Public opinion surrounding cannabinoids and marijuana have changed incredibly in the past several decades. Most states currently allow the use of marijuana, THC, or cannabinoid compounds for medicinal uses. Not as many states have legalized pot for recreational applications, but even that would have been unthinkable even just ten or fifteen years ago.
A group of compounds derived from the cannabis plant (the marijuana plant, basically) are referred to as cannabinoids. New things are being discovered about cannabinoids all the time in spite of their recent decriminalization in some states. While we now are beginning to know the numerous medical advantages of these chemical substances, it has been well known for a while that tinnitus could be triggered by cannabinoids.
There Are Numerous Types of Cannabinoids
These days, cannabinoids can be used in many forms. It isn’t just weed (or ganja, or refer…..ok, there are lots of nicknames for marijuana so let’s move ahead). Oils, mists, pills and other variations of cannabinoids are currently obtainable.
Each state has different laws regarding which forms of cannabinoids you can buy, and many of those varieties are still technically illegal under federal law if the THC content is more than 0.3%. That’s why many people are rather cautious about cannabinoids.
We still require more research and experience before we will really understand the long lasting and side effects of cannabinoids. One example is the new information about how cannabinoids influence your hearing.
Cannabinoids And Your Hearing, Some New Studies
Whatever you want to call it, cannabinoids have long been connected to helping a wide range of medical ailments. Vertigo, nausea, seizures, and more seem to be improved with cannabinoids, according to available anecdotal information. So could cannabinoids help with tinnitus? That’s just what researchers resolved to figure out.
Turns out, cannabinoids may actually cause tinnitus. According to the research, over 20% of study participants who used cannabinoid products noted hearing a ringing in their ears. And these participants had never had tinnitus symptoms before the study. Furthermore, marijuana users were 20-times more likely to report having tinnitus symptoms after 24 hours.
Further research suggested that marijuana use could worsen ear-ringing symptoms in people who already suffer from tinnitus. In a nutshell, there’s some pretty strong evidence that cannabinoids and tinnitus don’t really mix very well.
How Cannabinoids worsen tinnitus
Your tinnitus can be aggravated by cannabinoids in a couple of concrete ways. To start with, the incidents of tinnitus symptoms can become more frequent, you may experience the ringing or buzzing in your ears more frequently. Also, your struggles with tinnitus can become more extreme when you’re using cannabinoids. The discomfort from the ringing might become more noticeable or harder to ignore.
The study also seems to reveal that cannabinoids can cause the onset of initial tinnitus symptoms. Or, said another way: after you start using cannabinoids you may start to experience tinnitus symptoms even if you had no symptoms before.
The Causes of Tinnitus Are Unclear
We know that there’s a connection between tinnitus and certain triggers but we’re still uncertain what the actual underlying causes are. It’s apparent that cannabinoids can have an impact on the middle ear and symptoms of tinnitus. But what’s causing that impact is far less obvious.
But we are aware that marijuana is one of the few commonly used mood-altering substances that brings about tinnitus (alcohol, as an example, hasn’t been shown to have a strong connection to tinnitus).
Of course, we will keep doing research. Cannabinoids these days come in so many varieties and forms that learning the underlying link between these substances and tinnitus would help individuals make better choices.
The Miracle Cure Beware
There has certainly been no shortage of marketing hype associated with cannabinoids lately. That’s partly because perceptions are changing about cannabinoids (and, it could also reveal that people are attempting to get away from opioid use). But cannabinoids can and at times do produce unwanted results, according to this new research, and this is especially true regarding hearing.
The marketing about cannabinoids has been especially assertive and you can’t completely escape all of the fanatics.
But this new research certainly indicates a solid link between tinnitus and cannabinoids. So if you suffer from tinnitus, or if you’re worried about tinnitus it may be worth steering clear of cannabinoids if you can, regardless of how many ads for CBD oil you may encounter. It’s worth being cautious when the link between tinnitus and cannabinoids has been so firmly established.