Becoming Pain-Free: Abhilash Sharma Of WendyJane On How to Alleviate Chronic Pain
An interview with Maria Angelova
Focus On Your Sleep: I have found that the only consistent factor across people’s pain is that it keeps them up at night. As we all know, sleep is when your body heals itself — without it, we have no chance of becoming pain-free.
So many people suffer from chronic pain. Often people believe that they have tried everything, and that there is no real hope for them to live pain-free. What are some things these individuals can do, to help reduce or even eliminate their pain? In this interview series, called “Becoming Pain-Free: How to Alleviate Chronic Pain” we are talking to medical professionals, pain management specialists and authors who can share their insights and strategies about how to alleviate chronic pain. As a part of this series we had the pleasure of interviewing Abhilash Sharma.
Abhilash is a chemical and biomolecular engineer with a passion for sustainable and socially conscious design. With hands-on experience in plant design, operations management, and R&D, he enjoys exploring innovative solutions that benefit both society and the environment. His commitment extends to projects like desalination and providing compassionate solutions in the cannabinoid industry.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
Sure! My background is in chemical and biomolecular engineering. I started my endeavors into personal wellness in the medical cannabis space in California, looking at the extent to which cannabis aids in treatment of various chronic pain conditions. As the CBD industry developed in 2014, the greater availability of CBD over cannabis pushed me to study the medical benefits of this cannabinoid. It became clear that all these cannabinoids are powerful compounds for therapeutic use, with different ones providing different effects. Some are better for joint inflammation, and others are better for muscle inflammation. From there, I started on my current path: providing high quality, well-tested cannabinoids for users who want to integrate cannabinoids into their pain management routine. This has evolved into a pursuit for educating consumers on how to make the best decision for their own healthcare and wellness routine, independent of cannabinoid use. Today, I work as a process engineer and educator in the cannabinoid industry focusing on two main objectives: first, to ensure that people have access to a clean and trustworthy source of these compounds; and second, to provide the information needed for people to make educated decisions about their healthcare.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
The most interesting story would be one of the many times that people have changed their mind about cannabinoids after taking the time to learn about them and using them for their own ailments. One which comes to mind goes back to the first CBD manufacturing facility that I worked on designing, located in a small rural town of ~5000 people. The impact our facility had on such a small community was significant, and we took the time to meet with the members of the community. We had the doors open to them during construction, and we were always happy to share some of our products with them once we were in production.
On one occasion, a man came in before the plant was constructed and expressed his concern that we were building a cannabis manufacturing facility. We explained the difference between hemp and cannabis, described the scientific research around the benefits of CBD, and walked him through our manufacturing processes to be sure he felt comfortable with our operations and understood what we were doing. While he left better informed, he was still hesitant.
Once we were in operation, he came by again to see the facility in action. He mentioned that he did some more research on CBD, and that his wife has a bad back. We connected the dots and gave him some CBD infused lotion to try out — it changed his mind instantly. He was back the next week, telling us about how his wife was able to walk around and move like she used to a decade earlier.
It takes a lot to change someone’s mind about something they’ve believed for years, and while education can broaden someone’s perspective, it was interesting to me how the real impact was made by seeing it work in person. That interaction helped me realize the real goal of sharing our knowledge. People just need to know what their options are so they can make the decision to explore the options themselves. It’s important that they have a trusted source of knowledge to guide them through their journey.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about a mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
A big mistake I made, and will likely continue to make again, is thinking that I know people’s pain better than they do. When I first started, I wanted to do whatever I could to get rid of people’s pain. As I spoke with patients, however, I learned that most people aren’t trying to get rid of their pain. Instead, they’re trying to live in parallel with it — they don’t want their pain to take away from the joys of life. With this approach in mind, it became clear how to have the greatest impact — focus on what people want to fix. As I’ll highlight further below, the lesson from this learning was clear: the therapy needs to combat what the patient sees as the problem, which is not always the pain itself. Listen to the patient!
When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
Our team at PME By Design has seen the development of the cannabinoid industry first-hand, and we are certain of the therapeutic benefits of cannabinoids in healthcare. However, the stigma, lack of education, and lack of regulations have stood as a barrier for patients. Many people that want to use these compounds do not have access to well-regulated medical cannabis, and the CBD market is too complex to navigate. We serve to provide the same level of regulation and control that medical cannabis users experience in the legal hemp-derived cannabinoid marketplace. Our users know that the products they’re using are safe, effective, and consistent. It sounds crazy from an outside perspective — “safe, effective, and consistent” should describe anything you put in your body, but the lack of regulations in the hemp industry have pushed us to this point. The testimonials from our users reflect the passion we feel about cannabinoid-based medicine, ranging from “I can get out of bed now” to “I stopped using my opiates for my back pain.” Cannabinoids help people, and the work we’re doing makes sure that patients have access to clean, well-tested options.
Let’s jump to the main focus of this series. For the benefit of our readers, can you please tell us why you are an authority on the subject of chronic pain?
