How CBD Helps With Diabetic Neuropathy

How CBD Helps With Diabetic Neuropathy

how cbd helps diabetic neuropathy

According to the Centers for Disease Control, over 100 million adults in the United States live with either diabetes or prediabetes. That’s in just one country alone.

Diabetes is a grave condition that affects the quality of life of millions more around the world.

One of the most common conditions that it comes with is diabetic neuropathy. This very painful type of nerve damage affects people with diabetes because high levels of glucose in the body can damage your nerves. Diabetic neuropathy commonly affects the nerves located in your legs and feet.

Because of this, pain and numbness can affect both the legs and feet while resulting in issues with the urinary tract, digestive system, heart, and even the blood vessels. Some diabetics only have mild symptoms although others have more serious cases of diabetic neuropathy.

Treating diabetic neuropathy is a matter much more serious than just pain relief. Without treatment, diabetic neuropathy can lead to a host of serious complications. One of these is charcot joint, where the bone, usually in the foot, deteriorates because of damaged nerves.

Nerve damage can cause you to lose feeling in your limbs. Typically, patients with advanced stage diabetic neuropathy may notice cuts and sores on the feet; over time, they become more infected and ulcerated. The nature of diabetes also reduces blood flow to the feet, causing a much higher risk of infections that can spread to the bone. Gangrene, or death of tissues, results, and this condition is untreatable in almost all cases. Once gangrene occurs, this calls for the need to amputate a toe, the foot, or the entire lower leg.

Complications in the form of digestive problems can also occur. Nerve damage in the digestive system can cause constipation, diarrhea, or even both. Digestive problems can also cause nausea, vomiting, bloating, and loss of appetite.

But patients now have hope for diabetic neuropathy in the form of CBD.

A new study confirms that CBD is effective in treating this debilitating condition. The study, which was published in the medical journal Brain Research, studied adult male mice with diabetes who were treated either sub chronically or acutely with CBD. The researchers studied their mechanical threshold using the Von Frey electronic method .

“Most diabetic patients describe moderate to severe pain symptoms whose pharmacological treatment is palliative and poorly effective,” reads the abstract. “Cannabidiol (CBD) has shown promising results in painful conditions.” Because of this, the researchers “aimed to investigate the potential antinociceptive effect of CBD over the mechanical allodynia in streptozotocin-induced diabetic (DBT) rats, as well as its involved mechanisms.”

“However,” reads the study, “this effect was completely prevented by the pre-treatment with the selective 5-HT1A receptor antagonist WAY 100135. Sub-chronic treatment with CBD (0.3 or 3mg/Kg) induced a sustained attenuation of the mechanical allodynia in DBT rats.”

They found that the animal subjects “presented significantly lower spinal cord levels of serotonin, which was prevented by the daily treatment with CBD (0.3 mg/Kg).”

The findings “suggest that CBD may be effective in the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy and this effect seems to be potentially mediated by the serotonergic system activation through 5-HT1A receptors.”

Though this is the latest of many studies on CBD and its effects on diabetes, it’s significant because it brings relief to millions of people suffering from this condition. Another study revealed that CBD is effective for both addressing pain while helping prevent additional neuropathy from occurring.

Another study, this time published in the journal Neuropathics, states: “Clinical studies largely affirm that neuropathic pain patients derive benefits from cannabinoid treatment.”

Meanwhile, another one states that “Sativex successfully treats neuropathic pain characterized by allodynia.”

The Journal of Experimental Medicine concludes that “Cannabinoids suppress inflammatory and neuropathic pain by targeting a3 glycine receptors.”

CBD Is Excellent For Diabetes

There are many other ways that CBD can help with diabetes, primarily in assisting with regulating insulin levels.

A 2005 paper from the American Alliance for Medical Cannabis discusses the many benefits of CBD for diabetes. They state that it helps with fighting inflammation, keeping the blood vessels open and improving circulation, preventing inflammation in the nerves, stabilizing blood sugar, addressing muscle cramps, and many more.

How has cannabis or CBD helped you treat diabetes?