Using CBD for everything from anxiety reduction to pain relief has become popular in recent years. What about shingles and the pain that goes along with them? What exactly is shingles, how is it treated, and can CBD oil be used to treat it effectively?
Keep on reading this article to figure it out.
What Are The Causes Of Shingles?
Many of us had chickenpox as children. Virus varicella-zoster is responsible for chickenpox, which is highly contagious and spreads quickly, especially among people who haven’t been previously infected or vaccinated against the virus.
Chickenpox causes your body to develop an immunity to the virus, which prevents you from getting it again. Though, the varicella-zoster virus remains in your system after exposure. It is essentially dormant within your nervous system, hiding inactively in nerve cells. It is possible for this virus to be activated in the future, resulting in shingles.
Swelling and pain are the most common symptoms of shingles. It’s common for people to notice a burning sensation in one part of their body first. There are times when shingles-related pain can be mistaken for other conditions, such as kidney infection or lung disease, depending on where the shingles affect your body. In most cases, the tingling and burning pain lasts a few days.
CBD For Shingles
As we have mentioned above shingles can cause severe nerve pain, and most of the existing medications may not help in managing the pain effectively. Fortunately, many studies have shown that the use of CBD for pain is very effective.
Our endocannabinoid system plays a major role in the way we perceive pain. This is a signaling system that affects our pain sensitivity and inflammation-induced pain in particular. CB1 and CB2 receptors of the endocannabinoid system are activated by CBD oil’s cannabinoids, reducing our perception of pain.
The inflammatory properties of CBD are well-known. Many studies have found that CBD decreases inflammatory chemicals such as TNF in your body. The antiviral and anti-inflammatory properties of CBD have been demonstrated in many studies. CBD can promote and maintain homeostasis in the body to prevent the outbreak of shingles. Anti-inflammatory properties of CBD include promoting homeostatic balance, calming overactive nervous systems, and reducing stress, which can lead to an outbreak.
These are some of the ways in which CBD can help prevent shingles outbreaks.