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Marijuana Provides More Pain Relief For Men Than Woman, Says Study (psypost.org)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from PsyPost: Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) found that men had greater pain relief than women after smoking marijuana. In this study, the researchers analyzed data from two double-blinded, placebo-controlled studies looking at the analgesic effects of cannabis in 42 recreational marijuana smokers. After smoking the same amount of either an active or placebo form of cannabis, the participants immersed one hand in a a cold-water bath until the pain could no longer be tolerated. Following the immersion, the participants answered a short pain questionnaire. After smoking active cannabis, men reported a significant decrease in pain sensitivity and an increase in pain tolerance. Women did not experience a significant decrease in pain sensitivity, although they reported a small increase in pain tolerance shortly after smoking. "These findings come at a time when more people, including women, are turning to the use of medical cannabis for pain relief," said Ziva Cooper, PhD, associate professor of clinical neurobiology (in psychiatry) at CUMC. "Preclinical evidence has suggested that the experience of pain relief from cannabis-related products may vary between sexes, but no studies have been done to see if this is true in humans." You can view the results of the study online in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Does it only work for chronic pain or something in particular? I've tried to use it in place of aspirin to little or no effect.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
Even marijuana is sexist!!!
when I fire up a spliff the wife leaves the house, taking most of my pain away.
After smoking the same amount of either an active or placebo form of cannabis
https://xkcd.com/1462/
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
...with chocolate.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
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"Marijuana Provides More Pain Relief For Men than Woman"... well yeah.. obviously - a woman CAUSES pain for most men. They don't do much to cure it, so this doesn't surprise me at all. And I suspect this is especially true for gay men. I hope however that these results do not rewsult in a ban or some kind of prohibition on women- I'm straight so I do need women, no matter how ineffective they are at curing pain.
Sorry. Could not help myself.
I guess the study has some value. But I have two immediate questions:
1. Is immersing a hand in cold water equivalent to all other forms of pain? What if marijuana increases the average man's ability to tolerate cold hands 20% and has an insignificant affect for women in that area, but increases a woman's tolerance for bruises, or stomach cancer pain, more than it does for men?
2. In my experience, women are bothered more by cold than men in general. I realize the study is supposedly double blind, so they tried to account for that. But I think that could be a factor to include. If the average guy in the placebo portion could tolerate 90 seconds and the average woman in the placebo portion could tolerate 60, and then the average guy on pot can tolerate 120 and the average woman on pot can tolerate 63, maybe the difference in baselines is important.
When the only too you have is a hammer, everything is a nail.
I approve of this grammatically-correct interpretation.
It would be funny if they found out that it wasn't the cannabis that was easing the pain, but the large bag of pork rinds, Big Gulp and pint of Ben & Jerry's that you chase it with.
You are welcome on my lawn.
If you think there's less pain, is there, really? How do you know? Are the nerves still transmitting the same signal and the brain tunes out? Can that be measured without requiring a verbal response from the patient?
Don't take this wrong. I firmly believe that prohibition must be abolished. I just don't like that we have to beg like this. There is no right to arbitrarily prohibit the possession and consumption of weed, especially without any scientific basis.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Just about every "pain" study uses hands in cold water (yes, even the Mythbusters). I haven't seen any study comparing pain tolerance between men and women that doesn't use this method. Further, they cap the time you can you leave your hand in the ice water, so you can't control for time for anyone who lasts the full duration.
It's fucking stupid. There are many kinds of pain, and we already know that men and women have vastly different circulation patterns. (Men have less circulation to their extremities.) If they insist on this retarded method they should lock your hand in the box with ice water then pretend to take a phone call and leave, then wait to see when you panic. Or do full body immersion.
But I would suggest testing:
Being hit in the shin with a rigid object.
Having the bottom of the foot stabbed with a large needle.
Snapping a rubber band against the inside of the thigh.
A solid punch between the pectoral and shoulder.
Holding your hand over a candle at a fixed distance.
Various clamps.
Maybe some acids.
Etc.
When the Mythbusters used the hand-in-icewater method (to test pain tolerance differences in men and women) they had results that varied wildly between individuals, to the point where they had to disqualify some test subjects for having too high of a tolerance.. There was also a difference in pain tolerance between women who had given birth and women who hadn't.
The effectiveness of pain medication also varies with pain tolerance. For someone with low tolerance, a single asprin will take care of whatever minor pain they have. Someone with a much higher tolerance won't "feel" the pain until it is much more severe and beyond the reach of a basic pain reliever (and will feel little to no relief as a result)
We want to test the subjects, not torture them.
