- Make It Yourself Lavender Heart-Shaped Bath Bombs!
- 20 Things You Never Knew About “Down There”
- 12 Best Foods For Those Suffering From Arthritis Pain
- 12 Personal Hygiene Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes (Mom Never Told You About #4!)
- 15 Medicinal Plants And Herbs From The Cherokee People
- 12 Mind-Blowing Benefits Of Drinking Coconut Water During Pregnancy
- 12 Outstanding Winter Foods That Won’t Fatten You Up Like A Christmas Turkey
Marijuana Infused Massage Therapy and Spa Time Is Here!
Photo credit: bigstock.com
Marijuana and hemp have been in the news a great deal lately, mostly due to the numerous health benefits that have been scientifically proven as of late. But have you heard about some of the latest ways that people are using pot? People are making their own marijuana infused oils and lotions for massage therapy. How does it work? Does it work?
In Colorado, the first state in America to implement the legal use of cannabis, “canna-massage” day spas are doing a bang up business. Manufacturers of marijuana-infused products for the skin, referred to as “topicals,” are seeing their sales go through the roof.
Day by day the increasing number of Americans are getting tired with traditional medicine which tends to under-deliver while over billing. The new awareness of the healing powers of marijuana is combining American ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and a willingness to try something new and turning it into a new and exciting business. After decades of hiding out, cannabis and massage or other types of spa treatments, are ready to come out of the closet, so to speak, and into the mainstream.
The present-day spa industry is, as of today, is estimated as $18 billion dollar industry. Massage parlors, once considered to be a seedy business, have blossomed into “day spas,” and Americans are embracing them like never before as an option for everything from natural pain relief to relaxation. It is expected that the number of massage therapists in America will increase by as much as 23 percent in the next decade.
Cannabis massage only makes sense, then, when you consider that 23 states in the US have approved medical marijuana programs and 4 states that have legalized usage of cannabis for those who are over 21 years old.
Continue to Page 2
Photo credit: bigstock.com
Since ancient times the massage therapy has been used to help treat a variety of conditions, especially for tension and pain. Did you know that cannabis has been mentioned in the oldest manuals known to man? Both Ayurvedic and Chinese medical texts mention the healing powers of marijuana. It was not until centuries later that cannabis became the “devil weed.” The strange thing is that most of the people who demonized cannabis seemed to be completely unaware that marijuana existed in both topical and edible forms in US pharmacies up until the 1930’s.
The Western world once saw massage as a foreign and even pagan practice that went contrary to the old school approach and protestant values such as the stoic enduring of pain.
Medical usage of cannabis hardly existed for most of the last century. But it suddenly resurfaced in California in 1996 in a law called the “Compassionate Use Act.” Currently, about 1 in every 20 Californians have used marijuana in medical purposes, and among them the number of those who said it was very effective was as high as 92 percent. The first state to allow the legal use of marijuana for adults was Colorado whereas the boom in cannabis massage has led to its legalization.
Today, massage therapy is not only seen as a beneficial means of relaxing, but as one of the ways to soothe pain. If you really want to see how attitudes have changed, check this out; in 1998, only 7.7 percent of US hospitals practiced massage as an “alternative” medicine, but later on in 2007, over 37 percent of hospitals offered massage therapy in-house. At the moment, massage holds the first rating among the outpatient services.
Many people find that this sort of massage therapy can help greatly to relieve the pain of rheumatoid arthritis and sports injuries such as tendonitis. However, because technically all forms of cannabis are federally illegal, no one is technically advertising marijuana treatments, as they might lose their state license if they do. Cannabis infused massage therapy is also catching on in California, but at a slower pace, because both the patient and the therapist need a doctor’s recommendation to obtain topicals under state law.
Cannabis massage therapy is very difficult to find in Washington. Although unlicensed medical marijuana stores and manufacturers abound, but try to find a single topical cannabis store and you will come up empty. This makes sense when you consider that under Washington’s 502 initiative, those selling cannabis are not allowed to advertise that their products contain any medicinal value whatsoever.
Continue to Page 3
Photo credit: bigstock.com
It’s truly a tragedy that when it comes to pain relief, marijuana massage can be the life and death matter, yet it has to be kept hidden because the federal government won’t back down on its stance on marijuana, regardless of the thousands of tests and studies which show it has powerful medicinal compounds. A very effective blockade has prevented a number of scientists who are not affiliated with government from studying the cannabis effects.
It’s hard to say exactly what the federal government is so afraid of. Applying the active ingredients in pot on your skin will not get you high, make you miss work, cause you to drive while under the influence, nor will it show up on a drug test.
However, scientists have yet to do the most basic work with the active ingredients in the whole plant, the so called phytocannabinoids. Data received from pre-clinical studies shows what users already report. Our skin and muscles contain nerve fibers with cannabinoid receptors, which soak up the active ingredients, called cannabinoids, in marijuana. Dozens of those cannabinoids can penetrate deep into the skin and can actually reach nerves as well as immune cells.
SEE ALSO: Make Your Own CBD Hemp Oil and Cannabis Salve for Topical Use
One study that involved 22 subjects that had untreatable skin itching in a condition that was related to a dysfunction of the nerves, reported that with a topical cannabinoid application, all subjects had an 86.4 percent decrease in their itching.
With more and more people coming forward, talking about how their pain was relieved through the use of cannabis infused topical massage oils and lotions, we can only hope that someone at the federal level will take heed and will do what should have been done 70 years ago. Free marijuana from its chains and allow the American people to seek the relief they need.
References:
