

Many studies are pointing the way towards cannabis replacing “drug cocktails” or drugs that are dangerously addictive or cause significant side effects. In an open-label study conducted in Israel, patients given medical cannabis for treatment-resistant chronic pain experienced improved pain and functional outcomes, and a 44% reduction in opioid use. And there are many stories of epileptic children taking multiple prescription drugs that are able to wean themselves off of them with cannabis and CBD oil.

The problem of polypharmacy is not going away any time soon. As our population ages, and people acquire more chronic conditions, it’s clear that another approach is needed. Cannabis appears poised to become an effective strategy in avoiding the pitfalls of polypharmacy and providing an improved quality of life.

Pets and CBD

By Billee Sharp

Our pets are important to us, they are family members and it's hard to see them suffering from injury, ill-health or the travails of old age. The good news is that CBD (Cannabinidiol) is a safe effective treatment for a wide range of conditions for both cats and dogs.

It is an amazing fact that all animals, including birds and even fish have an ECS ( Endocannabinoid System), and that paleo-biologists have identified ECS in creatures that lived millions of years ago.

The ECS was discovered only thirty years ago and no single researcher is responsible; rather the collective research of individuals working backwards; first discovering phytocannabinoids in cannabis, then endocannabinoids in rats and humans and then the cannabinoid receptors, CB1 & CB2 which revealed the whole ECS regulatory system. These discoveries have shown us the importance of the role that the ECS plays in maintaining balance between our organ systems. Naturally there are differences between the human ECS and the ECS of any other creature but the homeostatic function is identical. Fortunately in the last few years there have been a number of clinical trials to ascertain CBD’s efficacy in treating animals safely for a variety of conditions.

Possibly the most significant study pertaining to both cats and dogs is the 2019 clinical trial at the University of Florida, College of Veterinary Medicine which investigated the pharmacokinetic action of CBD in both species. Pharmacokinetics is the science of how compounds are processed in the body, this clinical trial was designed to test the safety of CBD medication for cats and dogs.

The trial used eight healthy dogs and eight healthy cats, the dogs were given one 2mg CBD chew daily for twelve weeks and the cats were given a daily dose of a 2mg CBD-infused fish oil capsule. The results expressed through blood tests showed that dogs’ uptake of CBD was greater but that cats’ retained CBD in blood plasma for longer. Interestingly, dogs were observed to have more cannabinoid receptors than cats, which might account for the greater uptake in the canine subjects. In March 2021, a Canadian study, on the safety and tolerability of CBD in escalating doses for cats, yielded positive results with oil-based tincture without significant side effects.

Dogs have received most of the recent attention from the research community with clinical trials focussed on osteoarthritis, epilepsy, pain reduction, improved functionality and atopic dermatitis. Across the board CBD showed improvement in symptoms and quality of life.

Colorado State University’s 2018 study on dogs suffering epileptic seizures showed 89% of participant dogs (who previously had two or more seizures a month) had significantly decreased seizures over the 6 week trial period.

Dogs with arthritis have been studied in three recent trials at Cornell University, Colorado State University and in Ontario at the Canopy Growth Center of Human and Animal Research, all three studies reported reduction of pain, improved mobility and better quality of life.

CBD topical cream was tested in a clinical trial in 2020 for the treatment of Atopic Dermatitis, a painful condition which affects many dogs with allergies. The dogs were treated with CBD -rich cream for seven weeks and the results showed significant decrease in symptoms. There is also significant anecdotal evidence to support arthritic relief from massaging CBD-infused salve into painful joints.

I have successfully treated our family’s cat and dog with oil-based CBD tincture for differing conditions. Our dog Akira developed arthritis when he was twelve years old, the Tramadol that our vet prescribed for him didn’t give him any relief and he had no appetite. When we started him on CBD tincture ( squirted into a piece of juicy chicken wrapped up in bacon!) he began to regain his mobility and his appetite within the hour he scrambled up and limped into the kitchen to his food and water. He lived another four years and took tincture every day with his food. We felt that giving him CBD accounted for his calm disposition as he gradually lost his sight and hearing, it was the only constant medication we gave him.

More recently, I treated one of our cats with CBD tincture. We had just moved house and Toltec, who is ten years old, let us know he wasn’t happy about it. Toltec is usually quite vocal but when we moved he started to yowl plaintively in our new neighbor’s shrubbery. I would go and coax him back over the fence but he kept doing it! I remembered that a girlfriend had treated her extremely timid cat successfully with CBD tincture and wondered if it might help with Toltec’s yowling. I started giving him two drops of Synergy’s Pet tincture in his daily teaspoon of wet food and then asked the family to report back to me if they heard the telltale yowling. So far, so good, the yowling has stopped and so have the visits to the shrubbery, Toltec is staying closer to home and isn’t exhibiting any other anti-social behavior, I’m now only giving him 2 drops a couple of times a week; my logic is that his anxious symptoms have abated with the help of the CBD tincture, so I want to make sure that he still gets a little support until he is really used to his new home.

