How CBD Oil Can Help Manage Chronic Pain: Insights and Tips

Introduction

Patients affected by conditions like arthritis, multiple sclerosis (MS), neurodegenerative diseases and cancer experience severe amounts of pain daily. Chronic pain can severely degrade the quality of life by affecting social life, psychological aspects and physical aspects (Duenas et al., 2016), making pain relief important.

Although conventional treatments are effective, they have various side effects, giving way to safer plant-based alternatives like cannabidiol (CBD). Many animal studies and clinical trials have proven the efficacy of using CBD for pain relief in conditions like arthritis, cancer and MS. This article explores the benefits of using CBD for pain relief and how to use it.

Understanding Chronic Pain

Chronic pain can be defined as any pain that persists for more than 3 to 6 months while pain can be broadly defined as “a distressing experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage.” The classification of pain is usually based on factors like aetiology, affected system, and perceived location (Treede et al., 2015; Williams & Craig, 2016).

Multiple conditions experience pain due to various reasons:

• Arthritis: According to a CDC estimate, 18.9% of adults in the United States suffered from arthritis in 2022 due to inflammation and other reasons (Elgaddal et al., 2024). 
• Multiple sclerosis: 50-86% of MS patients experience chronic neuropathic pain like headaches, back pain and pain in the extremities (Murphy et al., 2017).
• Cancer: Around 44.5% of cancer patients experience pain due to various reasons like metastasis of cancer and compression of healthy tissues (Snijders et al., 2023).

The daunting prevalence of chronic pain and its significant impact makes it all the more important to treat it. However, conventional drugs like opioids and NSAIDs have side effects like addiction and bleeding. Thus, safer alternatives are being researched like CBD for pain relief.

CBD Oil: What is it?

Research has shown that medical cannabis, also known as hemp, has numerous medical benefits including improvement of inflammation, pain, sleep, anxiety and depression. These benefits may be owed to the two main phytocannabinoids present in the leaves of medical cannabis: cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).  

While THC can cause hallucinations upon administration at certain doses, CBD does not, making CBD for pain relief a better candidate. Extraction of CBD oil from medical cannabis can be done using various protocols like CO2 extraction, steam distillation and solvent/cryogenic extraction. After extraction, the isolated CBD is infused in a carrier oil like vegetable or olive oil to produce CBD oil.

Studies on using CBD for pain suggest that it interacts with the receptors of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) and nervous system to alleviate pain. The most studied interactions are with the cannabinoid (CB) and serotonin 1A (5-HT1A) receptors (Vučković et al., 2018).

Benefits of Using CBD Oil for Chronic Pain

The use of CBD for pain relief in various conditions like multiple sclerosis (Patti et al., 2020), cancer (Worster et al., 2022), arthritis, etc., has been investigated through animal studies and clinical trials. Evidence from these studies suggests that using CBD for pain confers following benefits:

• Decreases inflammation: CBD decreases inflammation by reducing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-6, IL-1B and TNF-α  (Mlost et al., 2020; Ribeiro et al., 2015). Thus, using CBD for pain may decrease inflammatory pain in conditions like arthritis.
• Improves sleep: In a 2021 study by Habib et al., patients at a rheumatology clinic experienced up to  83% improvement in sleep quality when using CBD for pain management (Habib et al., 2021).
• Decreases cancer pain: Blake et al. (2018) conducted a review of clinical trials investigating the palliative potential of CBD for pain relief in cancer patients. They concluded that although more statistical evidence is required, these studies do suggest that CBD decreases chronic and neurogenic pain in cancer patients (Blake et al., 2017). 
• Reduces muscle spasticity in MS: A 2020 study investigating the effects of a CBD:THC treatment found that 60% of the enrolled patients experienced around a 20% decrease in spasticity score (Patti et al., 2020) which may help decrease chronic pain in MS patients.

Choosing the Right CBD Product

Using CBD for pain doesn’t have to be intimidating. The best place to start is to be informed about the various formulations and administration modes. CBD oil is available in various formulations:

• Full-spectrums: contain CBD, THC, terpenes, and other compounds present in leaves of MC.
• Broad-spectrums: contain all compounds except THC.
• CBD Isolates: contain only CBD.
• Apart from this, CBD is also available in different modes of administration:
• Sublingual: CBD oil can be placed under the tongue for 45-50 seconds for sublingual administration.
• Capsules: CBD capsules are easy for oral ingestion.
• Topical: CBD topicals like ointments and oils can be massaged gently on painful areas for pain relief.
• Vaporisers & Inhalers: CBD oil can be vaporised and inhaled for quick pain relief.

Tips for Using CBD Oil Safely and Effectively

Once you have chosen the CBD oil which is best suited to your lifestyle and condition, some tips for its safe and effective use are:

• Start with a low dose: This helps you to observe your body’s reaction and tolerance to CBD oil.
• Increase the dose gradually: Increase the dose as recommended by your doctor to increase the efficacy while monitoring any side effects.
• Consult a medical expert: If you are not sure where to begin your journey with CBD for pain management, it is best to consult with a medical expert. Book a consultation today at https://cannazoindia.com/doctor-consultation/.

Potential Considerations and Precautions

Apart from the safe and effective usage of CBD for pain, other things which you should consider are: 

• Side effects: Although CBD oil is well-tolerated, some mild side effects like dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, diarrhoea and changes in weight and appetite.
• Quality: Products of many reputed brands like Cannazo India undergo quality checks by third-party laboratories to certify the safety of their products.
• Medical condition: Different conditions might require different doses to show efficacy, e.g., CBD has better anxiolytic properties at intermediate doses (García-Gutiérrez et al., 2020).

Conclusion

Preliminary research on the use of CBD for pain relief in animal models and human clinical trials is promising. Ranging from arthritis, MS and cancer, CBD oil shows efficacy in many conditions with more research suggesting that using CBD for pain might be a promising alternative treatment option. 

Start your CBD journey today to alleviate your pain. Visit Cannazo India at https://cannazoindia.com/ to see their range of products for pain management.

References

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