Patients with gastritis have a new alternative to conventional treatments: cannabidiol (CBD). Find out how this compound can relieve inflammation and other gastritis symptoms.
Gastritis happens when your stomach lining becomes swollen or inflamed. You can have an acute case of the condition that goes away after a short time. However, in cases of chronic gastritis, the swelling happens over time or reoccurs.
The primary symptom of gastritis, inflammation, causes the condition’s secondary symptoms. People with gastritis can feel pain and have an upset stomach. Gastritis symptoms also include indigestion, appetite loss, heartburn, vomiting, dark stools and hiccups. The stress of having chronic gastritis increases the patient’s chance of developing mental health symptoms.
Chronic gastritis can lead to severe complications when left untreated. It can raise your risk of stomach cancer or make you feel full early. A form of gastritis called erosive gastritis also wears your stomach lining away. This damage creates painful ulcers and erosions. A doctor can resolve these issues and help you manage your condition.
Everyone has an endocannabinoid system (ECS) that uses and creates cannabinoids. Cannabinoids, the substances found in marijuana and the body, regulate your everyday functions. Your ECS includes endocannabinoids, the cannabinoids made by your body, and the CB1 and CB2 receptors. The CB1 and CB2 receptors bind to cannabinoids and send signals to the connected tissue and nerves. Many of the functions regulated by the ECS have a connection to your stomach and gastritis.
The vagus nerve that connects your gut and brain has cannabinoid receptors that manage their communication. Your vagus nerve’s cannabinoid receptors regulate how the vagus nerve transmits signals between your brain and gut. When you use cannabis medicine, the receptors use the cannabinoids to send benefits to your digestive system.
Your body also produces cannabinoids to regulate its immune response. When the source of your gastritis irritates your stomach, the lining’s immune cells trigger inflammation. The cannabinoid receptors in the lining also release anandamide, an endocannabinoid created by your body. Anandamide maintains your pain signals and immune cells to control your body’s response to tissue damage. By increasing the anandamide in your body, you can regulate pain and inflammation.
CBD has a unique interaction with your ECS compared to other cannabinoids. While most cannabinoids attach to receptors, CBD enhances your ECS’ ability to do its job. It works with various parts of the ECS to boost your body’s functions.
By improving your tissue’s ability to retain anandamide, CBD helps it control pain and inflammation. CBD blocks FAAH, a fatty acid that breaks anandamide down. With FAAH’s effects reduced, your body can keep higher amounts of anandamide and let it do its job for a longer time. As a result, you have less inflammation and reduced feelings of pain.
You may also be able to use CBD to control nausea caused by gastritis. Certain cannabinoids seem to reduce feelings of nausea, although we don’t know the exact way it works. We do understand that THC has a role to play in nausea relief, so medicine that contains the compound will also help.
If you have emotional symptoms like depression or anxiety, increased anandamide levels can improve your mood. Some patients with chronic gastritis develop mood disorders because of the stress associated with having the condition. Anandamide promotes feelings of relaxation and happiness to treat these symptoms.
Taking CBD also provides indirect benefits for gastritis by letting you avoid its causes. If you have gastritis due to chronic nausea or painkillers, CBD can help. Its nausea-relieving properties reduce the frequency of vomiting to keep your stomach lining intact. You may also have the opportunity to use it to relieve pain and lower your painkiller dose.
You can buy CBD products in a variety of forms that have their strengths and weaknesses. Most patients in the United States can buy CBD oil because of its ambiguous legal status. CBD oil can relieve symptoms if it has a sufficient amount of CBD, so make sure your medicine has a high enough concentration. Patients can also get CBD medicine from a dispensary as an adult over 21 or medical marijuana patient.
When you ingest CBD medicine as a pill, edible or oil, more medication will reach your stomach compared to other methods. However, everyone has different symptoms and circumstances. We recommend getting advice from a cannabis-trained doctor for the best results.
At MarijuanaDoctors.com, we aim to give you the Internet’s biggest resource on medical cannabis. Learn more about cannabis in our ailment guides and our condition pages.
Learn more about Gastritis and what makes medical marijuana an effective treatment for Gastritis’s symptoms.
