A normal person experiences physical pain in their life. Nowadays, chronic pain is also familiar to more and more people. For a long time, pain can even become a part of our identity. How to deal with pain? In the long run, it can even become an unbearable burden on our lives. Many arts have often already been tried, and especially in serious health challenges, it is important to progress in healing on many levels. But have you tried proper CBD yet? For many, the help it brings to pain challenges is undeniable. More and more people have even felt that they got their life back from their pain with the help of CBD .

What causes the pain?

Have you ever stopped to think about what causes pain? What exactly is pain? That brings a challenge to our consciousness. When we hurt our toe on a chair, for example, we carelessly caused a small damage to our toe, and the pain is a signal of this. If we didn’t experience pain, we wouldn’t learn to be careful of the chair. But what about a stomach ache? Of course, this can also be caused by, for example, wrong nutrition. In addition to this, we can also be in a stressed state. In recent decades, we have already learned to understand the concept of a stress stomach.

As is well known, this same phenomenon can also occur as a headache, but for a long time, even in medical circles, we have started to notice the view that our physical and mental well-being are connected to each other more than previously thought. A late doctor from the United States has been a pioneer in the subject John E. Sarno. In her medical career, she quickly saw the connection between allergies and mental well-being. Also Dr. Sarno noticed the same connection between mental ailments and back pain. Through his mappings, we finally began to understand that this kind of pain can be located anywhere in our body.

Dr. Sarno and many other experts have found that while pain can be a message of damage where the pain is, pain can also be experienced to avoid emotional pain.

The role of CBD in pain management

CBD balances our endocannabinoid system, abbreviated ECS (from endocannabinoid system). The ECS regulates all of our other eleven self-regulatory systems, so it has an effect on the one hand directly on pain, but also on possible underlying emotional states.

CBD’s direct effect on pain

The endocannabinoid system consists of cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 and their ligands anandamide and 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG), and enzymes responsible for ligand metabolism. Cannabinoid ligands can also activate other receptors in addition to cannabinoid receptors. These receptors include TRPV1, GPR18 and GPR55. The main ligand of the TRPV1 receptor (Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid-1) is capsaicin (1), which creates the heat in chilies. This is why some people experience a mild hot flush when using cannabinoids. For some, the burning may be excessively intense at first, but it goes away after use.

Traditionally, chili is known to be an effective pain reliever, although its effect only targets TRPV1 receptors. Today, awareness of CBD’s effect on pain is also spreading. Our endocannabinoid system affects pain directly and indirectly through the other receptors mentioned above. It plays a very central role in the experience of pain throughout our body. In 2020, Poland conducted a review of the pain-relieving effects of CBD in our body in a wide range of pain situations, such as nerve pain, inflammatory pain, osteoarthritis and others. The final conclusion was that CBD is a well-tolerated and safe natural compound that has shown promising pain-relieving effects in a wide range of pain challenges in clinical trials (2).

Walking in nature, a suitable diet, a sauna combined with cold water, light exercise, adequate rest and many other things can also be helpful for pain relief.

It is also important to understand that our endocannabinoid system is really a central part of our body’s functioning, and that part of pain relief with CBD is our body’s way of telling us that we have nourished its most important self-regulating system. We are designed to get a lot more cannabinoids from our diet than we currently do.

The effect of CBD on the underlying factors of pain

The aforementioned research into the underlying causes of pain has shown that emotional states can also cause physical pain. Pain seems to be the body’s mechanism to avoid these emotional states if they are too much for our consciousness to handle. However, CBD has an effect on these background factors as well, as has been studied.

Innovare Journal of Medical Science published an article in 2020 that analyzed no less than 76 studies published in 2019 and 2020 on the effects of CBD on certain diseases such as stress , anxiety and depression . The study concluded that CBD has promising effects on these ailments, especially when it is not just CBD isolate. (3)

In 2020, the effects of CBD have also been studied for stronger stress conditions with larger doses. The positive results have inspired further research. (4) Mental challenges can be eased by finding meaning in one’s life, spiritual exercises such as meditation, doing things that interest oneself, and for some, vigorous exercise can also be therapeutic. It may also be necessary to avoid spending a lot of time in front of screens. This article also covers the topic in terms of anxiety: CBD oil can relieve anxiety .

