Vaping for lower back pain?

[fernand]

@MinnBobber in my experience, everyone reacts differently, which makes sense in the context: a large number of mutually interacting substances in the plant playing on a very complex neural system with endocannabinoid modulation and enormous variation, person to person. The Indica route works pretty universally: sedation and some analgesia at the edges of couch-lock.

The other way is to hunt for your magic strain or family. That's when the cannabimix plays the right chord on your organ. It takes patience and a lot of gram purchases, looking up the genetic tree and steering in the branches. I first found one of the Sour Diesel derivatives that had a clear effect on the lower back, and that in the lowest temp fractions. So I started trying all the related strains and the strongest effect was from one called "Original Diesel". I can take one drag at a 3 setting on a Solo, no visible vapor, hardly a head hit, and the lower back gets some marvelous numbness. It even seems like it's probably one/several of the strong tasting terpenes that's critical, maybe interacting with THC, maybe not. I'd still like to try what they call "East Coast Diesel". Maybe they bred a harsh "diesel" taste out in many derived phenos, and maybe THAT's what I'm after? But it's in the low temp distillate anyway. Vaping the rest of a load only slightly increases the lower back relief, though it makes it psychologically more bearable. I'm not one to believe in magical Cannabis, and I think that anyone who says it has no side-effects or problems for anyone is naive. But I do believe that there's something to the concept that there's something like an "ideal strain" for any given person, and that it can be discovered with some thoughtful trial and error. Other than the general Indica effect, I doubt one person's key-strain will be yours.

In practice, if the pain is severe, I haven't yet found any cannabis that relieves pain as well as derivatives of that other plant. Maybe at full-force couch lock, I dunno, but we both seem to not be fans of that state.

 

[MinnBobber]

Thanks for the further comments Fernand.
Yup, one person's "pain" strain may not be another's but your experience makes me want to try "Original Diesel" to see what it does for me, or some other Diesel family members. When I was researching what to get on CO trip, Diesels strains turned me off--thought about yucky diesel smell but if they work, definitely would consider.
Very interesting that low vape temps worked so good for you. Like you said, each body/person reacts differently. Most "wisdom" says vape on super high temp for pain issues but not lways true.
Super Lemon Haze really grabs me but just not sure if there might be a better strain for pain????

Currently looking at adding glass/water to my vaporizer to up my game there.

 

[fernand]

I'll just mention one more experiment. While that pain relief is working, vaping the rest of the load (i.e. the stuff that vaporizes at higher temps) might not add a lot to it, but it doesn't ruin it. But vaping a very different strain at that point can completely undo it, I've verified this on several occasions. It's reminiscent of how vaping a high CBD strain can bring you down from excessive THC -- a useful thing to know.

 

[FlyingLow]

Yikes, just jumping in on this thread... going late this morning for an MRI on my lower back.

If there is any way for a back to go out, I sure did it with gusto.
I played in a pro-am with the best of the best from the PGA, and on the 18th put everything I had into my tee shot. Right away I knew I fucked up my back and struggled to walk to my ball. After a practice swing, I picked up rather than playing the hole; I was in agony then- but it has only gotten worse.

 

[MinnBobber]

Yikes, just jumping in on this thread... going late this morning for an MRI on my lower back.

If there is any way for a back to go out, I sure did it with gusto.
I played in a pro-am with the best of the best from the PGA, and on the 18th put everything I had into my tee shot. Right away I knew I fucked up my back and struggled to walk to my ball. After a practice swing, I picked up rather than playing the hole; I was in agony then- but it has only gotten worse.

Sorry to hear that. I was in a sports tournament in Amsterdam and after 20 intense games in two days plus ref duties, mine just went south. Could only limp for 2 weeks. My therapy stuff is helping--slowly.
Hope yours gets diagnosed/ gets better.

 

[fernand]

One more approach to back problems using Cannabis. Last night my wife and I went out to a Rave. I had pre-medicated to the max, and that was enough to actually be able to consider dansing. Timidly at first, and then "Screw it, let's see what happens". The status this morning was positive. Amazing. I'm walking better than I have in months. What do you call a combination of exercise and medication?

I did more damage this afternoon lifting volume 1 of the Compact Edition of The Oxford Dictionary out of its cubby and off the shelf than I did dansing for a couple hours in the company of blasted youth - they must have vibed me to better health.

 

[MinnBobber]

One more approach to back problems using Cannabis. Last night my wife and I went out to a Rave. I had pre-medicated to the max, and that was enough to actually be able to consider dansing. Timidly at first, and then "Screw it, let's see what happens". The status this morning was positive. Amazing. I'm walking better than I have in months. What do you call a combination of exercise and medication?.....

