Rhiannon uses CBD to help with Ehler Danlos Syndrome & Gastroparesis

28-year-old Rhiannon — a former mental health support health worker — is unable to work due to suffering complications from a genetic condition diagnosed at birth. She was introduced to CBD by a friend after experiencing adverse reactions from opioids prescribed by her doctor. After using a combination of topicals, oils and bath bombs consistently over a period, Rhiannon now states that ‘it probably saved my life’. She thanks Alphagreen for the easy-to-use marketplace that has all products in one place, and the ‘perfect’ customer service she received.

When did you decide to start using CBD and for what reasons?

I first started taking CBD for general health and wellness and because my friend opened a CBD cafe in our town. I was passing by and thought, oh, that’s interesting and went in to have my first experience with CBD. Then, unfortunately, I was diagnosed with a genetic health condition called Ehler Danlos syndrome, which also brings a number of health conditions with it, including the one I struggle with now, which is gastroparesis. The main problem is my stomach doesn’t digest half of my food, which affects my body negatively in many different ways.

I was prescribed opioids for pain relief, but I had to come off these as it was actually making my condition worse. So going from morphine every day to nothing wasn’t exactly easy. This was when my friend recommended CBD, and I learn that you could use CBD under the tongue, in bath bombs and capsules. And honestly, it probably saved my life because I still can’t take opioids but I can take CBD every day.

Can you describe what struggling with both Ehler Danlos Syndrome & gastroparesis feels like?

The genetic condition I have [Ehler Danlos syndrome] caused gastroparesis — unfortunately, you are just born with this. It causes chronic pain, dislocations and your organs are a bit more fragile than the other average person as they produce limited collagen and the collagen it does produce is faulty. Therefore it creates other problems like my gastroparesis which causes my stomach to not work properly — I lose my appetite, I have pain regularly and it clogs me up as I can’t digest food properly. I also have a heart condition because it made my heart slightly faulty as well. What else, erm, I sometimes get really bad migraines as well.

When you live with it every day, it’s hard to list everything!

Have the CBD products you have purchased from Alphagreen helped with your condition?

So I first did the drops — my friend from Southport taught me how to use it. I hadn’t really done much research at this point, but almost straight away I did notice some difference with the pain. My friend then taught me how to make a bath bomb with it, how to put it in coconut oil, hot use it on my joints and how to use it orally. It didn’t fix me straight away, took a few weeks to build up. And I naturally went through the strengths — starting at 5%, then 10% and finally 20%. Once I reached that level it seemed to regulate my system more and I was sleeping better.

Eventually, it was giving more relief than opioids ever would to be honest, but it wasn’t an immediate fix. It didn’t have any nasty side effects that you normally do with pharmaceuticals which was a massive added bonus. Now I take CBD and I am happy, before I was taking morphine and sleeping for three days!

What would you say to other people who are sceptical to take CBD?

Well to start with, many of my friends and my mum are quite active in the cannabis community. So straight away in relation to my conditions they were telling me that there isn’t a morphine system in the human body but there is an endocannabinoid system. As I still continued to experience problems with my health conditions my friends would say try this and try that, but I kept on turning it down because of my job. I worked in mental health at the time and we would get drug tested regularly, so I couldn’t take any risks with any type of cannabis product. But ultimately that’s what pushed me to CBD without scepticism as my friends knew all the science behind it, could educate me and not make it boring.

Also, I have had friends that have had kidney failure because they have been on opioids for too long. Now they have completely gone off pharmaceuticals and purely use CBD and other natural alternatives. They are much better than they were on the pharmaceuticals. Other friends that were told they wouldn’t survive for much longer, survived much longer than the doctor says and we believe that’s because of the benefits of CBD and cannabis. So for all of these reasons, I guess I have been educated which has pushed me to be comfortable with it. We sometimes think that everything we get from doctors is safe, but learning from my own experiences from my conditions has taught me that not everybody knows what’s best for you.

I recommend that people do their own research in life. Someone could take something and it really helps them, another person could take the same thing and have an adverse reaction to it. Ultimately, you don’t know until you try and from my experience, CBD is one of the most tolerable things you can take.

Would you recommend Alphagreen marketplace and its service?

It probably sounds crazy, but at Christmas, I made it my mission to try and buy from small businesses. I was searching for CBD online and your business popped up, and I noticed that you hadn’t been around for that long. I also went to a CBD expo before COVID, so I did get to meet some of the big and small companies and I know some of the people manufacturing some of the products that you know well. So it was great to see all these brands in one place.

I was getting friends presents for Christmas from Alphagreen and honestly, it was perfect. You had brilliant customer service and have constantly kept this high-standard. I have already recommended you [Alphagreen] to my whole pain management group and my best friend is also going to be ordering from you.

My friend who got the bath bomb for was like ‘where is it from, I need more and I told her Alphagreen, and she said ‘right, I am going to order straight away! Her boyfriend also wanted to buy products and asked me about the customer service — I said I have dealt with the customer service twice and there was never a problem. Once where the product didn’t work and Alphagreen instantly got a new one sent, and the second time was when a product was out of stock and you managed to sort that out instantly for me as well. So everybody else said they can’t wait — one person from my pain management group has already purchased the patches off you!