The only idea that could work is the rubber band, the rest of your list would cause physical damage (or at least bruises)
Wow, free weed and all these people have to do is put their hands in ice water? Science is awesome!
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
Having the bottom of the foot stabbed with a large needle.
When I was a child, I had an ingrown toenail once, and the doctor needed to chop away some flesh. In order to numb the toe, he needed to insert the needle under the toenail. Now THAT is painful! He had two nurses hold my leg, because the pain is so bad that people involuntarily jerk their leg.
Maybe some acids.
Like Lysergic acid diethylamide? That would be a whole different study.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
In other news, vaginas provide more pain relief for men.
Sinsemilla is a female marijuana with big soft yummy sticky sexual organs. It wants male relief.
It fucks you up and munches you out.
I had similar surgery in a toe once, first step was 2 injections in/around the phalanges proxima, and then waiting a bit before the injection under the toenail. It was painful, but no nurses required.
Meanwhile, I now have 11 toenails ...
... complain more.
== Jez ==
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Obviously - God should be banned!
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I've heard that men in general have lower tolerance for pain, so maybe everything we take provides more pain relief. Or maybe we just inhale harder?
men feel pain stronger to begin with.
The men are lying, they're just trying to act more macho and have poorer judgement when high.
One critical problem with science pertaining to cannabis (the science term for marijuana, if unclear) is the unscientific factoring of three key variables.
Intake Method (smoking versus vaporization versus edibles...):
Any study that only relies upon smoking cannot detach the possibility (probability, or even certainty) that the act of smoking itself is the relevant issue of that research.
When more people learn about cannabis vaporization, and how amazingly more efficient and healthy that intake method is (that efficiency being seriously great for losing wallet weight, if you will), the popularity of vaporizing cannabis logically increases upon that educational increase, so at least factoring in vaporization into cannabis research is critical for scientific accuracy.
Intake Amount:
Measuring intake amount in joints (or such) is scientifically reckless, because a joint can be any size (for all intents and purposes), and can contain one or more strains of varying psychoactive and other powers.
A rigorously established "estimate" for consistent joint size has recently emerged, but not a concrete scientific measurement.
Intake amount (which can vary dramatically) obviously is a critical factor in determining health impact for worst through best, so that recklessness is unacceptable, and places any research resulting from that recklessness firmly in the category of basically (if not utterly) useless.
Strain Differential:
There are hundreds (if not thousands) of different cannabis strains, and strain effects can vary dramatically between each other to a degree that can leave the user feeling like they're different drugs entirely.
This is not just about THC and CBD amounts (the two most popular cannabinoids these days), but about the fully detailed strain signature literally involving hundreds of compounds (cannabinoids and terpenes).
Just the psychological impact alone can vary to a degree at which generically stating 'study finds cannabis is good (or bad) for n% of people' is meaningless without scientific rigor being applied to strain consistency.
Conclusion:
Despite perhaps coming off as an uptight douche (certainly not my perhaps cannabis-exhaling intention), I appreciate the positive efforts in cannabis research, and I'm glad people are finding benefit from cannabis use for pain (my mom uses a very mildly vaporized "Cheese" strain daily to brilliantly manage Alzheimer's disease symptoms with some hopeful signs of even working against the disease itself – supposedly an impossibility, but recently scientifically suggested to work against the unhealthy protein buildup commonly believed to cause AD).
I wrote this comment in hopes of doing my small-but-tractional part to help raise public awareness of the need to raise scientific awareness going forward along these research lines that are significant in tune with cannabis popularity.
Of course, a disastrous limit against genuine cannabis research is the remaining prohibitionary elements unethically kept in place by the people controlling the illegality of cannabis – those people having a serious financial interest to demonize cannabis demonstrably with no respect for public safety.
Anyone still believing prohibition is the right way to solve drug abuse (which is scientifically distinct from use, and is clearly a health – not criminal – issue) must understand the fact that no concrete (so credible) evidence proves literally any effectiveness from prohibition. At least nationally speaking, we don't even have a "drug free" prison system, but are expected to shell out billions of taxpayer dollars yearly for a "drug free" America.
Sines of Impending Sines
This study had very few participants and therefore cannot be relied upon for anything conclusive. What it does demonstrate is a need to investigate the effects of marijuana further. In order to do so we'd need to see marijuana rescheduled. As it is now marijuana is in a class of drugs deemed having no medical use when in fact this is known to be false.
