Arthritis Foundation issues CBD guidelines in the US

The US Arthritis Foundation has issued guidelines for patients considering using CBD

The guidelines have been published in response to industry reports that identify arthritis patients as among the top buyers of CBD products.

The Foundation guideines advise patients to speak to their primary healthcare provider before trying CBD.

They also state that together with a health care professional, patients can:

“Review what has worked or not worked in the past, whether there are other options to try first, how to do a trial run, what to watch out for and when to return for a follow-up visit to evaluate the results.”

Research investigator Kevin Beohnke said:

“It was important to acknowledge the public’s interest and put out some guidelines on the state of the science.

“The guidelines are not saying ‘you should try this’, they’re saying ‘if you want to try, here’s how you should do it”

A survey conducted earlier this year found that 79% of arthritis patients were currently using, had previously used, or were considering using CBD as an alternative therapy.

The majority of the 2,600 patients that took part had been living with either osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis for ten years or more.

Of those who used CBD for arthritis, 63% used daily, primarily to relieve pain.

Using cannabis products for pain management is a popular practice and not just with arthritis patients.

In a separate survey, Project CBD found 62% of 3,506 respondents used a CBD product to combat pain, and the most common cause of this pain was inflammation.

Around 90% had experienced reductions in the frequency and duration of their pain while 60% reported that CBD had made these factors “much better.”

It was also recently revealed that two thirds of Americans would consider using cannabis or its compounds for this reason.