How to Use CBD Oil for Pain Relief
Every human being has experienced pain in their lives. You may experience various short-term pain on a regular basis when stabbing your toe, cutting your finger while cooking, finishing a hard workout, or feeling a bit under the weather. In this article, you will discover how to use CBD oil to bring pain relief.
Over 50 million people in the United States are dealing with some form of chronic pain due to a variety of chronic health conditions or for no explained reasons at all, such as pain due to fibromyalgia, autoimmune diseases, arthritis, chronic headaches and migraines, lower back pain, and so on (1).
Pain, especially chronic and on-going pain can be incredibly limiting. It may interfere with your work, studies, social life, family life, and personal joy for life. In many cases, it may lead to disability.
Unfortunately, conventional treatments for chronic pain are incredibly expensive. Medications may not be effective enough yet come with an array of side effects and health risks. Fortunately, there are a variety of options to prevent, manage, and lower pain, including chronic pain through natural means, such as an anti-inflammatory diet, stress-reduction strategies, exercise, and bodywork.
CBD Oil and Pain Relief
One of the increasingly popular natural ways to find relief from pain and to increase your overall health is CBD oil. I am incredibly excited to share more with you about how incredible CBD oil is and how to use CBD oil to improve your health and well-being.
In this article, you will read about what is pain, different forms of pain, how pain works, how pain and inflammation are related, most common forms of pain, and what influences pain. You will learn about conventional, alternative, dietary, and lifestyle strategies for pain relief and pain management. You will understand what the problem with conventional pain management methods through medication is, and why you should choose safer and natural methods, such as CBD oil.
You will also understand what CBD oil is, what is your endocannabinoid system, and how it works. You will have a grasp on what types of pain and health issues CBD oil may be effective for. Finally, you will learn how to use CBD oil for pain safely and effectively, and my favorite brand I recommend every day for pain relief and overall health.
What Is Pain?
Pain is an unpleasant sensation in your body that may range from mild to severe. Pain may feel differently depending on its causes. It may ache, burn, prick, or tingle.
It may be dull, sharp, throbbing, or pulsating. Or it may feel completely different depending on its circumstances, its causes, your pain perception, and your pain tolerance level. Your pain may be localized affecting only one smaller or larger area your body or a deeper pain that spreads to several areas of your body or even become an all over pain.
Pain is a sign that something is not right in your body, and you need to identify its root cause to find the best relief and treatment. When something happens to your body, such as an injury or illness, your nerves send messages to your brain to protect you.
As a protective warning sign, pain develops. It is basically a complex interaction between your brain, nerves, and spinal cord. Your pain may be physical or emotional, or even both (2).
Acute Pain
Acute pain is a short-term form of pain. When you have an accident, acute injury, illness, or surgery, you may experience sudden and often more severe pain.
In most cases, acute pain goes away within a few hours, days, or weeks with or without treatment depending on the cause of your pain. In some cases, acute pain may turn chronic (2).
Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is a more persistent pain that can last for months or even years. In some cases, chronic pain occurs after an illness or injury when the pain lingers even after the health issue is resolved.
In other cases, chronic pain is due to a chronic health condition, inflammation, overuse injury. In some cases, chronic pain cannot be explained. The treatment and pain relief of chronic pain is much more complicated, more difficult, and takes longer (2).
How Pain Works
Pain occurs when something happens to your body and particular nerve endings are stimulated to protect you. For example, if you fall or cut yourself, tissue damage occurs.
Your brain sends pain signals to your body to ask for help. It signals you to take it easy and seek treatment. Pain can also happen in your emotional state with or without a physical injury or illness (2).
Inflammation and Pain
Inflammation often comes with pain. Pain is often a sign of inflammation in your body. Inflammation and pain may often co-occur and co-exist.
Inflammation is your body’s way to fight against potential harm, such as toxins, injuries, and infections, and protect you from them. Inflammation is an essential part of your body’s inherent immune system.
When your body senses damage or danger to your cells, it releases an immune response for your protection, and to promote fast recovery. Inflammation often comes with pain to signal your body to slow down and focus on recovery (3, 4).
