Parkinson’s disease is a progressive nervous system disorder that affects movement. The disease can also come with chronic musculoskeletal pain, or myofascial pain. Unfortunately, doctors can’t cure the disease. However, its symptoms can be treated. As such, they have found that it can help the symptoms associated with Parkinson’s among other major issues. In fact, it has already been shown to help with treating the mental affliction, Alzeheimer’s. A study recently examined the use of the CBD to treat it. There is reason to believe that this could be a possibility.

Background

People have used CBD to treat pain from other sources as well. It has been shown that CBD could help with general pain. That’s not all, however, as there have been instances where CBD has been used to deal with more serious sources of pain. These instances have included pain from fibromyalgia and temporomandibular disorders. For example, a woman suffering from fibromyalgia had dealt with chronic pain and could not find a way to deal with it. After giving CBD a try, she reported there was both an immediate relief of pain and a long term relief as well. Now, on top of those types of situations, it has now been shown to help with the pain caused by Parkinson’s disease.

Study

The researchers examined rats that suffered from orofacial nociception, or nerve damage to the facial area, caused by Parkinson’s disease. Both before and 21 days after infecting the subjects with a neurotoxin, 6-OHDA, the researchers examined the effects of CBD on the neurodamage caused. The researchers used 6-OHDA because it would cause damage similar to the damage caused by Parkinson’s disease.

Results

CBD local treatment reduced the increased pain caused by the toxin. There was a difference in the effects depending on the gender of the subject. Female rats were more sensitive to CBD when connected to allodynia, or pain that makes an area sensitive to touch. This meant that they required smaller doses of CBD in order to treat the symptoms. That said, the administration of CBD did lead to diminished pain for both males and females.

However, there was another difference between the sexes in that males responded more with a greater reduction in the hyperalgesic response. This means that the CBD affected the sensitivity of pain felt by the males more than females.

Discussion

The researchers using rats demonstrated that the effects of neurodamage can be offset by the use of CBD in humans. However, they would need to look into this more in order to be completely sure. The researchers need to examine this. This is because, every year, approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.  

Hopefully, as people come to accept the use of cannabis products, their use for all manner of ailments will be further examined.

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