Keep yourself healthy
CBD Health Opinion Pain

Ask A Doctor – Fibromyalgia & Back Pain

Ask A Doctor - Fibromyalgia & Back Pain
Written by Dr. Leah Zachar

Fibromyalgia is a medical condition of undiagnosable pain, whereby doctors assume that overactive nerves cause muscle pain, especially in the lower back.

Dr Zachar received a number of questions relating to Fibromyalgia, as well as back pain and arthritis. Many patients report stunning results from using highly concentrated CBD to manage their symptoms.

Question: My daughter, now 22, suffered from Lyme, Bartonella, & Babesia for many years before her problem(s) were accurately identified. Because of all those “missed years” she now suffers from dizziness, “fogginess” in the brain, joint pain, digestive ailments, food allergies, & fibromyalgia. Can CBD help her? Will CBD interfere with the antibiotics and herbs she takes? Can CBD kill the spirochetes that are responsible for Lyme disease?

The Center for Disease Control & Prevention does not support the terminology “chronic Lyme disease.” They call the constellation of symptoms your daughter has “post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS)”, which is seen in less than 5% of people who have had Lyme disease. Regardless of the name that is given to your daughter’s symptoms, they are real, and our CBD can help. I suggest you first address her digestive ailments.

She is fatigued and nutritionally depleted due to the multitude of antibiotics she received and their effect on her intestinal flora.CBD can safely be given with the medications & herbals your daughter takes, however you should always check with your healthcare provider.

CBD does not have activity against spirochetes.
However, CBD can address the digestive ailments, the fibromyalgia, and possibly the food allergies – if these are a result of intestinal inflammation or irritable bowel syndrome.
CBD can be started at 5 mg twice a day.

Taper up as high as necessary, but go slow. Start with an oil tincture. Consider switching to soft-gels when you are at maintenance.

Ref:
1. “CDC – Post Lyme Disease Syndrome – Lyme Disease”. Cdc.gov.February 7, 2013.
2. “Qureshi MZ, New D, Zulqarni NJ, et al. Overdiagnosis and overtreatment of Lyme disease in children”. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2002;21(1):12–4.
3. “The overdiagnosis of Lyme disease in children residing in an endemic area. Clin Pediatr.” 1994;33(11):663–8.
4. “Evidence-based guidelines for the management of Lyme disease.” Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther, 2004;2(Suppl 1): S4.

Question: I have arthritis resulting in pain, inflammation, and early deformities of my hands. What bothers my much more, is that I also have mental illness, including: bipolar illness, schizophrenia, PTSD, psychotic episodes (secondary to my bipolar illness), insomnia, and I sleep walk. Help!

Our CBD can help you. The CBD first decrease your pain & inflammation of the arthritis, as you do not need high doses for these benefits.
I caution you NOT to use THC, because THC can worsen the schizophrenia, cause your brain to “race” while you sleep, and aggravate the sleep walking.
You may eventually need relatively high doses of CBD because of the schizophrenia, so start at a medium dose of 20 mg a day, and increase it by 5-10-mg every few days.
I strongly recommend you stay away from THC it will aggravate your condition.

Question: Can CBD applied to the skin help decrease inflammation and pain of arthritis?

Yes, this was demonstrated in the peer-reviewed journal, “European Journal of Pain”, July 2016. Arthritis of the knee was induced in rats. CBD gels were applied to the skin about the area that had the pain and swelling. After the CBD was applied to the skin, there was decreased swelling, increased movement of the inflamed knee joint, and decreased pain.
Examination of the blood revealed a decrease in inflammatory enzymes.
Thus, the CBD not only reduced the pain and swelling of the joint, but it stopped further deterioration of the joint.

Question: How much and how often should I take CBD oil for lower back pain I have had for 40+ years? I have used opioids and lidocaine patches, but all to no avail. I am also taking Rivaroxaban and I am concerned about drug interactions.

Rivaroxaban does not interact with CBD in the cytochrome P450 system in the liver, and it also has multiple elimination pathways,
Therefore, Rivaroxaban can be safely taken together with CBD.
As for the dose, start with 5-mg of CBD tincture once a day and increase it every few days by 2 or 3-mg until you start to feel relief.
You may Increase the tincture to twice a day if necessary.
The CBD will help as an anxiolytic first, and then after that you’ll start to feel the pain relieving effects.
Go has high as you like, but when you find the “sweet spot”, stay at that dose for at least one month, and then re-evaluate.
At any time, you can switch to soft-gels, which are more convenient to take, and last a little longer.

As per your request, we are moving the weekly In-house doctor session from Thursday at 1 pm EST, to Thursday at 3 pm EST (That’s UK’s 20:00, NYC’s 15:00 and LA’s 12:00)

If you want to read more from Dr Zachar, check out: ‘Ask A Doctor – Neurology – Strokes & Seizures

[maxbutton id=”10″] [Image credit: Pixabay]

Have anything to add? Your voice matters! Join the conversation and contribute your insights and ideas below.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About the author

Dr. Leah Zachar

Dr. Leah Zachar, M.D. is a physician who worked for nearly thirty years in Internal Medicine.
She currently is a scientific adviser to CBD Testers. Dr. Zachar believes that there is much that medical cannabis, and cannabidiol in particular can offer to traditional medicine.