Inflammation is necessary. Without it, wounds would become septic, and even minor injuries could turn serious or deadly. However, when inflammation becomes chronic, it is bad for your health and may result in serious damage.
Similarly to pain, there are two types of inflammation: acute and chronic.
Acute Inflammation
Acute inflammation is a short-term inflammation. It’s usually the result of an injury, acute infection, or allergen.
When you stub your toe, you may experience pain, swelling, and redness until it heals. Acute inflammation usually comes with acute pain. It is short-term and disappears within a few hours, days, or weeks depending on its cause.
Chronic Inflammation
Unlike acute inflammation, chronic inflammation is long-term and on-going. When your body is experiencing excessive – physical, emotional, or chemical – stress load, it ends up feeling like that there is danger all the time. It thinks that it needs to defend you constantly, thus becomes overwhelmed. This chronic inflammatory stimulus results in an increased and ongoing inflammatory response, chronic inflammation, and often chronic pain.
Chronic inflammation may lead to cell, tissue, and organ damage. It may result in chronic health issues, including metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma, metabolic syndrome, heart disease and autoimmune diseases. Chronic inflammation may last for several month or several years, and when the underlying causes are not addressed, they may last for a lifetime.
Chronic inflammation is often accompanied by chronic pain. Many diseases, such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and headaches, that may be the result of inflammation, are characterized by chronic pain.
Recovery from Chronic Inflammation and Chronic Pain
To recover from chronic inflammation and chronic pain, and prevent further damage to your body, you must address the underlying causes of your chronic inflammation. The use of CBD oil may be part of your recovery, as you will learn later in this article. If you want to learn more about acute and chronic inflammation, its consequences, and some healing strategies, you can read this article.
Types of Pain
While we may categorize pain based on their length – acute or chronic – we may also break different types of pain based on their nature and cause. There are three main types of pain, nociceptive, neuropathic, and other pain.
These three forms may co-occur and co-exist at the same time making your pain experience more difficult and complex. Some people may be dealing with all three forms at the same time (5).
Three Types of Pain:
- Nociceptive pain: This type of pain comes from various kinds of trouble in the tissues that are reported to your brain by your nervous system. This type of pain tends to change with movement, load, and position. Examples of nociceptive pain include repetitive strain injury, nausea, bee stings, burns, tumors, and inflammatory arthritis.
- Neuropathic pain: This type of pain comes from damage to your nervous system itself from injury, disease, or pinching. It tends to be chronic since nerves often don’t heal well. It may feel electrical, burning, or stabbing. Examples of neuropathic pain include sciatica or hitting your funny bone, and also any major pain caused by anything that damages your neurons such as chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis, or alcoholism.
- Other pain: There is also pain that doesn’t fit into either category. The so-called ‘other pain’ arises from neurologic dysfunction, not damage. It is often unexplained or not yet understood. Other pain may also be referred to as sociopathic, allopathic, centralized, or primary pain. Examples of other pain include fibromyalgia, chronic primary headaches, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), non-specified chronic low-back pain, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Most Common Forms of Pain:
There are several types of common forms of pain, including (2):
- Headaches
- Back pain
- Neck pain
- Joint pain
- Muscle pain
- Pain from an injury
- Pain from nerve damage
- Pain from pain-related health conditions, such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis
- Cancer pain
- Pain after surgery
What Influences Pain
The type or level of pain you are experiencing depends on its causes, location, and characteristics. However, pain by the same cause may differ from person to person. Some people have higher pain tolerance than others. Psychological, social, and emotional factors may also influence your pain (2).
Factors that may influence your pain:
- Genetics: Your genetic makeup may determine the tendency to develop neuropathic pain after any nerve injury and may also determine what medications or treatment options may be the most appropriate for you.
- Gender: Women tend to be more prone to frequent, longer lasting, and more severe pain, and certain health conditions that may cause pain than men.
- Long-term problems: Chronic conditions and illnesses, such as fibromyalgia, chronic headaches, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may affect your experience with pain.
