Cannabidiol (CBD) is found everywhere! From the gas station to the grocery store, and even your local coffee shop, hemp-derived CBD is increasingly becoming more available to consume. With more availability, however, comes more research. Everyday, we see more scientific articles being published studying the effects of CBD on the body. You may have heard some claims behind the medical benefits of CBD like how it is great for treating inflammation, chronic pain, and PTSD. But how true are these claims? Are people selling snake oil? Or is CBD something we can truly apply to our daily lives knowing that these benefits are in fact backed by science? In this article, we aim to answer all of these questions, and provide our findings of the most recent scientific studies conducted on CBD. From this information, you can determine whether or not CBD is right for you.
The Endocannabinoid System and How it Works
We know that since a study conducted in the 1980s, our bodies react to CBD and other cannabinoids through our endocannabinoid system. This system is found throughout your body, and when reacted to cannabinoids, sends signals to your body’s cells to regulate your mood, immune system, and stability. What we don’t quite understand yet, and what we are currently trying to research, is how effective these cannabinoids and endocannabinoid system are at changing your body to better improve our health.
Does CBD Actually Work?
In a survey conducted by Forbes, it was shown that out of 2000 adults in the United States, 60% of them have consumed CBD within their lifetime. From the 60% of adults who have or currently consume CBD, we found several reasons why they believe CBD helps them. When compared to our findings pulled from scientific research, we found that CBD can in fact benefit your health in at least seven different ways.
1. Calming Anxiety
In one test, CBD was used to treat anxiety triggered by public speaking. From the experiment, it was found that subjects do respond to CBD, but only when given the right dosage. The antianxiety properties of CBD does not work as effectively and may in some cases increase anxiety when given too high or too low of a dose. There is plenty of research to still be conducted on how CBD treats anxiety, however, there has been a study on its effectiveness in treating addiction and anxiety triggered by substance withdrawals.
2. Alleviating Addiction
A double blind test was conducted to demonstrate the application of CBD in combating opioid cravings and anxiety induced withdrawals. It was shown that after seven days of being treated with CBD, cravings and anxiety significantly reduced, suggesting that CBD does in fact help treat opioid addiction, and may act as a foundation for opening up clinical trials.
CBD may not be able to cure all addictions. Another double blind test was conducted on a group of people to test the effectiveness of CBD in treating crack-cocaine addiction. After a 10 day trial, it was shown that CBD did not have noticeable differences in the subjects’ anxiety, depression, and sleep. It is noted that only 300mg of CBD was administered once daily throughout the experiment. Changing the dosage as well as the frequency may alter the results, however, it is still unknown. More studies in determining if CBD is applicable for helping with addiction are necessary.
3. Preventing Epileptic Seizures
In 2018, the FDA approved of the first drug that had an active ingredient from hemp. That active ingredient is CBD. By incorporating CBD, this drug was designed to help with two rare forms of epileptic seizures, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. This was only possible through countless studies and clinical trials. It is safe to say that CBD does help with preventing epileptic seizures.
4. Managing Post Trauma
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) affects atleast 10% of people at some point throughout their life. In one study, CBD was given to 11 adult patients diagnosed with PTSD. Not only did CBD help these patients, but all of them continued to take CBD along with routine psychiatric care after the test. That being said, the experiment did not have any placebo or control variables to confirm, and the sample size of the subjects were relatively small. Further research is also suggested to better determine the applicability of CBD in treating PTSD.
5. Treating ALS
Similarly to how CBD treats seizures, CBD also works as a solution for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). When ALS causes patients’ muscles to tense and undergo spasticity, a combination of CBD and THC was administered and had incredible results. Of the 32 subjects, the ones with the most severe symptoms reported to having the most satisfaction in therapy. Nonetheless, it is suggested that more studies be conducted such as testing the patience preference and satisfaction between different types of ALS medications and therapies.
6. Numbing Chronic Pains
Several experiments were conducted to test treating chronic pains and peripheral neuropathy with CBD. From the test, all 29 patients had reported positive results, with zero adverse effects. This is a big win for CBD being utilized as a medical treatment, as current solutions to alleviating chronic pain are ineffective. These chronic pains are not limited, as CBD has also been proven to reduce the pain and muscle tightness from arthritis.
7. Relaxing Arthritis
Studies around CBD suggest that there is a basis for clinical trials in treating arthritis. In a double blind experiment over the course of five weeks, 58 patients were given a cannabis based medicine known as Sativex. The active ingredient of Sativex: CBD. From this test, it was shown that there was significant data backing the idea that CBD can treat and suppress arthritis.
We have only scratched the surface of how far CBD can go in improving modern medicine. As research around cannabis continues to grow, time will only tell not if, but when CBD will be a more commonly seen FDA approved drug. Until then, you can check out our selection of CBD products at Mints and see if CBD is right for you! If you would like to learn more about CBD and hemp in general, check out our blog!
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