Medical Marijuana for Chronic Pain in Louisiana

• Chronic pain is a long-term, potentially debilitating pain condition that can stem from a variety of possible sources (including other illnesses).
• While conventional Western medical treatments for chronic pain often come with high risks of prescription dependence (or even overdose), medical cannabis offers all-natural pain relief with fewer risks and side effects.
• Getting medical cannabis for chronic pain in Louisiana is relatively straightforward, and services like TeleLeaf can help you get medical marijuana access with ease.

Chronic pain is often an invisible condition—one that can disrupt your everyday life and complicate your health journey.

Medical cannabis has the potential to revolutionize care for people living with chronic pain (no matter its source). Plus, it carries fewer risks than conventional Western treatments for pain, like opioid prescriptions.

If you live in Louisiana, getting access to medical cannabis is simple—especially with help from virtual healthcare networks like TeleLeaf. Let’s dive into why people in Louisiana with chronic pain should consider this all-natural, holistic approach to healing.

Chronic Pain: What It Looks Like and Where It Comes From

Chronic pain is long-term, persistent discomfort that can disrupt your quality of life and take a toll on your mental health. Let’s break down how chronic pain symptoms present and some potential causes.

Symptoms of Chronic Pain

Chronic pain looks and feels different for every patient. Plus, aches aren’t the only kinds of pain that can be chronic.

You may be experiencing long-lasting bouts of:

• Burning
• Throbbing
• Stiffness
• Pressure or squeezing
• Stinging

Depending on your condition, this pain may be widespread (affecting most of your body) or isolated to one area.

And, even if pain begins in one area of your body, it could develop elsewhere as a result. For example, consider chronic foot pain. Someone with persistent pain in one or both of their feet might change their gait or reduce their activity level to try to avoid painful stimuli. But changing your walking pattern or posture could lead to other discomfort, like back and leg pain.

In short, pain can beget more pain: a vicious cycle that can seem impossible to escape.

Potential Sources of Chronic Pain

Chronic pain can develop from a wide range of root causes. Some cases may be relatively straightforward, especially if you have a condition known to cause long-lasting, intense pain like:

• Arthritis
• An unhealed injury
• Cancer
• Glaucoma
• Bone density loss
• Scar tissue (from an injury or operation)
• Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)

However, there are a few additional prospective causes of chronic pain that might surprise you.

These can include:

• Unresolved trauma – Unprocessed emotions related to events from your past can have a long-lasting effect on the body. They can even cause physical health issues like fibromyalgia (a condition characterized by chronic pain).
• Mental health conditions – Anxiety, depression, and other mental health challenges can have either an indirect impact on our pain levels or directly cause pain. For instance, depression symptoms might keep you from exercising regularly, leading to stiffness or muscle atrophy. In addition, some mental health conditions have been correlated with reduced pain tolerance. Or, your mental health condition may increase your sensitivity to stimuli that aren’t typically painful.
• Chronic fatigue – While you might only associate chronic fatigue with low activity levels, it can also present with persistent throat pain, muscle soreness, and headaches.

It can take time, patience, and research to suss out the root cause of your chronic pain. In the meantime, you’ll likely still want to seek relief.

Your Chronic Pain Relief Options

What are your options for treating chronic pain (whether you already know the root cause or you’re still investigating)? Let’s compare both Western medical treatments and an all-natural option—medical cannabis.

Conventional Medical Treatment

In today’s conventional medical landscape, healthcare providers lean on a few pharmaceutical options for treating chronic pain:

• NSAIDs – Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are available over the counter, and they can provide relief for low to moderate pain levels. However, long-term NSAID use has been connected with stomach and kidney damage.
• Acetaminophen – Available as both an over-the-counter and prescription drug, acetaminophen can be prescribed on its own or in combination with other pharmaceuticals (like NSAIDs or opioids). While it’s a powerful pain reliever, long-term use isn’t recommended (it can lead to kidney and liver damage).
• COX-2 inhibitors – COX-2 inhibitors are technically a type of NSAID, but they only work on one pain-related enzyme (COX-2). NSAIDs typically target both COX-1 and COX-2; COX-1 targeting is primarily associated with stomach damage. While COX-2 inhibitors are designed to mitigate this side effect, they can still cause headaches, dizziness, and kidney problems when used long-term.
• Antidepressants – Antidepressant drugs (like SSRIs) can relieve some nerve-related chronic pain in addition to stabilizing mood. However, antidepressants also carry a bevy of side effects: drowsiness, sexual dysfunction, and suicidal ideation.
• Opioids – While they’re highly effective pain relievers, opioids are perhaps the most dangerous pharmaceuticals on this list. They have an incredibly high dependence risk (i.e., they’re addictive), and opioid overdoses are a leading cause of death in the US.

