Chronic or acute pain affects millions of Americans. It’s also costing the economy billions of dollars annually on health care and lost productivity. Pain is so prevalent that it affects more people with cancer, heart disease, and diabetes combined. While pain can be a side effect of these three ailments, many people suffer from it without having any other illness or past injury.
Many of these cases result from damage to the peripheral nerves or the central nervous system, a condition known as neuropathic pain. This type of pain is often the hardest to treat and leads to even more unpleasant outcomes, such as insomnia, depression, or loss of overall enjoyment of life.
Pains that fall under this category (migraine/headache, lower back pain, neck pain, or facial ache) have been refractory to therapy and conventional pain medications. In an attempt to rectify this, the scientific community has turned to cannabis for its therapeutic value against inflammatory and neuropathic pains.
At progressiveherb.com, our mission is to share an awesome, fast-acting, and natural solution for pain relief through cannabidiol oil.
Thanks to breakthroughs in research, cultivation, and extraction, as well as regulatory advancements in the US, cannabidiol or CBD oil and other hemp-derived products are becoming a widely-accepted treatment option for chronic pain. In fact, an increasing number of people turn to CBD oil and salves to help manage their condition.
But is it an effective treatment for neuropathic pain?
Understanding Cannabinoid Receptors
Cannabis, particularly some strains of medicinal and recreational marijuana, is known for being effective muscle relaxants, which help alleviate pain temporarily. But marijuana has high THC content, the main mind-altering ingredient associated with the cannabis plant.
Hemp-derived products such as hempseed oil and cannabidiol (CBD oil), on the other hand, can help relieve pain without inducing the feeling of being “high.” This is because hemp has a much lower THC content than marijuana. Hemp products are cultivated, extracted, and processed to produce a cannabinoidergic drug which binds to cannabinoid receptors (CBR) without activating endocannabinoids.
This mechanism helps mitigate and suppress pain without causing psychoactive effects and doing harm to the central nervous system. Like opioids, which are effective pain inhibitors, the main sticking point to cannabis is that its outcome is subjective and some strains have potentially addictive properties. And the stigma surrounding high-THC cannabis also falls on hemp, despite the mounting evidence that you can’t experience psychoactive effects with it.
Is Cannabidiol an Effective Treatment for Pain?
Hemp oil or seeds have become more popular in recent years, especially among those with arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and chronic pain. Many users claim to have found relief. With the proper extract, dosage, and approach, cannabinoids can help inhibit the release of pro-inflammatory molecules and alleviate different types of pain.
Scientists have also found ways to deliver the treatment without causing adverse side effects to the central nervous system. While the possibilities are promising, researchers need to dig deeper into finding the ideal treatment approach for each type of pain.
The good news is that research into cannabis is expanding, which means that more options are on the horizon. People with chronic pain or any ailment that causes pain now have regulated access to hemp products (e.g., oil, salves, or extracts) to help them deal with the pain and complement other therapies they may be undergoing.
Chronic pain affects millions and is the most common cause of long-term disability. But our understanding of it is still limited. What’s clear is that pain conditions are subjective and diverse, and so should research and treatment approaches. In other words, cannabis may work for some and not for others.
Feel free to try and check out our small bottle. Look through our products or give us a call to know more about our hemp products.