Benefits of CBD – Doctors Give Their Opinions

Cannabidiol: “a crystalline, nonintoxicating cannabinoid C₂₁H₃₀O₂ found in cannabis and hemp that is sometimes used medicinally.”

Welcome to our on the exploration on the benefits of CBD. This article is brought to you by Spring Creek Labs, a U.S. Based CBD Manufacturer and Private Label CBD Product Fulfillment Company.

If you’re curious about the benefits of CBD, you’re in the right place. The internet is littered with millions of claims about the benefits of CBD and other cannabinoids. The problem is, many of these statements are backed up by little or no research.

Some of the companies making them have suffered heavy penalties from regulating bodies as a result of their claims about the benefits of CBD. We believe consumers deserve to get the raw facts on this topic. This is why we’ve collected statements from articles written by ten doctors so you can get the truth about the benefits of CBD and decide for yourself. We’ll start with an important distinction regarding CBD and its uses.

CBD stands for cannabidiol. It’s the second most active ingredient in the cannabis plant. While CBD is used in medical marijuana, it is actually directly from a hemp plant. This is an important difference. Hemp plants and marijuana plants are both in the (larger) cannabis plant family. You might think of them as cousins. Both of them contain CBD, but hemp does not contain the substance classified as an illegal drug.

“In humans, CBD exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential,” states a report from the World Health Organization. “To date, there is no evidence of public health related problems associated with the use of pure CBD.”

So, in spite of CBD being a component of marijuana, it doesn’t get you “stoned” by itself. The “high” effect of cannabis comes from THC, which is in the marijuana plant. Hemp-Derived CBD products are, therefore, THC free and deliver the benefits of CBD without the stoned effect of marijuana. 

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The following information on the benefits of CBD came from our research on an article by Harvard Health Contributor, Peter Grinspoon, MD.

We will focus on what he wrote about the evidence for the benefits of CBD and the safety of CBD. 

Evidence on the Benefits of CBD

According to Grinspoon’s article, the strongest scientific evidence on the benefits of CBD involve its effectiveness in treating childhood epilepsy syndromes. These syndromes, including Dravet syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS). According to the article, these syndromes don’t typically respond to anti-seizure medications.

The article said that CBD reduced the number of seizures, and in some cases stopped them altogether. The article claimed that videos of this result are readily available on the internet and are “quite striking.” It also mentioned Epidiolex, the first ever cannabis-derived medicine approved by the FDA, which contains CBD and was designed for the abovementioned conditions

The article also mentioned that CBD is commonly used to address anxiety and for patients who suffer from insomnia and that studies suggest that CBD “may help with both falling asleep and staying asleep.”

Finally, the article mentioned that CBD may offer an option for treating types of chronic pain. It mentioned a study from the European Journal of Pain where an animal model was used and CBD was applied on the skin to help lower pain and inflammation related to arthritis. Another study demonstrated the mechanism by which CBD inhibits inflammatory and neuropathic pain, but the article also said that more human studies were necessary in this area to substantiate such claims about the benefits of CBD for pain. 

According to a quote from Grinspoon’s article…

“Side effects of CBD include nausea, fatigue and irritability. CBD can increase the level in your blood of the blood thinner coumadin, and it can raise levels of certain other medications in your blood by the exact same mechanism that grapefruit juice does.”

The article also said that CBD being primarily marketed and sold as a supplement, not a medication, was a “significant safety concern.” The reason given is that the FDA does not regulate the safety and purity of dietary supplements. This means you can’t verify whether the CBD product you buy has the dose of active ingredients listed on the label.

The article also said that the product may contain other (unknown) elements and that we don’t know the most effective therapeutic dose of CBD for specific medical conditions. This is one reason it’s important for CBD product vendors to team up with CBD manufacturing partners they can trust. 

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The following information on the benefits of CBD came from our research on an answer to a question on Mayo Clinic Website from Contributor, Brent A. Bauer, MD. This question is stated below…

“What are the benefits of CBD — and is it safe to use?”

According to Dr. Bauer’s response, the prescription of cannabidiol (CBD) oil is “considered an effective anti-seizure medication.” However, like Dr. Grinspoon, he also started that “further research is needed to determine CBD’s other benefits and safety.”

His response reminded us that while CBD is a chemical found in marijuana, it doesn’t contain tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is the the psychoactive ingredient found in marijuana that produces a high. The article also did not mention that CBD can be derived from hemp plants and produce an end product that contains no THC. 

Like Dr. Grinspoon, Dr. Bauer also reminded us that a prescription oil called Epidiolex was (at the time of the article) the only CBD product approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat two types of epilepsy. It also mentioned…

“CBD is being studied as a treatment for a wide range of conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and anxiety, research supporting the drug’s benefits is still limited.”

