Every year more than half a million people are sent to the emergency room for a painful condition known as kidney stones. By some estimates, 1 in 10 people will experience kidney stones at least once in their life, and unfortunately for some, it will be a repeat occurrence.
Although the incidences of patients with kidney stones are on the rise, it’s not a new phenomena. It’s been plaguing us throughout recorded history, with some Egyptian mummies having been posthumously diagnosed with stones that date back 7,000 years. Thankfully, it’s a treatable problem, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are often used to treat it. Unfortunately, overuse of many common NSAID’s can lead to a whole host of new and undesirable side effects, such as bleeding, ulcers, and constipation.
However, new research is showing that cannabinoids (CBD), which is a plant chemical that’s extracted from hemp plant, has powerful anti-inflammatory and pain relieving properties. Here’s why it may be an effective solution for those suffering with kidney stones, and for maintaining good kidney health in general.
What Kidneys Do For Our Bodies
Kidneys play a vital role in our health by removing waste products like food, toxins, and drugs from our system. These miraculous little organs also also responsible for filtering blood before it makes its way back to the heart, it controls blood pressure, and also helps maintain the right fluid balance. Not only that, but kidneys also generate hormones that create red blood cells! They form a major part of the urinary tract system, which also contains the bladder, ureters, and a tiny duct called the urethra, from which urine passes through.
Given all of its functions in the body, it’s easy to see how having an unhealthy kidney can lead to all sorts of physical ailments. Kidney stones are one such condition, and develop when urinary fluid is unable to dilute crystalline substances like calcium, uric acid, or oxalate. They form into concrete masses and accumulate on the inner lining of the kidneys. Kidney stones look like tiny little balls, hence the name.
Natural Solutions For Kidney Stones
Although there are natural solutions out there like apple cider vinegar and an Amazon herb called “Chanka Piedra” that may help dissolve kidney stones, new research shows that CBD can offer therapeutic advantages for the kidneys that these other forms lack.
CBD’s therapeutic healing benefits stem from its ability to stimulate the cannabinoid receptors that are situated all throughout the body. In clinical studies, CBD appears to indirectly trigger CB2 receptors, which helps safeguard our kidneys from inflammation and oxidative stress. Both animal and human research indicate that CBD helps to reduce high blood pressure, which if left unchecked can lead to kidney impairment.
How CBD Helps With Kidney Stones
As mentioned before, kidney stones brings about excruciating pain when trying to pass it through the urine. In some cases, patients have to seek out medical intervention in order to get rid of them. Unfortunately, one kidney stone is usually followed by another, as the body usually doesn’t create just one at a time. There’s a good chance that after a patient passes one stone, there’s a few more lingering around waiting for their turn to be excreted.
Thankfully, CBD can help alleviate some of those painful kidney stone passing episodes. The plant chemical, which is derived from the cannabis plant, has powerful analgesic properties. CBD can help to control pain in similar ways as opiates, which most prescription pain medications today are made from. Furthermore, CBD is a highly effective anti-inflammatory, which has the capacity to reduce the irritated and inflamed lining of the urethra, from which stones are passed through.
CBD has additional qualities that make it appealing in the treatment of kidney stones. In addition to being a pain-reliever and anti-inflammatory, CBD also has muscle-relaxing properties. The muscle spams that can and do occur during the process of passing kidney stones is a contributing factor in the pain that is felt. By relaxing the spams in strained and stressed urinary tubes, less pain may be felt during the passage of the stones.
Although there is no one magic pill or therapy when it comes to treating kidney stones, CBD is a clear winner when it comes to its beneficial analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and muscle-relaxing properties. It’s quiet yet in the mainstream as far as kidney stones are concerned, but we know that CBD’s already help other conditions that result in pain and inflammation.
Look For Quality CBD
CBD itself has definitely hit the mainstream, and it’s important to be aware of the differences in quality. Always choose a CBD that’s made from organic hemp, and only purchase from a company that clearly displays third-party lab tests results on a batch by batch basis. This is the only way to ensure that you’re getting what you pay for.
Newer brands like PureKana and Bliss Herbal and offer affordable options, while more expensive and well-known brands like Charlotte’s Web offer reliability since they’ve been in the industry for longer than most. Whatever brand you choose, skip the “hemp oil” on Amazon, which contain no amounts of CBD whatsoever.
