If you suffer from chronic nerve pain, you’re not alone. According to Web MD, “15 million to 20 million Americans are believed to have some form of nerve pain, in most cases without a definite cause.” That is a solid six percent of the entire population that is dealing with a very agonizing form of chronic pain.
Unfortunately, for a lot of these cases, pain medication alone doesn’t always fix the problem. So, a number of people are turning to more homeopathic alternatives for nerve pain, including CBD. There are a number of reasons why people would choose to use CBD for their pain relief; whether it be from health insurance limitations, personal preferences, or as a tool to use in addition to their doctors prescribed medication and therapy routines. The best part of CBD oil is that no matter the reason why you choose to use it, there are a number of benefits each user can potentially experience:
5 Benefits of CBD oil for Nerve Pain
- Reduces Pain
- Decreases Inflammation
- Promotes Relaxation
- Uses Natural Materials
- Can Reduce Depression and Anxiety
There are more than seven trillion nerves that make up our central nervous system. The nervous system is our body’s alert mechanism that sends electrical pain signals from the brain, down the spinal cord, to all parts of our bodies. There are multiple ways someone can suffer from neuropathic pain: sciatic nerve, diabetic neuropathy, shingles, or some other form of nerve injury, like a herniated disc. People who live with these conditions could benefit from trying CBD for nerve and back pain.
Because there are so many different reasons for why someone would suffer from nerve pain, it makes sense for them to turn to alternative medicines, like CBD oil for chronic nerve pain. CBD oil for nerve pain is something that is readily available, easy to afford, and safe to use for most individuals—making it ideal for those who might not have health insurance or who are looking for safer alternatives than traditional medicine.
Does CBD Oil Help for Nerve Pain?
There are a lot of questions surrounding cannabis and its uses for pain relief: Is CBD an anti inflammatory? How does CBD oil help with pain relief? What is the CBD dosage for nerve pain? Are CBD gummies good for nerve pain? The short answer is yes, CBD oil is great for nerve pain. It works by using the cb1 receptor to trigger a neurological response in the brain. This has a number of different effects, depending on what type of CBD or THC for nerve pain you are using and how your own brain chemicals interact with the natural plant chemicals.
The dosage for nerve pain is something that will be unique to each individual and depends greatly on the form of CBD oil you use—tincture, gummies, lotions, creams, etc.
5 Benefits of CBD for Nerve Pain
If you’re on the fence about taking CBD for nerve pain, consider these five benefits:
1. Reduces Pain
Pain can be an amazing indicator for when something is wrong with the body. It lets us know when we are too hot or too cold; when we need to give our muscles a break, if we’ve injured some part of our body, or even if something is wrong internally. However, neuropathy isn’t always as cut and dry as bandaging up a scrape. Some of the chronic neuropathic pain we experience can be nerve damage caused by an accident or something else entirely (like sciatic nerve pain; also known as sciatica). CBD oil for diabetic nerve pain can be a wonderful tool to utilize, as CBD won’t affect your blood sugar levels and won’t interfere with insulin.
Pain can be a difficult thing to stay on top of and keep under control, and a lot of the over-the-counter and prescription medications carry long-term effects that can take a toll on our bodies. CBD is a safe way to help manage lasting pain in a way that doesn’t add any unwanted side-effects.
2. Decreases Inflammation
Pain and discomfort don’t always come from the initial injury or site of irritation alone. Swelling and inflammatory pain can be a major contributing factor to exacerbating nerve pain symptoms. Inflammation puts added pressure on the pinched or damaged nerve, and can cause some pretty severe pain. This pain can even radiate out from the point of origin. One of the best CBD benefits is nerve pain relief.
CBD reduces inflammation when the cannabinoid impacts the neurotransmitters on the nerve pain pathway and interrupts the signal the brain gives off for chronic pain. This can lead to decreased swelling and inflammation, and a significant lessening of the agonizing pain a pinched nerve can cause.
When you decrease inflammation, you increase the quality of life an individual is able to have by removing the limitations a damaged nerve can create with mobility and day to day functioning.
