Numbness, Spasticity, and CBD

A look at the relationship between cannabinoids and multiple sclerosis

By Patricia Miller

Multiple sclerosis is a demyelinating disease in which the insulating covers of nerve cells are damaged. Microglia cells (orange) attack the oligodendrocytes that form the insulating myelin sheath around neuron axons, leading to the destruction of the myelin sheath and to the loss of nerve function. Photo: iStockphoto.com/selvanegra

When Celeste Miranda woke up on a sunny morning nine years ago, she didn’t dream that day would be the start of a life-changing journey. In the chilling words of Miranda herself, “I woke up one morning and couldn’t feel anything from my waist down.” It was the first day of her battle with multiple sclerosis (MS), a debilitating disease with few treatment options. She couldn’t have known then that her struggle would become the foundation for her work with cannabidiol (CBD).

After waking up numb, Miranda was hospitalized for eighteen agonizing hours before doctors diagnosed her. The disease affects the central nervous system, disrupting the flow of information within the brain. It often has an unpredictable effect on the body with a wide range of potential symptoms.

In brief, the disease works as follows: nerve fibers are coated in a protective sheath called myelin. When the myelin is damaged by MS, nerve fibers are also damaged and can’t properly transmit signals between the brain, spinal cord, and the rest of the body. This can result in walking difficulties, fatigue, numbness, spasticity, weakness, vision problems, dizziness, cognitive changes, pain, seizures, hearing loss, and depression. And those are just some of the many symptoms associated with the disease, depending on which course the MS has taken. There are four disease courses, or types, that have been identified so far.

Dr. Leslie Apgar

In Miranda's situation, her first symptom was numbness. She explained, “I could see myself scratching my leg, but I couldn’t feel it. It was the weirdest perception thing ever.” After her diagnosis, Miranda began several years of medical experimentation. Doctors would prescribe one medicine after another, attempting to hone in on a reliable treatment plan for the erratic illness.

Miranda detailed her initial therapy, “They put me on an MS therapy called Tecfidera. I was on that for a few years before it started giving me a rare brain infection, so they immediately took me off that. I went on to a med [sic] called Copaxone. The first one was a pill. This one was a self-injection and it wasn’t strong enough; I had two relapses immediately.” She continued: “They then put me on, about two years ago, Tysabri. Tysabri is a monthly IV infusion. It’s a chemo med [sic], so you go to the chemo center to get it. It’s worked so far, from what we can tell. I haven’t had a relapse in two and a half years and it hasn’t given me any side effects.”

Though she’s found a therapy that’s working to curb her symptoms, her initial experience wasn’t so seamless. Doctors prescribed a litany of muscle relaxers to battle the spasticity in her legs. She recalls, “I was just so looped; it was crazy. I couldn’t even function.” It was at this point a friend offered her a piece of CBD gum. “Within fifteen minutes my spasticity went away,” she confided, her face mirroring the shocked expression on my own. “‘This can’t be,’ I said. This is crazy. It’s gum! I tried it again. Sure enough, it happened again.”

She found a solution to her spasticity that didn’t involve heavy doses of pharmaceuticals. She stopped taking all the muscle relaxers and switched to an exclusive regimen of CBD and Tysabri. But why did it work? Miranda posits: “MS is an autoimmune disease that is very much linked to inflammation, which is one of the reasons CBD helps so much.” She’s referring to the anti-inflammatory effects of CBD.

According to a research paper titled: “Cannabinoids as novel anti-inflammatory drugs,” cannabinoids seem to disrupt the regulation of cytokine production, which are signaling proteins responsible for inflammation. Oddly, THC can have both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory effects depending on the cells to which it’s applied and the concentration used. When treating MS, the result is antiinflammatory, according to most research.

For example, a study conducted in 1994 with 112 people afflicted with MS showed cannabis improved symptoms in more than 90 percent of patients. Dr. Leslie Apgar, former OBGYN and founder of Greenhouse Wellness in Ellicott City, Maryland, finds cannabis to be an effective treatment for many types of inflammation. She explains, “Inflammation is the root of disease… and cannabis and all of its terpenes are incredibly good anti-inflammatories. Full spectrum options, rather than just CBD, often have an augmented effect. Myrcene, for example, is a terpene that will potentiate the effects of CBD and really help the medicine cross the blood-brain barrier, which is something that never happens in medicine.”

According to Dr. Apgar, there are several terpenes and cannabinoids found in fullspectrum products that work together to fight inflammation. “Linalool is a terpene found in lavender as well as cannabis that has direct effects on seizures and spasticity. So there are certainly different compounds that actually target disease processes and that’s what is so vital about research — I need to know what everything does. I want to know what all these things do and the only way we’re going to get there is if we continue to study it.”

It’s a recurring theme with medical cannabis: more research is needed. Though there’s enough anecdotal evidence to fill a library, the rigorous clinical research just isn’t there yet. The National MS Society (NMSS) says it best in their statement regarding cannabis for multiple sclerosis symptoms: “Despite its use by humans for thousands of years, the scientific study of cannabis and its components is still in its infancy. High-quality research in the United States remains limited.” Yet, regardless of the lack of adequate study, the NMSS also states: “Based on existing evidence, cannabis products are probably effective for treating patientreported symptoms of spasticity and pain.”

Celeste Miranda

Though CBD has transformed Celeste Miranda’s life and helped control her MS, she doesn’t think it’s a miracle drug. “I think it has its uses and I think it helps certain things, but I don’t think it helps everything and everyone. I’m just being realistic. But, I think it’s very good for inflammation-based problems. I also think down the road, what they’re going to find is that CBD will just be the tip of the iceberg. It’ll be about CBC, CBN, CBG, and all these other cannabinoids that are just now being researched and isolated.”

Celeste Miranda is now the CEO and founder of MACE Media Group and The Original CBD Expo Tour, one of the largest CBD-focused expos in North America. ❖