- Psychological factors: Those with depression, anxiety, or low self-esteem may experience more or worse pain.
- Social factors: Loneliness, social isolation, unemployment, low-income levels, and lower education levels are linked to a higher risk of pain and may influence one’s pain levels.
- Past experiences: Trauma, painful memories from the past, or negative experiences with pain or medical treatments may affect your pain levels and response to treatment.
- Diet and lifestyle: A poor diet low in nutrients, a sedentary lifestyle, stress, and other unhealthy lifestyle choices may increase your pain levels and make recovery slower or more difficult.
- Other individual factors: Your general attitude, personality, upbringing, coping strategies, and any other personal factors may influence how you experience, interpret, tolerate, or react to pain, and how you benefit from treatment methods.
The Impact of Pain
Pain is very complex, and its impact depends on your personal situation and experience. Pain may interfere with your daily life, work, education, household tasks, driving abilities, family life, relationships, exercise, social life, energy levels, mental health, and overall life.
Acute pain may only lead to a short-term disturbance, sometimes on a very minor, sometimes on a more serious level. Chronic pain, however, may have more serious consequences on your overall life, and may even lead to disability (2).
Pain Management Strategies
Your pain management strategies depend on if your pain is chronic or acute, its causes, its location, characteristics, and any health conditions it may be linked to (2, 6, 7).
Pain Management Strategies May Include:
- RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) is often used for sports and other injuries.
- Over-the-counter pain relievers, including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, naproxen, and aspirin, as well as, acetaminophen, such as Tylenol.
- Prescription pain medication, such as NSAIDs and opioids.
- Prescription medication for any underlying medical condition or illness.
- Physical therapy and bodywork, such as chiropractic, trigger point therapy, myofascial release, and massage therapy.
- Alternative therapies such as acupuncture, craniosacral therapy, guided imagery, hypnosis, somatic therapies, and energy healing.
- Meditation, breath work, yoga, journaling, relaxation strategies, Tai-chi, and stretching.
- Psychological counseling and therapy.
- An anti-inflammatory whole foods diet abundant in greens, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and high-quality animal products. You can learn about my favorite anti-inflammatory foods here and a helpful guide to eat healthy here.
- Anti-inflammatory herbs and spices, such as turmeric, boswelia and ginger.
- CBD oil. You will learn more about how to use CBD oil later in this article, however, you may also read more about CBD oil here.
What’s Wrong with NSAIDs and Other Medication for Pain Relief?
Conventional treatment for pain often involves over-the-counter medications, such as NSAIDs and acetaminophen, as well as prescription NSAIDs and opioids. Unfortunately, these medications may lead to more issues down the road, especially when it comes to chronic pain and long-term use.
The way NSAIDs work is by blocking the Circulating Immune Complex (CIC) activity in your body. CIC is a protein chain activated by your immune system causing pain, swelling, and redness to promote recovery.
However, instead of affecting only the CIC around your pain, NSAIDs affect all CICs in your body, including ones that are necessary to maintain the lining of your stomach, intestines, liver, and kidneys. Long-term use of NSAIDs can result in more pain, stomach ulcers, kidney and liver toxicity, and leaky gut syndrome. Long-term they may lead to kidney and liver damage, intestinal bleeding, and even death (8, 9, 10, 11, 12).
Unlike NSAIDs, many doctors believe that acetaminophen does not increase your risk of stomach or heart issues. They are often recommended to those whose stomach cannot tolerate NSAIDs well. However, acetaminophen is far from ideal for your body. The long-term use and overuse of acetaminophen have been linked to liver problems and acute liver failure.
It may increase your risk of gut microbiome imbalance, high blood pressure, kidney problems, and skin issues. Your body may also get used to acetaminophen, and long-term use may result in rebound pain, such as rebound headache, which is pain due to medication overuse, and a pain that returns when the pain relief medication wears off (13, 14, 15, 16).
Prescription Opioids
Prescription opioids, such as codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, oxymorphone, fentanyl, and morphine are medications that are naturally found in the opium poppy plant. Besides relieving pain, they can make you relaxed and high.
