Why is my pain worse in Cold Weather?
How could CBD help with Pain?
I will testify, as will many people, that my pain is worse in cold weather. It’s not just the type of pain I suffer from, but all sorts of people with all sorts of different pain, all caused by different ailments - most people seem to agree that in the winter months, it’s more severe.
I thought “why is that?” well as it turns out there’s different reasons depending on the cause or type of pain but the question is far from solved, nor is there a general consensus.
It’s thought that we preserve the most important parts of the body when we’re cold, the organs primarily, so it might be the case that the blood flow and nutrients are being taken to the most vital places in the body, leading to inadequate resources in other areas which is perhaps the leading cause of increased pain, but this is a very general outlook.
We’ll take a look at some of the types of pain and why this may well feel more severe in the cold, we’ll start with my own (because nobody else’s pain hurts like you’re own!) and we’ll venture into other types of pain and look at things that will likely help all of us, including, yes you’ve guessed it - Cannabinoids.
Nerve Pain
The nervous system reacts to changes in temperature. If it’s too warm, people who suffer from nerve pain are more likely to be lethargic or tired. In cold weather though, this can certainly heighten the intensity (of this already highly intense!) pain.
CBD could help to balance your nervous system, and help restrict the response you have, lowering the perceived level of pain.
If nerves are compressed, this obviously increases nerve pain, this increase in compression is often caused by muscles becoming stiff, due to the cold weather making us tense our muscles more than we usually would. This can lead to inflammation and further nerve compression, leading to more pain.
CBD has shown in studies to be a great anti-inflammatory and have strong anti-inflammatory properties. CBG has been shown in studies to be a muscle relaxant - 2 potentially very important cannabinoids in pain relief. So CBD for nerve pain? - perhaps not on its own but it’s certainly shows some promise especially in the company of other cannabinoids.
Arthritis and Joint Inflammation
Arthritis literally means “joint inflammation”, when it’s cold .
Although we are unsure why cold weather lleads to increased arthritic pain, studies like this one show that is it certainly the case.
As we mentioned in the previous section CBD has been shown in studies to provide relief from inflammation, there are actually endocannabinoids located without our joints that amongst others things control the amount of fluid/lubrication in joints that could lead to better range of movement and less discomfort.
Muscle pain
People who suffer from muscle pain often complain of this being more severe in cold weather and the winter months.
This could be due to a number of reasons, one is that the body needs more nutrients in winter due to our bodies having to work harder to supply our body with the energy it needs. Insufficient amounts of certain compounds (like iron) or electrolytes can cause muscle cramping. Another is that we use our muscles more in winter due to tensing because of the cold, nutrients and blood flow, leading to more pain.
What can we do to offset this increased pain?
Firstly, and rather obviously, limiting our time in cold weather is important, but admittedly this is difficult to do, and squally exercise and fresh air air important for our health, so as much as we’d like to limit our time in the cold - for some jobs this isn’t possible, and staying inside 100% of the time can lead to other health problems, both physically and mentally.
Secondly, diet - it’s always an overlooked point, but depending on the root cause of pain, getting the right anti-inflammatory ingredients or supplements can really make a difference. Making sure you get a food range of vitamins and minerals fro your food is essential for wellbeing. Food like curcumin can provide excellent a ti inflammatory properties, especially when eaten with black pepper. Having foods rich is iron can help with muscle problems, as can many vitamins and compounds found in our food.
For anything joint related, a full spectrum CBD shows promising signs of being able to help.
Depending on personal circumstances, we often recommend a starting dose of around 15-20mgs of full spectrum CBD oil per day to for most types of joint pain, often some people will need double of triple this amount for the to have a significant effect, but it’s always best staying low and building up if need be. The perfect oil to try for this would be our 10% whole plant oil. This has all the 140+ cannabinoids found in the hemp plant, as well as the full range of terpenes and other compounds that work together to provide the “entourage effect”, which is often thought to lead to a stronger effect, due to the mix of all the compounds available in the plant working together.
For muscle related issues it’s often thought a CBD/CBG mix could be best, as CBG is known to have muscle relaxing qualities, as shown in our article here, and now as CBG gains more popularity, a lot of people swear by this to bring greater relief.
The research on CBD and CBG is still in its infancy, so we can’t make any claims whatsoever as to how beneficial this will be to any given person. We can’t claim it will treat cure or prevent any disease illness or ailment, but the research and studies are incredibly promising.
Winter is often a difficult time for people financially as well as me mentally and physically.
However, as a welcome introduction offer, if you enter your mail into the pop up box, we will send a 15% off welcome voucher so you can see if these products could help you end your pain symptoms.
We’re confident our range of high quality of whole plant CBD oils will make a difference to peoples lives, mainly due to the history of it doing so, backed up by our many verified trustpilot reviews.
As always, our dedicated team of cannabis professionals and experts would be happy to answer any and all questions you may have about cannabis healthcare, you can contact us by using the blue messenger button or by filling out the form in the ‘contact us’ page on the website.
Thanks for your time in reading our article and we hope it has been of some use.
All the best,
The Bio Med CBD Team