How Does Hemp Work for Back Pain

Hemp has been used for thousands of years to rejuvenate and restore balance to the body. In today’s article we’ll be answering the question, how does hemp work for back pain?

Back pain can be caused by a variety of things from injury to nerve damage and inflammation. In some cases, the pain is specific to a localized area such as the lower back, limiting movement and impairing the ability to exercise, but still able, for the most part, to lead a normal life.

Can Hemp Work for Chronic Back Pain

In other cases, people find themselves with ongoing pain, what we call chronic pain, which spreads across not just a localized area such as the lower back (though, it may start there), but cripples the person with a kind of full body pain that prevents them from living a normal life, not just limiting their ability to move or exercise.

Severe back pain, whether acute and localized, or chronic and widespread, can be debilitating to the point where many sufferers will do anything to resolve the pain. Often reaching for over-the-counter prescription medications to offer relief, but these medications often come with a long list of side effects. We mentioned some of these medication and side-effects in our previous article on Hemp and Addiction.

How Cannabinoids Work for Back Pain

The integrity of the back is paramount to our healthy functioning, so much so that if someone severely injures this area of the body, it can leave them paralyzed, or worse, dead.

Pain in the spinal area can be caused by an injury like a pulled muscle or spinal ligaments. These can happen as easily as picking up one of the kids or turning to catch a ball in sports.

Cannabinoids act as powerful painkillers. Studies show that cannabinoids work on the same pain pathways as opioids without the long list of side-effects such as physical dependence, sedation or impairment of respiratory function.

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) when activated also works to bring balance and order to systems of the body responsible for regulating pain such as the nervous system, bringing down inflammation and increasing relief. This means when cannabinoids activate the ECS they bring about an “entourage effect” that not only reduces pain but assists the person in being pain-free.

Hemp Works for Back Inflammation

Before we cover how the cannabinoids found inside the hemp plant work for back inflammation, we wanted to offer you the opportunity to learn about the endocannabinoid system, which is a system in the body that brings balance and order to all systems of the body. You can read our article on the endocannabinoid system here.

The endocannabinoid system is composed of two main locks that are opened by cannabinoids (keys), they are called CB-1 and CB-2, in short. Cannabinoids work through the CB-2 receptor in the ECS (like lock and key) to regulate immune responses to inflammation.

The immune system triggers inflammation in response to an injury or infection, but it’s only when this inflammation gets pushed out of balance, kinda like when a barbeque gets pushed over and turns into a forest inferno bringing heat to the entire forest, not just a localized area (the bbq).

If the immune system continues to respond with inflammation, it can become chronic long-term inflammation. This is where chronic swelling can lead to serious health conditions over time. We must at all costs, avoid this from happening, for obvious reasons.

Cannabinoids regulate the immune system’s response to swelling, bringing balance and ensuring order where the inflammation is only being targeted to the localized area, and not applied to the entire nervous system or body.  Cannabinoids expedite the healing of injured tissue and can fight infection due to their antimicrobial properties.

Nerve Pain Relief with Cannabinoids

There are tons of peripheral nerves running throughout the entirety of the back from the spine. Nerve pain comes from a variety of sources including chronic high blood glucose, injury, infection, and disease. Cannabinoids are shown to provide nerve pain relief.

Cannabinoids have been shown to be effective in managing diabetes and reducing pain and inflammation and are fierce antimicrobials. Whole plant hemp oil products provide both of these beneficial cannabinoids and work to balance the nervous system.

Other sources like fibromyalgia, can’t be tied down to a specific cause. Dr Ethan Russo studied and suggested that a “clinical endocannabinoid deficiency” could be the cause behind certain conditions causing nerve pain.

Dr Russo found that cannabinoids can block certain spinal, peripheral, and gastrointestinal functions that cause these conditions. To resolve a deficiency, one just has to take a quality hemp oil product rich with cannabinoids.

If you were asking how does hemp work for back pain, we hope this article answered your question. We’re regularly updating our blog with the latest research and science on all things hemp, cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system.