“Dear Doctor M,
I have just started vaping with CBD because I suffer chronic pain with osteoporosis and also chronic pain around my stoma and hospital doctors don’t know what is causing it. Will CBD oil help me?”
Hi and thank you for your question. I think you have two issues going on here, which we need to address separately.
The first issue is the pain caused by your stoma, and musculoskeletal pain which you put down to osteoporosis. The second issue is that you are in a cycle of chronic pain with both your ailments.
Stomas are not usually painful and this requires full investigation by your own doctor to determine the cause. There are many reasons that a stoma can be painful or become painful and these need to be identified and treated via medical or surgical means.
Osteoporosis itself is not a painful condition but in the advanced stages, people suffer from fragility fractures that can be painful.
I would be cautious about attributing your musculoskeletal pain down to osteoporosis itself especially in the absence of proven fractures. There are many other causes for musculoskeletal pains and these can range from serious things that need urgent investigation or even simple things such as Vitamin D deficiency. I would suggest making an appointment with your doctor as they will be able to assess your stoma and your MSK symptoms and whether you need any further investigations.
Chronic Pain and CBD
The issues you have raised appear to be causing you considerable pain. CBD has been in research to show promising results in helping patients manage their chronic pain symptoms.[1]
Your query states that you have started vaping with CBD to help alleviate some of your symptoms. The majority of CBD vape products contain CBD isolate. This is a pure, crystalline substance containing only CBD. As the name suggests, CBD isolate is an isolated compound from the wider hemp plant. All other oils, waxes and plant compounds are removed leaving just cannabidiol. This is beneficial from a commercial standpoint as it allows vape manufacturers to control exactly how much CBD is in each product. However, from a consumer standpoint, you may be missing out on additional, beneficial products in a full spectrum CBD oil. I would suggest you research more about the ‘entourage effect‘ and the benefits of a full plant extract.
Your question states that you are already vaping CBD but are curious about CBD oil. You may find it beneficial adding a full spectrum oil to your daily pain management routine, and using the vape to deal with chronic pain as it occurs. As every person responds differently to CBD, I would have no hesitation in advising you to try this yourself to see if it works for you as an individual, while discussing the other problems with your own doctor to assess your stoma and MSK pain.
Doctor M.
[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3371734/