Finally, Dr. Bauer’s answer reminded us that CBD use carries some risk…

“Though it’s often well-tolerated, CBD can cause side effects, such as dry mouth, diarrhea, reduced appetite, drowsiness and fatigue. CBD can also interact with other medications you’re taking, such as blood thinners.”

Dr. Bauer also mentioned the unreliability of dosage purity in CBD in products, citing a recent study of eighty four CBD products bought online. The study revealed that a quarter of the products contained less CBD than labeled and that THC was found in eighteen of these products. This, again, is why it’s important to work with a Private Label CBD Manufacturer you can trust. 

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The following details on the benefits of CBD came from a series of questions and answers from Kevin Frey, MD. This questions and a summary of their answers are posted below…

A: What do you typically prescribe or recommend CBD for?

Here, Dr. Frey said that his current relationship with The CBDistillery doesn’t allow him to make medical claims about the uses of CBD. He did, however, say that he assumed the conditions helped by CBD “might mirror” those helped by medical cannabis. On this point, it is important to remember that CBD can come from marijuana plants and hemp plants. 

Dr. Frey said that this is a personalized decision that patients should have with their doctor. He then added that CBD might make a “good supplement to any medical regimen.” He also added that he wanted to see larger randomized controlled trials before we was ready to make it a “first line therapy.”

As for CBD safety, Dr. Frey answered yes and mentioned a published statement from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the safety of CBD. The report said that they felt CBD was a safe compound and had no abuse potential. He also mentioned that there have been no overdose cases to date.

Dr. Frey also mentioned mild side effects including dry mouth, drowsiness, lightheartedness, and low blood pressure. These mild side effects can, of course, increase as the dose of CBD increases. 

Here Dr. Frey mentioned several CBD administration methods, including: capsules, tinctures, salve, and vaping. He also said oral administration is best for higher doses.

In addition to the above points, Dr. Frey mentioned that the required doses of CBD were “highly variable for each person” and recommended starting low and gradually increasing the dosage until the “desired outcome” was achieved. 

Dr. Frey also clarified a common misunderstanding in saying that CBD carried no intoxicating effects and is nonaddictive. Most important, he made the following statement about how to find valid CBD products…

“Reputable companies will test their products for purity in third party laboratories and publish these results on their website. If you don’t see this, run.”

This statement is important for people search for a credible CBD Manufacturer. If you’re looking for a credible Private Label CBD Manufacturer, contact Spring Creek Labs for a quote or to just ask a question.  

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The following information on the benefits of CBD came from an interview on project CBD discussing the “entourage effect” and the microbiome with Dr. Ethan Russo. You can learn more about the entourage effect from our article on Specialty Cannabinoids. 

According to Dr. Russo, the explosion of popularity in CBD has been long in coming… 

“For probably 40 years now the real concentration in breeding has been toward THC, the main psychoactive ingredient of cannabis,” said Dr. Russo. “Unfortunately, a lot of that is a by-production of prohibition. The market was driven by people in the recreational sphere that were looking for escape or sometimes medical use.”

See our other article on CBD Regulation in the US for more details on the role of prohibition in the CBD industry. 

Here, Dr. Russo described cannabis as a plant-based medicine and that people have traditionally used plant derived chemicals to treat health problems. He also mentioned a shift to synthetics in the past 75 years.

The most important point is that plant-based medicines don’t produce their effect using only one compound. Rather, the benefits of cannabinoids come from the synergistic effect of many compounds.

In the case of cannabis, we currently know of one-hundred 100 related molecules, which we call cannabinoids. These compounds work together to produce what we call the entourage effect, or the ensemble affect.

The entourage effect operates like a complex, highly diverse, chemical “orchestra” all playing together in biological harmony to create a symphony of effects. This is how cannabinoids to produce the physiological and biological benefit of CBD and other effects of cannabis products.

According to Dr. Russo, CBD “does not bind directly to the regular sites on either CB₁ or CB₂.” On CB₁ it does bind to another site and produces a “negative modulation.” This makes it harder for THC to bind to the CB₁ receptor.

Interestingly, this doesn’t not hinder the benefits of THC. Instead, CBD combines with THC to blunt the “stoned” affects of THC. This prolongs the effects of THC, which is important in medical cannabis use. Of course, the benefits of CBD are different when the compound is derived from hemp, which contains no THC. 

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To summarize, most doctors we researched in this article mentioned the benefits of CBD prescriptions for treating seizure symptoms. There are many informal claims about the benefits of CBD, many of which are still controversial, which were unmentioned by these medical doctors. 

It’s important to remember that medical doctors are trained to be careful when talking about claims that have not been vigorously tested over a period of several years, or even decades. Doctors are also under regulatory pressure to be careful about any claims or endorsements of over the counter products. 

The exploding popularity of CBD products has attracted eager, and sometimes misinformed, marketers who make claims about the benefits of CBD in spite of not having done thorough research. The best way to find out which claims are worthwhile is to talk to people who use CBD Products.

This concludes our article on what doctors have written about the benefits of CBD. 

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