Medical professionals regularly conduct clinical trial research to uncover new and interesting ways of treating pains, aches, and afflictions that affect the lives of countless innocent people. Since there are limited resources available to produce previously-identified medications, it benefits the medical community to continuously test new methodologies.
Over the last ten to twenty years, there’s been a growing interest in the medical community around medicinal cannabis. Specifically, doctors are conducting many clinical trials to determine if cannabidiol oil (CBD), commonly found in marijuana plants, has the ability to lessen or eliminate chronic pain that afflicts patients all over the world.
What is CBD?
CBD is a chemical extracted from cannabis plants. According to WebMD, it’s one of several dozen cannabinoid chemicals that have been identified and derived from cannabis plants. CBD has become closely associated with the health and wellness space as medical research identified reductions in bodily chronic pain as a result of CBD doses.
Once CBD is extracted from the cannabis plant, its natural remedy is added into products that support healthy lifestyles. CBD oil is made available in capsules or chewable edibles, but it’s also inserted into skin creams, hand lotions, sprays, bath bombs, and even products that relieve pain in household pets. You can find a whole list of products with CBD oil here.
Unlike THC, the marijuana chemical most commonly associated with cannabis and responsible for the high induced by smoking marijuana, CBD is less associated with its cannabis roots. Instead, it has become recognized as a natural remedy that provides substantial health and medical benefits to people in need.
What Is CBD Oil Used For?
Since the explosive widespread interest in medical cannabis, CBD has been tested as a means of treating a number of underlying medical conditions. Among those trials were treatments for arthritis pain relief that indicated CBD could help alleviate the pain that subjects arthritis patients to the chronic pain in their bones.
CBD’s medicinal benefits are not limited to physical ailments and conditions. Studies have shown that people who suffer from mental disorders like anxiety or depression can benefit from regular, controlled doses of CBD oil.
Most recently, trials identified reduced levels of stress and anxiety in people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of CBD oil. The studies showed that CBD could enhance the pleasure centers of the brain while mitigating the stress and anxiety brought about by traumatic memories from past events. While it does not cure PTSD, patients who received CBD treatments noted an overall decline in anxiousness, fear, and stress. Patients also noted that the negative thoughts and memories associated with past events were suppressed by the treatment, allowing more positive recollections to stream into the conscious frame of mind.
How Does CBD Influence the Human Body?
In every living person is an endocannabinoid system, which is the name given to our natural ability to produce endocannabinoids that influence our ability to feel different sensations. Typically, endocannabinoids flow through the body to control and minimize the effects of sharp or chronic pain in the system. This can be a result of a serious injury or an internal condition that burst onto the scene.
In any event, these painful sensations are often exaggerated by what’s known as an endocannabinoid deficiency. This condition results from a lack of or insufficient amount of endocannabinoids flowing through the body. Without enough endocannabinoids, the body’s ability to control pain is significantly diminished and, as a result, the intensity of that pain becomes overwhelming.
Studies have shown that CBD has the potential to substitute for deficient endocannabinoid systems. It has a natural healing element within the oil that can enter the endocannabinoid system and help manage aches, discomfort, and pain that plagues certain areas of the body. This natural remedy within CBD can influence the brain’s response to pain and, as a result, provide significant relief for conditions like arthritis, muscle cramps, or mental disorders like depression and PTSD.
Therapeutic Effects of CBD
In 2019, CBD was officially approved by the medical community as a viable treatment for two rare forms of epilepsy. It marked the first clinically approved treatment of CBD for an underlying medical condition, and researchers hope to replicate the success on the epileptic front for other serious conditions.
Researchers are optimistic that CBD will eventually prove to be a medically approved treatment for heart conditions. Heart attacks, strokes, and other underlying conditions are some of the most deadly for unsuspecting patients. Since CBD is known to reduce feelings of stress and anxiousness, there is hope that ongoing trials will identify a direct link between the health benefits of CBD oil with reduced potential for serious heart failure.
There is hope for this possible outcome. A study in the UK found that CBD successfully reduced diastolic and systolic blood pressure in people known to have higher blood pressure levels. Even more promising is that the CBD capsules proved more effective at lowering blood pressure for those patients than those who were given a routine placebo.
Additional studies on the net benefits of CBD for serious conditions are still required before the medical community will universally approve of the treatment. However, the early signs are promising that CBD oil may be used for even more potential treatments that will improve the overall health and wellbeing of society.