Not too long ago, regulations on CBD changed in Germany leading to a plethora of products containing it. As someone who occasionally needs pain medication, I tried some of the products to avoid regular pain killers (ibu). Especially on days with lighter pain, I wished for an alternative to the sledgehammer meds. But I was left standing in the rain. I didn’t feel any effect. That’s why I would love to hear from your experiments and experience.
CBD has zero effect on me. However, THC ramps my anxiety up to 1000. Maybe I’m just a freak of nature?
CBD’s apparently not really effective for general pain relief, but there’s some data that suggest that it’s effective for neuropathic pain.
I take a full spectrum extract specifically for neuropathic pain and it’s been moderately helpful, and since it’s also immunomodulatory it seems to help some with flare-ups of my autoimmune disease. Not a miracle cure or anything, but it’s been better than nothing and definitely doesn’t make me feel as terrible as the more, uh, pharmaceutical options for treating neuropathic pain such as gabapentin, so I’ve stuck with it.
After consulting my favorite search engine for what neuropathic pain is (not your fault, but language barrier of a non-native speaker) I guess this is what I’m looking for! How do you obtain your CBD? Pharmacy or online?
Online store. It’s Finnish and CBD’s not strictly speaking legal here, but it’s not exactly illegal either and authorities have outright said they don’t know wtf they should be doing with this stuff – so they have the label “small batch collectible product, not for consumption” on their products to cover their asses 😄
Is it funny or sad that a finish collectible affects you positively health-wise? Sounds weird but hey. Sometimes laws are lagging behind so much it’s annoying…
Yeah, especially here. Finland’s pretty conservative compared to the other Nordics
Yes, they stop my panic attacks and help me sleep at night. But I’m super picky on brand. I use only lab verified, US companies that have been in the business since before it was legalized nationwide. A lot of growers and such are being bought up by corporations and even Chinese companies and quality is going in the pisser. And I’ve even gotten a nightmare experience that had me trapped under the influence of something that definitely wasn’t cannabis based at all.
I’m having trouble finding it, but I ran across a study a few months ago whose results pointed to greater pain relief gains when CBD was consumed with THC, and that both substances alone do less to “relieve” pain.
I wouldn’t say it helps relieve pain as much as it lets you be distracted from pain.
Also, personally, when I have used CBD on it’s own, it never did anything for me at all. It only ever worked in combination with THC.
Finally, people taking other medications need to be careful about taking CBD.
The vast majority of medications are broken down by enzyme CYP3A4, an enzyme that CBD inhibits.
I am taking a life-saving/life-altering medication to manage a severe disease. It is handled in my body by CYP3A4. Meaning I can really fuck up my medication dosage by taking CBD on its own, because it will inhibit the ability of CYP3A4 to ingest the drug.
User pizza_rolls@kbin.social helpfully pointed out that grapefruit inhibits CYP3A4 as well, so if you’re not supposed to eat grapefruit, you should probably also avoid CBD. I hadn’t even made that connection myself, very astute, pizza_rolls!
Thank you for pointing that out!
InI’m in the happy place of not having to take anything else on a regular basis, but it sure makes sense to keep the heads up of required.Absolutely. I am glad I did the research myself and stumbled across this fact, because when I was prescribed this drug I bought a lot of CBD chocolates, thinking they would help. I was surprised that sooooooooo many prescribed medications use CYP3A4 as a pathway to enter the body, and how this isn’t discussed more often. I really haven’t seen very much discussion at all about how CBD can inhibit the effectiveness of a whole host of prescription drugs.
Anyway, cheers, glad to be sharing the info!
I find CBD oil helps with anxiety. Not a severe case of anxiety, but it does take the edge off.
My wife has chronic neuropathic pain, and the CBD gummies seem to help her sleep. They don’t seem to overtly reduce the pain, but maybe make her less anxious about it.
