It’s that time of year where I always seem to get a cold; sometimes multiple colds.  While they aren’t a huge deal, they aren’t fun either.  I’m always looking for ways to reduce the duration and symptoms of a cold.

Can Cannabidiol (CBD) help with the common cold?  CBD will not reduce the duration of the common cold.  But CBD may provide a level of relief from certain symptoms such as sinus pressure, achy muscles, and congestion.  CBD may also help people get to sleep faster and sleep more restfully when they have a cold.

It’s hard to say definitively how each individual is going to be affected by the cold.  I’ve had some colds that seem to come and go pretty quickly and don’t cause me too much trouble.  But other times it can be horrible with more extreme symptoms.  CBD isn’t going to make you feel like you don’t even have a cold, but it can help provide relief.  CBD is likely to be most effective against the symptoms of the cold when taken in combination with other common cold medications.

Is CBD safe to take with other cold medications

Quite a few years ago Saturday Night Live did a sketch about a cold product called “HiberNol”.  It was designed to treat the “man cold”.  The joke was that when someone would get a cold they could drink an entire jug of Hybernol and then basically hibernate all through the winter until spring.  You would end up sleeping during the entire cold season.  It’s obviously a joke but when you’re down with the cold it doesn’t sound half bad. One of my first questions about using CBD with the cold was if I could still take my NyQuil without risk of adverse side effects.

Most over-the-counter cold medicines, including NyQuil, contain some combination of the following four ingredients:

• Acetominiphine: fever reducer/pain reliever
• Phenylephrine: nasal decongestant
• Doxylamine Succinate: antihistamine
• Dextromethorphan: cough suppressant

There are a few other active ingredients some products use, but most of them contain one or more from the above list.  The good news is there are no serious adverse reactions reported between CBD and any of these four ingredients.  In fact, there may be a potential positive benefit to using CBD in combination with acetaminophen.

There are three possible pathways for acetaminophen to be metabolized, or broken down, by your liver prior to leaving your body.  One of those pathways actually produces a molecule that is a highly toxic chemical to your liver.  This chemical is called NAPQI and it’s produced by a set of enzymes known as CYP450 enzymes.  CBD is known to slow down these enzymes in the liver.  So by taking CBD together with acetaminophen, you reduce the likelihood that your liver will produce this toxic chemical.

There doesn’t appear to be any danger in combining CBD with other common cold medications.  Most of the other ingredients on the list are also metabolized by CYP450 enzymes and this means that if you take CBD with these medications they will take a little longer to be eliminated from your body.  They may actually remain active for a little longer than normal so you may not need to take the cold medicine as frequently as without CBD.

How CBD helps with sinus pressure

Sinus pressure is a very common symptom for people suffering from a cold.  Pressure builds and can become painful as the sinus tissues become inflamed.  A commonly known benefit of CBD is its ability to reduce inflammation throughout the body.  This is part of the reason why it’s so effective in battling many conditions that are related to inflammation.  CBD should be able to provide you with some relief from sinus pressure.

How CBD helps with achy muscles

Another well-known benefit of CBD is its ability to reduce pain.  When people get a cold it can lead to pain in your joints and lower back.  For me, this is one of the most difficult parts of having a cold.  Pain in the joints and back may set in as a result of the fever as well as tension throughout your body as your immune system starts attacking the virus causing the illness.

A common treatment for this pain is acetaminophen (Tylenol).  While we’ve been using acetaminophen for decades, medical professionals still aren’t exactly sure how it works in the body.  It is proposed that it blocks the development of chemical messengers called prostaglandins.  These prostaglandins cause inflammation and pain.  It is not believed that acetaminophen works on the endocannabinoid system as CBD does.

Because CBD achieves pain relief through the endocannabinoid system and acetaminophen doesn’t, it’s likely that CBD can provide additional pain relief beyond what acetaminophen can alone.  As mentioned above, these two compounds can be taken together without fear of adverse reactions.