The problem is that opioids are highly addictive, and overuse and death are incredibly common as a result of opioids. This is true for prescription opioids, and people taking prescription opioids may become addicted and suffer from consequences. Yet doctors are still commonly prescribing opioids even in less serious cases (17).
Instead of relying on NSAIDs, acetaminophen, or prescription opioids for pain, it is important that you figure out, understand, and address the underlying cause of your pain. It is important that you consider lifestyle and dietary factors that may contribute to your pain, and how to use natural strategies to lower pain levels.
Eating an anti-inflammatory diet and employing alternative strategies, such as stress reduction or bodywork, are fantastic ways to fight inflammation. CBD oil is another increasingly popular, completely safe, and natural way to lower your pain levels.
What Is CBD Oil?
Cannabidiol, or CBD, or CBD oil, is one of the over one hundred chemical compounds known as cannabinoids. Cannabinoids are found in the cannabis plant, including hemp and marijuana, or Cannabis sativa (18).
There are two major cannabinoids: CBD and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is known for its psychoactive properties that are responsible for the feeling of ‘being high’. CBD, on the other hand, is not psychoactive and does not make you feel high.
For this reason alone, CBD may be incredibly appealing for many people who are looking for pain relief or other health benefits without experiencing the mind-altering effects of THC or toxicity from pharmaceutical pain medications. You can check out the brand Nature & Bloom for some great products.
What Is the Endocannabinoid System?
The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is named after the word ‘cannabionoid’ and ‘endo’, which is short for endogenous, a term that refers to something that is created naturally inside your body. The endocannabinoid system, therefore, refers to a cannabis-like substance naturally occurring in your body.
Parts of the ECS
The ECS has three main parts, including:
- Endocannabinoids
- Receptors, such as CB1 and CB2, in your nervous system and body that bond with cannabinoids and endocannabinoids
- Enzymes that help the breakdown of cannabinoids and endocannabinoids
Homeostasis and ECS
Homeostasis is how your body keeps your internal environment optimal, balances, stable, and healthy regardless of any external circumstances. Your body’s job is to constantly monitor what’s going on inside and adjust according to new circumstance (19).
Your body is checking if you need water, food, or rest, if your hormone levels are right, and if everything in your cells and bloodstream are stable. Its goals are to keep everything at a normal range.
For example, if it’s hot outside, it helps you cool down through sweating. If you need fuel, it makes your stomach growl to urge you to eat. It accomplishes these things with the help of two cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2.
The Role of CB1 and CB2 in the ECS
There are two types of cannabinoid receptors that scientist currently know about CB1 and CB2. CB1 is found in your central nervous system, brain, and the nerves of your spinal cord. CB2 is located in your peripheral nervous system, digestive system, and specialized cells in your immune system.
Both CB1 and CB2 helps your ECs to regulate your inflammation levels, pain levels, immune functions, sleep, digestion, appetite, memory, mood, and other functions. It makes an impact exactly where needed to create balance and homeostasis. Once they achieve balance in your body, enzymes break them down, so they don’t cause any damage or disrupt the balance in the opposite direction.
Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency and CBD Oil
Homeostasis is non-negotiable for your health. When your ECS isn’t working properly it may lead to a variety of problems inside your body.
Clinical encodcannabionoid deficiency (CECD) refers to a variety of conditions related to an ECS that is not working optimally. CECD conditions may include fibromyalgia, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome (IBD), and other health issues that may cause pain in your body.
Luckily, you can use CBD oil to stimulate the ECS activity in a variety of ways. Therefore, the use of CBD oil may be a potential option for natural pain relief and treatment (20, 21, 22).
What to Use CBD Oil for?
Marijuana has been used for its pain-reducing effects since 2900 BC. Its effectiveness in reducing pain has been backed by research as well. One of the main reasons for its pain-relieving benefits is CBD itself. The use of CBD oil can help the ECS to regulate your body, and reduce pain as a result (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31).
