CBD Oil for nerve pain: A possible alternative

We know that the cannabis plant has been cultivated and its active ingredients used to help treat pain for thousands of years.

Unfortunately, due to prohibition in many parts of the world, modern science is only just catching up concerning alleviating pain symptoms using CBD and medical marijuana.

It’s become increasingly evident that CBD could help people living with peripheral neuropathy with their pain management. This is because it works as an anti-inflammatory, and helps to create homeostasis throughout our nervous system.

Chronic debilitating pain is one of the hallmarks of neuropathic pain. This type of chronic pain has three leading causes: Nerve injury, disease, or toxic invasion.

The particular pain has a range of causes, amongst them traumatic injury, disease such as multiple sclerosis and HIV Aids, and toxic invasions caused by infections and some forms of cancer.

Chronic nerve pain aggravates other ailments such as sleeplessness, loss of appetite, and nausea. 

Multiple studies have shown that cannabis-based medications such as CBD oil for nerve pain have a very definite role to play. There's an excellent reason to learn how to source the best CBD oil for neuropathy.

A Few Problems When Using CBD Oil to Treat Nerve Pain

The nature of the substance being proposed, namely CBD oil and other cannabis-derived products, is in itself one of the significant obstacles to further development. 

Cannabis, from which most of the cannabinoids are extracted, is illegal in large parts of the world, and this means that also Medical Cannabis is an ongoing critical topic in a large number of countries.

While many states in the USA have seen sense and legalized marijuana for medical usages, many countries lag-behind in this forward-thinking way of treating people using a natural substance.

The growth, packaging, and distribution of marijuana, and even hemp is strictly controlled all over the world. 

This makes the consistency of supply and quality very problematic, let alone the widespread distribution to patients. Some of who are chronically dependant on any substance that will make their lives more tolerable, and don't want to end up in jail. 

Fortunately, more progressive attitudes towards CBD are becoming prevalent across society. This is because CBD is not psychoactive, and that is the crucial difference between THC and CBD concerning legality and using these compounds for treatment. 

Big Pharma

There has been some interest from large pharmaceutical companies in the production of synthetic cannabinoids, but this interest is still in its infancy.

This also puts immense stress on families of hemp farmers across the world who have cultivated cannabis for CBD and it’s industrial fabric qualities. Big Pharma companies are likely to try and monopolize the cultivation of cannabis for healthy profits.

Some have cynically implied that big pharma has only shown this interest because synthetic cannabinoids can be patented, thereby carrying a substantial potential financial reward.

On the whole, big pharma is quite antagonistic towards cannabis research. 

The efficacy of synthetic cannabinoids is still hotly debated. Research indicates that this natural product contains minute quantities of other cannabinoids besides cannabidiol, which are essential in the overall efficacy of the medication. This combination of compounds working in synergy is called the ‘entourage effect.’

How Does CBD Work?

Endogenous cannabinoids, those created by the body, act as tiny circuit breakers in the synapses of nerve endings. Pain researchers have discovered that pain pathways are formed in the body; and that these cannabinoids, whether synthetic, made in the body, or derived by the cannabis plant, act as inhibitors on these pain pathways; thereby acting as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory. 

Legality and Progress

Back In June 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a form of CBD as a treatment for people living with two rare and specific kinds of epilepsy, namely Dravet syndrome (DS) or Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS).

The brand name of this medication is Epidiolex.

Generally, cannabis-derived CBD products are not yet legal at the federal level in the USA but are permitted under the laws of some states. 

Hemp-derived CBD products that contain 0.3% or less THC are legal federally but are still illegal in individual states.

People must check their countries laws and those of anywhere they intend to travel. They must keep in mind that many governments do not approve or regulate nonprescription CBD products. As a result, labeling may be inaccurate.

The Other Side of the Argument

In a debate at the World Congress on Pain in Buenos Aires in 2014 Dr. Andrew Rice, who is a Professor of Pain Research at Imperial College, London, UK, had the task of arguing against the use of CBD oil for nerve pain.

Although his research in some regions of CBD use has produced promising results, and he believes it holds some hope for the future; he was quite emphatic in saying that not enough clinical research has been done into the long-term side effects of a constantly high-dosage use of cannabis-based products. 

There seems little doubt that CBD Oil has very definite benefits in the reduction of nerve pain. However, we face a catch-22 if Rice is to be believed. We can’t use it because we don’t know the long-term effects, but if we don’t use it, how will we ever know?

Indeed, there is evidence that long-term marijuana use has few if any dangers. So, why not CBD?