To some it seems taboo. But a\u00a0nationally renowned\u00a0pain doctor\u00a0says a four-letter word can ease aches and\u00a0anxiety without the risk of addiction:\u00a0H-E-M-P.<\/p>\n
“It’s gonna be the next big thing,” said\u00a0Dr. James Patrick Murphy,\u00a0a former president of the Greater Louisville Medical Society who treats patients in Kentucky and Indiana.<\/p>\n
Hemp won’t alleviate acute pain, Murphy said,<\/strong>\u00a0but it can\u00a0lessen more moderate pain \u2014\u00a0allowing\u00a0some patients to reduce or stop taking\u00a0addictive pain pills that fuel the heroin and opioid epidemic.<\/p>\n With\u00a0Louisville losing an average of one person a day to drug overdoses,\u00a0doctors and patients are scrambling to find safer\u00a0ways to treat pain.<\/p>\n The\u00a0U.S. Food and Drug Administration hasn’t approved\u00a0hemp products for use as medicine, and clinical trials on cannabinoids or CBD oil\u00a0\u2014 extracted from the hemp flower \u2014are pending. But Murphy and other doctors seethe oil\u00a0as a promising option, and many people who are trying it for themselves say it works.<\/p>\n “People are coming in using this stuff,” Murphy\u00a0said.\u00a0“We have to learn about it.”<\/p>\n CBD oil has been credited with significantly\u00a0reducing the severity of violent and\u00a0potentially deadly\u00a0epileptic seizures \u2014 especially in children.And hemp seeds are\u00a0considered a “superfood,” rich in omegas and protein.<\/p>\n Yet the hemp plantis\u00a0often confused and\u00a0dismissed as a forbidden relative of marijuana.<\/p>\n “Cheers” actor Woody Harrelson grabbed national attention in June 1996\u00a0by planting\u00a0four hemp seeds\u00a0in\u00a0Eastern Kentucky\u00a0on a Lee County farm. His\u00a0arrest was a stunt to highlight the difference between pot and hemp.<\/p>\n Both are the same plant species, Cannabis sativa. And they have the same pointy leafs and pungent scent.\u00a0But hemp has a breadth of uses and\u00a0a negligible\u00a0amount of the mind-altering ingredient THC.<\/p>\n “Cars can run on hemp oil,” the actor\u00a0wrote in a letter published in Courier Journal after his arrest. “Environmentally friendly detergents, plastics,\u00a0paints, varnishes, cosmetics and textiles are already being made from it” in Europe.<\/p>\n Still, U.S. lawmakers would take nearly two decades longer to embrace it.<\/p>\n A federal law\u00a0many dub the “2014 Farm Bill” cleared a path for its comeback.<\/p>\n Now Kentucky is\u00a0among the nation’s top\u00a0producers, trailing\u00a0Colorado.<\/p>\n Brian Furnish, an eighth-generation tobacco\u00a0farmer, was among the first in decades to legally plant hemp seeds in Kentucky soil.\u00a0He grows\u00a0and promotes\u00a0hemp as an executive with Ananda Hemp, one of the commonwealth’s largest growers.<\/p>\n Furnish is not only a grower,\u00a0he’s a consumer.\u00a0He says a few drops of CBD oil ease his neck and back pain due to old football injuries and heavy lifting of feed sacks and other strenuous chores.<\/p>\n Now, he doesn’t work the farm without it.<\/p>\n Murphy is among the doctors who first learned about the potential benefits of hemp from their patients.<\/p>\n Curious, he did some\u00a0research, reading about CBD oil\u00a0and\u00a0even testing it on himself for four days. Although he didn’t need it for pain, he verified it didn’t give him a buzz or any negative side effects.<\/p>\n He decided to recommend it to 200 patients.<\/p>\n About 90 percent\u00a0of the\u00a0175\u00a0who tried CBD oil spray or pills\u00a0reported benefits, such as fewer migraines and tension headaches and more tolerable\u00a0leg and back pain and arthritis, he said. Others had more restful sleep and less\u00a0anxiety.<\/p>\n But it’s not for everyone.<\/p>\n Murphy doesn’t\u00a0recommend it to\u00a0patients who are taking blood thinners or who have heart\u00a0conditions.<\/p>\n And a small number of his patients\u00a0opted to stop taking hemp after becoming dizzy. Others didn’t notice any relief from migraines or enough\u00a0relief from severe pain.<\/p>\n Those who opted not to try hemp\u00a0included an elderly patient whose\u00a0husband wouldn’t let her try anything related\u00a0to marijuana.<\/p>\n Dr. Bruce Nicholson, a Pennsylvania pain expert, also recommends hemp to many of his patients.<\/p>\n Dozens\u00a0have reduced or stopped taking\u00a0opioids, he said. Patients reported less trembling from\u00a0neuropathy and relief from achy muscles. The doctor\u00a0personally uses hemp several times a week, rubbing a cream\u00a0on his achy joints.<\/p>\n “In the medical profession, we knew nothing about it,” said Nicholson, who began reading up on it\u00a0about three years ago.<\/p>\n Nicholson estimates that as many as 80 percent\u00a0of his patients suffering from chronic pain also face anxiety or depression. He said hemp can help that too.<\/p>\n “Now I recommend it every day to my patients,” he said.<\/p>\n Lisa Whitaker, 50, one of Murphy’s patients on disability for migraines and herniated discs, said CBD oil didn’t ease her severe headaches but\u00a0did help her back pain.<\/p>\n It took four to six weeks before she noticed significant relief.<\/p>\n “This has been a lifesaver,” Whitaker said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" To some it seems taboo. But a\u00a0nationally renowned\u00a0pain doctor\u00a0says a four-letter word can ease aches and\u00a0anxiety without the risk of addiction:\u00a0H-E-M-P. “It’s gonna be the next big thing,” said\u00a0Dr. James Patrick Murphy,\u00a0a former president of the Greater Louisville Medical Society who treats patients in Kentucky and Indiana. Hemp won’t alleviate acute pain, Murphy said,\u00a0but it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n