CBD Oil for Nausea Treatment [Plus Dosage]: How CBD Treated My Nausea

CBD Oil for Nausea Introduction

Suffering from nausea can be an unpleasant experience. You may have heard about CBD oil as an effective treatment for nausea. It wasn’t until recently that I have used CBD oil for nausea. Cannabis has been speculated for years to be an effective remedy to nausea and recent studies confirm it as a promising alternative to traditional antiemetics. After reading this article, hopefully those nights of sitting by the toilet will be a thing of the past. Let’s see how effective CBD oil is in treating nausea.

A Brief Summary of What CBD Oil is

CBD oil or Cannabidiol is a cannabinoid derived from the hemp plant. Unlike THC, CBD will not get you high and is highly regarded for its medicinal properties and therapeutic effects. The human body contains an endocannabinoid system, which is responsible for maintaining homeostasis (a balance) in the body. This homeostasis oversees a whole spectrum of functions in the body. The system consists of two primary receptors — the CB1 and CB2 receptors, when these receptors experience a deficiency, homeostasis is lost. CBD oil is a solution to this as it stimulates the CB1 and CB2 receptors thus re-establishing homeostasis and rectifying any imbalance.

* I wrote extensively on this topic (what is CBD), here

The science behind CBD’s anti-nausea effects

CBD has been used as an anti-emetic (anti-vomit) medication as early as the 1970s. It was initially used in the 70s and 80s by oncologists on cancer patients due to lack of effective alternatives. Later on, CBD agonists would replace CBD as the treatment of choice. If you’re wondering what CBD agonists are, they’re basically compounds structurally similar to CBD and exhibiting a similar physiological effect as CBD. In fact, some CBD agonists have been marketed as drugs, for example the drug Cesamet and Dronabinol. Clinical trials carried out in 1985 on human patients even proved CBD agonists as effective as other anti-vomitting drugs on the market such as Prochlorperazine!

In other words, these studies answered the question “Is CBD effective for nausea?” with a definitive “yes”. They proved CBD is just as effective as other anti-nausea medications already in use. So how does CBD exert its anti-nausea effects?

In order to understand how CBD reduces nausea, we have to go into the specifics of how the CBD compound affects the brain. There’s a specific region in the forebrain that normally produces a feeling of nausea by releasing a compound called 5-HT (or 5-HydroxyTryptamine). CBD can inhibit the release of 5-HT in the forebrain region hence producing an anti-nausea/anti-emetic effect. The mechanism by which it does this is indirect, in that CBD activates somatodendritic 5-HT receptors in the dorsal raphe nucleus of the brain (which is a region in the brainstem). Activation of these receptors reduces release of 5-HT in the forebrain hence suppressing their nausea-inducing action.

How CBD Oil Treated My Nausea Symptoms

Growing up I was a very anxious person. With anxiety comes a lot of nausea filled days. I remember especially being nauseous at school. In highschool I used to purposely skip lunch as a result of my nausea. Let me tell you, this was no good thing as I am a 5’ 5” male weighing in at approximately 125 lbs. This is entirely attributed to my lack of appetite due to nausea. Fast Forward to the current year (2018) and my nausea continued. I recently had an extreme case of life altering anxiety where I couldn’t function, let alone think about eating from the immense nausea that came with it. I was losing more weight and hardly had an appetite. I was getting used to the idea of not eating but at the same time I was starting to feel malnourished.

I discovered CBD and decided to give it a try after learning about its effects on anxiety. In case you are wondering, yes it indeed did lessen the control the anxiety had over me. But what I also discovered and didn’t know was that it had treated my nausea. Since my first anxiety attacks, I had been famished. After taking CBD, I sat down and had a big bowl of chicken parmigiana and spaghetti and I was relieved to know that I was still hungry afterwards without the slightest bit of nausea. I have since continued to take CBD oil daily and am happy to say that I now have a normal appetite. The thought of food no longer turns my stomach.   

CBD Oil Dosage For Nausea

Here comes the bad news. Dosages on CBD oil are very speculative at this stage, there is no concise answer as to how much to take. Many factors have to be taken into consideration when dosing CBD oil. Such factors include age, height, weight and the symptoms you’re trying to treat. Since dosing is so speculative I can only offer my experience and suggestion as to what works. For my nausea I typically use a 600mg bottle of CBD oil, I take approximately 15 drops sublingually 2 times a day (once in the morning and once at night). My suggestion is to start with the smallest milligram strength and take the suggested amount on the back of the bottle and see if you notice any effects taking place. From there you can progress to higher milligram strengths and more or less drops of CBD oil. The best thing to do is to find a sweet spot that works best for you (the goldilocks zone). Science suggests that taking too much CBD oil may diminish its effects, so taking more than needed may not be beneficial.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the scientific studies carried out so far have definitively confirmed the effectiveness of CBD Oil for treating nausea. Moreover, my personal experience further reaffirms CBD Oil’s efficacy in treating nausea. If you’re suffering from nausea, CBD is certainly an option worth exploring. Just remember that chronic nausea may be a symptom of a more serious underlying issue and to always seek medical advice.

References:

1. Parker, L. (2011). Regulation of nausea and vomiting by cannabinoids. Retrieved August 15, 2018, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3165951/.
2. Pertwee RG. Emerging strategies for exploiting cannabinoid receptor agonists as medicines. Br J Pharmacol. 2009;156:397–411.