What do you call exercise and medication? Active dual remedy therapy? If my back is not beyond a certain point of "bad", mj + exercise often makes it much better. I did try when it was quite bad and the combo made it much worse so one needs to use caution.
In fact, in Amsterdam we had the second floor of a coffee shop to ourselves and I was hittin' the Verdampfer vaporizer and movin' and stretchin' and the combo was terrific!!!
I think I'll try it today, vaping and deep water exercise at the Y

 

[Enchantre]

I find that being medicated makes it much easier to be very active which in turn leads to better muscle tone and ability better range of motion etc.

 

[fernand]

@Enchantre is right. That muscle tone is essential, and it's one more thing you lose when the pain makes it harder to move. So when you see a knarly seniorito dragging acrossing the street on a cane like he's got years to complete it, do him a favor, revv that engine, blow that horn! Put the aerobic fear of God in him! Get his pulse racing, and his ass out front!

But I can see (again) that certain types of motion are much safer that others. Lifting objects is very bad. Dansing ecstatically is good. It's God's way of telling us to praise and rejoice fearlessly in The Now, and not carry around heavy arms, ammo and shiny metals the way a materialist survivor would.

Fancy water tools over 5 Kg in weight and depleted uranium nails are also discouraged, without a proper shoulder harness anyway.

 

[DJ Colonel Corn]

@MinnBobber in my experience, everyone reacts differently, which makes sense in the context: a large number of mutually interacting substances in the plant playing on a very complex neural system with endocannabinoid modulation and enormous variation, person to person. The Indica route works pretty universally: sedation and some analgesia at the edges of couch-lock.

The other way is to hunt for your magic strain or family. That's when the cannabimix plays the right chord on your organ. It takes patience and a lot of gram purchases, looking up the genetic tree and steering in the branches. I first found one of the Sour Diesel derivatives that had a clear effect on the lower back, and that in the lowest temp fractions. So I started trying all the related strains and the strongest effect was from one called "Original Diesel". I can take one drag at a 3 setting on a Solo, no visible vapor, hardly a head hit, and the lower back gets some marvelous numbness. It even seems like it's probably one/several of the strong tasting terpenes that's critical, maybe interacting with THC, maybe not. I'd still like to try what they call "East Coast Diesel". Maybe they bred a harsh "diesel" taste out in many derived phenos, and maybe THAT's what I'm after? But it's in the low temp distillate anyway. Vaping the rest of a load only slightly increases the lower back relief, though it makes it psychologically more bearable. I'm not one to believe in magical Cannabis, and I think that anyone who says it has no side-effects or problems for anyone is naive. But I do believe that there's something to the concept that there's something like an "ideal strain" for any given person, and that it can be discovered with some thoughtful trial and error. Other than the general Indica effect, I doubt one person's key-strain will be yours.

In practice, if the pain is severe, I haven't yet found any cannabis that relieves pain as well as derivatives of that other plant. Maybe at full-force couch lock, I dunno, but we both seem to not be fans of that state.

Heh, very good to read this, as I have been using 'Original Sour Diesel' for years for my chronic back pain resulting from a car wreck... it's %90 Sativa by the way and low on cbd.. just a note for all those who think you only need indica/cbd to relieve pain !
Great to see another user found OSD to be so helpful !
Love this forum ! Long love FC FORUM !

 

[fernand]

I humbly apologize for spelling dance "danse". No idea why. Prance, pants, France, chance.

 

[Enchantre]

I humbly apologize for spelling dance "danse". No idea why. Prance, pants, France, chance.

And here I thought it was like the "Danse Macabre"...

Of course, I could be spelling THAT wrong.

 

[fernand]

And here I thought it was like the "Danse Macabre"...
Of course, I could be spelling THAT wrong.

No you are right, my first spelling was in French. And now I get confused. I got pulled over once and the "officer" demanded I recite the alphabet, fast. I asked if I could do it in French, because that's how I learned it, and ... he cuffed me.

 

[Tommy Dukes]

My cousin had lower back pain after he had back surgery. The doctors gave him prescriptions for Vicodin and Oxy-Contin...After his prescriptions expired he was left with an addiction to opium. Needless to say, he turned to Heroin to deal with his pain after the pills stopped working, and ended up in prison for a a couple years.

Marijuana would have been a better alternative if he would have had the option. I'm not saying that marijuana would have saved him, but having it as an option could have prevented his addiction to a more serious drug.

 

[grokit]

As a chronic pain patient, I can testify that opiate use is greatly reduced when one has access to mmj

 

[CarolKing]

My back had been very sore and tight from over doing it in the the yard. I used some heat because cold was making it hurt worse ( normally it's the other way around ). I had never used Blue Dream before and I really liked the medicating effects. Over some days I tried a few of different strains.

Using my Solo my bubbler and the Blue Dream I am feelin more like "me" again. Uh Oh!

