Fibromyalgia & Chronic Nerve Pain | MMJ Patient Spotlight – Chef Ginger Kid
Patrick Rusche, known as Chef GingerKid in the Arizona cannabis community, has brought this subject to my attention with his suggestions for strains and dispensaries that best ease his symptoms, associated with fibromyalgia. Access to cannabis medicine is important for medical patients but it’s even more important that the medicine is the correct product, highest quality and also ingested correctly. He also recommends foods to stay away from if you are suffering from any inflammatory conditions in the body.
Chef, are there any foods you recommend to stay away from that cause inflammation or pain for fibromyalgia patients or for anyone in general?
Usually I recommend a clean diet right off, everything that we eat has potential to cause some type of inflammatory or immune response within the system. I spent the larger part of three years eliminating specific items from my diet to find what was specifically making me not feel well.
Gluten for myself is definitely a cause for inflammation. There is a lot of rhetoric in society on whether or not this exists, and to many people it does. Specifically breads and items that are made with bleached white flour tend to be the culprit here that could be anything from the coating on a chicken finger, a piece of toast, or a saltine cracker.
Next, I would suggest staying away from white table sugar or specifically anything that has high amounts of sugar in it such as soda pops, hard candies and I’d recommend reading labels, you would be surprised how much added sugar is in some food items. To that I also add high fructose corn syrup and white sugar; these both are known to cause or exacerbate “leaky gut syndrome”.
What is that? Well… The alveoli throughout the lower and small intestine are impacted by the fast foods, chemical additives, pesticides, pollution, GMO and high acids found in garbage processed foods. The more junk foods we consume, the more likelihood of leaky gut there is in some patients. This leaky gut literally seeps digestive fluids into the body cavity and into other parts of your system that should not be touched by this digestive fluid. This causes widespread inflammation, distended bellies, swelling of joints all throughout the body allergic and mast cell reactions within a multitude of patients.
I may have only targeted just a few items here but there are a wide array of foods that can impact certain patients. As an example, vegetables and herbs that are within the nightshade family, garlics onions even tomatoes all have stimulant properties. These simulations within your system when consuming can cause inflammatory responses whether we think we have an allergic intolerance to a specific item or not. Sometimes that bloated feeling you feel after eating a big meal is not necessarily just gas or that large quantity of food, it could actually be inflammation. I highly suggest talking to a doctor first but looking at your pantry and seeing what would be considered junk food and what would be considered a healthy item. if you have more fun items than healthy items, maybe try adding a few more healthy items to the diet to help balance things out. But definitely listen to your body if it reacts strangely, if you have a rough BM the next day after eating something, those are signs that they don’t necessarily work with your system very well.
My last suggestion would be to stay away from alcohol, as a patient I have learned that maybe small quantities every now and then really doesn’t impact me on a personal level that badly however when consumed normally I do feel major inflammatory responses, histamine responses. Histamine responses within the body translate into inflammation be that in the knuckles of the joints, or even in the face with reading and blotching of the skin.
I was at 310 lb at my biggest and suffered my first of two overdoses while working through medication I was given by my doctor. Learning those medications we’re giving me cravings and causing me to exacerbate the pains and inflammations I was having I learned, and everyday still learning how to manage my personal pain I dropped down to 143 lb at my smallest and now I’m finally healthy enough. Once you’ve balanced your system, taking probiotics, prebiotics, proteolytic enzymes and eating foods that contain these helpful digestive properties and enzymes, your body will naturally over time we hope slowly heal itself from some of the damage caused by previous bad diet. I only state these things because I have learned them first hand from my first hand experience and I have seen the benefits in several dozen other people in my personal life.
What is your favourite thing to eat?
Hands down chocolate is my favorite thing to eat and not just your typical Hershey’s or the gum aisle chocolates either. I almost consider it a medicinal part of my diet. 60% or darker cacao non-GMO fair trade chocolate with just a little bit of sweetening is my absolute go to. Otherwise I really appreciate some good Sushi, Taiwanese and Thai cuisine. Fresh tastes, light fair and easily digestible.
3 foods to avoid:
Sugar
Sodas
Bleached white flower, we bleached it, we took all of the good stuff out of what was there and it’s now just powder, sometimes with bone dust added.