Thank you! I think, this is an aspect I tend to underestimate: the anxiousness pain causes. It is not affecting me much of what I experience, but deep down, it is a thing.
Pain is a really interesting thing, and there’s an undeniably subjective aspect of it. My wife has had a chronic pain condition since 2008, and one thing I’ve noticed it’s that her pain is worse when she’s stressed, PMSing, or whatever. There’s no objective way to measure pain, and I think at least part of what’s happening is that her ability to deal with one level of pain gets better or worse depending on her mental state.
I think of it like going out and finding you have a flat tire. If there’s not much going on, you’re not rushed, you had a good night’s sleep, etc., you might just think “Well, that’s annoying,” and deal with it. If you’re sleep deprived, your kid is sick, and you’re under a bunch of pressure at work, you might just want to sit on the curb and cry. Same situation, but your ability to deal with it is different.
Pain is like that, I think. If you’re in a bad place, things seem to hurt more because your ability to deal with the pain is less.
If you’re taking any other meds, speak to a doctor before you try it.
I have a chronic illness that led to organ transplantation, and cannabis would interfere with one of my rejection meds. That would have caused me much bigger problems than the pain that I was trying to stop.
Unfortunately, cannabis has an almost cult like mythology around it. There are lots of people who will tell you that it cures everything, from mild pain to every type of cancer, and will even clean and polish your car 😉
I hope you find what you need. Good luck 🙂
Chronic migraine sufferer here. Like 25+ days a MONTH, over 5 on the pain scale, plus all the other fun symptoms.
I had tried literally every other drug on the market for migraine, even some off label, except Botox. The newest class of migraine drugs wasn’t on the market yet. History tells me I likely will not do well with Botox, so as a last ditch effort, before trying it, I decided to experiment with weed again.
Life changing is an understatement. Went from most of the month, where I felt like I was slowly dying, to having MAYBE 2 relatively mild migraines per YEAR.
Certain strains work better for me as an abortive, than others, but just having it in my system daily gave me my life back. It doesn’t seem to matter whether is a 1:1 (CBD:THC) or just a regular old mostly THC strain, it just works for me.
Thank you and I’m so happy for you it helps!
Cbd doesn’t help my migraines, but cbg does.
Honestly, I don’t even need to get stoned for it to help. Just a small puff off the vape, once a day, and I’m good to go. I haven’t bothered to try playing with the not thc stuff.
The rare instance a migraine starts, at least weed is an incredibly predictable thing. A migraine can range from “eh I can power through” to “hmmm Half the vision in my right eye is gone”. I’ll take being stoned lol.
From what you write, stoned is a positive side effect of the whole thing isn’t it? Out do you think this is the main aspect of why the migraine is so much better bearable to you?
No, I don’t think so. As I said, I don’t even need to get high. Just a small hit every night (not enough to have psychoactive effects) keeps them pretty much away.
In the rare instance I get a painful migraine, I can almost always stop it completely with some specific strains. If I can’t stop it, then yeah, being stoned out of my gourd is a positive side effect. lol.
Interestingly enough, when I used to drink heavily, I NEVER had migraines. Not so much as a headache, no matter how heavily I drank either.
I do still get silent migraines (so some of the other symptoms, minus the pain) sometimes, but they are the least of my worries.
Cbg vape or sublingual oil for me - doesn’t completely kill it, but it’ll knock it out for a few hours so I can finish work or get some sleep. The vape works faster. There used to be a guy on r/hempflowers that started using CBG every day and said it cut his frequency in half. It’s really great to have a solution that That works better than the prescription migraine meds and doesn’t make me as spacey.
