Keyword(s): cbd side effects
While many products derived from cannabis are still illegal in the USA, CBD use is protected by several state laws. As the legal distinctions remain as confusing as ever, research has shown cannabidiol products to be used for medicinal use. Because of its difficult-to-understand legality, there’s still much research to be done to investigate CBD side effects.
As the research expands, so does the list of maladies that can be treated by medicine derived from cannabis. There are over 100 cannabinoids contained within cannabis, THC, and CBD being the most well-known. While THC has the active effects that recreational marijuana users enjoy, CBD has none of those psychoactive effects.
As with any medication, it’s important to know as much as possible about drug interactions and CBD side effects. It’s also important to know who can benefit from the medication.
What CBD Can Treat
While some people may be wary of CBD because of its associations with cannabis, it’s in a completely different class altogether. For years, researchers have been studying the effects of the isolated cannabinoids and have come up with some amazing discoveries.
CBD has some surprisingly positive impacts on the human body. Here are just a few of the conditions that CBD oil can treat.
1. Anxiety
Regular doses of CBD has been shown to help treat anxiety in clinical trials. The brain’s serotonin receptors help to manage anxiety and happiness. Researchers believe that CBD can change how receptors in your brain respond to serotonin.
The tiny proteins in your brain that make up your receptors are responsible for receiving chemical messages. Those receptors react and respond to different stimuli and CBD can help that.
Doses of 600mg of CBD have been shown to help alleviate social anxiety. In one clinical trial, patients tasked with giving a speech were much calmer after taking a treatment.
Other studies have been performed with animals and have shown CBD working to help a variety of conditions. Animals under serious stress calmed down with a small dose of CBD. Other test subjects with PTSD had their symptoms treated with CBD.
If heart rate increases as a reaction to stress or anxiety, CBD can help bring that down. CBD even works as a sleep aid for any patients who were suffering from insomnia.
2. Seizures
For decades, researchers have been in search of new treatments for epilepsy. CBD offers one such treatment approach.
Researchers are still trying to understand the whole picture of how CBD can help people suffering from seizures. It has been shown to reduce the number of seizures suffered by people with epilepsy, giving researchers hope they’ll find more information. Researchers will understand more about these positive CBD side effects in the coming years.
In 2016, researchers worked with over 200 people with epilepsy and gave them oral doses of CBD. At just 2mg to 5mg per day, the small amount was meant to not upset their existing anti-epilepsy treatments. Over the course of 12 weeks, they recorded any negative CBD side effects but found that seizures were actually reduced in nearly 40% of participants.
The treatment wasn’t good for every patient, however. Around 10% of participants had negative CBD side effects. If you have issues with seizures or even a mild form of epilepsy, you should consult your doctor before you add CBD to your treatment regiment.
3. Neurological Disorders
One of the brain’s most important receptors, CB1, has been shown to have a connection to degenerative neurological issues. Researchers are studying how CBD can interact with this receptor to protect that receptor.
Over time, the deterioration of this receptor makes patients more susceptible to issues related to Alzheimer’s disease. It has also been proven to be a factor related to Parkinson’s disease.
The type of inflammation of this receptor that causes neurological issues, connected to multiple sclerosis and strokes, could be treated by CBD. More research is needed to know if there are any negative CBD side effects. As of now, there is a lot of optimism that CBD could reduce the impact of these issues on people at risk for neurogenerative disorders.
Over time, we’ll hopefully see an expansion of brain disorders that CBD can treat.
4. General Pain Relief
One of the broader side effects of CBD is related to pain relief. It’s not fully understood how CBD can help people suffering from chronic pain, but there are positive reports of pain relief in clinical trials.
The Nation Institute of Health is studying the role of cannabis in treating symptoms of issues like arthritis and MS-related pain with CBD. CBD could react with other medication, so researchers have had a tough time finding patients with severe pain who can go without their medication.
One well known MS drug class, Nabiximols, are made by combining THC and CBD together. The positive CBD side effects of the drug as an anti-inflammatory could be to blame for the positive trials thus far. It’s still not known if CBD or any derivation is 100% effective for specific muscle pain or spinal cord injuries, although the research looks good.
More clinical trials will reveal the positive impacts over time. As more people find relief with CBD, we should see more money become available to research these impacts.
5. Anti-acne
One of the broad impacts of anti-inflammatory drugs is the ability to manage the activity of sebaceous glands that can cause acne. The immune system will create oils in order to protect the body. As one of the major CBD side effects, the body’s inflammation receptors will be calmed and gland activity will be slowed.
