Advil seems to be a miracle drug for those affected by pain as are a few other ibuprofen drugs. It is by far the most effective, easily accessible as well as an affordable painkiller that is also a clear favorite. However, many people who take it do not know much about its side effects and a few take it despite the knowledge. So, the question is whether it really is good for you because it helps with the pain and inflammation, or you need to understand it a bit more.

Understanding Advil

While Advil helps with the pain, it also has real side effects like sweating, palpitations, thirst, bloating, constipation, indigestion, hypertension, loss of appetite,  and lightheadedness etc. If you use ibuprofen for a longer duration and that too in higher doses, then you are at a higher risk of developing kidney disease, hearing loss, heart issues as well as gastrointestinal bleeding. These are the thought-provoking aspects of the ibuprofen side effects that need to be kept in mind.

What is pain?

Receptors for pain are present in our body cells. The cells release pain-producing chemicals in the presence of any kind of painful stimuli. These chemicals travel in the body to the spinal cord and from there to the brain part that is responsible for the perception of pain. The brain responds to the signal by telling the body how to react to the pain signal that is received. The pain disappears once the chemicals get reabsorbed into the body as the stimulus passes by.

The pain worsens, prolongs and becomes chronic and persistent due to many factors such as depression, underlying medical conditions, stress, etc. Inflammation aggravates such conditions as they result in the immune cells releasing cytokines that activate the pain receptors in them. While inflammation is good at times as a bodily response to fight and heal an infection, at times, it also turns harmful to the body. That happens when the inflammation causing cytokines act in an errant manner.

CBD and pain link

Many experts suggest that CBD helps a lot with pain due to its aspects below:

• CBD helps control the inflammation by urging the immune cells to stop the cytokines production.
• CBD reduces pain through the influence of pain modulation receptor.
• CBD helps our own endogenous cannabinoids to remain for a prolonged duration in the system, thus restoring homeostasis.

CBD Vs Advil

Here is a comparison of Advil against CBD in order to understand what works best and why.

Composition

The main ingredient of Advil is ibuprofen, though there are a few other ingredients as well that make up for the coating. All these can cause allergic reaction symptoms like rashes, itching, hives, runny nose, shortness of breath, swelling of the face and extremities, and anaphylaxis.

The CBD oils and products are derivatives of organic, natural and cannabis extract of non-genetically modified cannabidiol. That makes it safer. However, a word of caution is to ensure that you only go in for a trusted, CBD brand from a reputed manufacturer. There are many untrustworthy producers of CBD as well and it is better to be safe than be sorry. Like many other plants and plant extracts, cannabis is also known to cause allergic reactions, especially in people prone to it. It is therefore advisable to consult a doctor before trying it out the first time. CBD helps in allergic airway diseases as well as antigens induced obstructive airway disorders because of its powerful anti-inflammatory nature.

Side effects

Advil – The various side effects of Advil and other ibuprofen products have been already mentioned above in the second paragraph.

CBD - Various studies indicate that the side effects of CBD are short-lived and easily tolerated as well as non-toxic. That makes it safe for use on the kidneys and liver and also won’t affect the heart, the blood pressure or the body temperature. It also does not result in loss of appetite or digestive issues as in the case of Advil. CBD also helps alleviate issues caused due to inflammatory bowel disease like pain, intestinal damage, and inflammation. The stand out factor being that CBD is that being a non-psychoactive compound does not induce any psychoactive effects like mental changes, hallucinations, mood changes and drowsiness in the people using it.

Uses

CBD and Advil both are used for relief from pain as well as inflammation. But CBD works better because it is an antioxidant that helps protect the healthy cells while helping with the pain and inflammation. CBD scores over Advil on this aspect.

Dosage

You may consider the below dosages:

Advil - 200 mg to 400 mg once every four to six hours to relieve pain keeping in mind all the side effects.

CBD – It is possible to keep the CBD dosage in control depending on the intensity and nature of pain, taking low doses to start with. A starter dose of 2.5 mg of the CBD in a day can be slowly increased to 20 mg. Daily use of CBD for chronic pain is not uncommon.

Is CBD better than Advil?

Perhaps after reading all the above inputs, the question that comes to mind would be whether CBD is better than Advil and other ibuprofen products for pain relief. There is enough evidence through research that suggests that CBD benefits even chronic, persistent and intractable pain. Added to this aspect is the fact that it is also considered safe for use due to lesser side effects. Also, its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties make it a preferred choice over Advil and other ibuprofen products in the fight against pain as well as inflammation.

Interestingly, you may be surprised to know that ‘Cannabis is safer than aspirin’ as per Dr. Leslie Iversen’s 2000 published book “The Science of Marijuana”. Dr. Leslie Iversen is a Professor at the University of Oxford’s Department of Pharmacology. These are the aspects of CBD that people need to consider before popping an Advil to get rid of pain.

For more information on CBD for pain, click here!