UPFRONT | News and events PAIN RELIEF Legal cannabis hemp oil effectively treats chronic neuropathic pain Researchers examine the ef-fectiveness of consuming hemp oil extracted from the whole Cannabis plant using a chronic neuropathic pain animal model. Researchers at The University of New Mex-ico (UNM) showed that legal Cannabis hemp oil reduced mechanical pain sensitivity 10-fold for several hours in mice with chronic post-oper-ative neuropathic pain. Distinguished from its still largely criminally prohibited cousin, “hemp” refers to Cannabis plants with less than 0.3 percent tetrahydro-cannabinol (THC) per mass. Hemp is now federally legal to produce and con-sume in most regions throughout the United States (U.S) as a result of the Hemp Farming Act. This major breakthrough in cannabis prohibition now enables millions of Ameri-cans the ability to access a natural, effective, and rela-tively safe alternative option for treating chronic pain. Conventional pharmacolog-ical drugs, namely opioids, are driving the leading form of preventable deaths and conventional medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. The University of New Mexico has conducted a se-ries of recent studies testing the effectiveness and safety of consuming the Cannabis plant, but this is the first study measuring the thera-peutic potential of legal hemp oil with low THC levels. “Cannabis plants with low THC are still psychoactive, but tend to result in less psy-chedelic experiences, while still offering profound and often immediate relief from symptoms such as pain, anxiety, and depression,” says co-researcher, Dr. Jacob Miguel Vigil, associate pro-fessor in the UNM Psychol-ogy Department. Using a chronic neuro-pathic pain model that ex-poses mice to post-operative neuropathic pain equivalent to several years of chronic pain in human clinical pa-tients, the researchers were able to examine how hemp oil influences momentary pain sensitivity to the af-fected region. For several hours after Cannabis con-sumption the mice demon-strated effective pain relief, approaching the mechanical pain sensitivity of naïve con-trol mice that did not un-dergo the surgical operation. “Our lab utilizes a unique nerve injury model mimick-ing human neuropathic pain that has allowed demonstra-tion of hemp’s reversal of the pain related behavior” said one of the lead investigators, Dr. Karin N. Westlund, De-partment of Anesthesiology, their article titled “The Therapeutic Effectiveness of Full Spectrum Hemp Oil Using a Chronic Neuro-pathic Pain Model,” pub-lished in the journal Life. Studies in animals can be superior to clinical trials because they circumvent human biases and expec-tancy effects, or perceptual and cognitive reactions to enrollment in canna-bis-themed experiments. Several studies measuring the effects of cannabis in humans observe patients reporting psychedelic expe-riences, whether or not they received the active cannabis agent, otherwise referred to as the ‘placebo effect.’ The study examined the effectiveness of “LyFeBaak” hemp oil, produced by Or-ganic-Energetic Solutions, which has been available for legal purchase in New Mex-ico since 2019. “We grow hemp that is optimized to potentiate the plants utmost health and vitality through hypermineralization tech-niques, rather than merely plants that are grown in a state of fight-or-flight, which unfortunately is common in the cannabis industry. These techniques have enabled us to produce hemp products that patients swear are effec-tive for treating dozens of mental and physical health conditions. The new changes in hemp laws are now allow-ing us to test these claims,” adds co-author and hemp grower, Anthony L. Ortiz. “Hemp plants contain numerous therapeutic con-stituents that likely contrib-ute to analgesic responses, including terpenes and flavo-noids, which in theory, work — University of New Mexico www.Cndoctor.ca 6 Chiropractic and Naturopathic Doctor June 2020 EKKAPON / Adobe Stock together like members of a symphony, often described as the entourage effect,” says fellow researcher, Jegason P. Diviant. Several clinical in-vestigations have shown that medications based on syn-thetic cannabis analogues and isolated compounds tend to offer lower reported symptom relief and a greater number of negative side ef-fects as compared to whole plant, or “full-spectrum” Cannabis flower and plant-based extracts. The authors do caution that few studies exist on the long-term use of hemp oil, due mostly to historical fed-eral prohibition laws in the U.S. “However, this is an extremely exciting time in modern medical discovery, because the average citizen now has legal access to a completely natural and ef-fective medication that can be easily and cheaply pro-duced, simply by sticking a seed in the ground and car-ing for it as you would any other important part of your life,” says Vigil.
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