Hello, and welcome to this episode of The Ankylosing Spondylitis Podcast. Wow, am I excited to be here today! It is really amazing as I looked at the stats the other day.  I want to welcome people coming in from all over the world. We've had listeners pop up from Portugal from Costa Rica, from Guatemala, from Ecuador! Add that into, you know, Morocco, Algeria, England, Canada, the United States, South Korea, India, Pakistan, Switzerland and Turkey. You know, they're just coming in from everywhere. I'm so excited to see this. So excited to connect with everybody that's got ankylosing spondylitis, and bring everybody together to at least enjoy the show and know that they're not alone. 

On this week's episode, we're going to be talking about CBD, whether it be CBD oil, gummies, cream, or vaping, I'm going to bring the little bit of knowledge that I have, and hopefully, get some more experts in here later on during the year that can talk far more in-depth about CBD and how to use it to the best of everybody's advantage. 

Remember, I am not a doctor. These are entirely my opinions and not to be taken as medical advice. So please, if you have any questions about the use of CBD oil for yourself, consult your family physician, your rheumatologist, whoever you see, to talk about what you should and shouldn't be doing with it. 

So what is CBD(cannabidiol)? Well, CBD is a compound derived from hemp. Yes, it can be derived from marijuana but we're going to be talking about the type derived from hemp. It can help soothe joint pain. And you know, it's been talked about for anxiety and a whole number of other things as well but we're gonna be looking at mostly joint pain for the use of CBD oil and in this particular episode, so it's always referred to as CBD for short. It stands for cannabidiol, also known as CBD, and many people will rave about it for its health benefits and potential medical benefits. There have been some studies done on it and shown that it may help with anxiety. There are some other childhood diseases and seizures that they're looking at, like with children, post traumatic stress disorder. So those are whole different topics. But again, there are a number of areas being looked at to use CBD oil. So you might be wondering how does it help people with Ankylosing Spondylitis, or in this case, even just arthritis and they're still trying to link all the different pieces together as to what it can do. But there's a lot of anecdotal reports from patients and some basic research that showing that it may help in a lot of areas that people talk about it. Now not everybody's going to react to it. You may have tried it and not had any reaction to it. I've been on it for probably 30 days now. You know, honestly, I can't tell you that it's made a difference or not made a difference. Maybe I'm calmer now so maybe it's helped with some anxiety. Pain wise, I haven't noticed a whole lot but I think it's really been more anxiety for me. 

CBD is a chemical that's derived from hemp. Both hemp and marijuana are both types of the cannabis plants. But obviously as you know they're very different from each other with marijuana containing THC tetrahydrocannabinol and hemp well it does have some THC it's generally .3% or less so it's not enough to get your high off of or anything of that nature. But you know, obviously hemp and marijuana are very different from each other in the amount of obviously THC as well as the CBD percentages. But again, that's all changing because as these different folks grow the marijuana plants and get better at the cultivating of them. They're able to raise that CBD levels much, much higher in the plants than what it was, you know from nature did. 

By altering cannabinoids, you can inhibit or excite the release of neurotransmitters, which are brain chemicals. They play a role in modulating the body's natural inflammatory response, which are two things we're really looking at and want to have done with arthritis or in this case, ankylosing spondylitis. At this point, they're thinking that CBD works on pain in two parts of the body, at the site of soreness, so it could be a hip joint, finger joint, neck, shoulder, or anything like that and that it also works on your central nervous system, which, as we all know, sends pain signals to our brain. So if it can relax the central nervous system than it might relax any nerve pain that you're feeling. So those are kind of two areas they're looking at and the ability for CBD to calm the central nervous system is one of the reasons that it's being researched quite a bit for all of the Arthritis types, if it can calm down your central nervous system, it can help to eliminate that nerve pain. The other thing that they're looking at is the anti inflammatory properties that CBD has, you know, inflammation occurs when our bodies are fighting an infection or even in the case of autoimmune diseases, a perceived infection. So in an autoimmune disease such as Ankylosing Spondylitis, or Rheumatoid Arthritis, the immune system is attacking healthy parts of your body, your hip joints, sacroiliac joints, you know, neck wherever. The research is still early in this and they're looking at what they're finding in animals is promising for CBD oil and, and the potential outcomes of what we'll see. So I think there's still a lot of to be determined with CBD oil. 

