Public opinion about marijuana and cannabinoids has transformed remarkably over the past several decades. Many states now allow the use of marijuana, THC, or cannabinoid products for medicinal reasons. The idea that some states (fewer) even allow the recreational use of pot would have been unimaginable a decade ago.
Cannabinoids are any compounds produced by the cannabis plant (essentially, the marijuana plant). Despite their recent legalization (in some states), we’re still discovering new things about cannabinoids. We often view these particular compounds as having widespread healing properties. But research implies a strong connection between the use of cannabinoids and tinnitus symptoms but there are also contradictory studies.
Cannabinoids come in numerous forms
Today, cannabinoids can be utilized in many varieties. It’s not only pot or weed or whatever name you want to put on it. Other forms can include topical spreads, edibles, pills, inhalable vapors, and more.
The forms of cannabinoids available will differ state by state, and many of those forms are still technically federally illegal if the amount of THC is above 0.3%. So it’s important to be cautious with the use of cannabinoids.
The long-term complications and side effects of cannabinoid use are not well understood and that’s the issue. Some new studies into how cannabinoids impact your hearing are prime examples.
Studies connecting hearing to cannabinoids
Whatever you want to call it, cannabinoids have long been associated with helping a large number of medical disorders. According to anecdotal evidence vertigo, nausea, and seizures are just a few of the conditions that cannabinoids can help. So the researchers wondered if cannabinoids could help manage tinnitus, too.
Turns out, cannabinoids may actually cause tinnitus. According to the research, over 20% of study participants who used cannabinoid products reported hearing a ringing in their ears. And that’s in people who had never experienced tinnitus before. Furthermore, marijuana users were 20-times more likely to describe experiencing tinnitus symptoms within 24 hours of consumption.
And for people who already cope with ringing in the ears, using marijuana could actually exacerbate the symptoms. In other words, there’s some fairly persuasive evidence that cannabinoids and tinnitus don’t really work well together.
It should be mentioned that smoking has also been associated with tinnitus and the research wasn’t clear on how participants were consuming cannabinoids.
Unclear causes of tinnitus
Just because this connection has been discovered doesn’t automatically mean the root causes are all that well comprehended. That cannabinoids can have an influence on the middle ear and on tinnitus is pretty clear. But it’s far less clear what’s producing that impact.
Research, undoubtedly, will continue. Individuals will be in a better position to make wiser choices if we can make progress in understanding the connection between the many varieties of cannabinoids and tinnitus.
Beware the miracle cure
There has definitely been no scarcity of marketing hype around cannabinoids recently. To some extent, that’s because of changing attitudes associated with cannabinoids themselves (this also demonstrates a growing desire to get away from the use of opioids). But some negative effects can result from the use of cannabinoids, especially with regards to your hearing and this is reflected in this new research.
Lately, there’s been aggressive marketing about cannabinoids and you’ll never escape all of the cannabinoid devotees.
But this research undeniably indicates a powerful connection between tinnitus and cannabinoids. So if you have tinnitus–or if you’re worried about tinnitus–it might be worth avoiding cannabinoids if you can, no matter how many advertisements for CBD oil you might come across. The link between cannabinoids and tinnitus symptoms is unclear at best, so it’s worth using a little caution.
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References
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/lio2.479
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5855477/
https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aaohnsf/82180