Different Pains to Use CBD Oil for:
There are many types of pains that you may use CBD to find relief naturally including (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37):
- Arthritis pain: According to an animal model study, the use of CBD oil may be beneficial for those with arthritis and other joint pains.
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) pain: Research found, the short-term use of CBD oil may reduce the levels of spasticity, pain, and other symptoms of MS.
- Chronic pain: Research suggests that the use of CBD oil may reduce pain and inflammation, and may benefit people experiencing chronic pain, such as those with fibromyalgia, headaches, or migraines.
- Fibromyalgia: According to research, the use of CBD oil may offer relief for all over chronic body pains related to fibromyalgia.
- Menstrual cramps: It seems that the use of CBD oil may benefit women by reducing cramps.
- Ulcerative colitis and Chron’s disease: Research suggests that the use of CBD oil may offer relief for those with IBC, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, as well as, for other types of chronic tummy aches.
- Headaches and migraines: The use of CBD oil may benefit those with headache or migraines to reduce their symptoms naturally.
- Muscle pain: The use of CBD oil may relieve muscle pain due to exercise, poor posture, carrying groceries, lifting your kids, or chronic health conditions, such as fibromyalgia.
- Cancer pain: Research suggests that the use of CBD oil may benefit cancer patients by relieving pain, nausea, and vomiting due to chemo.
Other Benefits of CBD Oil
The use of CBD oil has many other health benefits, including neuroprotective properties, reducing anxiety and depression, improving sleep, supporting the healthy stress response, supporting your healthy immune response, and helping those with cancer.
These benefits may also contribute to its pain-relieving benefits. You can read about further benefits of the use of CBD oil in more detail in this article.
How to Use CBD Oil for Pain?
You may use CBD oil for pain in a variety of ways or forms:
- CBD Oil Capsules: One of the simplest and beginner friendly ways to use CBD oil is by purchasing CBD oil capsules or pills. They come in pre-measured sizes making it easy to monitor your dose. They are easy to take and have no taste.
- CBD Oil Topicals: You may benefit from a variety of types of CBD oil topicals. For joint pains, sore muscles, and other body pains, body butter, rollers, creams, and lotions are perfect. For headaches, migraines, and stress-related pain, CBD oil rollers infused with essential oils may bring you powerful relief.
- CBD Oil Sublingual Tinctures: CBD oil sublingual tinctures are easy to use by putting drops under your tongue. They dissolve and absorb easily bypassing your digestive tract. With CBD oil sublingual tinctures, you may experience the fastest effects.
- CBD Oil Vapes: If you are familiar with vaporizers, vaping CBD oil using an e-juice cartridge with CBD oil may provide fast pain relief. However, if you are new to vaping and CBD, it is not the best choice.
What Form of CBD You Should Choose
To choose what is the right form of CBD oil for you, it is important to consider your pain levels, type of pain, comfort zones, and goals. If you have muscle pains, creams and lotions may be a great option. For fast relief for chronic pain, sublingual tinctures are a great choice.
If you are a newbie, capsules may be the easiest way to start. However, if you don’t like pills, sublingual tinctures may be your friend. You may also combine different options, by using sublingual tinctures during the day, and rubbing your aching shoulders with CBD body butter in the evening.
Dosage of CBD Oil
When it comes to figuring out the right dose for you, you have to remember that everyone is different and there is no right answer. For different pains and different pain levels, you may need a different dose than others.
You have to consider your body weight, health conditions, individual body chemistry, and personal goals. There is no one size fits all approach when it comes to the use of CBD oil. Your individual dosage needs may also change over time as these individual factors change.
It is a good idea to talk to a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about CBD oil to determine the best approach for you. Always start out with a lower dose and work your way up until you notice optimal benefits.
If your symptoms are not improving, you may need to increase your dose, or you may need to try a different form or different brand of CBD oil. It may take some time to find what works for you.
