What’s the Deal with CBD and Chronic Pain?

If you’re struggling with ongoing pain, you might be dealing with chronic pain. Unlike acute or short-term pain, chronic pain can be hard to treat and leave you at risk of pain medication addiction. If chronic pain is getting you down, then you might find an unlikely ally in the cannabis compound CBD. 

Chronic pain can manifest in many ways—it can be mild or severe, continuous or intermittent. Chronic pain conditions include multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, or shingles. What we do know is that chronic pain is typically challenging to treat (1). 

With pain relief often not making a dent in chronic pain symptoms, what options are there for patients wanting to live their life free from pain? 

It turns out that cannabis might hold the answer. A cannabis compound called CBD has shown a lot of promise as a pain reliever, and research tells us that it may help manage chronic pain symptoms (2). CBD has also been found to reduce pain levels in chronic pain conditions, including migraines, arthritis, and fibromyalgia (3, 4, 5). 

While some of these studies involve CBD alongside other cannabinoids, they tell us that CBD is a promising pain treatment option, and more research into CBD’s pain-relieving properties is warranted. 

You might be worried about the side effects of taking a cannabis compound, but the side effects are minimal when it comes to CBD. In addition, CBD is not responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis, so if you take CBD alone, you won’t get high. 

On the whole, CBD has a high safety profile. Mild side effects that you might experience include dizziness, reduced appetite, sleepiness, or diarrhea (6). 

CBD shows a lot of promise as a pain reliever for chronic pain, although more research is needed to determine precisely how effective CBD alone is.

The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated the statements on this website. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult your health care provider before use.