Public opinion about marijuana and cannabinoids have changed incredibly over the last few decades. THC, cannabinoids, and even marijuana are legal for medical use in most states. Not as many states have legalized marijuana for recreational purposes, but even that would have been impossible even just ten or fifteen years ago.
Cannabinoids are classified as a group of compounds that comes from the cannabis or marijuana plant. In spite of their recent decriminalization in some states, we’re still discovering new things about cannabinoids. While we now are beginning to acknowledge the countless medical positive aspects of these chemical substances, it has been well known for some time that tinnitus may be activated by cannabinoids.
Many Types of Cannabinoids
There are many forms of cannabinoids that can be consumed now. It isn’t just weed (or ganja, or refer…..ok, there are a lot of nicknames for marijuana so let’s move forward). Pills, oils, vapors and other forms of cannabinoids are currently available.
Each state has it’s own regulations regarding which types of cannabinoids you can get, and under federal law, many forms are still illegal if the amount of THC is over 0.3%. That’s the reason why many people are very careful about cannabinoids.
The issue is that we don’t yet grasp much concerning some of the lasting side effects or risks of cannabinoid usage. A good example is the new insight about how cannabinoids affect your hearing.
New Studies Into Cannabinoids And Hearing
A wide range of ailments and medical conditions are believed to be helped by cannabinoids, whatever you want to call it. Seizures, nausea, vertigo, and more seem to be helped with cannabinoids, according to anecdotally available evidence. So researchers decided to find out if cannabinoids would be helpful with tinnitus, as well.
Turns out, cannabinoids might actually trigger tinnitus. According to the research, more than 20% of study participants who used cannabinoid products documented hearing a ringing in their ears. And that’s in individuals who had never had tinnitus before. Furthermore, marijuana users were 20-times more likely to report experiencing tinnitus symptoms after 24 hours.
And for individuals who already have tinnitus, marijuana use made it worse. This basically means, there’s some pretty convincing evidence that cannabinoids and tinnitus don’t really mix all that well.
How Cannabinoids worsen tinnitus
Your tinnitus can be worsened by cannabinoids in a couple of concrete ways. The first is that your tinnitus can become more frequent. Also, your bouts of tinnitus can get more intense when you’re using cannabinoids. More intense ringing that can be harder to dismiss can be the result.
The study also seems to suggest that cannabinoids can cause the onset of initial tinnitus symptoms. Or, said another way: after you start using cannabinoids you could develop tinnitus symptoms even if you had no symptoms before.
Unclear Causes of Tinnitus
Just because this connection has been discovered doesn’t inevitably mean the underlying causes are all that well understood. That cannabinoids can have an impact on the middle ear and on tinnitus is pretty clear. But what’s causing that impact is much less evident.
But we know that using marijuana, in contrast to other mood altering substances like alcohol, can cause tinnitus.
Research, invariably, will continue. Cannabinoids these days come in so many kinds and forms that discovering the fundamental link between these substances and tinnitus should help people make smarter decisions.
Beware The Miracle Cure
There has definitely been no lack of marketing hype surrounding cannabinoids lately. Partly, that’s the result of changing mindsets surrounding cannabinoids themselves (and, to an extent, is also a reflection of a desire to turn away from opioids). But this new research makes clear that cannabinoids can and do produce some negative effects, specifically if you’re concerned about your hearing.
You won’t be able to steer clear of all of the cannabinoid enthusiasts and evangelists out there, the marketing for cannabinoids has been especially aggressive.
But tinnitus and cannabinoids are clearly connected based on this research. So if you suffer from tinnitus, or if you’re concerned about tinnitus it may be worth keeping away from cannabinoids if you can, no matter how many ads for CBD oil you may encounter. It’s worth being cautious when the link between cannabinoids and tinnitus has been so firmly demonstrated.