Chronic pain affects over three million Americans. Back pain, oftentimes caused by improper lifting, accidents, or simply age, is a common form of chronic pain. While some people suffer from milder forms of back pain, others suffer from back pain that is so severe that it affects their day-to-day lives. Both groups of people stand to benefit from the use of medical marijuana. CBD, one of many naturally occurring cannabinoids in the marijuana plant, may be especially helpful for back pain relief. Learn how you can use CBD for your back pain effectively.
Why Use CBD?
While many patients smoke or vape marijuana for pain relief, other patients choose to use solely CBD, or alongside marijuana. Here are a few of the reasons why patients may choose to use CBD instead of marijuana:
It Doesn’t Have Psychoactive Effects: The “high” you experience when you use marijuana comes from the cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), not CBD. When you extract CBD from marijuana, you can experience relief without any psychoactive effects.
People of All Abilities and Ages Can Use It: Since it doesn’t have psychoactive effects, parents can use CBD to medicate their children without worry. It can also come in products like oils that you can add to food or apply topically. This variety of options lets patients of all abilities find something that they can use independently or with a caretaker’s help.
Best CBD Products for Back Pain
CBD medications come in lots of different forms, including edibles, flower, lotions, and more. When it comes to treating chronic pain, not all CBD products are created equal.
CBD oil is the most iconic form of CBD medicine. Its effectiveness depends on the severity of your back pain and the concentration of your oil. If you purchase hemp-derived CBD oil, check its CBD content. When your oil doesn’t seem to work well enough, you might need a product with a higher amount of CBD. Some marijuana-derived oils also have THC in them, which works together with CBD to relieve pain. If you have the legal ability to get cannabis-derived CBD, you might want to consider an oil with a little bit of THC, too.
Best Methods of Using CBD for Back Pain
When choosing how to consume your CBD, you’ll want to consider your lifestyle and other health issues. For example, if you have COPD or asthma, you probably do not want to smoke CBD in flower form. Overall, the most effective medical approaches include:
Topical Application: Rubbing an oil or muscle cream directly onto your back or asking someone else to do it for you lets the medicine treat the exact spot where you’re experiencing pain. The CBD will directly penetrate your tissue to reach the muscles and joints causing you pain.
Pill/Edible Ingestion: Taking a pill or eating an edible won’t let all the medicine directly reach the affected area, but this method can be especially helpful for patients with nerve pain or comorbid pain conditions. Pills and edibles take a little while to take effect because they have to pass through your digestive system first. But, once they do begin to work, the CBD in them travels throughout your entire system.
Inhalation: Like ingestion and patches, smoking or vaping cannabis medicine affects your whole body. But, the effects of inhalation don’t last as long. As a trade-off, smoking and vaping offer relief much more quickly. If you have sporadic episodes of back pain, you might want to consider smoking or vaping to get faster benefits.
Some patients choose one way to medicate, while others combine them. Finding the right treatment plan involves some trial and patience.
Learn more here about getting your medical marijuana card!