Hip Pain

[brainface]

So my 55 year old mom is fairly healthy for her age but she has hip pain a lot. Because of this she has trouble walking up stairs and sleeping. She does have pills for it already that contain "Glucosamine Sulfate Complex 500 mg and Chondrotin Sulfate 400 mg" if that means anything to anyone.

Anyways, would she be able to get medical marijuana just for a little hip pain?

brainface Reviewed by brainface on 11-15-2007. Hip Pain So my 55 year old mom is fairly healthy for her age but she has hip pain a lot. Because of this she has trouble walking up stairs and sleeping. She does have pills for it already that contain "Glucosamine Sulfate Complex 500 mg and Chondrotin Sulfate 400 mg" if that means anything to anyone. Anyways, would she be able to get medical marijuana just for a little hip pain? Rating: 5

[birdgirl73]

Hip pain like that comes from a condition called osteoarthritis, which involves the wearing away of cartilage in the hip joint, along with the drying up of the fluid-filled sac, the bursa, that surrounds the joint. Glucosamine/chondroitin are good supplements to help people keep from losing more cartilage and to sort of lubricate the joints (I take the stuff myself), but people have to take it at fairly high doses and steadily for a month and a half or two before they even begin to feel its effects on arthritis.

Osteoarthritis is definitely one of the conditions for which medical MJ can be prescribed and used. It not only helps with the pain if people are using the right strain but also with the inflammatory process, which is often a miserable part of that condition. From what I've read, eaten or vaped cannabis are better indicated for arthritic conditions, particularly osteo (as opposed to rheumatoid arthritis, which is an auto-immune disease), because smoking can cause further degeneration of cartilage/bursae because it's very drying. Good old simple ibuprofen is a big help to me for a long-ago injured knee that has a similar problem, as both a pain-reliever and an anti-inflammatory.

Osteoarthritis, particularly in the hips, isn't something that gets better on its own or with cannabis, which is mainly to ease the symptoms. Eventually, your mom is probably going to need either hip-resurfacing or hip-replacement surgery. That's how that condition is treated.