How CBD helps with congestion

As your cold progresses it can make it difficult to breathe.  Similar to the section above regarding nasal pressure, the airways and bronchial tissues in the lungs can become inflamed and make breathing difficult.  As mentioned above, CBD should provide relief from congestions relatively quickly.  It’s also helpful to know that CBD works in a unique way from most over-the-counter medications.  So it can often provide additional relief to other treatments you may be taking advantage of already.  It certainly won’t make them less effective so you have nothing to lose.

CBD won’t make you less contagious

The common cold can last for up to two weeks but most clear up in about a week.  You are most contagious for the first 3 – 4 days after symptoms start.  CBD will not reduce the duration of the common cold.  In addition, CBD will not make you less contagious while you have a cold.

CBD doesn’t shorten the duration of the cold

It’s important to remember that the cold is caused by a virus, not bacteria.  That’s why doctors don’t prescribe antibiotics for the cold.  Antibiotics only fight bacterial infection.  CBD has been shown to have pretty amazing bacteria fighting properties but sadly that won’t help you when talking about the cold.

An ounce of prevention

As the saying goes… an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  CBD may help provide some relief to the symptoms of the common cold, but it’s still not going to be fun.  You’re far better off if you can simply avoid getting the cold in the first place.  With that in mind, here are some ways you can increase your chances of avoiding the cold without simply becoming a hermit:

• Wash your hands regularly throughout the day
• Don’t touch your eyes or pick your nose with your fingers
• Keep your workspace and home clean
• Avoid people who are sick with the cold
• Get plenty of sleep
• Take a multivitamin
• Don’t share cups with others
• Reduce your stress levels

Final thoughts

I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t had a cold since I started this blog.  So I can’t speak from experience regarding this topic.  When the opportunity presents itself I’ll be sure to reread this blog and make any edits that are necessary based on my experience at that time.  I’m not likely to stop taking my normal over-the-counter medications for the cold and rely only on CBD.  But I will definitely use it on top of these normal medications and believe I’ll see some additional relief by doing so.

Until then, if you have the chance to use CBD with your cold, please submit a comment below so others including myself can learn from you.

Update:

Shortly after writing this blog post I started taking a steady dose of CBD tincture for seven days.  This was related to another post about taking a drug test after taking a particular product from CBDEssence.com.  I stared taking the CBD on a Sunday and ironically I woke up Tuesday morning at 2 am with a soar throat.

It was the classic start of a common cold for me.  I almost always start with a soar throat in the middle of the night.  It then moves to my chest and then to my head within a few days before eventually going away.  Since this post was fresh on my mind I decided to keep up with the CBD tincture and avoid any other cold medications and see how I’d feel.

I can honestly say I did a lot better than I thought I would.  The soar throat remained for a few days and I did develop a mild cough that made it hard to sleep on Thursday night.  But normally my cough gets so bad that it lasts multiple nights.  Also, the cold never really seemed to go to my head.  I never experienced that stuffy head feeling where all you want to do is sleep.  I pretty much went about my regular activities each day.

By Saturday I was feeling really good and back to normal.  This cold was by far the easiest one I can remember having in recent years.  The only thing I did was take CBD tincture (10mg/serving, twice a day.)  I didn’t once take an over the counter medication for colds.  And I always take cold medication!  I didn’t even sleep more than usual.  I’m pretty amazed at how this worked out.

I don’t look forward to the next cold, but when it comes, I will again try and fight it with CBD oil and see how it goes.  Please let me know if you get a chance to use CBD with your next cold.

 

Additional questions:

Is CBD good for the immune system: CBD leads to reduced inflammation in the body which may or may not be a good thing depending on the individual.  In people with certain autoimmune disorders, reducing inflammation with CBD may be a very beneficial outcome.   While it is generally considered safe, additional research is needed to determine if CBD can have negative impacts on the immune system.

Can CBD help with infections: CBD has been shown to be a strong agent in fighting difficult to cure bacterial infections such as Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA) which have become fairly common in hospitals.  It is not clear what leads to this strong anti-bacterial property of CBD.