Posted on May 14, 2019 in Breakfast

Chronic pain and an inability to move freely can interfere with every task throughout your day, from crawling out of bed in the morning to buttoning your pajamas at night. Managing the pain is a rollercoaster, and you may have been through hours of physical therapy and countless prescriptions looking for relief. 

Most doctors use NSAIDs to reduce inflammation and opioids to mute the pain. Patients build up a tolerance for these drugs over time, and doctors must continue increasing the dose until they have to switch drugs because dosing is maxed out. Additionally, NSAIDs may cause heart disease and stroke with long term use, and opioids can be dangerously addictive. Yet it feels like there is no choice in finding relief from the pain.

If you are looking for a more holistic approach to your pain management, or you would like to reduce your dosing of prescription painkillers and NSAIDs, tasty CBD gummies may be your answer. CBD is an all natural substance that relieves pain at a systemic level, by bringing balance to your body, reducing inflammation, and helping you relax so you can move past the pain. 

CBD is definitely not a cure all, but combined with a holistic approach to pain management that may include yoga, swimming or other kinds of light movement, and meditation, you may find some relief that doesn’t put so much strain on the rest of your body. 

How CBD Works

The endocannabinoid system is a part of the nervous system that most of us never learned about in school. It was discovered in the 1990s by researchers who were investigating the ways that THC interacts with the body. They found a network of special neuroreceptors and neurotransmitters that communicate with every other system in the body to help maintain homeostasis and restore balance when there are internal or external changes. 

Some researchers now believe that many—if not most—diseases and disorders come from improper functioning of the endocannabinoid system. When changes happen and the body struggles to maintain homeostasis, everything gets thrown off. Cannabinoids found in cannabis plants, including the CBD found in hemp, support proper functioning of the endocannabinoid system. This means that CBD may help bring everything back into balance.

CBD Reduces Inflammation

Inflammation is one of the biggest causes of joint pain, and it can happen in any of the structures in your joint. The inflammation may cause a deep ache, or sometimes it causes stabbing or throbbing pain. You may have gotten so used to the pain that you don’t notice it anymore, but your coordination, balance, or manual dexterity has diminished.

Sometimes, light movement will loosen things up and help relieve the pain at least a little, but pain caused by inflammation typically only goes away when the inflammation itself goes away. CBD products can help reduce painful inflammation on a couple of levels. First, it may work with the CB2 receptors in the nervous system to communicate directly with the immune system and help calm or prevent a flare up. Second, inflammation caused indirectly gets addressed when CBD balances out hormone production in the endocrine system, and when it brings anxiety down to a more manageable level.

CBD Reduces Anxiety

Anxiety is a killer when it comes to your pain management strategy. It increases production of hormones that escalate inflammation, and it makes it that much harder to change your focus away from the pain. When you are full of anxiety, you do not have the space to use your coping tools to manage your pain because you are too busy fixating on whatever is stressing you out. 

In addition to balancing hormones that regulate emotions, CBD triggers the brain to retain more serotonin. This increase in serotonin helps you feel calmer and more grounded. When you start taking CBD products, you will not necessarily notice a huge change right away. But over time, you will notice that you are finding the space and time to take more deep breaths, which will help in your efforts to manage your pain through relaxation.

CBD Promotes Sleep

Your body uses sleeping time to heal and remove toxins that have built up throughout the day. A lack of sleep can lead to increased anxiety and inflammation. When you don’t sleep well, you start your day with a deficit in energy and tolerance, and it just goes downhill from there. Pretty soon, you just want to curl up into a ball and avoid moving at all. Only that hurts too much, too.

The kind of sleep that CBD promotes is restorative and won’t leave you feeling groggy the way many painkillers and sleep aids will. Taking a dose of CBD gummies or oil about a half hour before bed can help you fall asleep and stay asleep so you wake up recharged. It may even be easier to heave yourself out of bed than it was the day before. 

Final Thoughts

If you are frustrated with your pain management strategy and looking for something that won’t leave you feeling foggy all day, or even if you are simply looking for something to supplement the medications you already have in place, CBD may be what you need to help you move away from a life of joint pain. You deserve to get moving again, and CBD gummies available at CBD Gummies Australia can help. 

Some goals in pain management are to reduce inflammation, regulate your hormones so it is easier to regulate your emotions, reduce anxiety, and help you get better sleep. These are the building blocks to a robust strategy, and a routine of CBD products is a natural foundation.

*Be sure to talk to your doctor before starting CBD. It can cause your regular pain medications to build up in your system faster than usual, and you may need to reduce your dose.