People may debate if using marijuana medicinally is a good idea or not but we should at least allow people the ability to research this without the threat of going to jail. I don't know how they were able to even perform this study because of the federal laws against it. I assume they did the study in a state where there is no federal enforcement, as in the state legalized it and the federal government decided to turn a blind eye.
The federal government deciding to no enforce federal law based on which state one lives in is unsustainable. At some point this will become a legal problem that will have to be addressed in the courts or legislature. As it is now we have the executive just making law on its own, and that is not how a republic is supposed to work.
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If the god of the bible exists, it is an imperative that we hunt him down and kill him. He's too dangerous to permit to continue to exist.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Well, bro, given the standird of publieck skool edumacation...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
We want to test the subjects, not torture them.
Depends on the subjects...
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
Not to be funny, but there's a well-established phenomenon where men exhibit greater pain tolerance in the presence of a woman, but women don't exhibit similar bias in front of men. If any of the researchers were female (and from their names, some were), that would bias the results.
It is common knowledge that woman has more complaints of being cold than men do. Tim S.
Uh oh, if marijuana provides more pain relief for men than woman, it could seriously impact the job market for women looking to provide pain relief.
Erm, and how exactly do you measure pain in cold water?
I have no pain if I put my hand into cold water. Icy cold is actually a pain killer. That is one reason why you put ice on bruises and other blunt injuries.
I guess unless my whole body gets to cold, I can put my hand into icy water indefinitely (not feeling anything particular uncomfortable except the fact that it is: icy cold)
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Actually THC/a joint is not a mind altering drug but a body altering one.
Most drugs "mind altering" effects come far far far later than body effects.
I know plenty of people who can not walk straight and have articulation problems when "drunk", but heir mind works as sharp as always.
Hint: there is a blood brain barrier for a reason. Roughly 50% of all people don't get high on drugs, exception: LSD.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
The oil and gas fire that fueled the burning bush from which he stemmed has perished millennia ago.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Give it a try. If possible, have a few other people try as well.
Required reading for internet skeptics
I had a motorcycle accident and shattered my big toe- had surgery and pins to fix it. The weird thing is that later that evening when the pain blocker wore off my foot 'remembered' the surgery. I experienced the entire thing- washing, pulling off the toenail, drilling. I wished I were dead.
love is just extroverted narcissism
Maybe that's because "men" are more than "woman"?
"Marijuana provides more pain relief for men than women" does not mean "..more pain relief for men than for women"; it means "more pain relief for men than women do".
I would think instead of hurting your hand would go numb.
I stand by my comment 100%. Ive smoked enough to know what it does. Ive drank enough to know the same. If you cant control your body your not in control period end of story. I have tons of pain and i wouldn't never think of using weed as a pain killer because it makes me HIGH which is far worse. the smoke of a roach is 1000% stronger HIGH then a 15 Mg morphine tablet in what your body and mind experiences.
Jack of all trades,master of none
You likely smoked it with tabacco mixed, and it is the nicotine that makes you high if you are not used to it.
The mental effect of weed is very low. I at least never really felt anything except strong muscle relaxation.
No idea about morphine, I guess it would simply let me fall asleep.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Did that already, that is why I say: it does not hurt at all.
And I can not imagine that a person feels "pain" when the hand is in -11 degrees cold water.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
My experience is dramatically different. I tried this out myself as well, and found it quite painful.
I recommend that you have others try as well. It's entirely possible that your experience is uncommon.
Required reading for internet skeptics
Can you describe it?
I mean, I thought about it, and I could imagine that I e.g. could get pain in my elbow or shoulder if my hand is to long in ice water.
On the other hand, I did that not as an experiment but when I had a bad injury and my foot joint and once burned my forearm,.
Perhaps the relieve of "the real pain" shadowed the potential pain of the cold.
Anyway, regardless of that, I never experienced cold as pain, e.g. -30 degrees cold snow, is just cold snow.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
Keep talking you only make my case...maybe someone who hasn't smoked will believe your bs..im guess your the one who smoked some oregano instead of weed...
Jack of all trades,master of none
I can try to describe it, though I'm not sure I'll be successful.
In my case, it starts off like a dull ache, then a 'burning' sensation, culminating in a stabbing kind of pain.
Required reading for internet skeptics
Lol, why are you so insulting/angry?
I only smoked once or twice pure hashish. Otherwise I put it into cakes or chocolate.
No idea what point you want to prove. Perhaps you are very sensitive to another stuff that is in hashish or weed? I doubt you, I mean you asa person, get particular high from THC. That would be an extra ordinary exception to the rest of mankind :)
On the other hand, you did not tell us your dosage, but I understood you already are affected from relatively low dosages?
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.