CBD For Asthma – Does CBD Still Help Those With Asthma In 2024?

With millions of people suffering from asthma around the world, finding an effective treatment with little to no side-effects is on everyone’s mind. As an asthmatic myself, I’ve tried almost every natural home-remedy there is with mixed success. One of my favorite new natural remedies for asthma is pure organic CBD oil.

CBD oil is a plant-based supplement that helps reduce asthma symptoms and its effects are backed up by solid research. I use CBD oil to treat my asthma symptoms every day. CBD is a non-psychoactive component of hemp with powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic properties, according to multiple studies conducted within the last 5 years. This means CBD can help keep your airways clear of inflammation and reduce bronchial spasms – two of the hallmarks of severe asthma symptoms.

I recommend using CBD oil for asthma to my readers for the following reasons:

1. CBD is legal everywhere and available without a prescription.
2. CBD is all natural and organic, unlike pharmaceuticals.
3. CBD reduces airway obstruction and inflammation.
4. CBD reduces bronchial spasms which contribute to asthma symptoms.
5. CBD has no known side-effects
6. CBD can be used safely in conjunction with other medications, including asthma inhalers.
7. CBD is non-psychoactive, meaning no brain-fog or lethargy associated with other treatments.
8. CBD’s effectiveness has been researched and is well-documented.

If you’re still interested, which I’m sure you are, let’s go into what modern research says about CBD and asthma, what asthmatics says about their experience with CBD, and how you can select a good CBD oil for yourself.

CBD’s Effectiveness Is Well-Studied

I recently wrote an entire article dedicated to going over some notable modern studies looking at the effectiveness of using CBD to control asthma symptoms. But if you don’t have time to read it, I’ll give you the gist of it here.

The vast majority of research looking at using CBD for asthma have come to the conclusion that CBD helps asthmatics deal with most common symptoms like airway congestion and irregular breathing. No study I’ve ever seen or heard about indicates that CBD is unsafe for anyone, including asthmatics.

Most articles about using CBD for asthma cite a 2015 study which sought to find out if CBD could be used to improve lung function and inflammation in mice. This study was successful and concluded that CBD could become a useful therapeutic tool for treating inflammatory lung diseases (like asthma) in the future. However, this study is from over 5 years ago and a lot of has been discovered since then.

For example, a 2019 Brazilian study set out to determine if CBD could be used to reverse the effects of “airway remodeling”. Air remodeling refers to the structural changes that happen to the airways as a result of chronic disease, or in other words permanent changes like inflammation that make it more difficult to breathe. This study found that even small doses of CBD reduces irritability of the airways, while large doses of CBD actually improves how well the lungs expand and contract. This is an amazing result and is exactly what we asthmatics are looking to get out of any asthma remedy.

Another study published in 2020 was initiated to see if CBD can help with oral inflammatory diseases, including asthma. This study found that CBD was effective at managing many kinds of inflammatory disorders. Great to hear for asthmatics.

For the details of more studies, check out out this roundup I did earlier this year.

More And More People Are Finding Success Using CBD For Asthma

I feel like I was one of the first people to start talking publicly about how well CBD works for treating asthma, but I’m certainly not the only one. Now it seems like everyone has at least of CBD and many asthmatics have reported really good results with it.

Many Reddit users, for example, have found this to be the case as well. These people are using both CBD oils as well as vaporized CBD. One reddit user suffering from chronic asthma and anxiety reported that taking CBD finally makes them feel like their self again.

A few days later, my brother gave us the last few capsules in a bottle he bought a while back to help his wife sleep. This was my first successful experience with cbd. A few minutes after taking it, I felt my muscles relax. A tightness in my chest that had become so familiar I hardly noticed anymore diminished greatly, and it even eased the pain caused by my asthma.

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Another user suffering from many of the same symptoms found relief almost immediately from taking CBD.

I started it yesterday. My first day i noticed that I didn’t need my inhaler nearly as much. And it helped me relax last night and fall asleep. And I stayed asleep too! Something that I struggle with!

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And here is yet another user reporting positive benefits from using CBD for their asthma.

Within 2 days, I went down to using my rescue inhaler once or twice a day. For the last three weeks, I’ve used it a total of 4 times – once when I went out into the cold winter air, and three times when I went somewhere that was dusty and had dogs (which I’m allergic to). I’ve not dropped my long acting inhaler, the nose spray, or the allergy meds. It’s something I may consider tapering off of after the holidays are done.

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But these people aren’t the only ones – just take a quick look on Facebook and other internet forums and you’ll find lot’s of people finding relief in using CBD for asthma, including myself.

The Asthma / Anxiety Connection

Who wouldn’t be scared when they’re having trouble breathing? In fact, asthma can become a viscous cycle – not being able to breathe makes you nervous, and being nervous makes breathing more difficult. This is exactly what I went through.

And to make things worse, fast acting inhalers, which are stimulants, can sometimes make anxiety worse in the long run.

This is why CBD is so great. It helps to reduce asthma symptoms without any anxiety inducing site-effects, while also working to relieve anxiety itself. Many people take CBD oil just for its calming, anti-anxiety effects.

So if you’re a nervous-nelly with asthma, CBD could be just the treatment you’ve been looking for.

How CBD Controls Asthma Symptoms

CBD helps to control asthma symptoms by affecting the way our immune systems respond, or overrespond, especially the allergic and inflammatory response. Remember, a lot of asthma systems are simply the result of our bodies overresponding to harmless things by constricting our airways and inflaming our breathing tissue. The immune system is trying to keep harmful things out of our body, but unfortunately that includes things like air and oxygen, too.

