Cannabis and Sports Medicine
Hockey, rugby, martial arts, boxing, football, and extreme
sports can leave a legacy of injury. The death of boxer Muhammed Ali is a
reminder that the world’s most famous athlete had suffered for decades because
of brain injuries from boxing.
Former high-school and university athletes who played
contact sports have reported symptoms linked to small brain injuries
accumulated during their playing days. (Montenigro 2017)
Even a few Olympic Gold Medalists have been known for using
cannabis, although the World Anti-Doping Agency has banned all cannabinoids
from international competitions. (Huestis 2011)
Many former players also live with persistent pain. Some deal
with addiction to prescription painkillers, often used continuously since their
playing days. A 2010 survey of former pro players found that 50% used opioids
during their playing days, with 71% of those claiming that they abused them.
Current opioid use among these players was 3x that of the
regular population. (Cottler 2011)
With evidence that cannabis medicines are effective for
pain, as cited in the 2017 National Academies report, medical cannabis should
be considered a healthier alternative to the opioid epidemic.
In 2014, Roger Goodell, commissioner of the National
Football League (NFL), told an ESPN interviewer that he could envision a time
when players used medical marijuana to treat pain in states where it is
legal. (ESPN.com 2014)
Starting in 2017, small studies – one in California and one
in Colorado – will examine whether cannabidiol can help former NFL players deal
with the lingering widespread neurological side effects associated with the
violent collisions endemic to professional football. Read more info on these studies in the resources links below.
While evidence for its effectiveness in traumatic brain
injury is scant, former professional athletes are encouraging research into whether
CBD is effective in treating long-term neurological deficits linked to
concussions and other head injuries. The evidence is strong for the
effectiveness of cannabis in treating pain, according to the new National
Academies report. (The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids 2017)
“In recent years,
there has also been considerable demand from elite athletes for reconsideration
of cannabis for its role as an analgesic and also for its role in reducing
symptoms associated with traumatic brain injury. This has led, in particular,
to calls from the National Football League Players' Association for
reconsideration of their cannabis policy and for access to cannabis for medical
purposes (http://gridironcannabis.org/).
This public perception has brought the discussion back to the boardrooms of the
governing bodies of professional sports, the International Olympic Committee
and the World Anti-Doping Agency, and questions regarding the
performance-enhancing effects of cannabinoids and their health effects on athletes
(including athletes with impairments and Paralympians) have come back to the
fore.”
The Endocannabinoid System has been shown to play an important role in the
modulation of a wide range of physiological processes, including
neurotransmission, pain perception, and inflammation.11
It is not an exaggeration to state that all experimentation using animal models
of pain in which the cannabinoid system has been targeted has suggested that
harnessing this system has analgesic potential. Yet, the very entities that
make the Endocannabinoid Ssystem an attractive therapeutic target also generate considerable
challenges and somewhat undesired effects: activation of the CB1 receptor has
widespread adverse effects on mood, movement, memory, and other processes that
render it difficult to isolate the analgesic response from other behavioral
effects.
Cannabis can help relieve pain, headaches, anxiety, inflammation, and improve sleep as well as facilitate wound healing.
Information about Cannabis and Sports Medicine was taken
from the amazing book
Cannabis Pharmacy:
The Practical Guide to Medical Marijuana by Michael Backes, Andrew Weil,
M.D. and Jack McCue, M.D. You can find this book here…
ProjectCBD.org is another great place to find useful information and published lab tested results about cannabis and Traumatic Brain Injury, Pain, Migraines, inflammation, anxiety, and sleep.
check out https://www.athletesforcare.org/
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/30/health/nfl-marijuana-mike-james-profile-exclusive/index.html
http://eugenemonroe.com/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2018/04/11/martellus-bennett-89-percent-nfl-players-smoke-pot/508746002/
https://www.thecannabist.co/2018/04/10/nfl-nhl-athletes-for-care-medical-marijuana-cbd/103204/
https://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/07/whole-plant-cannabis-study-sports-injuries/
