Cannabidiol, commonly referred to as CBD, is a compound found in the cannabis plant that many people swear by for its benefits when it comes to pain management, anxiety, stress or other health issues. We want you to find relief with whatever works, but what does science say about CBD’s effectiveness for pain management? Let’s take a look.

CBD and Pain Relief

If you’re like me, you can’t go a couple blocks it seems without seeing another business offering CBD products. Pizza places, movie stores, bakeries and wellness shops are all places where we’ve seen CBD being offered, but just how effective is it for your health condition? Scientifically, the jury is still out, but researchers are cautiously optimistic.

One of the reasons why we don’t have a lot of scientific data on CBD’s effectiveness for different pain conditions is because up until December 2018, cannabidiol was classified as a Schedule I substance. Now that it has been removed from that list, we’re quickly working to figure out its medical capabilities. Early studies have come to mixed conclusions, with some saying that the right combination of CBD products can help calm symptoms, while others say there exists a lack of good evidence that CBD can help with chronic neuropathic pain.

With that said, many researchers are still hopeful about CBD and it’s health uses in the future. The previous studies have had many limitations, so their conclusions may not be as accurate as we’d like. For example, many of these studies looked at the short-term impact of CBD in patients with a number of different pain conditions. Pain is the most unique health condition in the world, and everyone’s pain is unique to them.

We very well may eventually learn that CBD can help treat symptoms of certain types of arthritis or nerve pain, but it takes time to isolate all the variables and make these breakthroughs. In fact, a study published this year in the journal Pain found that CBD interacts with serotonin receptors in animals, which are believed to play a role in pain, depression and anxiety. By building on these studies, we may be able to come to stronger conclusions and better help patients in the not so distant future.

So as it currently stands, the jury is still out on the effectiveness of CBD oil for a variety of pain conditions. But as we said above, if you’re dealing with a pain condition, we want you to be able to find relief one way or the other. Some people find relief with diet and exercise, others with physical therapy, and others with CBD. What we will say is that while CBD may help your pain condition, it shouldn’t be your only form of treatment. Substances like CBD are a passive treatment, and they need to be combined with active treatments like stretching or exercise therapy to really help the underlying problem. Here’s hoping we learn more about CBD so we can best help our patients.