Bronchodilation

Bronchodilation refers to the opening up of the airways. This is something that happens when, for example, you take a fast acting rescue inhaler. Studies show it also happens with regular use of CBD.

Every asthmatic knows the feeling when your airways start to tighten up and you suddenly struggle to breathe. During an asthma attack, the airways leading to the lungs become inflamed and filled with gunk like mucous and saliva. This makes it difficult to breathe and throws off the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the bloodstream causing our bodies to go into a panic.

Studies dating back as far as the 1970s have noted the effects of hemp products on opening up the airways, but in these cases the hemp was smoked which is not really helpful to an asthmatic with sensitive airways.

CBD oil, however, has all these same benefits of bronchodilation without any of the drawbacks like smoke or psychoactivity.

And since it is normally consumed as a capsule or oil under the tongue, the CBD starts working very quickly so you can get all those benefits fast.

Anti-Inflammation

People with and without asthma are using CBD for its anti-inflammatory properties because it really works. This is why athletes are some of the biggest proponents of CBD since it helps them reduce inflammation caused by wear and tear of the muscles caused doing sports.

Our airways are made of lots of different types of tissue, including smooth muscle tissue. This means CBD works the same way for asthmatics as it does for professional athletes, except instead of our limbs and joints its our breathing muscles and airway tissue that benefits. When our airways are less inflamed and breathing muscles are relaxed, getting enough air into our lungs is a lot easier.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t get all the same benefits as professional athletes as well. If you workout, you’ll definitely find that your energy levels and recovery times improves with regular CBD use.

Muscle Spasticity

Part of why it’s so difficult to breathe during an asthma attack is because the airways, and the breathing muscles that control them, begin to spasm and constrict.

Thankfully, there’s a long line of research showing that CBD and other hemp derived compounds have powerful anti-spasmodic effects. This means CBD helps your airways and related muscles relax and makes it easier to breathe again.

Similarly, Multiple Sclerosis and Epilepsy patients have found great results using CBD therapeutically as well.

Getting Rid of Mucus

Having your airways filled with mucus and other gunk is no fun, but it’s unfortunately a fact of life when you’re an asthmatic. Normally you can just cough it up, but with asthma making your airways constricted and inflamed this becomes extra difficult.

Amazingly, CBD is a very effective expectorant in addition to everything else it helps with. This means it makes getting mucus out of your lungs and airways easier.

CBD works for this by reducing the amount of phlegm in you system in the first place and also by expending the airways making it easier to cough it out. I can personally attest that my coughs are almost always productive ones since I started using CBD.

How To Use CBD Oil For Asthma

So if you’re interested in trying CBD for your asthma, there are a few things you need to do first.

1. Find a reputable CBD brand available in your area.
2. Check any 3rd party lab tests that company has available to make sure the product is clean.
3. Pick out a basic CBD oil or other product that fits your budget and lifestyle.
4. Start with a small dose of 20mg of CBD per day, or twice daily.
5. After 1 week, if you find you tolerate the oil well, take note of your symptoms
6. If your symptoms have improved but not completely, consider doubling your dose to 40mg per day or twice daily.
7. Repeat steps 5-6 until you find the right dosage for you. Keep in mind that more severe cases of asthma will likely need a larger dose of CBD.

I take 40mg per day and that works great for me. But I’m a relatively young and healthy person who eats right and exercises, so your experience will might vary.

The worst part about the CBD market today is that it’s basically the wild-west, with lots of brands selling CBD products that don’t contain the advertised amount of CBD or are contaminated in some way. This is why it’s so important to vet any CBD brand you decide to purchase from, especially if it’s online.

Thankfully, there are some very trustworthy CBD brands out there that use all-natural American grown hemp and put every batch of product under strict 3rd party lab testing. The distributor I trust is called Direct Hemp and the products they sell are from the cleanest and most effective CBD brands on the market.

Direct Hemp is available for shipping all over the United States, so I recommend starting with one of their CBD oils. If you’re new to using CBD, or are just unsure about it, you can buy one of their smaller less expensive 1000mg or 500mg bottles.

But if want to being using CBD for the long term, the best bang for your buck is this super-concentrated 6000mg bottle of Charlotte’s Web strain CBD, which contains 150 (40mg) doses of CBD oil. This is the one I recommend using since it’s the most cost-effective way to get the same dose I take each day.

But of course, Direct Hemp is not the only brand out there, just one of the best ones that I can personally vouch for. Whichever brand you choose, the most important thing is to do your research and make sure their products have undergone rigorous 3rd party testing.

Tip: If you do decide to purchase CBD from Direct Hemp, you can use coupon code “treatasthma” for a 10% discount on your entire order. This code doesn’t expire.

Final Thoughts

CBD is a wonderful and natural treatment, but it’s not a cure-all. It’s not going to permanently rid you of being asthmatic, but it can greatly reduce your symptoms and kickstart your body into greater levels of wellness and health. All of this is very positive when it comes to treating severe asthma.

If you’re interested but unsure, start slowly and gradually increase your dose over time if you find it’s at all helpful. I take 40mg per day and that works great for me at my level of fitness and asthma severity, but you might need more.

Any questions about using CBD for asthma? Have you had good results with it? Let me know in the comments below.

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