The effectiveness of CBD in relieving pain is undisputed and most people start CBD use in the first place expecting their pain symptoms to improve. CBD is quite a broad category that has a multitude of products of varying potencies and intake methods.CBD oils, tinctures and a number of CBD topicals are popular product options in CBD.
Pain sensation is regulated by the endocannabinoid system of the body and the interaction of cannabinoids with the cannabinoid receptors present in different parts of the body governs pain sensation and relief. When the level of endocannabinoids in the body falls, cannabinoids can be supplied externally by taking CBD products. Here are some of the ways in which CBD offers pain relief.
Cancer Pain Relief
The endocannabinoid receptors of the body are tiny proteins that get activated upon receiving chemical stimuli. The response of the receptors to stimuli is essential to generate anti-inflammatory and pain relief effects. Clinical studies and research have suggested that CBD products like CBD oil could be of great help in managing chronic pain like cancer pain.
Neuropathic Pain Relief
Neuropathic pain is usually caused by chronic nerve disease but in some cases, it can be caused by an injury or infection. Most often, neuropathic pain can flare up unexpectedly without a specific pain-inducing factor because the body keeps sending pain signals continuously to the brain.
People with this condition might experience burning pain that can be constant or periodic and in some cases complete loss of pain sensation or numbness is also common. The condition usually gets worse with time and CBD can be used as a potential medication that could help in reducing the pain symptoms.
Arthritis Pain Relief
The pain associated with arthritis has a chronic nature and in a majority of the cases, the patients find it difficult to handle the extreme pain. Several animal studies were conducted to find out the potential of CBD in relieving arthritis pain.
A 2016 study observed CBD use in rats with arthritis and the researchers applied CBD gel to rats for 4 days continuously and the dosages given were either 0.6, 3.1, 6.2 or 62.3 mg per day. The researchers found out that there was an overall reduction of pain and inflammation in the rats and there were no obvious side effects.
The dosage played a crucial role in the impact of CBD and lower dosages like 0.6 or 3.1 mg could not produce the desired results while dosages of 6.2 mg and 62.3 mg produced almost equal pain relief effects. The similar effects 6.2 mg and 62.3 mg dosage suggests that increasing the dosage beyond the optimum level cannot add up the CBD benefits.
Cancer Treatment Relief
Some studies have suggested that CBD use could possibly shrink tumors, but cancer patients prefer CBD usage more due to its potential to handle the symptoms caused by cancer treatments. Treatments like chemotherapy have several associated side effects like pain, nausea and vomiting that can be detrimental to the health of the patient.
CBD can help in reducing these symptoms and as the nausea symptoms reduce, the appetite of the patients improves which benefits their health.
Migraine Pain Relief
Studies on CBD effects on migraine pain relief are limited. A 2017 study investigated the potential of CBD in offering migraine pain relief and its results are promising. Relatively high CBD doses reduced the pain symptoms in about 55 percent of the people who were part of the study.
Fibromyalgia Pain Relief
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that is often misdiagnosed due to its symptoms that mimic the symptoms of many other disease conditions. The most common symptoms of fibromyalgia are musculoskeletal pain and multiple areas of tenderness in body.
The symptoms in women are severe than that in men and women report more widespread pain and morning fatigue than men .The symptoms might get worse as they transition to menopause.
Even though the mechanism by which CBD helps reduce fibromyalgia pain symptoms is not clearly understood, several studies have suggested that CBD can be effective in relieving the pain symptoms of fibromyalgia.
Multiple Sclerosis Pain Relief
This autoimmune disease affects the whole body through the nerves and brain and muscle spasm is the most common symptom of multiple sclerosis. Severe spasms can cause constant pain in some patients that is usually unbearable.
One clinical report found that using CBD oil for a short term could bring down the levels of spasticity in patients contributing greatly to pin relief.
The nature of pain relief varies with the mode of intake of CBD products and if targeted pain relief is what you want, you could go for CBD topicals. Handling chronic pain demands methods of CBD consumption that are more bio-available than CBD topicals which is why most people prefer ingestible CBD products like CBD oil or tinctures when it comes to chronic pain.