While the scientific research behind CBD for pain relief is still lacking, what we do know is very promising. Believe it or not, marijuana has been used to treat pain as far back as 2900 B.C. More recently, scientists have started to discover that specific compounds found in marijuana, including CBD, are to thank for its pain-relieving effects.
Many studies suggest that how CBD works to relieve pain all comes down to the brain. Essentially it boils down to neurotransmitters in the brain. One theory is that it desensitizes a certain receptor that is known to be involved in pain – the TRPV1. This is the receptor that creates a kind of burning sensation of pain that you could feel from something like nerve damage. This is one particular type of pain that CBD could affect, and one which researchers are trying to learn more about.
There is plenty of anecdotal proof when it comes to CBD and pain relief. Thus researchers have often focused on figuring out if that’s because of the placebo effect, says Rebecca M. Craft, professor of psychology and the director of the Experimental Psychology Doctoral Program at Washington State University