 

[MinnBobber]

My back had been very sore and tight from over doing it in the the yard. I used some heat because cold was making it hurt worse ( normally it's the other way around ). I had never used Blue Dream before and I really liked the medicating effects. Over some days I tried a few of different strains.

Using my Solo my bubbler and the Blue Dream I am feelin more like "me" again. Uh Oh!

Thanks for sharing your experience. I currently only have two sativas which are probably not the best for pain. I am considering a trip to CO later this summer and already was thinking about trying to find a rec dispensary with Blue Dream. Others have mentioned it elsewhere and your experience confirms that it would be a good strain to try!! Thanks

 

[grokit]

Has anybody had a chance to compare blue dream with blue widow/berry white (same thing)?

 

[Grim Chiclets]

Blue Dream IMO has more painkilling effects- but it's been a LONG time since I had Blue Widow- I think it was combustion days in fact

 

[ataxian]

@MinnBobber in my experience, everyone reacts differently, which makes sense in the context: a large number of mutually interacting substances in the plant playing on a very complex neural system with endocannabinoid modulation and enormous variation, person to person. The Indica route works pretty universally: sedation and some analgesia at the edges of couch-lock.

The other way is to hunt for your magic strain or family. That's when the cannabimix plays the right chord on your organ. It takes patience and a lot of gram purchases, looking up the genetic tree and steering in the branches. I first found one of the Sour Diesel derivatives that had a clear effect on the lower back, and that in the lowest temp fractions. So I started trying all the related strains and the strongest effect was from one called "Original Diesel". I can take one drag at a 3 setting on a Solo, no visible vapor, hardly a head hit, and the lower back gets some marvelous numbness. It even seems like it's probably one/several of the strong tasting terpenes that's critical, maybe interacting with THC, maybe not. I'd still like to try what they call "East Coast Diesel". Maybe they bred a harsh "diesel" taste out in many derived phenos, and maybe THAT's what I'm after? But it's in the low temp distillate anyway. Vaping the rest of a load only slightly increases the lower back relief, though it makes it psychologically more bearable. I'm not one to believe in magical Cannabis, and I think that anyone who says it has no side-effects or problems for anyone is naive. But I do believe that there's something to the concept that there's something like an "ideal strain" for any given person, and that it can be discovered with some thoughtful trial and error. Other than the general Indica effect, I doubt one person's key-strain will be yours.

In practice, if the pain is severe, I haven't yet found any cannabis that relieves pain as well as derivatives of that other plant. Maybe at full-force couch lock, I dunno, but we both seem to not be fans of that state.

I go to the gym and work another part of the body. Rest. Next day another part of the body. Rest. Following day light work of the lower back with reduced extension. Rest.

I vaporize a top shelf indica just before rest.

Cannabis doesn't heal my back however helps me handle the pain!

Good Diet!
Work Out!
Rest!

Don't do as I say!
This is what I do!
Where all different!

 

[fernand]

Anybody with lower back pain and sciatica find anything more?

Much to my surprise some edibles have been very helpful.

 

[kurt6652]

cbd hash plant helps my lower back pain, i grow mj.

 

[fernand]

It seems like there are two "approaches" to pain: general and localized. If I didn't get the specific relief from my ideal Sativa type strains, I'd be using a more overall analgesic (Indica?) type.

For me, a couple of low temp tokes of a Sour Diesel feels almost like an epidural in the lower back. Not in other spots. And those types of strain, the "diesel" family, do it so much better than others. Is it a specific terpene mix? A cannabinoid ratio?

I like to think everyone has a Guardian Strain, they just need to find it.
OK, so that's maybe wishful thinking, but why not hope and keep looking, do a systematic trial in the main branches of the genetic tree. Once you find it, it's like a long lost friend.

I got some Beboe Sativa 1:1 THC/CBD pastilles recently (here in NorCal). They contain a bit under 5mg of each per unit. Someone said he heard they make it from Sour Diesel, so I was entirely game to try them. They work best slowly dissolved in the mouth.

A couple days ago I completely forgot I'd taken one, it's subtle. I was late to a concert, we had to move fast. My wife couldn't keep up with me, though normally I'm hobbling and wincing behind her. By the end of the day, I'd comfortably walked a lot. And I was surprised to discover that I'd only used 1/4 of my Rx meds. That's no fluke.

Tried a half unit this morning, and it wasn't quite enough. Adding the other half did it.

 

[fernand]

Nanodabbing with Divine Tribe's 510 threaded Quartz Quest on Pico temp regulated mod base.

 

[fernand]

As Steve DeAngelo says, "it's not about getting high, it's about being well". It takes a while for that whole concept to sink in.

The nature of cannabis as a relatively benign intoxicant is a different matter for those of us who aren't all that well. We are fundamentally different from the Rec users that way. Because we're looking to get well all the time. Stoned is not good enough. We got a lot to learn and nobody to teach us.