Pet owners accounts of animals responding positively to CBD treatment for injuries, attest to quicker recovery from surgeries, strains, inflammation as well as relief from pain and anxious symptoms. I visited a friend this week whose chocolate labrador had just had a chemotherapy treatment, he was taking CBD tincture and was eating well and taking good walks.

It is such a comfort to be able to alleviate pain and distress in animals, and as the trials and the anecdotal record show, CBD tincture taken at correct dosages will benefit cats and dogs with a variety of ailments and issues. Keeping dated notes on dosage amounts and perceived results will guide the pet’s treatment plan. We recommend our CBD for Pets tincture for cats and dogs. At a 24:1 CBD: THC ratio the tincture delivers a high dose of CBD in each drop of infused olive oil. Two to three drops per 10 lbs of pet weight is a therapeutic dose, added to food for optimum absorption.

Sources

Early Medical Practices

Safety and Tolerability is Escalating Cannabinoid doses in Healthy Cats

Study evaluates adverse effects of CBD in dogs and cats


Arthritis Sufferers Turn to CBD For Relief

A Recent Survey by the Arthritis Foundation Reveals Findings

By Dan Reich

Recently the Arthritis Foundation surveyed a group of those struggling with various kinds of arthritis, a painful condition that affects a large segment of our aging population. They asked the question “Are you using CBD for your arthritis?” Here’s what respondents had to say…

Nearly one out of three reported that they use CBD to manage the pain that accompanies their arthritis. The vast majority of those used it daily or several times a week. Patients were almost evenly split between those using a liquid (ingested) product or topical (roll-on or salve) applied to the affected joints. A comparable number claim to be “open to CBD” despite not currently using it. Only one out of five was satisfied with their current regimen and had no curiosity as to the benefits of CBD. Some of these likely had questions about its efficacy or safety, having heard of opportunists peddling untested, inferior products.

By far, pain relief was cited most often as a reason to use CBD, and in this context, many felt CBD was less addictive than opioids. Some used CBD to wean themselves from opioids after joint replacement procedures. Patients who found that CBD was effective for pain relief also attested that they discovered many other benefits.

Nearly 75% of CBD users reported improved sleep and a significant number felt that it reduced fatigue. Two out of three said that CBD reduced depressive episodes and helped alleviate their anxiety.

Summary: CBD is rapidly entering the mainstream as an effective remedy for arthritis patients, and those using it are experiencing a myriad of benefits without the negative effects of opioids or other pharmaceutical medications. The survey concluded that access to reliable information was the crucial factor in changing sufferers attitudes regarding CBD treatments.

While searching for recent research into the effectiveness of cannabinoids for relieving symptoms of arthritis, I found that there were very few clinical trials that involved humans, and the few that had been undertaken were called out for a variety of reasons; from too few participants to a lack of standardization in dosages and quality of cannabis medicines. Following are two quotes which sum up the situation:

“Google Scholar was queried using “cannabinoids, joint pain” as key phrases. While the search returned myriad articles from receptor classification to the effects of CBD in animal models, there were no relevant studies regarding any human, clinical data entertaining prospective CBD use and joint pain.”

And:

“There is a lack of high-quality, novel research investigating the use of CBD in human musculoskeletal diseases aside from anecdotal accounts.”

Clearly, despite mountains of anecdotal data, rigorous research studies have been few and far between. Whether the uncertain regulatory climate that affects all things cannabis (particularly if THC is involved) the difficulty in standardizing a plant product (as opposed to a pharmaceutical) or a combination, we need more high-quality research on humans to validate what so many are experiencing and sharing anecdotally…CBD and THC are more effective (and safer) than pharmaceutical solutions.

At Synergy Wellness, we have helped many people get relief from the pain of arthritis. Most people respond well to the topical application of our Synergy Salve for pain. Using the roller ball in addition enables deeper penetration, making it even more effective. These are both 1:1 CBD:THC infused. Remember, topical applications are NOT psychoactive and will not get you high.

Our experience has found that CBD helps with inflammation and THC works well for pain. If you have pain, you will want to try something with THC in the mix. For oral consumption, the 4:1 CBD:THC tinctures produces good results for pain. For more severe pain, a 1:1 CBD:THC solution may be more effective. Always start with a low dose and titrate up (increase the dose gradually).

Synergy is offering a free sample of our salve with every order that includes either a 4:1 tincture (#103, #104, #105, #116) or a 1:1 (#154, #155; #156; #160).

For more detail and to order, click here.

If you are interested in just the topicals, we offer:

If you or someone you know is living with pain from arthritis, we are here to help.