In some cases, healthcare providers may recommend complementary treatments like physical therapy, dietary changes, mental health counseling, and more.

All-Natural, Plant-Based Medical Cannabis Treatment

Medical cannabis isn’t just a plant-based, highly effective chronic pain reliever.

It’s also:

• Low-risk – There are very few physiological risks associated with cannabis use: mild nausea, dizziness, and smoking-related side effects. Fortunately, these are all easy to mitigate. Nausea typically only occurs in large doses of cannabis, the same is true for dizziness, and non-smoking administration methods eliminate smoking-related risks.
• Not addictive – While cannabis use disorder (a dependence on cannabis that interferes with your day-to-day life) is real, it’s very uncommon for medical marijuana patients. Since medical cannabis patients use highly specific treatment regimens and are under medical supervision, there are numerous safeguards against developing dependence.
• Highly customizable – There are hundreds of strains of the cannabis plant and many administration methods available. Plus, doses can be refined down to the milligram. With help from a medical cannabis healthcare provider, you can tailor your treatment regimen to your exact needs—an option that’s simply not available in the Western medical model.

Why Does Cannabis Work for Pain Relief?

While you can check out our complete guide to cannabis and pain relief for an in-depth exploration, here’s a quick explanation of why cannabis works for chronic pain relief:

• When we use cannabis, we introduce cannabinoids to the body. Cannabinoids (like THC and CBD) interact with our endocannabinoid system (ECS). Everyone has an ECS and makes endocannabinoids (cannabinoid compounds produced inside the body).
• The ECS is a receptor network that plays a role in numerous physical functions: including pain signaling. By introducing cannabinoids to our ECS, we can modulate pain signaling in our bodies.
• By activating and modulating our ECS receptors, we can decrease levels of felt pain in the body (among other benefits).

Getting Medical Cannabis for Chronic Pain in Louisiana Step-by-Step

If you live in Louisiana, getting a medical cannabis recommendation for chronic pain (and, thus, access to our state’s network of legal cannabis pharmacies) is simple:

• Find a provider – Every medical cannabis patient in Louisiana needs a recommendation from a licensed healthcare provider: a physician, nurse practitioner, or medical psychologist. Luckily, any licensed provider can recommend cannabis for any condition they think could benefit from medical cannabis treatment.
• Talk through the recommendation process – Your provider will talk through your symptoms and help you decide whether or not cannabis is a good fit for your condition. If they recommend cannabis treatment, they’ll offer a few starting tips for the experimentation process. They’ll also send their recommendation to a cannabis pharmacy in your area.
• Pick up your medication – All that’s left to do is head to a cannabis pharmacy, check out your product options, and take your medication home—where your treatment journey begins.

Turn to TeleLeaf to Unlock Medical Cannabis Care

If you’re worried about finding a provider that will assess your cannabis compatibility without judgment, turn to TeleLeaf: a network of providers offering medical cannabis recommendations to patients in Louisiana and beyond.

Our cannabis care experts can talk through your concerns about cannabis, answer any questions, and help you create a personalized care plan that produces consistent, positive results. Plus, we have telehealth appointments available—you don’t need to leave the house to get a recommendation.

Ready to explore chronic pain relief with medical cannabis? Make an appointment with TeleLeaf now.

Sources:

US Department of Health and Human Services. Chronic Pain.
https://health.gov/

Cleveland Clinic. Chronic Pain.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/

Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews. Altered Physical Pain Processing in Different Psychiatric Conditions.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149763421005819

Cleveland Clinic. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS).
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/

Mayo Clinic. Chronic Pain: Medication Decisions.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/chronic-pain-medication-decisions/art-20360371

GoodRx. Is Ibuprofen Bad for Your Liver and Kidneys?
https://www.goodrx.com/classes/nsaids/nsaids-ibuprofen-bad-liver-kidneys

Mayo Clinic. Acetaminophen/Ibuprofen (Oral Route).
https://www.mayoclinic.org/

Cleveland Clinic. COX-2 Inhibitors.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. US Overdose Deaths Decrease in 2023, First Time Since 2018.
https://www.cdc.gov/

Healthline. A Simple Guide to the Endocannabinoid System.
https://www.healthline.com/health/endocannabinoid-system