CBD and physical discomfort

Cannabidiol's meeting point with the endocannabinoid system

Start with the network the body already runs. Cannabinoid receptors, compounds the body builds itself to bind them, and the enzymes that assemble and clear those compounds again. One of the two receptors clusters in the central nervous system. The second shows up largely outside it, in peripheral tissue and in immune cells, characterised by Munro and colleagues in 1993, a year after Devane's team identified the first cannabinoid the body makes itself. That immune-cell presence is why this subject sits inside cannabinoid research at all. Cannabidiol is an awkward fit for the simple story. Direct binding at the main cannabinoid receptor is weak in its case, which is why researchers point to other routes instead, and those routes remain an open question rather than a closed account. One of them is an ion channel of the vanilloid family, identified by Costa and colleagues in 2004 in preclinical work on acute inflammation. The map is part drawn, no more. Cibdol has worked with cannabinoids since 2014, long enough to tell a laboratory signal from a settled explanation.

Most of these studies measured models, not people

• Costa and colleagues, writing in the British Journal of Pharmacology in 2004, examined cannabidiol in preclinical models of acute inflammation and reported that an ion channel of the vanilloid family is involved in how the compound acts.
• Reviewers in 2020, in Current Pain and Headache Reports, weighed up what the research on cannabidiol and physical discomfort actually shows. Their conclusion: the human evidence base stays limited and uneven in quality.
• Most of the work in this area is preclinical. Human trials do exist, though they are fewer, smaller and more varied in design, which is why researchers keep describing the current picture as early rather than established.
• One cannabidiol medicine carries authorisation from the European medicines regulator, for one specific use, on the back of its own trial evidence. That authorisation belongs to a medicine. Cibdol sells food supplements, a separate category entirely.
• The receptor found in immune cells and other peripheral tissue was characterised by Munro and colleagues in Nature in 1993. Devane's group had reported the first cannabinoid the body makes itself a year earlier, in Science, in 1992.

Preliminary means exactly that: early-stage, often small or laboratory-based, and not a basis for expecting a particular outcome.

The routines people tend to settle into

• The CBD oil 2.0 range covers six strengths, each in a 10ml dropper bottle, and the percentage on the label describes concentration rather than the size of the bottle.
• Most people fix it to one moment in the day, morning or evening, held under the tongue for a short while before swallowing.
• Every batch goes to an independent laboratory and the certificate of analysis is published, so the contents can be checked against the label.
• Anyone taking prescribed medication should speak to a doctor first. Cibdol has worked with cannabinoids since 2014, with operations in Schijndel.

Research cited on this page

1. Costa (2004), British Journal of Pharmacology. Preclinical work identifying a vanilloid-family ion channel in how cannabidiol acts. doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0705920
2. Boyaji (2020), Current Pain and Headache Reports, a review assessing the state of the evidence. doi:10.1007/s11916-020-0835-4
3. Munro (1993), Nature. Characterisation of the peripheral cannabinoid receptor found in immune cells. doi:10.1038/365061a0
4. Devane (1992), Science. Identification of the first cannabinoid the body makes itself. doi:10.1126/science.1470919
5. European Medicines Agency. Summary of product characteristics for the authorised cannabidiol medicine, cited to distinguish a medicine from a food supplement.

Cited to let you check the primary literature yourself. Inclusion is not evidence of an effect.