Since I was an undergraduate in college, I’ve always had a fixation with using science to make people’s lives better. After conducting research around zinc transport in the body and the biochemical mechanisms taking place at the gut-brain axis, I recognized the importance of treating the body as a complex system, interacting with itself as much as with the outside world.
Taking this knowledge into the workforce, I decided to dedicate my pursuit of knowledge towards improving people’s quality of life. After spending time in California working together with medical marijuana patients, it became clear to me that many of these users were told by their doctors to not consume cannabis to treat their pain, but rather to manage the resultant symptoms. They can’t get to bed, have trouble eating consistently, or have anxiety caused by their ailments, and their method of treatment helps them overcome that and focus on the core problem.
Taking this approach with me as I developed my professional career, I shifted my plan of action from treating pain to improving health. By looking at pain management with a holistic approach, our team has helped countless patients improve their quality of life. At this point, having spent a decade using cannabinoids to aid in treatment of chronic pain conditions, I have seen and worked with doctors, patients, and interested family members of patients. They can manage their chronic pain because of our partnership, and that keeps us going.
Can you please share with us a few of the most common causes of chronic pain?
Chronic pain is such a diverse topic that it is impossible to state what the causes are. They can include musculoskeletal conditions, inflammatory diseases, neurological disorders, or injury-related conditions. Some of the well-known forms include arthritis, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines and headache disorders, and lower back pain.
Depending on the type of chronic pain, the cause can range from physical damage (a slipped or herniated disk), old age (osteoarthritis caused by cartilage wearing out causing joint inflammation), or autoimmune disorders (rheumatoid arthritis). The causes are often uncontrollable, and rarely have a single source. Unfortunately, old age tends to compound on these conditions.
There are many different types of pain that people struggle with. Which specific form of pain would you like to focus on in this interview? Why that one?
My experience and expertise have been in treating chronic pain associated with osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia, or simply chronic joint and muscle pain. These are conditions that many people experience and managing them can be the difference between a day on the couch in discomfort and a day playing with your grandkids. Since they are so prominent, I have found that providing functional therapeutics to focus on treating the symptoms of these chronic conditions has a wide-spread impact. Independent of gender, age, or pre-existing conditions, having a means to shuttle the pain away for a brief period allows people to focus on their life instead of their pain. Working to treat these overarching, non-discriminatory forms of pain ensure the work my team does reaches the most people.
Here is the main question of our interview. Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey toward becoming pain-free?
1 . Focus On Your Sleep: I have found that the only consistent factor across people’s pain is that it keeps them up at night. As we all know, sleep is when your body heals itself — without it, we have no chance of becoming pain-free.
Once your body grows accustomed to the chronic pain, it uses other muscles to try and reduce the load on the parts of the body that are in pain. It effectively uses them as a crutch, to support the parts of the body in pain. While these other muscles might not be the source of the chronic pain, their incessant use leads to more soreness, and the pain tends to blur into one. The core problem we’re tackling is not muscle soreness, and a good night’s sleep will not fix fibromyalgia or arthritis. However, it will give your body a chance to heal the “crutch” muscles, resetting your body to a baseline and allowing you to focus on combating the real problem. It will put you in the right headspace to tackle your pain head-on.
The best example comes from the focus of my current work with WendyJane HHC, using cannabinoids to target the symptoms of chronic pain. While cannabinoids can provide direct pain management, many of our users prefer to use them for sleep management. If they don’t get a good night’s sleep, the next day is a wash; their pain is all they can think about. One of our users works on a farm all day and has a fused back — not a good combination. He has lived with his bad back for decades, but recently old age has caught up and his muscle soreness makes it difficult to work a full day. After adapting his pain-management regimen to include a low-dose cannabinoid gummy in the evening, his daily life changed dramatically. His body had time to recover from the day before, and standard pain management techniques had a chance to combat the chronic condition rather than the ancillary muscle soreness.
The tip here isn’t to get more sleep — that doesn’t help anyone. Rather, it’s a reminder to consider sleep a major part of your wellness journey to a pain-free life. It is often neglected, and the benefit associated with a good night’s rest has much further reach than tiredness or irritability. Whether it’s a few drops of lavender oil on your pillow, a playlist of soothing whale noises, or an herbal sleep aid like chamomile or cannabinoids, take the time to figure out what works for you and stick to it. Treat it as importantly as you would figuring out which pain killer or vitamin mix works best for you.
2 . Get Your Body Moving: It can be difficult to get up and walk around when your joints and muscles are screaming at you, but constantly using them is the only way to monitor and maintain yourself. Of course, don’t stress yourself — no one’s telling you to run a 5K or hit the weights. Going for a walk, stretching, or a light bike ride can be enough to keep your body mobile. If possible, focus on low-stress activities like swimming, rowing, and biking. The increased blood flow provides enough of a benefit, but using your muscles makes them ever so slightly stronger each time. As I mentioned earlier, these muscles end up acting as a “crutch” to support the parts of your body that are in pain. By strengthening them you can reduce the work your body needs to do to support itself, allowing you to focus on managing the chronic condition rather than the symptoms.
