CBD Oil’s ability to help some better manage anxiety is making things more copesetic for the colons IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) sufferers.
The marketing team recently did some work learning what IBS was all about. In fact, we learned more than we ever wanted to know about its cadre $#!++% symptoms. We also got to see how significant a problem IBS is for American businesses.
IBS symptoms run the gamut from occasionally annoying to chronic and debilitating.
Here are a few “not fun” facts about IBS:
- It is believed that 25 – 40 million Americans are affected by IBS (and half do not know)
- IBS is tied with back pain as the number one reason people miss work
- An IBS sufferer can miss as many as 13 days a year on average due to symptoms)
- It drives presentism (ER or doctor’s office visits)
- It negatively impacts productivity (no one is operating at their best with when IBS flares up)
In fact, IBS might be the biggest problem for Human Resources department’s that they don’t know about. Especially since chronic fatigue is also a symptom of IBS. Nothing screams “productivity problems” like a workforce that is chronically fatigued! Then again, if are one of those people who work extra time into your schedule before a meeting to do reconnaissance on where the restrooms are located, you know about this problem.
But, there is one word above that makes the connection to the cannabinoid system: Anxiety.
The amount of content and studies underway regarding the impact of CBD Oil and being better able to handle stress and anxiety is already well-documented.
Could better management of anxiety symptoms help with IBS?
The connection between stress, and, um, diarrhea and stuff certainly appear to be strong.
Our compatriots at Royal Queen Seeds in the U.K. noted this:
Most common symptoms of an irritable bowel syndrome are nausea, abdominal pain and cramping, gas, bloating, constipation or diarrhea, weight loss, rectal bleeding. There is a suspected link between IBS and depression, anxiety, panic and psychotic disorders.
This is from the site Medical Marijuana, who took a deeper dive:
Under pathophysiological conditions, the endocannabinoid system conveys protection to the GI tract, eg from inflammation and abnormally high gastric and enteric secretion. For such protective activities, the endocannabinoid system may represent a new promising therapeutic target against different GI disorders, including frankly inflammatory bowel diseases (eg, Crohn’s disease), functional bowel diseases (eg, irritable bowel syndrome), and secretion- and motility-related disorders.
Further illustrating the correlation between effective anxiety management and improvement of IBS symptoms, is the incredibly intricate connection between the gut, the microbiome (the millions of bacteria in your gut), and the brain. We’ll go ‘way deep’ on that fascinating subject in a subsequent post.
The Take Away …
CBD Oil is showing significant promise. If you are among the 50% who did not find relief via conventional approaches, or you are just realizing you may have symptoms, get with your healthcare professional and see if CBD’s impact on anxiety — and the downline effect on IBS appears worthy of further exploration.
Do you have IBS? Or, might you be one of the 12 – 20 million who suffer from symptoms and don’t know?
