CBD Oil for Pain, Medical Conditions
CBD Oil for pain vs THC Oil
Mar
When CBD Oil for pain doesn’t work, do you need some THC?
A customer wrote in to us with the following issues, we wanted to use it to highlight some of the questions you may have using CBD oil for pain management. Especially if you find it’s not working for you.
“I have tried several available strands of high concentrated CBD oil and does nothing for my migraines, back pain or neck pain. I feel the lack of THC is the missing link in the puzzle.”
CBD Oil for Pain – 8 Questions you should ask yourself:
If you have tried CBD Oil before, and didn’t get any relief or didn’t get the amount of relief you expected ask yourself these questions.
1. What is the root cause of my pain and is it likely that CBD Oil will benefit this condition?
Pain comes in many shapes and sizes and can be rooted in both physical, mental, emotional & spiritual issues.
The pain may be due to any combination of the following
- Injury or accident
- Disease related – eg Cancer tumours
- Inflammation – eg IBD, Crohns Disease, Arthritis
- Infection
- Nerve pain due to damage or pressure
- Neurological pain
- Emotional or Stress related pain
- Menstrual pain or PMS
- Psychological pain – anxiety, depression, PTSD
Pain can also be categorised by the intensity or how and where it manifests in the body
There are different types of pain:
- acute pain starts suddenly and is short-term
- chronic pain lasts for a longer period of time
- breakthrough pain often happens in between regular, scheduled painkillers
- bone pain happens when cancer is affecting a bone
- soft tissue pain happens when organs, muscles or tissues are damaged or inflamed
- referred pain is when pain from one part of your body is felt in another
- phantom pain is when there is pain in a part of the body that has been removed
- total pain includes the emotional, social and spiritual factors that affect a person’s pain experience.
If you are new to CBD maybe you should consider trying it to see if you get any relief from your symptoms.
2. Was the CBD oil you took strong enough?
When you try CBD oil for the first time don’t buy the cheapest you can find since it will often contain very little CBD in milligrams. It’s understandable that you would then believe that the CBD did nothing.
Even If you buy one of the popular trusted brands of CBD they are often highly diluted and the actual daily dose you take will be verging on homeopathic. We did the calculations and some CBD oils have as little as 0.05mg of CBD per drop.
If you have intense pain issues then we always suggest you start with a high strength CBD Oil like our 2000mg Classic CBD oil. Our CBD oil has 8mg of CBD per drop.
3. Was the CBD Oil you took a whole plant extract or made from CBD isolate?
If you buy a CBD Oil extract for pain relief you need to know what type of CBD you are using. Many brands don’t even tell you, they just tell you it contains CBD. CBD from a whole plant extract works better than CBD isolate or Synthetic CBD, this has been proven in scientific trials on multiple occasions.
By using a whole plant extract you get the benefit of all the other minor cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids that cause the Entourage effect. They all work together in a synergy, a bit like how an orchestra creates much more powerful music that a single instrument on their own.
Eternal Plants CBD Oil is a whole plant extract containing over 400 active molecules. Order today from our webshop.
Entourage Full Spectrum Raw CBD
AUD $250
Classic CBD Decarboxylated
AUD $250
Further reading: Whole plant CBD vs Synthetic CBD Oil
4. Did you take the correct dosage of CBD over a long enough period of time.
Taking CBD is very different to taking conventional allopathic medicine. This is a problem for new users as they are conditioned to take a pill and get an immediate effect (i.e. pain reduction). In some cases this does happen but in many situations this is not the case.
Just because you don’t get immediate results doesn’t mean the CBD isn’t working it’s just that you may have unrealistic expectations or haven’t given it enough time.
This is especially important for long term chronic pain sufferers and those who have autoimmune inflammatory diseases like Arthritis.
CBD works slowly as it resets many of the functions managed by the body’s own endocannabinoid system. It takes time to bring things back into balance so your body can start healing itself.
Further reading: Beginners guide to the endocannabinoid system
5. Did you take a 3-4 week period to up-titrate up to what becomes an effective dosage level.
Start slowly and gradually increase your daily dose, noting any changes and if you get any relief of your symptoms. Keep increasing your dose until you find what works for you. Give it at least 3-4 weeks to take effect. Changes are often subtle and not noticeable on a day-to-day basis so it is a good idea to keep a journal, jotting down a couple of lines about how you slept, how you felt when waking up, general mood/feeling of well-being, the times of the day when pain was noticeable and the level of this pain on a 1-10 scale. Often, when people feel that they are not obtaining much benefit from the oil, looking back to the beginning of their notes they realise that there has actually been significant improvement.
6. Did you try taking another type of CBD oil with more acidic Cannabinoids like CBDA and THCA?
If after your 4 week period you find it didn’t make any difference, consider switching products. Eternal plants sell two types of CBD. Classic CBD and Entourage CBD our Entourage CBD oil contains more of the acidic cannabinoids like CBDA and THCA, these can be especially beneficial for those suffering from Crohn’s Disease or IBD.
You mean I need to buy 2 types of CBD Oil? That’s getting pretty expensive!
Yes we agree, that’s a big problem but the fact is each person responds to cannabinoids in different ways. It’s very personalised and there is no way to know what will work for you unless you try it.
You have to ask yourself, how much is your quality of life worth to you. Are you willing to risk $250 or $500 to possibly find a natural solution to your problem and end your suffering? In reality, our 2000mg CBD costs around $1 per drop, which means that your health could be markedly improved for less than the cost of a cup of coffee per day.
If you have a friend who uses CBD Oil ask them to give you a little bit. While this isn’t a definitive way to find what works best, if it does work you can take the risk to order some for yourself.
