Omar's story: how treating both mind and body led to IBS solutions

Can you tell us about your health history and your diagnosed conditions, please?

I suffer from chronic IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). It started when I was about 21 years old and has been getting progressively worse since then. When I was initially diagnosed, my doctors were very reluctant to give me any form of medication for pain relief, so I just had to deal with it. Over the past ten years, the condition has grown more complicated and there are more triggers: gluten is now a trigger; alcohol is a trigger; caffeine is a trigger; and stress is a big trigger. I used to do heavy exercise, like power lifting, but that became a trigger and I had to give that up. The IBS really started cutting up my life. 

Sometimes, the pain would get to a ten out of ten, and I'd have to take weeks off work as a result. Still, my doctors never prescribed anything other than very low dose opiates, and I didn’t want to take those, because although they provided a tiny bit of short-term pain relief, they made the flare-ups last even longer. Mostly, I just dealt with the pain with nothing more than paracetamol. 

My condition really started to interfere with both my work and personal life. I work as a freelance theatre director—which I love—and if I don't work, I don't get paid. Because of the IBS flare-ups, I've lost out on thousands of pounds of income from work I’ve missed over the years. Worse, it would often be the day of a really important job when I’d get a flare up and have to call in and say, “I'm so sorry, but I’m not going to be able to do this.” 

When my IBS flares up, the pain is horrible—it’s like I’m trapped, unable to move—and it can go on for several days. If I flare up on holiday, that’s it, I’m stuck in the hotel, not able to go out and enjoy myself. 

It can be quite traumatic to in that amount of pain for days at a time.

How did you end up discovering Releaf medical cannabis?

A friend of mine told me that medical cannabis had been legalised in the UK. I’d always suspected that medical cannabis could be something that might help my condition, I just didn't know that it was actually available in this country until that conversation. I jumped on my phone and Releaf was the first website to come up in a Google search. I booked a consultation that very same day. 

Of course, I looked around at some other clinics first, but I think it was the branding of the Releaf website that made me feel confident about it. It looked professional: the information that was provided was completely clear, and I could see exactly what kind of support I’d receive. There was information about the Releaf Starter Kit, what it contained and how to use it. Everything was really clear from the get-go. 

Everyone I’ve met at Releaf have been fantastic, especially the support team. Initially, there was a problem with gathering all my medical records from the NHS, so I called the team, and they explained exactly which documents I needed to request. It was all sorted out quickly after that. 

It’s been an interesting experience, because this is the first time that I've ever used private health care. I feel very passionately about the NHS and healthcare for all, but after the initial appointment with the doctors at Releaf, I felt that medical cannabis had a lot of potential to help me, so I decided to go for it. 

How has your medical cannabis treatment been going so far?

So far, the effects of medical cannabis have been all positive. The Releaf Starter kit was really lovely. “Swish” would be the word I'd use to describe it. It was an exciting day when it arrived in the mail, like getting a new phone or something. 

As far as the treatment goes, the first big breakthrough was with the cannabis oil. At first, I didn’t order any of the oil, only the flower. I didn’t know anything about cannabis oil, and didn’t think I needed it, but after I talked with my doctor about it, I decided to give it a try.

The great thing about my doctor at Releaf is that she really understands that my condition is not just about pain. IBS is very complicated: it is as much a mental thing as it is physical, because once the pain starts, I can get worked up emotionally, and then my muscles that tense up and things go downhill from there. I’d always suspected that what I really needed was more than just pain relief. I needed a medicine that would work in a multi-faceted kind of way: something that would relax my muscles, but would also affect my mood, disassociating me from the pain, preventing that negative, psychosomatic response. 

My vape pen and the flower are great for those stressful moments. If I'm not in a full-blown flare up—if I’m just starting to feel discomfort versus real pain—I start to get worried that a full-blown flare up is imminent, and things spiral down from there. When I have those feelings, the flower allows me to kind of take the edge off, so things don’t spin out of control. It’s something I can take that isn't going to disrupt my day and isn't going to influence my cognitive functioning.

The cannabis oil is different. It’s my last resort—for when the pain gets very bad—and I take quite a high dose. It's the only thing that has allowed me to sleep through the pain at night, and the length of time that I’m in pain is shortened from four, five or six days to one or two days maximum. That was a huge improvement

I’ve been a patient at Releaf for three months, and I think my doctors and I have found a healthy balance with the treatment: the flare-ups are managed by the cannabis oil, and the discomfort is managed by the flower. 

Another unexpected, positive benefit of the treatment is that I stopped using tobacco. My GP always said that tobacco wasn’t helping my situation and recommended I cut down, and since I started with Releaf, I haven't had any tobacco at all. I don’t feel that I just replaced the habit either; it’s knowing that I have a new, beneficial, positive alternative that has changed my relationship with tobacco, the same way it did with IBS. Right after I started the treatment, I made the decision to quit there and then. 

How have your family and work colleagues responded to your new choice of treatment?

People knew that medical cannabis treatment is something I was interested in for a while. My family had even expressed frustration before that we weren’t able to access it. I think they were really relieved that I was finally able to find a medicine that works. They’ve been really supportive about everything, and can see that I’m reducing the amount of time when I'm flaring up. 

At work, I probably wouldn’t volunteer any information about the treatment, but I think if I chose to, I could say, “Look, this is the medicine that I’m taking,” and they'd be okay with it. It’s just about knowing the right time to bring that up in the conversation. I think they would just be happy that I'm able to work rather than calling in sick so much. Anyway, I'm not concerned about what others think very much. I’m doing what I need to do for my health, and it's working for me.

Now that your health has begun to improve, what are your plans for the future?

It’s an interesting question. I’d love to travel again, and I've had questions about my legal capacity to bring medical cannabis with me overseas. I think that if I was able to take my cannabis oil on holiday with me, it would be a huge benefit. I know that Releaf provides certificates to send to an embassy before going on a trip. That would be fantastic. 

I've always said that if I can, I won't let my IBS it stop me doing things. Unfortunately, it is always in the back of my mind that a flare up is something that might happen, so sometimes it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, the last three or four years I've gone to my family over Christmas, and I always got quite ill. I couldn’t eat and just laid on the sofa with a hot water bottle and couldn’t do anything. I'm quite excited at the prospect of being able to take my medical cannabis with me this year, so if I do feel ill, I can manage it.

As I said before, just knowing I have a treatment option helps a lot, psychologically. I'm aware that it really is a psychosomatic illness, and stress and your mood influence it so much. Having medical cannabis feels like a nice little safety net. 

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to tell people who might be considering treatment with medical cannabis?

I’d like to reassure people that this medicine has nothing to do with “street” cannabis. Medical cannabis in the UK is grown under extremely strict conditions: the temperature, the lighting, the humidity, is all controlled. It’s like the difference between a homemade vodka and Gray Goose. And, it’s not only the quality of the cannabis, it’s the experience you have with it. When I tried cannabis in my twenties, it had a dramatically different effect: it just made me feel anxious and very uncomfortable. My treatment at Releaf is a supportive, holistic, experience. It’s real, legitimate medicine and it works. 

Sometimes, people in the UK refer to cannabis as a “gateway drug”, in a really negative way. I would flip that on its head: for me, it’s completely positive. Medical cannabis has not only helped with my pain, but it’s changed my relationship with my illness, which gives me more control over it. This medicine is prescribed for me, and that provides me with a sense of comfort.

The relationship between the mind and body is an incredibly powerful one, and I think medicines that address both of those things at the same time are a powerful tool in the healing process.