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According to the\u00a0Global RA Network, roughly 350 million people around the globe currently suffer from some form of arthritis, making it one of the most common health conditions found around the world.<\/p>\n
Arthritis is the number one chronic disease in North America that results in a disability. Women are more likely to develop arthritis than men, and people of any age can be diagnosed with the condition, although it\u2019s more common for older people to be diagnosed.<\/p>\n
The cannabis plant has been used to treat arthritis for thousands of years to some degree, and a team of researchers in Australia recently conducted a study that found that CBD was beneficial for arthritis patients. Below is more information about it via a news release from\u00a0NORML:<\/p>\n
Sydney, Australia:<\/strong>\u00a0Patients suffering from arthritis report decreased pain and improvements in their health-related quality of life following the use of cannabis products containing significant percentages of CBD, according to observational trial\u00a0data\u00a0published in the\u00a0British Journal of Pain<\/em>.<\/p>\n Australian investigators assessed the safety and efficacy of a variety of plant-derived cannabis products in a cohort of chronic pain patients, approximately one-third of whom suffered from\u00a0arthritis. (Under Australian law, physicians may only authorize medical cannabis products to patients that have been unresponsive to conventional prescription treatments).<\/p>\n Researchers reported that pain patients were most likely to respond to products containing balanced ratios of THC and CBD. However, over half of the patients with arthritis reported \u201cclinically meaningful improvements\u201d following the use of products containing only CBD.<\/p>\n \u201cAlthough the CBD-only products did not reach statistical significance in the overall chronic pain cohort, participants with arthritis did report significant improvements in pain intensity and pain impact scores,\u201d authors reported. \u201cWith arthritis being an inflammatory condition, the anti-inflammatory actions of CBD may be resulting in improved outcomes in these patients.\u201d<\/p>\n Patients who experienced side-effects from their use of cannabis products were most likely to report dry mouth, drowsiness, and fatigue.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this analysis, medicinal cannabis, depending on the ratio of CBD to THC, appeared to be associated with significant improvements in pain intensity, pain interference, social functioning and pain impact scores,\u201d investigators concluded. \u201cBalanced and CBD-only products [were] associated with the highest HRQoL [health-related quality of life] improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n Survey data\u00a0published last year in the\u00a0Journal of Cannabis Research<\/em>\u00a0similarly reported that arthritis patients typically experience symptom improvements and reduce their use of prescription medications following the use of CBD. <\/p>\n The\u00a0results\u00a0of a randomized clinical trial published in June in the\u00a0Journal of Hand Surgery<\/em>\u00a0concluded that the administration of a topical formula containing hemp-derived CBD is associated with significant improvements in patients with\u00a0thumb\u00a0basal joint arthritis.<\/p>\n Full text of the study, \u201cMedical cannabis for Australian patients with chronic refractory pain including arthritis,\u201d appears in the<\/em>\u00a0British Journal of Pain<\/em>.\u00a0Additional information on\u00a0<\/em>cannabinoids and arthritis<\/em>\u00a0is available from\u00a0NORML\u2019s publication,\u00a0<\/em>Clinical Applications for Cannabis & Cannabinoids<\/em>.<\/em> <\/p>\n