If you have spent any time on this website, or have watched the news at least once in the past year, you will undoutably know that the buzz word in the mind of health conscious people nowadays is CBD. Everywhere you go, any conversation you participate in, there will be a point during which the attention will turn to health, traditional medicine and paleative modalities… such as CBD.

Oh Say, Can You CBD?

Just the other day, my wife and I were sitting at the home of friends, (husband and wife) who are both avid golfers. True to form, a golf tournament was playing on the living room big screen TV and I have to say, sports event shown 4K screens are something else, even if you are not a rabid fan of a particular sport. (But I digress)

As our attention inevitably turned to the screen, since both our hosts couln’d take their eyes away from the action, I paid attention to the hip movement of one of the competitors as she swang at the ball, and couldn’t help say that whith the state of my own joints, this is one movement my back would complain about.

“It was the same for me, but now I put CBD cream on my lower back and joints before I play golf, and the pain goes away.”  Replied the lady of the house.

People, everywhere not only talk about CBD but also take it themesleves.

CBD is everywhere:

Pay a Sunday morning visit to your neighborhood garden marketplace and chances are you will see at least one station sellling a varitey of CBD products.

Go to a pulmonary doctor for a post sleep study consulation (as I did) and as you sit in the waiting room notice a large poster highlighting the merits of CBD

Wait in line at the grocery and as you stand there glancing at a CBD magazine, the cashier who has just seen where you looked tells you that you should try. “My niece has been taking CBD for her anxiety for over 6 months and the changes in her are incredible. I wish we had known about it before.”

Given the public interest in CBD products you would think that someone, somewhere would have made the efforts to figure out why the interest!

With so much anecodtal reviews, from so many people who take it, why wouldn’t anyone want to delve deeper into the matter and find the anwser to the following question:

 

Who is using CBD and Why?

A CBD review dealting into the matter, namely why are people using CBD and how it is helping them had always been needed but never actually conducted on a national stage.

The good news is that someone did make such a review! Indeed at the beginning of 2019, Project CBD conducted a survey to ascertain several kep points, hethertho never properly addressed. It began to collect testimonies and responses to a surver it created designed to figure out who is using CBD, how and why they are using CBD, what kind of products they are purchasing and whether or not CBD is working for them.

The survey was conducted over a preior of  8 months and involved 3500 responders. The survey asked about The survey asked about CBD’s impact on six quality of life measurements: pain, mood, sleep, physical function, energy or motivation, and the ability to socialize. A majority of participants reported some improvement across all measures, but the most significant were in the areas of pain and mood.

Cultivating Wellness

Of great interest were the efficacy reports for specific conditions. The survey elicited information about 17 different conditions for which CBD is sometimes used, including:

• alcoholism/addiction
• ADD or ADHD
• Alzheimer’s disease
• autism spectrum disorder
• brain injury (e.g. stroke, TBI, tumor)
• cancer
• diabetes
• epilepsy and other seizure disorders
• gastrointestinal disease (e.g. Colitis, Crohn’s, IBS)
• depression
• anxiety and other mood disorders
• motion sickness
• pain
• Parkinson’s disease
• hormonal conditions (e.g. PMS, menopause)
• multiple sclerosis
• PTSD
• sleep problems

The survey asked what type or stage of disease the person had (e.g., type 1 or type 2 diabetes), and how they felt CBD impacted their symptoms.

This observational study validated some well-established facts about CBD – namely that it has a strong safety profile, and it is very effective at ameliorating pain and anxiety. Participants reported significant improvements in pain and mood regardless of the underlying medical condition.

That said, the study also showed that CBD is not a panacea for all that ails us. Some symptoms were decidedly less responsive to CBD products. For example, CBD was not particularly useful in helping people with gastrointestinal diseases maintain a healthy weight. Nor did it have much of an impact on PMS-related bloating, cancer-related diarrhea and constipation, or low sex drive during menopause.

Nonetheless, CBD was effective in simply making people feel better – most likely because of its positive impact on pain, mood, and sleep.

The survey also found that there were few adverse effects, which is consistent with studies showing that CBD is safe and well-tolerated even at high doses.

The Reason People Take CBD

This observational study validated some well-established facts about CBD – namely that it has a strong safety profile, and it is very effective at ameliorating pain and anxiety. Participants reported significant improvements in pain and mood regardless of the underlying medical condition.

That said, the study also showed that CBD is not a panacea for all that ails us. Some symptoms were decidedly less responsive to CBD products. For example, CBD was not particularly useful in helping people with gastrointestinal diseases maintain a healthy weight. Nor did it have much of an impact on PMS-related bloating, cancer-related diarrhea and constipation, or low sex drive during menopause.

Nonetheless, CBD was effective in simply making people feel better – most likely because of its positive impact on pain, mood, and sleep.

The survey also found that there were few adverse effects, which is consistent with studies showing that CBD is safe and well-tolerated even at high doses.