It’s time for CBD to share the stage with coconut oil. Since CBD products are now legal in all 50 states, you may have noticed how quickly this once-controversial drug is becoming more accepted. Many shops proudly display signs that say they sell CBD oil or capsules, and social media is full of testimonials about how CBD helps people deal with everything from anxiety to chronic pain. A cannabis dispensary also sells tools for making CBD goods, like a small wooden hemp grinder that can fit in your pocket. Some doctors even sell CBD products to people who want to get rid of pain without surgery.
But is all the talk about CBD really true?
Yes, in many cases, and especially if you are looking for a harmless way to deal with pain. Here are seven good things about using CBD to treat pain, so you can decide if cannabidiol oil is the right choice for you.
CBD comes in many different forms.
Don’t like to take pills or capsules? A lot of people take CBD by mouth, but that’s not the only way to do it. You can also try tinctures or oils, vape CBD, eat edibles (like gummies from Westword.com), or rub CBD-infused lotion into your skin. Let’s quickly go over each way below:
CBD capsules and pills
Most pills and tablets contain a liquid form of CBD mixed with a carrier oil, like coconut oil. CBD pills can be taken with or without food, depending on how your stomach works. But you may not feel better right away because you have to wait for your body to break down the pill and spread the contents.
CBD pills can be bought without a prescription, but people with epilepsy can get a prescription drug called Epidiolex that is made from cannabidiol.
Oils and medicine drops
People who don’t like taking pills often like how easy it is to take remedies. Just put a drop of the medicine under your tongue, wait for the pain to go away, and repeat.
Some oils can be eaten, but most are meant to be put on the skin. When you want to get rid of pain with CBD, put the oil where it hurts, burns, tingles, or feels stiff.
Creams and Lotions
CBD creams and oils are made to be put on the skin. You can massage these products straight into your skin to relieve pain quickly and keep your skin moist.
Gummies and Other Things to Eat
CBD can be eaten as candy most of the time. CBD is an ingredient in some gummy bears, fruit chews, caramels, and chocolate. Some people make their own sweets by mixing CBD oil that is safe for human consumption into brownie batter or cookie dough.
CBD for Vaping
When you inhale CBD oil, it goes straight to your bloodstream through your lungs. This gives you fast relief from painful symptoms. Be careful though, because smoking anything, even natural CBD oil, can still hurt your health.
There are so many ways to take CBD, from pills to vaping, that it’s easy to find a way to use it to help with pain. If you aren’t sure which form of CBD is best for you, try out a few to see which one gives you the most benefits.
2. You can get different kinds of CBD extracts
It can be overwhelming to shop for CBD goods, and many people wonder if all of them are the same but have different labels. The truth is no, they are not, and we’ll tell you why.
Check the product’s sticker or list of ingredients to see what it contains. You might see words like “full-spectrum,” “broad-spectrum,” or “isolate.” These words tell you what kind of CBD it is.
Let’s quickly define each term so you can choose the right CBD for pain relief or other uses:
Hemp Oil
In spite of what many people think, hemp seed oil is not the same as CBD oil, and it doesn’t have any phytocannabinoids in it either. Hemp seed oil comes from hemp seeds that have been cold-pressed. Hemp can be part of a heart-healthy diet, but if you want CBD, you should look for something else.
CBD Isolate
CBD isolate, as its name suggests, is made up of CBD. But this simple substance doesn’t have any other phytocannabinoids.
Broad Spectrum
Isolates aren’t as good as items with a wide range of CBD. They have all of a plant’s phytocannabinoids, but no THC, which is the drug in marijuana that makes people feel “high.”
Full Spectrum
Full-spectrum CBD products are good for your body in a lot of ways. When you buy a full-spectrum product, you get something made from the whole cannabis plant, including the parts with THC, CBC, and CBG. These are phytocannabinoids, which help stop the brain from sending pain messages.
Nano CBD
Nano CBD is made of molecules that have been shrunk and can dissolve in water. It’s perfect for people who need a CBD product that’s easy to take and relieves symptoms almost right away.
What you want to treat will determine which form of CBD you choose. Choose a full-spectrum or broad-spectrum solution to improve your health as a whole. Patients who only want to treat pain in one spot may find that topical isolates work well.
3. CBD helps to reduce inflammation in the joints.
If you’ve read some of our other blog posts, you may remember that inflammation is the cause of many of the symptoms and diseases we treat at Northeast Spine and Sports Medicine.
Trying to figure out what this has to do with CBD?
Well, study shows that CBD can help reduce joint inflammation, especially in people with osteoarthritis. The 2017 study found that CBD not only helps ease pain, but that it also stops nerve damage when it is injected. Stopping nerve damage from happening in people with arthritis might stop the condition from getting worse.
4. CBD is good at killing bugs and fungi
CBD may help speed up the healing of wounds that are taking a long time to heal because of diabetes or another disease. CBD is antifungal and antibacterial, which means it can help you heal faster and keep germs away.
If you want to use CBD for cuts or blisters, you might want to put it on the area instead of taking it by mouth. This helps make a shield around the hurt skin and makes sure that nutrients get to the places where they are most needed.
5. CBD has the same effects as painkillers that doctors prescribe
Like most medicinal drugs, cannabis works by making your brain’s receptors work. When this happens, your pain sensors are telling your body, “Hey, your pain is gone!” even if you still have an injury or illness.
CBD doesn’t just change how brain receptors work, though. It has anti-inflammatory qualities, so it treats the cause of your symptoms instead of just making you feel better. Yes, CBD may help you feel better before you’re completely better, but it also helps your body fix itself.
CBD helps with a lot of health problems and issues.
Trouble sleeping? Feeling tense at work? Battling back pain?
All of these things can be helped by CBD. CBD can also help with pain from arthritis, sore feet, cuts and scrapes, headaches, and some stomach issues. CBD may even make your painkillers for sciatica and other hard-to-treat conditions work better.
There are different ideas about how useful CBD tinctures and pills are for treating cancer. Talk to a doctor before you use CBD products instead of your existing treatments.
7. It’s easy to get CBD
Now that many kinds of CBD for pain relief are legal, it’s easy to find the kinds and recipes you want. CBD is easy to get without a prescription. You can buy it online, at a health food shop, in a doctor’s office, or even at some pharmacies.
CBD is often cheaper than other ways to deal with pain, like prescription painkillers and surgery, and you don’t need an appointment to buy it.
Things to think about before taking CBD to treat pain
As we’ve already said, there are many benefits to using CBD to treat pain, from its ability to reduce inflammation to the fact that it’s easy to get. But CBD isn’t for everyone, and there is a chance that cannabidiol products will make you feel bad in some way.
Some minor affects are:
- Fatigue
- Feeling sick or a stomachache
- Irritability
- Dry lips
- loss of appetite
Tell your doctor if you want to mix CBD with prescription drugs, because there is a chance that the two will not work well together. CBD might mess with your bloodstream if you take a blood thinner like Coumadin. It can also make some mental drugs work better, which isn’t always a good thing.
At Northeast Spine and Sports Medicine, we know that CBD is a popular way to treat pain, but we also know that cannabidiol products might not be the best option for you. Call us to find out more about our other pain management services, whether you have a spine that isn’t in the right place, knees that hurt, or joint pain that makes it hard to do things.