3 . Think About What You’re Eating: As noted earlier, my academic endeavors started with a focus on the gut-brain axis. The adage “you are what you eat” goes further than weight gain — the interaction between the human gut microbiota and health is immense. For example, adopting a diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods like berries, leafy greens, and fish oil can help manage inflammation. IBS specifically can be effectively managed by minimizing fermentable carbohydrates, including wheat, milk, and pulpy fruits. Musculoskeletal pain can be exacerbated by dehydration, and a high coffee or fiber intake might mean you need to drink more water than you think. These are just some examples, but the idea here is to be conscious about what you’re eating and how it might be affecting the factors that exacerbate your chronic pain conditions.
4 . Learn All You Can: Figure out what your options really are, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Always speak with your healthcare professional and treat them as a partner; they usually have a good answer to the question you’re asking. There’s a plethora of information out there for ways to treat your ailments, the problem with chronic pain is there’s no real solution. The first step is to ask questions and demand reliable answers. A wellness journey is about education as much as it’s about action. You need to build the roadmap yourself, and that’s impossible to do accurately without knowing what’s out there. There are new ways to treat pain coming out every week, including cannabinoids, electrical muscle stimulation, virtual reality therapy, psychedelics, and more. The playing field is growing rapidly, and it’s worth taking the time to figure out what new options you’re willing to try. From there, bring your healthcare professional into the conversation and build a realistic routine incorporating the techniques that work for you. Use education to figure out where you want to go, and always trust the experts to guide you there.
5 . Keep a Health Log: We have the technology to monitor health to an extreme. We have wearable wrist straps that monitor our vO2 and heart rate through the day, beds that change temperature based on our body temperature, compression straps that adapt to your blood pressure — you name it, someone’s created it. Of course, the price tag that comes with this tech is prohibitive for many, but the ideology is consistent: we have the capability to put numbers on what our body does, and that lets us monitor it. This ties back to my last point, education, but I’ll highlight it again: we don’t know what we don’t know, and there are often hidden gems of wisdom behind the scenes.
The tracking method could be as simple as keeping a journal to monitor your mood, eating habits, pain-killer routine, pain level, and sleep pattern. The important thing is that you’re thinking about the other factors in your life and how they can interact with your pain management. As you collect information, you might find correlations between your daily routine and your chronic pain. For example, someone might find their IBS wakes them more frequently if they take an Advil after 6 PM, or that a certain type of probiotic helps quell their symptoms better than others. Of course, these correlations do not mean causation, but if you find something that works for you then you should discuss it with your healthcare professional and figure out why it helps. This data-driven approach is applicable across healthcare, and it naturally increases your mindfulness around your pain management regimen.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
In my opinion, the biggest thing we could do to increase people’s wellness is improve their sleep habits. Everyone knows the importance of sleep, and no one prides themselves on not getting enough sleep last night, but sometimes it’s just impossible. Whether its young kids keeping you up, home or work stress troubling your dreams, or working long hours to pay the bills, we don’t get enough sleep as a society. We’ve all woken up on a Sunday after finally getting a chance to sleep in — you feel like you’re on top of the world! That should be the way we wake up every day.
As a society, I think it’s important that we focus on sleep health. The education we provide has focus on not just the benefits of sleep, but also on the use of therapeutic techniques and technology to help people meet their sleep goals. There is no one-size-fits-all technique for getting a good night’s rest, but being aware of less harmful and more functional sleep aids than Nyquil or Melatonin is the first step in building a routine that works for you.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
My recent work has focused on using alternative cannabinoids to improve people’s quality of life. Through PME By Design Inc we have developed manufacturing techniques and protocols to ensure the cannabinoids that reach our users are of the highest quality, held to the same standards as pharmaceuticals. Our distribution arm, WendyJane HHC (wjhhc.com), allows us to get the cannabinoids to the people that need them in a comfortable delivery mechanism at a reasonable price point. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or requests! My direct email address is asharma@pmebydesign.com, and our team at WendyJane can be reached at info@wendyjanehhc.com.
Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.
About The Interviewer: Maria Angelova, MBA is a disruptor, author, motivational speaker, body-mind expert, Pilates teacher and founder and CEO of Rebellious Intl. As a disruptor, Maria is on a mission to change the face of the wellness industry by shifting the self-care mindset for consumers and providers alike. As a mind-body coach, Maria’s superpower is alignment which helps clients create a strong body and a calm mind so they can live a life of freedom, happiness and fulfillment. Prior to founding Rebellious Intl, Maria was a Finance Director and a professional with 17+ years of progressive corporate experience in the Telecommunications, Finance, and Insurance industries. Born in Bulgaria, Maria moved to the United States in 1992. She graduated summa cum laude from both Georgia State University (MBA, Finance) and the University of Georgia (BBA, Finance). Maria’s favorite job is being a mom. Maria enjoys learning, coaching, creating authentic connections, working out, Latin dancing, traveling, and spending time with her tribe. To contact Maria, email her at angelova@rebellious-intl.com. To schedule a free consultation, click here.