There are a lot of different brands on the market and at this point, I'm not going to tell you which one is the best one to take. I think there's the one that helps you. So how do you find the right CBD product for you? Well, you know, you can go to a pharmacy grocery store, there's places to order online. I've even seen a video store that sells CBD oil. So it's not for lack of opportunity to purchase it. It's what's going to be best for you. 

So there's really four ways that you can use CBD oil. And the four common ways: 

1.    Edibles, you know you eat a cookie or gummies or drink a soda any type that's been infused with CBD oil. 

2.    You can Vaporize it. You can inhale it through a vape pen. heats up the CBD oil, 

3.    There's Sublingual Drops, you know, you take the drops and you put them under your tongue, give it a few minutes, and it absorbs directly into your bloodstream really fast doing it that way. 

4.    And then there's Topicals. The topicals can be just a cream that's infused with CBD oil that you rub on your hands, your knees, your hips, wherever. 

So with that, having four different ways. There are different rates at which the body will take the product in, and how long you might expect to see it before it starts to kick in to help you relax or potentially relieve some pain. On average, these are real just averages: 

Edibles 30 minutes to two hours. If you vaporize it, a couple minutes. If you do this sublingual drops, you know under your tongue 15 to 30 minutes and topicals on average about 10 minutes. So now that you know how to take it, and how long you might expect Wait before some type of results happen. 

How do you find the right CBD oil like I said, it's everywhere being sold by everybody. First it's not cheap. Don't buy the cheapest CBD oil because it might not be exactly what you're looking for. By the same means you don't have to buy the most expensive either look for CBD oil that's made in the United States. Look for CBD oil that has a carbon dioxide based extraction method and if you can look forward to see organically grown hemp. That way it doesn't contain any chemicals or resin residual items from you know bug sprays and things like that if it wasn't cleaned properly. And lastly, when you look on the back, look first few ingredients as possible. There's also a Consumer Reports article that has a whole guide do shopping for CBD oil, then pick the right dose. You know, this is where it's really kind of different. jury's still out on what to do. 

So you might want to start with a low dose, you know, such as 5 to 10 milligrams, and gradually work your way up over the number of weeks to higher dose, if needed, people can find relief in the 20 to 35 milligrams of CBD daily. But that doesn't mean you will, you might do less, you might do more. Things like body weight, all that can potentially come into play. So again, you really kind of have to play around but start off with 5 to 10 and try to work yourself up to 20 or 30. After a few weeks, you can take the full dose at once or break it up throughout the day, maybe 35 milligrams or 20 milligrams. You want to take five milligrams four times a day. I mean, there's a number of ways you can do it. You don't have to take it all at once. Lastly, how do I discuss this a doctor? Well, your doctor whether it is your family physician, or your Rheumatologist has most likely heard of CBD oil may be taking CBD oil and should have some general guidelines for you to follow. They will most importantly, let you know if it'll interact with any of your current medications. That's the big thing, it possibility that you might bleed a little bit more if you're on it. So if your on a blood thinner, you may want to be careful with it. If you're going to have surgery, you definitely want to stop taking it before the surgery and let your doctor know that you've been taking it and what the last day was that you're taking it. And then also keep in mind, the doctor you're talking to here, she might be relatively new to understanding CBD oil and its potential benefits. So they may have limited knowledge and not able to answer all your questions. It doesn't make them a bad doctor. It just means that they're still not up to date on some of these alternative items. And as such, they may use you as a guinea pig. And what I mean by that is, they may be excited to hear what your experiences with CBD oil and what your thought processes on taking and adding to your medication regime. 

So overall, go ahead, look for the CBD oil that is fewest ingredients. Take it the way you like whether it be gummies vaping edibles or drops under your tongue and start off with low doses and work your way up from there, you'll be able to find the item that works best for you. And hopefully, find some relief and see how it works for you. I wish everybody a great day. And I hope to hear success stories from this and bring you more information very much more in duration actually on in depth on CBD oil in the future. So take care and have a great day.

https://creakyjoints.org/alternative-medicine/how-to-take-cbd-for-arthritis/