Public opinion surrounding marijuana and cannabinoids have changed incredibly over the last several decades. The majority of states now allow the use of marijuana, THC, or cannabinoid compounds for medicinal uses. Not as many states have legalized marijuana for recreational applications, but even that would have been impossible even just a decade ago.
Cannabinoids are categorized as a group of compounds produced 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 starting to recognize the countless medical advantages of these chemical substances, it has been acknowledged for a while that tinnitus could be brought about by cannabinoids.
Numerous Types of Cannabinoids
There are numerous varieties of cannabinoids that can be used now. It isn’t just weed (or ganja, or pot…..ok, there are a lot of nicknames for marijuana so let’s move forward). Pills, oils, mists and other forms of cannabinoids are currently obtainable.
Every state has different regulations regarding what forms of cannabinoids you can get, and many of those varieties are still officially illegal under federal law if the THC content is over 0.3%. So it’s still normal for people to be very careful about cannabinoids.
The problem is that we don’t yet grasp much concerning some of the potential side effects or complications of cannabinoid use. Some new research into how cannabinoids affect your hearing is a prime example.
New Research Into Cannabinoids And Hearing
Whatever you would like to call it, cannabinoids have long been linked to improving a wide range of medical conditions. Seizures, nausea, vertigo, and more seem to be helped with cannabinoids, according to available anecdotal information. So scientists decided to see if cannabinoids would be helpful with tinnitus, too.
Turns out, cannabinoids might actually trigger tinnitus. Ringing in the ears was recorded by over 29% of participants after using cannabinoids. And these participants had never had tinnitus symptoms before the study. Additionally, marijuana users were 20-times more likely to report having tinnitus symptoms after 24 hours.
Added research indicated that marijuana use could aggravate ear-ringing symptoms in individuals who already have tinnitus. This basically means, there’s some very strong evidence that tinnitus and cannabinoids don’t really mix very well.
How Cannabinoids worsen tinnitus
There are a couple of concrete ways in which cannabinoids can make your tinnitus experience worse. To start with, the incidents of tinnitus symptoms can become more frequent, you might notice the ringing or buzzing in your ears more persistently. Also, your bouts of tinnitus can get more extreme when you’re using cannabinoids. The discomfort from the ringing could become more noticeable or harder to ignore.
Cannabinoids have also been shown to lead to the onset of tinnitus symptoms. Or, explained another way: if you didn’t have tinnitus before, you could develop tinnitus after using cannabinoids.
It’s Still Unclear What Causes Tinnitus
Just because this link has been discovered doesn’t actually mean the underlying causes are all that well grasped. That cannabinoids can have an affect on the middle ear and on tinnitus is fairly clear. But it’s much less evident what’s causing this impact.
But we know that using marijuana, as opposed to other mood altering substances such as alcohol, will cause tinnitus.
Research, invariably, will continue. People will be equipped to make a smart choice regarding which of the many forms of cannabinoid to go with as we obtain greater insight into their connection to tinnitus.
The Miracle Cure Beware
There has definitely been no shortage of marketing hype associated with cannabinoids in recent years. Partly, that’s due to changing perceptions surrounding cannabinoids themselves (and, to an extent, is also an indication of a desire to move away from opioids). But cannabinoids can and sometimes do produce unwanted effects, based upon this new research, and this is particularly true concerning hearing.
You won’t be able to avoid all of the cannabinoid fans and evangelists in the world, the marketing of cannabinoids has been especially assertive.
But tinnitus and cannabinoids are clearly linked based on this research. So regardless of how many adds you see for CBD oils, if you’re worried about tinnitus, you should probably avoid them. It’s worth being careful when the connection between cannabinoids and tinnitus has been so solidly demonstrated.