CBD –A Novel New Steroid?

Most folks learn about steroids during their lives. Near most of us have to take them at some point. Doctors prescribe steroids to treat allergies, inflammation, and even mysterious ailments. They work wonderfully initially. However, prolonged steroid use causes a range of nasty side effects. Enter hemp oil. CBD oil products are revolutionizing health care. They may even replace steroids for most cases.

When Steroids Went Mainstream

Back in 1948, after its first recorded use for treating rheumatoid arthritis, doctors quickly began using corticosteroids as the primary immunosuppressive agent to prevent organ rejection after transplant and to treat patients suffering an array of systemic inflammatory issues. Folks loved steroids. They worked. Doctors overprescribed them. Soon a link between steroids and patient morbidity became apparent.

In response to increased morbidity, researchers started finding “steroid sparing” immunosuppressant drugs. These are simply other drugs to use instead of steroids. However, steroids remain widely prescribed. Even our pets get them. Most doctors limit steroid use to short periods, in a bid to mitigate their unpleasant, even dangerous side effects. Despite this, folks still overuse them.

Understanding Steroids

Dr. Philip Hench was the first to suggest that steroids, which are hormones made by the adrenal glands, relieve rheumatoid-arthritis pain. With the creation of cortisone, prednisone, and hydrocortisone, all corticosteroids that mimic our own naturally produced ones, researchers found a new way to lower inflammation throughout the body. However, steroids are sadly harmful. Fatal even.

According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, corticosteroids cause cataracts, glaucoma, high blood pressure, fluid retention, diabetes, mood swings, higher infection risk, weight gain; thin skin, osteoporosis, slow wound healing, and even suppressed function of the adrenal gland. They offer a short-term solution, making them ideal for sudden autoimmune flare-ups, but not for long-term use.

Patients do not only have side effects to worry about, though. Steroids cause their own withdrawal symptoms, which according to the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, occurs when the body relies more on “pharmaceutical” steroids than its own ones. This weakens the body’s own endogenous production through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, or HPA, axis. It causes it to flat line.

Coming Off Steroids

Because of this, users should never stop taking steroids suddenly. The dose should instead taper down gradually. If not, symptoms such as fatigue, weakness, weight loss, decreased appetite, vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, headaches, and gastrointestinal issues can occur. Stopping is difficult. The longer you take steroids, the harder it is to quit them.

One needs to lower the dose slowly. Over time. Too much too quickly and it can feel as debilitating as withdrawing from addictive drugs, like opioids. Migraines are common. Painkillers fail to work. Sleep becomes difficult, with not even tranquilizers able to help. Extreme fatigue. Physical exertion. Muscular pain. Continuous brain fog, an impossibility to remember. Quitting steroids is hard. It is not easy.

Fortunately, both science and anecdotal evidence are proving cannabidiol, or CBD, able to help ease withdrawal. For researchers, the hunch was educated, and it proved right. CBD treats migraines. It treats all the symptoms of withdrawal. Essentially, CBD makes the actual quitting easier both coping with and managing. What is more, it works quickly, returning folks to normalcy, which is a life without steroids.

What are Steroid Sparing Drugs?

Israeli scientists discovered CBD as a promising steroid sparing treatment. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, steroid sparing agents allow you to lower the quantity of steroids you are taking, effectively to wean yourself off them. They also suppress the immune system. Methotrexate, Chlorambucil, Cyclophosphamide, Cyclosporine, Azathioprine are all examples of steroid sparing drugs.

These drugs are not easy to take in themselves. Many are actually chemotherapy drugs. They have their own horrible side effects. Hair loss, diarrhea, bloating, menstrual issues, infections, skin problems, and more. The U.S. National Library of Medicine warns, however, that prolonged use of immune-suppressants comes with a much higher risk of developing cancer when you are older.

Unsurprising then that folks want a safer immunosuppressive steroid sparing agent. Fortunately, one exists. CBD oil products, mostly made from legal hemp oil, are readily available and effective at reducing pro-inflammatory cytokine production while inhibiting function of T-cells. Studies already prove extensively the anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects of CBD. Folks improve everywhere.

Clinical CBD Trials

Steroid sparing drugs are specifically to prevent organ rejection after surgical transplants. This is true for CBD too. A small phase II clinical trial saw two Israeli researchers studying if CBD could prevent GVHD, or graft-versus-host disease in patients resistant to steroids. The condition, usually fatal, happens when donated bone barrow perceives the patient’s body as foreign and actively attacks it.

Of those receiving CBD treatment, nine of ten responded completely. The study concluded that CBD “either enhanced the therapeutic effect of steroids or reduced steroid dosage while maintaining or improving the steroid’s therapeutic effect. Even more surprisingly, patients resistant to steroid treatment also presented significant improvement under the CBD treatment.”

With promising results like these, scientists are recruiting for further clinical trials into using CBD as a steroid sparing agent in treating Crohn’s disease, published as such, and even autoimmune hepatitis. Patients are weaning off current steroid treatments and into a daily dose of just 300 milligrams of synthetic CBD. Naturally, results are inconclusive. Studies are not yet complete. We wait.

Find CBD Oil Online

The active properties of CBD are many. People are using it effectively to treat the same issues for which doctors prescribe dangerous steroids. Hemp oil, available in a variety of CBD oil products, such as CBD capsules, is legal and easily accessible. You can find Hemp oil online and near anywhere. However, not all CBD offers quality. Not all even has CBD. Use lab-tested CBD oil products only when using it medicinally.