CBD for Athletes

Are professional athletes using CBD?

The short answer is yes. CBD has seen an incredible surge in use by professional athletes who want a better way to manage muscle fatigue, inflammation, and recover from injuries like strain. Whether you’re a football, baseball, soccer player or even a competitive cheerleader  or enjoy a daily run, CBD could provide some benefits for you.

Professional cyclist Andrew Talanasky says of CBD,

“I took it for a couple of weeks, and there was a noticeable difference immediately…it wasn’t just that my hip was feeling better. I was less anxious, and I was sleeping better.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) actually removed hemp-derived CBD from their list of banned substances on September 29th, 2018.

Can CBD help athletes recover from the rigors of training?

According to Thorsten Rudroff, director of the Integrative Neurophysiology Laboratory at Colorado State University:

“CBD for exercise-induced inflammation is absolutely the next big area we need to explore.”

One of the reasons scientists are interested in the benefits of CBD is because current medicinal options used to control pain and inflammation have a lot of negative effects. One of the most commonly taken over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs is Ibuprofen. Unfortunately, long term use of ibuprofen can cause kidney damage that can become serious in athletes who take it regularly.

What other sports organizations have recently allowed CBD?

In June of 2018, the BIG3 basketball league changed their rules to allow players to use cannabidiol (CBD) to manage pain and help with the recovery process.

While the BIG3 is the first major league organization to allow CBD, they were beat to the punch by the North American Premier Basketball League who allowed CBD usage in January.

How is CBD different from current anti-inflammatory medication?

A thorough review of available CBD literature was completed in 2011. The study says that, “In general, the often described favorable safety profile of CBD in humans was confirmed and extended by the reviewed research. “

This is in line with current medical literature on the subject, and although there aren’t any long-term studies of CBD use, short-term studies have shown very few, if any, side effects.

CBD side effect study results contrast with current OTC anti-inflammatory drugs. A 2017 study tracking ultramarathoners found that marathon runners who took ibuprofen every 4 hours during their race were 18% more likely to complete the race with acute kidney damage than those who didn’t.

Although we’re still in the early research phase, CBD appears to be a much safer alternative to traditional anti-inflammatory drugs.

Even the U.S. Government believes in CBD

Surprisingly enough, the United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services actually has a patent for cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants.

The patent states that, “Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.”

The patent was last updated in 2003 and cites the anti-inflammatory properties of cannabinoids.

Don’t our bodies need to tear down our muscles to rebuild them?

Although the common adage about muscle strain is that you’ve got to tear it down to build it back up, this may not be the entire truth. A british study on the body’s inflammatory response after muscle injury said, “We will present evidence to suggest that invading leucocytes—that is, neutrophils and macrophages—exacerbate the initial mechanical damage. Although the clinical implications are not clear at this time, it is conceivable that limiting certain aspects of inflammation will present new treatment strategies for sport related muscle trauma.”

The study found an optimal level for a body’s internal recovery processes, but the body is capable of going beyond this optimal level adding to any muscle damage that’s already been done.

We’ll leave you with this.

Retired Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer says of CBD,

““I was open for anything at that point to try. And once I tried it and was consistent on CBD, that’s when I realized, ‘Wow, this stuff works.’”