Flexibility is a physical state that many of us struggle for. Many times, while leaning forward in yoga class, I looked enviously at a classmate with his head positioned effortlessly against his knees. Outside of the yoga studio (and in a doctor's or physical therapist's office), this could be classified as "hypermobility."
La manifestación más grave de hipermovilidad es un síntoma de diagnóstico del trastorno del tejido conectivo síndrome de ehlers-danlos (EDS), una afección genética que produce dolor intenso, dislocaciones articulares regulares, complicaciones intestinales y fatiga crónica.
Con su calidad de vida gravemente afectada, los pacientes con EDS a menudo se encuentran con un cóctel de medicamentos recetados. Sin embargo, cada vez más, el cannabis está ganando popularidad en la comunidad de SED como una forma más eficaz y segura de controlar los complejos síntomas que padece.
In data published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, el 37% de los 500 pacientes con SED encuestados dijeron que consumían cannabis con fines medicinales.
In addition, of the traditional and complementary therapies used by respondents, "marijuana rated themselves as the most effective."
¿QUÉ ES EL SÍNDROME DE EHLERS-DANLOS?
La EDS es una colección hereditaria de trastornos del tejido conectivo causados por la estructura o función anormal del colágeno, la principal proteína estructural del cuerpo. Si bien se clasifica oficialmente como una enfermedad rara, se cree que el SED es cada vez más prevalente de lo que se pensaba, y un análisis de pacientes de Gales en el Reino Unido estima que 1 in 500 of the local population suffers from it.. Las mujeres también tienen más probabilidades de verse afectadas por el SED.
Si bien la EDS se agrupa en trece subtipos, la variante de EDS hipermóvil (hEDS) es la más común y se caracteriza por articulaciones sueltas e inestables que se dislocan con regularidad, dolor en las articulaciones, piel elástica, piel que se magulla con facilidad, problemas digestivos y fatiga extrema. Las comorbilidades son frecuentes e incluyen el síndrome de taquicardia postural (STP), un aumento anormal de la frecuencia cardíaca y mareos al ponerse de pie; síndrome de activación de mastocitos (MACS), que da lugar a reacciones de tipo alérgico desencadenadas por sustancias normalmente inofensivas; así como la fibromialgia, y en las mujeres, endometriosisThe growth of uterine cells outside the uterus.
Overall, very little is known about hEDS. Despite its hereditary nature, there is no genetic test for diagnosis, and physicians generally struggle to control patients' symptoms, often resorting to long-term prescriptions of strong opioids.
LA HISTORIA DE LUCY
This was the case of Lucy Stafford, a 21-year-old British patient, who at the age of thirteen was taking opiates every day for the excruciating pain she was enduring.
"Basically, I became a shell of myself that I really couldn't move and I couldn't study," Lucy recalls. "I couldn't go to school, I couldn't do all the things I should have been doing as a child. And instead, I got progressively sicker and started taking more and more medications to treat a wide range of symptoms."
Being hit with opioids made finishing school nearly impossible and Lucy found herself failing almost all of her classes.
"I thought I was lazy and not capable of doing things," she says thinking back.
As the medication became stronger (she was eventually prescribed fentanyl), Lucy's condition worsened. The opioids she was prescribed did not help a compromised digestive system. At her lowest point, Lucy was in a wheelchair, being fed intravenously, self-catheterizing to control painful bladder spasms, and receiving daily nursing care.
"Sometimes it scares me when I think about where I was headed," Lucy admits, "We were on the verge of considering palliative care and making my life as comfortable as possible." Until cannabis entered her life.
