You have probably noticed that CBD is being touted as a panacea for many illnesses, including fibromyalgia. While CBD can certainly help with some fibromyalgia symptoms, it is not a cure-all and does not work for every person. There is a big need to go beyond the hype and look at the experience of real patients. So I gathered information from a chart review of 20 of my clinic patients that tried CBD. Here are the results from this small, informal study focusing on symptoms for which they found benefit (or not), side effects reported, and total effective dosage.
I specifically looked at whether they reported any benefit on any of three different symptom categories: pain, sleep, or mood. In this chart, green squares represent those that reported benefit for pain, blue squares if it helped mood, and purple if for sleep improvement. I added any specific comments recorded in their chart notes about their individual experience, as these can be really informative. These patients were using a variety of different hemp-derived CBD brands, mostly sublingual oils. Some tried topical CBD products as well. They were all female with an average age of 52.
Here is what I found:
Average daily CBD dosage was 43 mg per day
No one reported any major side effects (a few reported some mild sleepiness or grogginess from CBD)
17 of the 20 patients (or 85%) reported some benefit from CBD for either mood, pain, or sleep
60% found benefit specifically for pain
50% reported CBD helped mood, especially anxiety reduction
About 1/3 reported sleep improvement
Of course, we need larger, more formal, and standardized studies on CBD for fibromyalgia, but this report is at least a good start! You can learn more about my doctor-formulated CBD products here.
