CBD and Health: Testimonials for the multi-purpose ‘supplement’
Is cannabidiol, better known as CBD, the new miracle alternative medicine, or is it well-branded snake oil? Read the testimonials from the believers and the sceptics.
The rise of CBD is everywhere to be seen — coffee shops are now serving CBD cappuccinos, bars are shaking up their Pina Coladas with CBD and yoga teachers are now endorsing CBD relaxation classes.
Aside from the jovial use of the supplement, CBD has been shown to have profound health benefits for people suffering from severe medical conditions. While it isn’t clinically proven as of yet, many are self-prescribing themselves with this new, exciting alternative.
CBD and Mental Health:
“When I have a mental breakdown, I’ll be hyperventilating, I’ll be sobbing, and I’ll be a shit show of emotions. It’s like a big tornado externally and internally,” says 23-year-old Mariam, a sufferer of severe anxiety and depression, “but when I take CBD, all of a sudden I am in the present, and all that chaos will almost dissolve into a solution.”
Mariam is one of the millions that suffer from a mental illness in society — MHFA England statistics show that a staggering 792 million people are affected by mental illnesses worldwide.
Mental health seems to be worsening, and the current resolutions in place don’t seem to be working for many sufferers. This has led many people to search for other holistic alternatives and is why Mariam and many others are looking at CBD to improve their mental health.
A Psychiatrist would commonly prescribe a patient with SSRI’s (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) in an attempt to balance out chemicals called neurotransmitters in the brain. While this has been beneficial for some people, many patients report that it hasn’t helped them.
A survey with a sample size of 2000 from specialists at Chemist 4u has brought to light worrying statistics. Only 30 per cent said SSRIs were effective, with 17 per cent of people reporting SSRIs were not effective.
“It feels like to me that these SSRI’s are blocking my emotions because they make me feel numb,” insists Mariam, “the best advice I would recommend to anyone who struggles with similar issues is to work with your emotions rather than trying to block them out — when I use CBD, instead of blocking my emotions they work with them.”
Positive testimonials from consumers of CBD — such as Mariam’s — are slowly gaining support from scientific evidence. A significant case study produced by the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado tested CBD on 72 patients who suffered from anxiety. In 57 of the patients, anxiety significantly reduced and remained decreased during the study duration.
People who suffer from insomnia due to mild anxiety are also seeing benefits using CBD.
Sarah Beckley has suffered from insomnia for over 15 years and has been taking over-the-counter sleeping pills for ten years to prevent her from waking up in the night.
“It was frustrating because I didn’t want to become dependent on pills to get me to sleep,” says Sarah, “I would go several nights without using the pills, so I didn’t become addicted, but this would mean I would get through work on about 3–5 hours sleep, which obviously isn’t healthy.”
Since Beckley has included CBD in her supplement routine, she’s had longer, better quality sleep and most of the time she doesn’t wake up in the night — something which would happen consistently on a nightly basis before.
“I felt like it would ease my mind, and when I needed to wake up, I felt alert,” said Sarah.
While many are finding CBD to be the answer to their mental stability, others are in disagreement. Emma Miller, a 23-year-old sufferer of depression, doesn’t agree that people should believe the hype just yet and wants people to wait until there is proven scientific evidence.
“I take citalopram, and it has really helped me stabilise my emotions,” says Miller, “You always should have faith in the medical professionals, and currently there isn’t enough information out there suggesting that CBD can help with mental health.”
The Guardian recently highlighted a study conducted by scientists from the University of New South Wales and the University of Queensland in Australia. The study was a systematic review of 83 prior studies that suggested that medical cannabis could be effective in treating a variety of mental health disorders.
The conclusions were heavily critical of this research and branded them “small and of poor quality”. They also found no evidence that CBD improved mental illness, apart from anxiety, where small improvements were seen. In fact, they also concluded that CBD could have adverse side effects and may actually worsen mental health symptoms.
“I think CBD is fine as it doesn’t have psychoactive effects, but I think it is still dangerous to replace the current drugs and therapy,” says Miller, “I mean, look at me — I’m a living embodiment that shows this stuff [pharmaceutical drugs and traditional therapy] works. Why would you want to take that risk?”
CBD and Sport Recovery
“I was struggling to go into Tesco’s or large crowded areas,” says Kieran Kevan, a former world champion bodybuilder, “after you are crippled and are dependent on painkillers, you realise you’re not this big strong, world champion that you used to be.”
Kieran suffered a bulged disk and an associated annular tear in his lower back after performing a heavy deadlift — a complicated and serious injury that put him out of the gym for six months and took two years of rehabilitation to reach his peak performance levels.
The recovery was arduous, the pain he described as “brutal” and perhaps worst of all, his mental health had deteriorated. Coming from a world champion bodybuilder, receiving adulation and travelling the globe, to then being confined to the four walls of your home without an endpoint insight was “physically and mentally tough”, as Kieran described.
But he explains aside from his hard work and resilience, CBD was one of the major factors for his full recovery.
“CBD enabled me to train how I need to train to maintain the physique I had or wanted to build to get back to competing,” says Kieran, “It has been a very long journey from 2017, but now I am 26, and I am good.”
Bodybuilding training is gruelling and requires relentless consistency. This intense training often leads to severe injuries, which can have a significant impact on wellbeing and quality of life.
