Aches fundamentally are a pain. You would be hard pressed if you didn't know someone or even if it’s you yourself who isn’t dealing with niggle or something that’s causing a degree of discomfort. Whether getting a new duvet with a crazy tog factor or pulling a ‘Karl Pilkington’ and applying a cold plate to the region giving you grief, there are many potential options for relief available to us.
Pain killers are obviously the undisputed ‘go to’ for aches and pains, but there are quite a few unknown reasons as to why not to reach straight for the foil packet. A lot of individuals can be hindered by side effects of certain painkillers both short and long term. For example, Aspirin may affect the lining of your stomach and cause abdominal pain. Other pain relievers, such as ibuprofen and naproxen, potentially can lead to heartburn, irritation, and other stomach trouble also. In the words of Alanis Morissette, isn’t it ironic?
If you’re someone who suffers these side effects when it comes to pain relief, or someone like me who just wants to avoid opting for the Paracetamol until you feel it’s completely necessary, CBD could be an option for you.
There is lots of readily available evidence out there for you to read regarding CBD. Unfortunately, it can become a bit of a minefield; you could very easily be reading a Hippy’s insight into how CBD gave him, or her, the ability to see into a blackhole and touch the Philosopher’s Stone if you’re not careful- that would be THC not CBD by the way.
Finding out about CBD doesn’t have to be an arduous and boring experience, there are many avenues to go down and hopefully this blog section becomes one of them. With that being said, I may be about to contradict myself slightly, as we are about to get a bit ‘Sciencey’.
Researchers within the CBD fraternity believe that CBD interacts with a core component of the ECS (endocannabinoid system) — endocannabinoid receptors in your brain and immune system. Receptors are proteins attached to your cells that receive chemical signals from different stimuli and help your cells respond. For example, if an outside force, such as pain from an injury or a fever, throws off your body’s homeostasis (your body’s equilibrium), your ECS kicks in to help your body return to its ideal operation.
Instantaneously, if something were to cause you pain, perhaps you trip over a lightbulb for example - your ECS would create anti-inflammatory and painkilling effects that help with pain management. Ultimately, this could mean that the use of CBD may benefit people with chronic pain or relieve the presence of a short-term niggle. It activates or inhibits other compounds within the ECS.
The ECS underpins a whole variety of functions such as sleep, muscle formation, bone remodelling and growth, liver function, your mood, stress, and metabolism just to name a couple. When looking at pain more specifically in terms of how CBD may possibly impact or reduce it, CBD may stop the body from absorbing anandamide, a compound associated with the regulation of pain. So, increases and decreases in levels of anandamide may be a factor in reducing the amount of pain a person feels, makes a bit of sense, right?
Furthermore, one 2018 review assessed how well CBD works to relieve chronic pain. The review looked at studies conducted between 1975 and March 2018. These studies examined various types of pain including neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia. Based on these studies, researchers concluded that CBD was effective in overall pain management and did not cause negative side effects. Studies such as these may begin to build the argument for its effectiveness on other, less extreme examples of ‘pain’.
Finally, it is important to make the point that we are not claiming that CBD is a miracle cure and that you will be pushing that new hip to its limit within the whiff of a candle. Our aim is purely to create a place where you can find a lighter version, pardon the pun, of the information that is available to all of us online. By delivering an entry level CBD option in the form of a candle, it allows people access to a less intrusive form of CBD which otherwise would not have been available. Leapfrogging to a more medicinal means of application through a tincture may be quite intimidating for some, we offer the best next.