In some situations especially for customers on low incomes or with known allergies we can offer smaller samples, please contact our customer support for details.
7. Are you taking any other opiate based medicines?
A pattern that we noticed when dealing with clients who were using CBD oil for pain relief was that we found the ones that it didn’t work for were often taking other opiate based pain medications.
The opiates may have desensitised their cannabinoid receptors in the body which meant that the CBD couldn’t do its job.
I had a friend who had suffered for years with chronic neuropathic pain, She was taking heavy opiate based pain medications and was physically addicted these drugs. She wanted to try CBD and get off these pain medications. I suggested that she first reduce her dosage gradually over 6 months before trying CBD Oil. She followed this advice and was pleased to find that she got immediate relief when she actually tried CBD Oil.
If you are taking opiates and CBD doesn’t work then this may be the reason why.
We always suggest you work together with a qualified health practitioner especially if you are taking other medications and want to reduce your dosage. This needs to be done gradually and under proper medical supervision.
Transitioning from an opioid-based pain management protocol to one using CBD it is often done by using the following method. Starting low and slow and titrating up over 2-3 weeks to where the cannabinoids come to an effective level in the blood, and then to start reducing the opioids at a rate of around 10% per week. As the opioids are reduced the CBD can be increased, if necessary, to maintain the required pain relief. Eventually the pain will be fully managed by the CBD and the patient completely opioid free.
In cases of extreme Chronic Pain you may need some THC
Many cancer sufferers use THC oil as an alternative to Morphine, it works well to help them manage pain and is used in palliative care.
Since cancer is one of the TGA approved illnesses that can apply for Medicinal Cannabis so you may be able to get this on prescription. The problem is that the actual product you receive will often be a synthetic form of THC like Marinol, or a THC/CBD isolated extract called Sativex. These have many side effects and does not work as well as THC sourced from a whole plant extract.
What happens if your condition is not on the list for TGA approved Medicinal Cannabis
If your quality of life is being damaged by your pain and your condition is not on the list of TGA approved illnesses then you must decide for yourself what risks you are willing to take.
This is where we get into the legal problems. When dealing with RSO/THC Oil , ie any hemp/cannabis extract with greater than 0.02% THC, things move into the Schedule 8/9 arena, which becomes a federal police issue.
When working with CBD you also stay in the Schedule 4 realm, i.e. prescription medicine’s, contravention of which become an administrative TGA misdemeanour.
Driving while using THC can also result in losing your driving licence which is also something to consider. Some jobs also demand random drug testing and if you take THC you may risk losing your current employment.
Further Reading:
What is Rick Simpson Oil (RSO)
THC Tetrahydrocannabinol
Notice to patients and carers regarding RSO/High THC cannabis oil
Summary: If your suffer from pain and CBD Oil doesn’t work
If your suffer from pain and CBD Oil doesn’t work for you don’t immediately assume you need THC. Ask yourself these questions first
- What is the root cause of your pain and is it likely that CBD Oil will benefit this condition?
- Was the CBD oil you took strong enough?
- Was the CBD Oil you took a whole plant extract or made from CBD isolate?
- Did you take the correct dosage of CBD over a long enough period of time?
- Did you take a 3-4 week period to up-titrate up to where it becomes an effective dosage level?
- Have you tried taking another type of CBD oil with more acidic Cannabinoids like CBDA and THCA?
- Are you taking any other opiate based medicines?
- Is your condition on the list for TGA approved Medicinal Cannabis?
If after answering all these questions then maybe you should consider trying THC/RSO oil. then you need to decide, Is it really worth the risk? For many chronic pain sufferers with refractory pain (ie pain that is no longer been managed by conventional allopathic medicines), the answer is a resounding YES! So welcome to this very black, white and grey world of changing regulations and moving goal posts. We suggest that you write to your local member and ask them to represent you in your choice to use natural plant medicines. Your body, your choice!
So to close this article I would like to refer to a recent article by Mike Adams – The Health Ranger, where he quoted some shocking numbers produced by the US government. That each year over 106,000 people in the USA die each year from FDA-approved, officially prescribed pharmaceutical drugs.
As yet, there have been no reported deaths due to CBD/medicinal cannabis.
Entourage Full Spectrum Raw CBD
AUD $250
Classic CBD Decarboxylated
AUD $250
Latest posts by mat g
I’ve done extensive research on pain-related treatments using CBD and ALL the research I’ve seen points to THC being the main compound addressing pain issues with CBD supporting (making more effective, and lengthening) THC’s role. A full spectrum tincture is a good start, but I believe once we get out from under the THC prohibition that larger ratios of THC to CBD will quickly become much more popular than this government regulated 0.3% which is too low IMO.
Hey guys. I have had chronic neck pain for many years and in particular the last 4 years. CT scans and mri’s show degeneration in C2, C3, C5 on the left and similar on the right.
I’ve had nerve blocking injections in the occipital nerve on both sides of my neck. I have paid a fortune to physio’s and to chemists for prescription medication. The latest is Lyrica. Add to that tablets with coedine. I’m over it.
Will cannabis oil help me?
Hi Tony,
As we are not doctors so we can’t give medical advice, but many patients have reported that cannabis oil does help them when conventional medicine has failed, particularly for pain connected to the central nervous system. There is also some research related to bone conditions you may find interesting.
https://eternalplants.com.au/medicinal-cannabis/treatment/osteoporosis-bone-health-cannabinoid-research/
Arthritis suffers also report benefits in relationship to to bone degeneration, inflammation and pain relief.
https://eternalplants.com.au/medicinal-cannabis/treatment/arthritis-anti-inflammatory/
You have nothing to lose by giving it a try.