Sebum can be secreted after an illness or after you eat certain foods. The glands that produce sebum help to hydrate the skin but an overproduction, caused by inflammation, will cause acne. Small doses of CBD can keep you from producing too much sebum.
As with any new treatment, be sure that you won’t experience any negative CBD side effects as it interacts with any other medications. More human trials are necessary before we can say that CBD works for certain. If you live in an area where CBD is legal and you’re struggling to solve an acne issue, bring CBD up with your dermatologist.
5. Cancer Treatment
One of the most widely known and exciting bits of research on medicinal cannabinoid treatments surrounds its ability to treat cancer symptoms. Studies have shown that CBD could play a role in preventing cell growth in regions of the body where cancer cells are active. The research is still in the earliest stages but the results have been remarkable.
The National Cancer Institute has yet to officially endorse CBD as a dependable treatment for cancer, but patients in experimental trials have been pleased. There are promising studies on the horizon but it could be a decade or more before we know the positive CBD side effects in treating cancer.
As noted above, CBD works well at treating inflammation. Combined with its effects on how cells reproduce, it could help to eliminate or slow the growth of tumors in cancer patients.
With each study released to the public, there is a growth in excitement from advocates and people new to CBD. It’s uniting a non-partisan community of cancer patients and their families in building momentum for increased funding for research.
We should be pleased that researchers are taking care to manage the hastiness with which we might want to see CBD approved widely. As we learn about positive impacts, we must also be wary of CBD side effects that have a negative impact on the health of compromised patients.
Negative CBD Side Effects
While there are only a few known side effects of CBD, it’s important to note that their impact could be unwelcome. Even with something as simple as drowsiness, if taken in tandem with a medication that also causes drowsiness, patients who must be alert for work could be put at risk.
So far, CBD has not been shown to have any severe or fatal impact on patients in clinical trials. Here are a few of the minor CBD side effects that could be unwelcome for potential consumers of the medication.
1. Impacts on Drug Metabolism
The body produces a series of enzymes that help patients to consume and benefit from CBD. Use of CBD combined with other drugs can keep medications from being properly processed by the body.
In test trials, CBD has been shown to neutralized P450 enzyme activity in some patients. This is one of the main enzymes in the liver that helps to metabolize medications. This should remind patients to consult a physician or a pharmacist before adding any medications to their regular routine.
It should be noted that grapefruits can also have this impact on the liver’s metabolizing capabilities. So no need to panic if you’ve taken CBD in tandem with any medication. But it’s important to check and see if your medication is still working.
Complications like these can easily be worked out by rescheduling your medication at different times of the day. You can live with a reduced P450 enzyme for a short time as your body can reset the balance a few hours later.
2. Dry mouth
If you have issues with dehydration, CBD could exacerbate your problems. Some patients have reported CBD side effects that include an unpleasant dry sensation throughout the day. As noted above, CBD has an effect on secretions of glands and this will include saliva.
Cannabinoid receptors are present in the glands that produce saliva, which can lead to dry mouth. It’s not too severe of an impact but can cause some amount of discomfort. Staying hydrated or drinking sports drinks with electrolytes can counteract some of this balance.
It could have the positive impact of getting some patients to drink more water than they normally would on a given day.
3. Increased tremors
For people who suffer Parkinson’s disease, CBD should not be taken in high doses. High doses in some early research has been shown to increase tremors for Parkinson’s patients.
As noted earlier in this article, inflammation and pain related to Parkinson’s can be treated with CBD. Many patients report positive impacts with the other effects of Parkinson’s.
When taken in lower doses, CBD has tested as having positive impacts on alleviating Parkinson’s related pain. If you’re taking CBD related to Parkinson’s, your CBD side effects could be a dosage issue. Try lowering the dosage before discarding the treatment altogether.
Always consult your doctor before beginning any treatment or changing your dosage.
4. Low blood pressure
As CBD slows down some of the body’s processes during moments of inflammation or illness, it can also work to slow the process too much. CBD could cause a drop in blood pressure for some patients. It usually happens right after you administer the medication.
Low blood pressure can be an issue if you’re recovering from surgery or any kind of accident. It also affects how quickly other medications will move through your system.
If you experience any of the lightheadedness often associated with low blood pressure, talk to a physician. It could be an effect of your CBD treatment or a drug interaction you may not have predicted.
Low blood pressure can also cause drowsiness. If you’re taking a high dosage, talk to your doctor about how you can change your dosage without experiencing any negative CBD side effects.
Positive CBD Side Effects Outweigh The Negative
As noted in this article, there are far more positive benefits to taking CBD than there are negative side effects. When the number of positive impacts increases, we will hopefully see more broad acceptance of CBD as an important treatment that should be legalized.