Take a look at our CBD oil dosage chart recommendation to determine what’s the best dose for your situation. Generally speaking, take 1 to 6 mg of CBD Oil for every 10 lbs of your body. If you are between 100 and 175 lbs., 6 to 8 mg may be right for mild pain, 18 to 24 mg for medium pain and 32 to 60 mg for severe pain. Remember, start on the lower side, and go up gradually overtime.
Regular Use of CBD Oil
While it is common to take CBD oil just when pain arises, many believe that CBD oil is the new multivitamin that should be taken regularly to support your endocannabinoid system and create balance within your body.
The regular use of CBD oil is completely safe and highly beneficial. The use of CBD oil can become your regular wellness routine along with a nutrient-dense diet and healthy lifestyle strategies.
Final Thoughts
Everyone has experienced pain in their lives. We encounter a variety of short-term, acute pain on a regular basis. However, over 50 million people in the United States are experiencing some form of chronic pain due to various health issues or for no reason at all. Pain may affect your work, studies, social life, family life, and personal life. It may even lead to disability down the road.
Conventional treatment options are not only expensive but often ineffective. Pain medications comes with side effects, health risks, and toxicity that may lead to further pain and health issues. It is often safer and more effective to try natural methods of pain relief, such as an anti-inflammatory diet, stress-reduction strategies, exercise, and bodywork.
One of the natural ways to find relief from pain and to increase your overall health that I’m incredibly excited about is CBD oil. The use of CBD oil may help you to find relief from a variety of pain, including fibromyalgia, headaches, arthritis pain, menstrual cramps, muscle pain, and cancer pain. It may be incredibly beneficial for your health on a variety of other ways, such as reducing depression and improving your sleep.
Following my guide to using CBD oil, you can start experimenting to find the right dose for your pain and health issue. Start slowly and increase your dose gradually. When choosing a CBD oil brand, make sure to choose organic, non-GMO, independently tested, full-spectrum hemp products.
If you want further help with your health, we offer long-distance functional health coaching programs. For further support with your health goals, just reach out and our fantastic coaches are here to support your journey.
Inflammation Crushing Ebundle
The Inflammation Crushing Ebundle is designed to help you improve your brain, liver, immune system and discover the healing strategies, foods and recipes to burn fat, reduce inflammation and Thrive in Life!
As a doctor of natural medicine, I have spent the past 20 years studying the best healing strategies and worked with hundreds of coaching clients, helping them overcome chronic health conditions and optimize their overall health.
In our Inflammation Crushing Ebundle, I have put together my very best strategies to reduce inflammation and optimize your healing potential. Take a look at what you will get inside these valuable guides below!
Where I can found oil or where I can buy it if you have any information like a website or store where I can get the oil thank you
Hey Patricia, This article will help: https://drjockers.com/cbd-oil-benefits/
I have read that to get the best effect one needs to take a loading dose. Is this information accurate? If yes, how do you do this?
Hey Barbara, Every individual is different in how they respond to CBD oil. It is always best to work with a qualified health practitioner.
my wife is allergique to antibiotic and other medecine can she take obc oil for back pain
Yes she can try it out, it is very effective!
I am still trying to fully understand CBD. Is the oil orally taken ? I take approximately 18 tablets a day and have a pacemaker fitted. I suffer from pain in my back, upper and lower. My husband suffers from headaches, usually daily, would CBD help him ? Also is there a stockist you could recommend in the U.K. ? Regards, June Smith
June Smith
Yes CBD can be very helpful. Be sure to check the dosage instructions in the article for how to titer the dosage properly. Blessings!
I have tried CBD pills, gummies, and liquids. I have DDD (Degenerative Disc Disease). AFter a bad fall I was prescribed Percocet to manage my pain. I took Percocet for many years. My last MRI revealed Stenosis and Arthritis. Unfortunately none of the CBD products I have tried helped to relieve my pain. When I run out of Percocet, I try Tylenol, Hempfix, and anything else that advertises it will help relieve my pain. The advertisements are great, but unfortunately none helped. I tried to get off opiods, but could not find anything that would relieve my pain. I see a new pain management specialist Tuesday. Hopefully, he can help me.
Sorry to hear that! We are praying for you!