3 foods to gobble:
Bananas
Microgreens of any and all types
Chocolate, trust me it really is healthy. It’s almost as if you’re taking a Xanax without the pharmaceuticals.
Fibromyalgia is a newly understood disorder, even within the medical community, and even more so in the general public. It was unclear for years, even after a diagnosis was made, what kind of long term symptoms and treatments the disorder entailed. Fibromyalgia is used as a blanket term, covering a lot of chronic nerve pains, caused by more specific disorders.
Patrick says “I have fibromyalgia caused by a connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos, I am in constant pain and discomfort so I medicate with cannabis regularly. I suggest strains that impact your body more than your mind so indica over sativas.”
Patrick recommends Mohave Cannabis which can be found at Debbie’s Dispensary. Here’s his experience with a few products found at Debbie’s dispensary.
“Try Mojave Superglue from Debbie’s dispensary. It’s a very heavy Indica leaning hybrid that drastically impacts the level of discomfort and body pain I experience. It’s expensive but it’s worth it because it’s a very effective high quality flower most of the time.”
“Try Rick Simpson oil specifically for an all around treatment. I like Zonka, Pura Earth MyRSO and drip brands. All are solid.”
Patrick recommends the pechoti method for ingesting RSO. Put a drop of RSO in your belly button; this helps the medicine be absorbed throughout your circulatory system. The cord which is attached to your belly button is a conduit source of all of the major blood vessels and arteries that ran throughout your body as a baby, as an absorption spot you still have a very large number of veins vessels in other connections within that area, allowing a deep absorption of the medication throughout the circulatory system, bypassing the liver.
Chef Gingerkid, as he is known on Instagram, is an cannabis extractionist and one of the top 25 private chefs in Arizona, as well as an excellent cannabis chef. He can press rosin and make full spectrum ethanol extracts used for full extract cannabis oils, topicals, shatter etc. Chef GingerKid does not sell cannabis but he is happy to help process any meds, in the spirit of the cannabis plant and its wonderful medicinal power.
It’s important for people to know the different ways they could medicate for different ailments. Chef GingerKid caught my attention with his advice for putting the RSO in the belly button. I have seen this before but it is not very well known. These types of medical applications are important for anyone who is suffering with opioid withdrawals or serious pain management from chronic conditions. Cultivars like Harlequinn, Cannatonic, and Flow are nice strains to use for extracts because they naturally have CBD and THC along with other cannabinoids in larger doses. This helps with pain management and has been recommended by other patients suffering from chronic nerve pain.
Buccal nerves between the gums, checks and molars lead directly into the body and are very quick at absorbing substances into the bloodstream. A drop of RSO placed under the tongue and held near these nerve endings will be absorbed much faster than if ingested in the digestive tract.
A suppository is a 3rd option for very quick ingestion of medicine. Suppositories can be made into powerful, full spectrum cannabis oil, specifically for the medical community, made by dispensaries serving quality RSO medicine. This is a possible application for treating symptoms of gastrointestinal disease and stomach cramps.
Doctor pradeep Chopra, from Harvard University, is a pain management specialist who believes that concentrated cannabis extracts can be used as effectively, if not more so, than opioids, for pain management.
Fibromyalgia and other chronic conditions that cause chronic nerve tenderness may require more than just daily cannabis smoking. It’s important to start testing what strength of edibles and oils help relieve your pain for longer amounts of time. Talk to other patients to see what their experiences are and feel free to reach out to Chef Ginger Kid on Instagram for any advice regarding fibromyalgia and even nutritional tips.
Let us know your favourite ways to ingest cannabis in order to fight chronic pains. Chronic pain is the type of pain that keeps you from going to work, this is more than the daily aches and pains along the day. If you are experiencing chronic pain from any condition, please let us know your favourite way to treat it with cannabis products. We would love to spread more knowledge and experience regarding cannabis and chronic pain.
The statements have not been evaluated by any medical journal or the FDA. This is merely a journalistic account of experiences and personal antidotes, from real MMJ patients. Please seek an actual medical doctor before beginning any new pain management regimen or changing any prescribed medications.
The Cannabis Cactus Magazine has more great interviews.
Michael Cassini is the founder and editor in chief of The Cannabis Cactus Magazine. He focuses on community relationships with a goal to maintain a culture of love, peace and knowledge in the cannabis industry.
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