“You have to build up wide shoulders and a narrow waist which requires a lot of work,” said Kieran, “it not only takes a lot of time to reach competition level, it is incredibly hard to sustain that physique — most people are on stage with at least a couple of injuries.”
To deal with the severe pain, doctors prescribed him high doses of codeine, diazepam and amitriptyline to treat his pain while he was recovering from his injuries.
While Kieran says the “drugs were effective, to begin with”, he slowly started to become dependent on them and started experiencing adverse side effects to the medication.
“After long, sustained use it just wears off and doesn’t touch the sides,” said Kieran, as he explained the long-term use of opioids, “Diazepam was a massive killer for libido, and so was codeine, and I found that they heighten your sense of pain because when you become used to taking these painkillers, it masks the pain so when it wears off, the pain becomes much worse.”
The drugs were affecting Kieran’s mental state too. He would often take the opioids when he was feeling extremely stressed, and it became his only resort to hide his emotions. He needed a way out; he needed an alternative.
“I eventually knew I needed to get off them,” insisted Kieran, “One of my sponsors had a new CBD product, and I gave it a try. I started to research, and I saw it could have a positive effect on my physical and mental health. I decided to give it a shot and it really really did help. It definitely helped with my anxiety, and it dramatically reduced the amount of medication I am taking.”
Despite the endorsement from many athletes across the world — including UFC Welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and ex-world champion strongman Eddie Hall — there still remain sceptics.
Fitness influencer, Sophie Margeson, believes caution should be taken. She said: “While CBD could be useful for recovery and sport, athletes could fail a drug test due to the small amount of THC in the product, and research is yet to definitively conclude it is beneficial — it could come out in a few years if it has long-term adverse side effects — no one can tell yet.”
Kieran believes the scepticism is unduly and has been angered in the past at people’s unwillingness to accept the supplement.
“I was speaking to one girl before at one of my talks about it. She said to me ‘why would you go around promoting drugs’, and I thought, that’s such an uneducated thing to say. You drink wine, and that’s a drug that is ten times worse than taking cannabis. It really irritated me.”
You can follow Kieran on Instagram at @kierankevan.
CBD and Multiple Sclerosis
“My legs physically shake, and it’s uncontrollable, it mostly happens at night,” says Charlotte Hart, a sufferer of multiple sclerosis (MS), “I remember when I first had the symptom I stepped on the carpet, and my legs just went crazy — I couldn’t stop it.”
Hart is describing the severe spasticity she endures on a daily basis — a common symptom of the disease which is diagnosed by a feeling of stiffness and frequent, involuntary muscle spasms.
This debilitating side effect makes simple, daily tasks become challenging to complete on your own. Losing a feeling of independence is tough for anyone to comprehend, and can often lead to mental health problems, something which Hart says she has struggled with.
“I’ve definitely struggled with my mental health — especially when the disease progressed, and I had to start using a walking stick,” says Hart, “the first time I used my stick in front of my family was my sister’s wedding party. I got drunk and cried a lot. My sisters were all in high heels, looking sexy and dancing. I wished I was able to do the same — I miss my old life terribly.”
With her mobility quickly deteriorating, and her sleep and wellbeing worsening, Hart, like many sufferers of MS was in search of a new alternative. That’s when she found CBD.
While life will never seem the same, she explains how her newfound use of CBD has significantly reduced her spasticity at night time and helps her sleep better. She said: “It helps my body relax and I don’t wake up as much during the night. While it isn’t a miracle cure, it definitely helps, and I haven’t had any side effects either.”
Many sufferers of MS have been using cannabis for health benefits for years.
The director of The Medical Cannabis Clinics, Mike Barnes, used to be a consultant neurologist in an MS clinic and was astonished at the number of people taking cannabis-based products.
“20 years ago, some of the people would turn up to the clinic and say they were using cannabis,” says Barnes, “so I just informally asked all my patients and around 50% were using it, which is an extraordinary statistic because of course, 20 years ago, all cannabis products were illegal, and they were criminalising themselves to obtain it.”
While Hart and others rave about the benefits of CBD, they can’t say the same about the retail experience online. She’s had troubles in choosing the right product due to the confusing and misleading marketing which is currently inherent within the industry.
“It’s so difficult to know what product to get, and you don’t know if what they’re offering is legitimate,” says Hart, “I was getting it myself, but now I get it through a friend because of the hassle it brings. I also don’t want to put something into my body that could compromise my health.”
The statistics prove Hart’s concerns to be true. A report from the school of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania discovered that out of 84 CBD products bought online, 70 per cent of the products were mislabeled, with some containing THC.
NHS doctor, Penelope Howard-Tripp, believes people should stay away from CBD products until doctors are trained enough to give medical advice. She said: “Patients should be cautious taking medications which are not prescribed as there may be interactions with medications they already take, causing more side effects for the patient. Additionally, because these [CBD] products aren’t pharmaceutical grade — there is always a risk.”
In defiance of concerns, thousands are still deciding to use CBD. Patients with MS and other conditions are desperate to find an alternative solution, and while it works, they will continue to use cannabis-based products for relief.
“I think when you have a condition like MS, you listen to what the community recommends. You trust these people, and if you do see results, why not carry on?”
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