the problem is the legality of other cannibinoids where you live …
- from the states in the US where cannabis has been legalized – neither CBD nor THC will show their full effects in isolation, they each help to augment the other – so even something like a tiny amount of THC added to CBD (ex. 20:1 CBD to THC) will drastically enhance the CBD effects
- there are two primary (and a lot of secondary) pain systems within the body – one of them responds better to opioids, the other responds better to
cannibinoidscannabinoids – everyone’s different and responds differently so it requires a knowledgeable medical professional who hasn’t bought into US’s “reefer madness” propaganda that’s been foisted off onto the rest of the world
I’m in bed with a fractured wrist and an opoid intolerance/allergy. Where can I learn more about the dominant pain systems/different solutions you mentioned?
proviso: I am not medically trained and most of what I’ve picked up has been informally through the American cannabis communities and legalization efforts
and options for dealing with pain in the US are a hot topic item – you need a medical professional that is knowledgeable about ALL the options but doctors get their licensing at the federal level, not the state level, so they risk their license to even talk about cannabis
from what I’ve stumbled across, opioids work better on acute pain (ex. fractures) and cannabinoids work better on chronic pain (ex. fibromyalgia, stress) – ie. cannabis will help with aches and tension, allowing you to get a night’s sleep – but for direct pain from the fracture, you might be stuck with NSAIDs which have their own slew of issues
I know almost nothing about the other pain systems, but Wikipedia generally has some good starting points
- cannabinoid
- “Before the 1980s, cannabinoids were speculated to produce their physiological and behavioral effects via nonspecific interaction with cell membranes, instead of interacting with specific membrane-bound receptors. The discovery of the first cannabinoid receptors in the 1980s helped to resolve this debate. These receptors are common in animals. Two known cannabinoid receptors are termed CB1 and CB2, with mounting evidence of more. The human brain has more cannabinoid receptors than any other G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) type.”
- endocannabinoid system
- “The Endocannabinoid System (ECS) regulates many functions of the human body. The ECS plays an important role in multiple aspects of neural functions, including the control of movement and motor coordination, learning and memory, emotion and motivation, addictive-like behavior and pain modulation, among others.”
- CB1 receptor
- CB2 receptor
- cannabinoid
Thank you for your balanced thoughts! Well your first point kinda might be an issue. I guess I haven’t dived deep enough into this topic to answer whether these mixtures are legally available here. Speaking of it: can you (or someone you know 😉) feel any psychedelic effect of the THC with a 20:1 ratio?
I tried to convince trained professionals twice to go the mentioned route with me. Instead, the looked for me as if I asked for a roofie on the house. So that is another issue…
- most people (depending on tolerance) don’t notice much psychoactive effect from THC below ~5mg
- from Wikipedia, it looks like in Germany you have to get a medical pass to get access to whole cannabis or THC
- you will get a similar reaction from doctors in the US
- in the US, doctors are licensed at the federal level, cannabis is legalized at the state level – doctors risk their license even talking about cannabis regardless of its legality in the state they operate in – no trained professional is going to risk their livelihood
- most of the world is still victim of the US’s “reefer madness” propaganda campaign (thanks to Nixon and his “War on Drugs”) and it still bears the stigma of “the devil’s weed” – so, unless you find someone knowledgeable, you can expect the attitude of “asking for a roofie” to be the standard response
I think you need to find your dosage and stay on it to help with inflammation which can also reduce pain. I took a lot when I lifted weights regularly. But I ended up making it myself to make it affordable.
I’d use a reputable company. Some seem to try to keep costs down–I sometimes would buy theirs for convenience. (I would use an decarb/infusion machine and eventually bought an extraction machine. Basically cold alcohol wash hemp then evaporate the alcohol back out).
Thank you! This gives me some highschool vibes of chemistry. The useful aspects of it at least. Is it fool safe or would you recommend starting with ready products?
Weed in jar. Jar in freezer. 190 proof ethanol in freezer. Next day- mix, shake, freezer for one Netflix show, strain through strainer, strain through cheesecloth or coffee filter. Use an electric (NOT GAS!) appliance (rice cooker, crock pot, air fryer, dehydrator, or fan) to evaporate the alcohol. When you have a dark, sticky goo, add a little coconut oil for viscosity and heat to 250f, stirring occasionally until the tiny carbonation bubbles slow down.
