Can I Treat My Migraines With Cannabis?

If you are suffering from migraines, you are likely looking for something that can stop the pain. Migraines are intense. If you don’t have a way to treat them, they can become a real problem in your everyday life, even making you lie in bed for days at a time. Some people have claimed that cannabis can be an effective treatment when it comes to migraine symptoms. If you want to know more, keep reading.

What Are Migraines?

Migraines often feel like a throbbing headache and are commonly on one side of your head, but it can be both. Some of the symptoms of migraines include feeling sick and sensitivity to light. If you are experiencing a migraine, it’s more than likely any kind of movement or sound will make it worse, which is why you should turn all the lights off and go to sleep if you can. If you are suffering from migraines, then you might want to speak to your doctor about trying cannabis to help relieve your symptoms if all else fails.

Can Cannabis Help?

Over the years, some users have claimed that cannabis can help with the symptoms of migraines. There have been studies conducted on the subject and the findings have seemed to indicate that there is a link between cannabis and improved symptoms of migraines. However, there is no hard evidence to be able to say that this is definitive. Cannabis has naturally occurring compounds called cannabinoids, and cannabinoid receptors can be found in the human brain. It has been suggested that smoking cannabis can get rid of or even help prevent migraines from happening. This happens when the cannabinoids meet the cannabinoid receptors and change the way that they work. The change helps the pain receptors to calm down, helping ease the pain, but again, it’s important to stress that there is no concrete proof of this.

Like we mentioned, there have been some studies conducted to see if this can work for migraines. One of these studies was conducted in 2016. This study was inspired by the potential effects of cannabinoids on serotonin in the central nervous system and, as such, looked into the frequency of migraines per month, and whether cannabis could be used to reduce them. The results showed that migraine headache frequency decreased from 10.4 to 4.6 headaches per month, with the use of medical marijuana. 

There was another study conducted in Europe that looked at cannabis for pain relief when it came to migraines. This study looked at the impacts of the usual medication used to handle migraines in comparison to cannabis. It turned out that cannabis was more effective at reducing the pain levels experienced during migraines and was also better at reducing the frequency at which they were experienced.

The results of these studies alone seem to indicate that cannabis could be helpful when it comes to treating migraines. However, it is important to be aware that there can be some side effects of smoking cannabis for some people. Some of the symptoms you could experience include feeling dizzy, becoming confused, being overly sleepy, or being moody. However, this does not mean you will definitely experience these effects, just that they are a possibility you should be aware of before inhaling cannabis.

More Research Is Still Needed Though

It is important to understand that while there have been a couple of studies conducted to find out if cannabis can help treat migraines, the evidence is not conclusive enough to say for sure. The studies that have been conducted seem to suggest that cannabis may be an effective treatment when it comes to migraines, but the research is still very limited. There needs to be more of an investigation into the link between people who suffer from migraines and whether cannabis is something that could become a treatment for such patients. When there is more evidence, it will be easier to say for sure whether migraines can be treated this way, but for now, it is best to stick with saying that it may be able to provide relief to people who are suffering from this condition.

Interested in trying cannabis for migraine relief? We offer three ways to shop our premium cannabis products, in-store, curbside pick-up, and delivery. Make sure to contact Planet 13 to speak to one of our knowledgeable budtenders who can consult you on the phone or online.