Arthritis group offers first guidelines for patients who use CBD for joint pain

By Erika Edwards

CBD has exploded in popularity over the last year, with
countless numbers of people trying it as a sleep aid or relief for pain and
anxiety. One concern is, there’s been no guidance on how to use CBD, or cannabidiol, safely. 

That’s one reason why on Tuesday, the Arthritis Foundation released
guidelines for people who want to try CBD — the first such guidance on using
the cannabis-derived ingredient from any major patient advocacy group.

The recommendations are an attempt to provide some kind of
clarity for CBD usage, despite a lack of scientific evidence proving that it
works to treat pain.

“It was important to acknowledge the public’s interest,
and put out some guidelines on the state of the science,” said Kevin
Boehnke, a research investigator who works in anesthesiology at the University
of Michigan. Boehnke helped develop and write the guidelines for the Arthritis
Foundation.

The group makes it clear that patients should not abandon
arthritis medications already prescribed by doctors.

“The guidelines are not saying, ‘you should try this.’
They’re saying, ‘if you want to try, here’s how you should do it,'” said
Boehnke.

CBD products became widely available after Congress passed
the Farm
Bill in 2018, which removed hemp from the controlled substance list.
By itself, CBD does not cause a “high.” (Marijuana’s psychoactive effects
instead come from a different compound, THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol.)

Since then, the task of regulating CBD products has fallen
on the Food and Drug Administration, but so far the agency has not done so.

The result has been a public frenzy around CBD products,
which are marketed and sold with a variety of health claims, including relief for pain, insomnia and stress. Those assertions
caught the attention of those suffering from arthritis, a condition for which
there is no cure.