3. Promotes Relaxation
Tetrahydrocannabinol (also known as THC) is the compound in the cannabis plant that creates a psychoactive effect. Hemp derived CBD, however, does not typically contain THC chemicals, and therefore will not lead to the high that many experience with a THC strand. That means it is entirely safe to use CBD lotion and hemp derived CBD oil on areas you need pain relief, and there are no psychoactive side effects to worry about.
Using CBD lotion for nerve pain can add extended pain relief to a relaxing massage, and is something that is easy to toss in your purse or bag and take with you for on-the-go pain spot treatment. If you aren’t a lotion fan, an edible CBD oil could be a better alternative to try.
4. Uses Natural Materials
CBD is short for cannabidiol. According to Harvard.edu, “it is derived directly from the hemp plant, which is a cousin of the marijuana plant. While CBD is a component of marijuana (one of hundreds), by itself it does not cause a “high.” This is a common concern of people who are skeptical about using CBD for nerve pain. CBD works by engaging with your cannabinoid receptors, which are natural neurotransmitters and affect a wide range of things, such as your mood, appetite, immune system, pain receptors and more.
Cannabis-based medicine is a way to manage nerve pain in a healthier, safer way than prescription pain meds. A large number of prescription pain medication drugs that have an analgesic effect come with a hefty list of side effects, such as constipation, drowsiness, nausea, and may cause other long-term health complications; whereas CBD for nerve pain is a natural, safe alternative and is non-addictive.
5. Can Reduce Depression and Anxiety
Especially during these pandemic times, anxiety rates have skyrocketed. There are many routes to treating anxiety, and there is no “one rule fits all” when it comes to selecting your treatment. A lot of people find benefit in talk therapy, CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy), and prescription medication.
However, those come with their own constraints of time, money, and potential side effects. Using a CBD product (on its own or in combination with other therapies) though, can greatly reduce feelings of stress and anxiety—making it a great alternative or supplement to prescription medications.
How to Use CBD for Nerve Pain
If you’re wondering how to take CBD oil for nerve pain or how much CBD oil to take for nerve pain, dosing will depend on your needs and preferred delivery system. There are two delivery types, topical CBD and oral CBD. When it comes to topical CBD, you will want to follow the directions on the bottle. It should give you a general guideline of how much CBD balm or CBD salve is necessary to treat the area. When it comes to oral CBD, we recommend starting with a low dose, around 10 mg, and working your way up slowly until you achieve optimal benefits. You might also consider trying different cannabis strains to see which one works best for your particular health issues.
What type of CBD is best for nerve pain?
Topicals, like CBD balms and salves, are great to carry with you on the go and use as-needed to relieve your symptoms at the site of pain. A CBD tincture, on the other hand, is wonderful for when you have peripheral neuropathy, such as multiple sclerosis or diabetes, where you might experience all-over body pain.
CBD oil for shingles works well in both tincture and topical form. Shingles generally start as a localized rash, which can be spot-treated with CBD salve or CBD cream at the site of the rash. A CBD tincture can be used to help alleviate the full body “zaps,” which is the nerve pain you experience during a shingles outbreak. While shingles typically clears up with medication, the painful side-effects and nerve zaps can last for months, so it’s nice having a form of pain relief that can be adjusted to match pain intensity as needed.
What is the Best CBD Oil for Nerve Pain?
If you’re wondering what the best CBD for nerve pain is, it may take a bit of trial and error to figure out what type works best for you for pain management, but there are plenty of wonderful options available on the market to try: CBD isolate, CBD topicals, full spectrum CBD oil, CBD capsules, and full spectrum CBD oil.
Full spectrum CBD oil contains multiple cannabis plant extracts: essential oils, terpenes, and other cannabinoids, such as cannabinol. However, the extremely low THC content in this type of CBD oil for pain tends to be so low that you won’t feel any high.
A few of the best CBD oil for nerve pain products include our Hot Spot or Chill Out roll-on gel, It’s the Balm; Problem Salved (our best CBD cream for nerve pain), and Steady Going tincture, just to name a few. Nerve pain can affect anyone at any time in their lives. If this is something you suffer from, consider shopping FarmerAndChemist.com for all your CBD for nerve pain needs.