Medical marijuana pills or spray may ease multiple sclerosis pain

PORTLAND, March 25 (UPI) -- Moderate evidence indicates medical marijuana pills and spray may ease multiple sclerosis pain, frequent urination and muscle rigidity.

The researchers find there is not enough evidence to indicate whether smoking marijuana is helpful in treating MS symptoms. Spray marijuana is not available in the United States.

Cannabinoids might cause adverse effects and clinicians should exercise caution regarding standardized versus non-standardized cannabis extracts and overall quality control/non-regulation.

Dr. Vijayshree Yadav, clinical director of Oregon Health & Science University's MS Center, and eight other experts reviewed more than 40 years of research on alternative medical treatments for MS.

Complementary and alternative medicine use is prevalent in 33 percent to 80 percent of patients with MS, Yadav says.

The review says: clinicians might counsel patients magnetic therapy is probably effective for fatigue and probably ineffective for depression; fish oil is probably ineffective for relapses, disability, fatigue, lesions and quality of life; ginkgo biloba is possibly effective for fatigue; reflexology is possibly effective for paresthesia, or "pins and needles;" Cari Loder regimen is possibly ineffective for disability, symptoms, depression, and fatigue; and bee sting therapy is possibly ineffective for relapses, disability, fatigue, lesion burden/volume and health-related quality of life.

Cari Loder, a London professor with MS, discovered a combination of her prescription anti-depressants -- lofepramine, vitamin B12 and an the animo acid phenylalanine found in Diet Coke seemed to make her MS symptoms better. The combination was known as the Cari Loder regime and she wrote about it in her book "Standing in the Sunshine."

The findings are published in the journal Neurology.