Pain in the shoulder area and shoulder can be relieved with CBD oil and massage.

The use of CBD for various pain conditions

Below you will find a list of different common pains, divided into different areas of our body:

Body:

• Lower abdominal pain
• Lower back pain
• Coccyx pain
• Pain in the sternum
• Pain in left side

Head and limbs:

• Headache
• Wisdom tooth pain
• Foot pain
• Pain in the soles of the feet
• A shooting pain in the arm

Nervous system, joints and pelvis:

• Sciatica pain
• Neuropathic pain (nerve pain)
• Knee pain
• Elbow pain
• Coccyx pain

The style of using CBD depends on the location of the pain. If it is, for example, general lower abdominal pain, it is most effective to take CBD orally. Pain in the lower abdomen can also be related to intestinal well-being. You can read more about it The effect of CBD on intestinal well-being .

For many other common ailments, it can also be good to put CBD directly locally at the point of pain. CBD cream and CBD oils are best for topical use.

Pain in the metatarsals and soles of the feet is becoming more and more common. The soles of the feet can be massaged with CBD oil. Just by massaging the soles of the feet, you can affect the pain conditions and well-being of our entire body, the soles of the feet are full of nerve endings.

Pain in the metatarsals and soles of the feet is becoming more and more common

The ball of the foot and the sole of the foot are also increasingly areas where pain occurs. Massaging the soles of your feet with CBD oil is especially good, as it allows the CBD to have the most relaxing effect. By massaging the soles of the feet, you can affect the pain conditions and well-being of our entire body, because it is full of nerve endings. You can read about the anatomy of the bones of the feet and the increasingly common barefootness and the advantages of barefoot shoes compared to cushioned shoes From a comprehensive article written in New York Magazine , which also tells about the history of shoes and the effect on the health of our feet (5).

For foot care, you can find 100% natural CBD foot cream in our online store, which has been specially developed for tired feet. CBD cream warms, increases peripheral blood circulation and soothes the skin. Thanks to the natural active ingredients, the cream reduces leg swelling and tenderness, and speeds up healing from muscle injuries.

How much CBD to use

The amount of CBD used largely depends on the intensity of the pain and its location. The pain can be especially strong when, for example, there are symptoms of a wisdom tooth. For such acute, strong pain conditions, it can be good to spread the use of CBD to three times a day and with a larger amount than usual. A product-specific dosage recommendation is usually sufficient for normal periodic pains.

What is a large amount? What is a small amount? What is a normal amount? Based on experience, it can be assumed that each endocannabinoid system is individual, and similarly, each hemp variety and product has a slightly different effect. Still, we can get some indication regarding usage volumes.

It is good to start using CBD with a smaller amount at first. As simplified as possible, a rule of thumb for different usage amounts can be given with the following diagram:

Dosage instructions for CBD for every five kilograms (5 kg) of body weight:

MILD | MEDIUM STRENGTH | STRONG

1 mg | 3 mg | 5 mg

For example, if a person weighs 50 kg, then a mild dosage would be about 10 mg, medium strength 30 mg and strong 50 mg.

You can find more details about dosing in this article: CBD oil dosing – a complete guide to dosing

Sources

1. Huttunen, R. 2016. Pain and the endocannabinoid system. University of Oulu. http://jultika.oulu.fi/files/nbnfioulu-201702101163.pdf. Referred on 07/05/2022
2. Mlost, J. et al. 2020. Polish Academy of Sciences. Poland. Cannabidiol for Pain Treatment: Focus on Pharmacology and Mechanism of Action https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/22/8870/htm. Referred on 07/05/2022
3. Ferro M. et al. 2020. Innovare Journal of Medical Science, Vol 8, Issue 6. The role of cannabidiol in the inflammatory process and its properties as an alternative therapy – a review (meta-analysis ). https://innovareacademics.in/journals/index.php/ijms/article/view/39501/23812. Referred on 10/05/2022
4. Appiah-Kusi, E. 2020. Springer Link. Effects of short-term cannabidiol treatment on response to social stress in subjects at clinical high risk of developing psychosis . https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-019-05442-6. Referred on 07/05/2022
   
5. Sternberg, A. 2008. New York Magazine. You Walk Wrong . https://nymag.com/health/features/46213/ . Referred on 11.05.2022