When it comes to treating chronic diseases and mental illness, doctors are all too happy to give patients prescription medication. These substances come with a range of side effects, and worst of all, they’re habit-forming. Luckily, patients who rely on these drugs have an alternative in the form of pure CBD oil. And according to a study, nearly half of CBD users were able to get off their prescription medication.
What are the Dangers of Prescription Meds?
To understand why this is a monumental study for the hemp CBD industry, let’s see why these doctor-prescribed drugs are a problem. First of all these drugs are not side-effect free. There are many reasons why one would experience side effects while taking these meds. The most common ones include incorrect dosage, drugs killing healthy cells, individual reactions and interactions with food and other drugs.
Common side effects associated with prescription drugs are drowsiness, headache, dizziness, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, skin rashes, dry mouth, and insomnia. These side effects can drastically reduce the patient’s quality of life. However, there are more serious side effects than these, which include Internal bleeding, suicidal ideation, and even cancer.
However, the most pressing problem with these drugs is that most of them are habit-forming drugs and prone to misuse. These lead to a dependency, which becomes a full-blown addiction with prolonged misuse. The reality of this problem becomes apparent when you start looking into opioids such as OxyContin, Vicodin, Demerol, and others. Opioid misuse has become such a problem that health experts believe that we have an opioid epidemic on our hands.
While many have been able to bounce back from many of these adverse effects, many others have not. When addicted, people tend to overdone, which leads to death – no one can bounce back from that.
With these shocking details about prescription meds, people have started looking into CBD. For starters, clinical studies have shown that hemp CBD can be taken safely in high doses every day. And the patient will not even experience any adverse side effects. Plus, CBD is non-psychoactive and is not habiting-forming in the least.
What Does the Study Say?
This brings us to the previously-mentioned that saw nearly 50% of CBD users quit their prescription drugs. It was a survey conducted by the Brightfield Group and HelloMD. And it revealed that of the 2,400 users of CBD products, 42% of them stopped taking their prescriptions medication completely. This is by far one of the biggest studies ever to be conducted on the efficacy of CBD products.
The Director of Research for Brightfield Group, Bethany Gomez, said the “study is exciting because it shows that there is potentially a huge barely-tapped market for CBD products that could improve the lives of many people.” And that with “further research and public education, CBD could be an effective alternative treatment for many people, particularly at a time when our nation is in the midst of an opioid crisis.”
A whopping 52% said since they started taking CBD, they have found it to be more effective at treating their condition or symptoms that prescription meds. With a highly collaborative study like this, it should lend credibility to the CBD industry. Currently, the industry is rife with anecdotal evidence when it comes to CBD’s treatment of diseases and disorders.
What Were the Respondents Using CBD to Treat?
According to the survey, respondents were using CBD to mainly treat anxiety, depression, insomnia, and joint point. And some studies show that CBD can indeed help with these conditions.
Anxiety
When your body is stressed, it normally responds with anxiety. This means you become fearful of what the future may bring. Anxiety graduates into a full-blown disorder when one has been struggling with it for more than six months and it is negatively affecting their day-to-day life. In the survey, 67 percent of respondents said they were using it for anxiety.
A 2011 study showed that CBD can reduce social anxiety disorder or SAD in people with a fear of public speaking. The study had 24 participants, which the researcher split into two groups of 12 each. The researchers orally administered 600mg of CBD to the first group and administered a placebo to the second group. Then they recreated public speaking conditions for participants and found that there was a significant reduction in anxiety in the CBD group – the opposite happened in the placebo group.
Another study conducted in 2016, showed that CBD can also significantly reduce anxiety and insomnia, which are common symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the study, a young girl with PTSD was given pure CBD oil. Over five months, the researchers saw a gradual reduction in anxiety and improvement in her sleep quality.
Depression
Depression is a mental health disorder where a person experiences low moods and is uninterested in any activities. As you can see, this can significantly hinder someone’s life in many areas, whether their personal life or professional career. Many people use antidepressants to treat the disorder. And 43 percent of the survey’s respondents said they were using CBD to treat their depression.
Depression has been linked to low serotonin levels or serotonin deficiency. The brain has serotonin receptors, which respond to the body’s natural levels of serotonin by regulating one’s mood. While CBD does not boost the levels of
serotonin in the body, it is believed to have a positive effect on these receptors, allowing them to effectively use what is there in the system.
While CBD’s ability to reduce depression is still being studied, experts reviewed current studies on the subject matter in 2018. They concluded that CBD shows great promise in treating depression, among other conditions, thanks to its anti-stress properties.
Insomnia
Insomnia is another condition that many people struggle within their day-to-day lives. Not only does a person with this sleep disorder struggle with finding sleep, but they also struggle to stay asleep when they do. And 60% of respondents were going to the CBD shop to help treat their insomnia so they can sleep again.
CBD helps treat insomnia by patients helping patients treat the root cause. For example, we talked about how pure CBD oil was able to reduce anxiety and improve sleep quality in a patient with PTSD. It just so happens that one of the causes of insomnia is anxiety.
In fact, a study was conducted in 2019 to determine whether CBD can reduce anxiety and/or improve sleep. 25mg of CBD was administered to 72 participants. 47 of them had anxiety while 25 of them were sleeping poorly. After a month, 79.2% (57) of the participants experienced decreased levels of anxiety, while 66.7% (48) participants experience improved sleep quality.
While the researcher called controlled clinical studies for further research, these results so far are encouraging.
Joint Pain
52% of the respondents said that they were using CBD to treat joint pain. A common cause of joint pain among adults is arthritis, which can be described as the inflammation of the joints. Anyone with this condition can tell you that if left untreated, it can be extremely debilitating.
In a 2016 study, researchers studied the anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects of CBD in rats with arthritis. The rats were given CBD gels for four days. Researchers found that CBD can indeed reduce arthritis-related inflammation and pain without any side-effects. However, they also noted that humans studies are needed to make the results more conclusive.
Other Conditions That Can Be Treated With CBD
Although the people in the survey were mostly using CBD for the above-mentioned conditions, people use it for other conditions as well. Despite attempts by Big Pharma to discredit or downplay the efficacy of the compound, the industry is growing and the evidence is pilling.
Other conditions people use CBD for include:
- Nausea
- Migraines
- Chronic pain
- Seizures
- Cancer
The Bottom Line
Our over-reliance on prescription medication has brought about a serious problem: an opioid epidemic. People think that they have no choice but to use these drugs to treat their conditions. However, with this study showing the about 50% of people are tossing their prescribed meds for CBD, perhaps there is hope beyond this habit-forming substances.
While conclusive studies might be lacking to solidify CBD’s position as an alternative treatment, the preliminary studies and anecdotal evidence speak volumes. Anyone wishing to give CBD a try should speak to their doctor, especially if they are of prescription meds. CBD has been known to interact with certain medications, which can make their symptoms worse.
At this point, you might be wondering: is there a hemp store near me? Luckily, you don’t have to a brick and mortar hemp store to purchase Pure CBD oil, you can easily purchase these products online. Just be sure to check the laws in your city and state in regards to hemp use.