Thank you for you recipe! That sounds manageable - as soon as the base substance is legally available here 😉 I will keep an eye on that - it is supposed to be anytime soon…
YES!!!
the most important thing you must understand is that QUALITY MATTERS. Even the stuff I got at dispensaries could be hit or miss.
I use AlliantHemp for my CBD, CBG, and CBN supplements and it truly changed my life in regards to replacing other medicines
The Reddit CBD sub was a big help for me on finding reputable sources. If the sub still exists check out their sidebar (and then leave so you don’t give Reddit more engagement)
AMA if u want
Thank you for your response! Of it’s not tmi, can you dig a little deeper in what regards it has been a help for you? Also pain relief?
So I use CBG/CBD/CBN to get thru life
Mostly it’s for anxiety and stomach stuff but the inflammatory stuff is a great help as well.
But specifically for pain, I am unfortunately one of those people who gets kidney stones naturally (my whole family does). I almost exclusively drink water with citrus but no true escape. Anyway, I have been working a stone thru my ureter for the last 6 months or so and let me tell it it can be excruciating. Many ER visits many opioids etc. but the docs will not give you any pain meds unless you go to the ER, and what they give you spans a week max if you’re lucky.
In comes CBD and kratom, which have helped me greatly with managing the pain that comes with existing with a stone or two in a ureter smaller than said stone.
With the entourage effect CBG will potentiate CBD and together they have been a huge factor for my pain. CBN has been huge for my sleep as well
90 seconds of CBD tincture under the tongue and then another 90 of CBG and in minutes comes relief. It’s no opioid but it’s not nothing either. You mileage WILL vary but do not be discouraged!! Try different manufacturers, different cannibinoids (CBG/CBN/etc), different combinations of them, we each have a unique body which makes these things more complex than just swallow any kind of cbd
Yes, I used CBD herb (hemp) along with a dynavap to quit smoking: It worked great! I still vape dry herb partly to relax and partly to quell any urges for cigarettes since a dynavap is very similar in shape and use. I have been cigarette free for 5 years now!
It has an effect but the price for that effect is insane (at least in the UK) . It isn’t an instant thing you need to keep taking it for at least a few weeks.
Definitely made me much calmer but like I said not at that price.
Thank you for your report! Yeah money is also an aspect. In Germany and I think EU (sorry bro) they start seeking it as a drug in pharmacies. If I found it to be of any help to me, I wished I found a way like getting my health insurance passing for it 😜 Don’t you have any similar options?
There are some US vendors that ship internationally. I don’t remember which ones. Question used to come up a lot on r/hempflowers and r/cultofthefranklin.
I recently got a medical card for cannabis. during the call, the doctor said to use a CBD:THC combo for the best results on pain relief. seems to be working well for me.
Thank you! Would you mind to share what radio does the trick for you?
Well I bought CBD a few times now and roll it like a cigarette. It relieves stress very well and calms down - that’s basically all CBD does. I can not handle THC but I have great experience with a CBD cigarette once every 6 months or so.
that’s basically all CBD does
Yes but there is also more to CBD, it also relieves pain, helps with inflammation, insomnia, etc too.
People should know it’s not just CBD anymore, there is CBG, CBN, etc. as well that are just as helpful in slightly unique ways
Yeah I think I forgot these details haha
Thanks for clearing this up
Thank you for your report. Working wanting to be too scientific: do you control the CBD:THC in your Sportzigarette or do you take it as it comes?
Well, the few times I tried THC I always have been invited, so I don’t know the ratio. And the CBD I sometimes get is from Austria. They never said anything about THC on it, if I’m not mistaken. But from what I know, only female pants produce the THC, so it should always have been as THC reduced as the plant can grow it.
Edit: was hard to read, I made the sentences more easy on the eye.
Edit 2: just realized you’re a Feddit.de user, too!
