CBD may offer specific health benefits for those living with certain medical conditions, yet more clinical trials need to be completed to prove its efficacy.
Before trying CBD, please consult with a healthcare provider first. It may interact with various medications including antidepressants, benzodiazepines, opioid painkillers such as naloxone (an opioid painkiller) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Prozac. Furthermore, CBD may cause side effects like dizziness and nausea which need to be considered beforehand.
Anxiety
People suffering from anxiety often turn to CBD oil, which has been shown to reduce anxiety levels in animal studies. Furthermore, CBD has also been known to aid with insomnia – another symptom associated with anxiety.
Conventional treatments for anxiety include prescription-only benzodiazepines and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). While these can be addictive and cause significant side effects, CBD may offer an all-natural solution as an antianxiety treatment option that researchers are exploring further.
Preclinical studies demonstrate CBD’s anxiolytic, panicolytic and anticompulsive actions in preclinical studies. Furthermore, CBD reduces autonomic arousal while decreasing fear expression levels and increasing fear extinction and reconsolidation blockade – with these anxiolytic effects being mediated through CB1R activation and hippocampal neurogenesis respectively. Furthermore, systemic CBD prevented anxiogenic increases in heart rate and blood pressure caused by restraint stress in EPM and VCT models using 5-HT1AR activation while chronic CBD prevented long-term anxiogenic effects from stress via CB1R activation and hippocampal neurogenesis respectively.
Pain
Pain management has garnered increased focus since the Farm Bill removed hemp from its list of controlled substances in 2018. CBD interacts with our bodies’ endocannabinoid system (ECS), helping maintain balance within.
CBD can reduce pain by blocking the endocannabinoid receptors that send pain signals to the brain, as well as helping protect nerve damage associated with chronic discomfort. According to research, it is also shown to help alleviate neuropathic (nerve pain) by decreasing firing of nociceptor neurons in spinal cord.
Research on CBD as a treatment for chronic neuropathic pain is still ongoing, yet its results are promising. While CBD products tend to be well tolerated and safe when starting low doses it’s still best to consult your physician first and secure them away from children before trying something new.
Seizures
Seizures are sudden and uncontrolled brain spasms that can result in movement, sensation, autonomic functions and cognitive and emotional processing disruptions – otherwise known as epilepsy. Seizures may be brought on by trauma, illness, medications or simply lack of sleep – and they’re known as an epileptic condition.
One study demonstrated that CBD could mitigate seizure severity by blocking GPR55 receptors which amplifies signals that promote seizures. As such, researchers postulated that CBD helps break a vicious cycle where repeated seizures lead to even more GPR55 signaling and further seizures ensue.
The Foundation supports research that investigates CBD’s ability to treat seizures. They advise those interested in using CBD for seizure prevention first consult their doctor regarding how it could interact with any current anti-seizure medications they’re on; also note that commercially available CBD products are unregulated and could contain contaminants which could prove hazardous.
Multiple sclerosis
CBD may assist those living with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) by relieving pain and spasticity, improving sleep patterns and decreasing depression. Furthermore, it could lower flare-up risk while potentially eliminating prescription drug needs altogether.
CBD showed marked improvements in MS patients suffering from anxiety and depression, as well as lower blood pressure. Unfortunately, however, clinical trial CBD is highly purified and given in high dosage; products sold commercially might not produce identical effects because they’re not licensed medications and could contain other ingredients that interfere with its efficacy.
Before beginning to take CBD, consult with your physician first. As it can interact with certain medications (blood thinners and antiepileptics in particular), such as anticoagulants and anticonvulsants. Furthermore, its ingestion through the digestive tract means it could interfere with tests for liver enzymes; smoking or vaping it could impede this test too! It could also have adverse reactions on how your lungs function so smoking or vaping should be avoided and any possible supplements or herbal treatments that interact may also interact.
