CBD oil is becoming a very popular alternative to pharmaceutical drugs.
This change is inspired by public awareness of the side effects of prescription drugs as well as a rediscovery of the healing potential of plant-based medicines such as cannabis.
Whether it’s for relieving anxiety, improving sleep, reducing pain and inflammation, or other benefits, many people prefer CBD as the safer, natural option for supporting their health.
In this article, we’ll explore the advantages of CBD over prescription medications.
The Benefits of CBD Over Pharmaceuticals
Pharmaceuticals have many shortcomings for which CBD can offer a better solution. Here’s a closer look at why people are increasingly opting for CBD oil products over prescription drugs.
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For starters, whereas pharmaceutical medications are synthetic, CBD is a natural substance.
Although synthetic compounds are not necessarily bad or dangerous, most people prefer to use natural substances because there’s a long history of their safe and successful medicinal use.
In the case of CBD, we know it’s been used medicinally as a part of whole-plant cannabis for thousands of years.
Price
Another downside of pharmaceuticals is that they can be quite expensive, costing as much as thousands of dollars a month. This is even more true for people without proper health insurance.
CBD oil products, on the other hand, tend to be significantly cheaper than prescription medications.
Treating the Symptom vs the Cause
One of the biggest weaknesses of pharmaceutical drugs is that most of them treat the symptoms rather than the underlying cause of whatever health issue you’re dealing with.
For example, if you take prescription medication for insomnia, the drugs will simply make you more sleepy and sedated rather than help with what’s causing that sleeplessness.
This means you’ll have to keep taking prescription medication to find relief and in many cases, the disease can still progress.
Pharmaceuticals also tend to work through one specific biological mechanism, which makes them poorly suited for complex, chronic conditions that affect the body in many ways.
In comparison, CBD is a holistic remedy that addresses both the symptoms and the underlying causes of many health conditions. That’s because it interacts with the endocannabinoid system (ECS), which is known to regulate virtually every major function of the body.
There’s even research evidence that ECS deficiency is the underlying cause of many difficult-to-treat disorders such as migraines and fibromyalgia. In that sense, when you take CBD you’re not just improving the specific issue you’re taking it for but supporting your overall health and wellness.
CBD is also known to affect many other parts of the body, such as the ECS and serotonin receptors, which helps explain why it produces so many beneficial effects at once.
Safety and Side Effects
This brings us to arguably the biggest drawback of pharmaceutical medications: their side effects. Most prescription drugs have significant adverse effects that range from tiredness to serious issues such as bleeding.
Besides, some pharmaceuticals, such as opioids, can be addictive and cause significant withdrawal symptoms when stopped. These downsides are highlighted by the growing opioid crisis that’s occurring in the U.S, Australia, and other developed countries.
CBD, on the other hand, has been recognized as a very safe substance. It has only been associated with minor side effects such as drowsiness, dry mouth, and diarrhea at extremely high doses (300 mg or more taken at once).
CBD is also completely non-addictive. In fact, emerging research suggests that CBD can help fight addiction to a wide range of substances, including prescription opioid painkillers.
It’s also incredibly difficult to overdose on CBD, with studies showing daily doses as high as 1500 mg being tolerated well by people. It’s not hard to see why CBD is considered to have a “good safety profile” by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Scientific and Historical Evidence
Some people will be quick to point out that pharmaceutical drugs are backed by clinical research evidence. While it is true that most prescription medications are backed by studies, CBD has also been shown to have a wide range of health benefits in research.
And the number of studies looking at CBD is growing every day.
More importantly, CBD has been used as medicine safely and effectively for millennia in the form of cannabis. We can’t say the same for pharmaceutical drugs, most of which have only been used for less than a century.
The bottom line is that CBD is a safe, holistic, affordable option for a wide array of health disorders.
If you’re interested in using CBD to support your health, it’s best to go with a full-spectrum CBD oil. Such whole-plant preparations provide the full range of hemp cannabinoids, terpenes, and other beneficial compounds.
These compounds work together in synergy, providing greater benefits than CBD on its own.
