Public opinion about marijuana and cannabinoids have transformed remarkably over the past few decades. THC, cannabinoids, and even marijuana are legal for medical application in the majority of states. Not as many states have legalized pot for recreational purposes, 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 called cannabinoids. New things are being discovered about cannabinoids every day despite their recent legalization in some states. We usually consider these particular substances as possessing universal healing qualities, but existing research reveals there might also be a negative impact including a strong connection between cannabinoid usage and the development of tinnitus symptoms.
Cannabinoids Have Numerous Types
There are many varieties of cannabinoids that can be consumed now. It isn’t just weed (or ganja, or pot…..ok, there are a lot of nicknames for marijuana so let’s move ahead). Pills, oils, vapors and other forms of cannabinoids are currently obtainable.
The types of cannabinoids available will vary depending on the state, and many of those forms are still officially illegal under federal law if the amount of THC is more than 0.3%. So it’s still normal for people to be very careful about cannabinoids.
We still require more research and experience before we will truly comprehend the long range and side effects of cannabinoids. A good example is the new insight about how cannabinoids affect your hearing.
Cannabinoids And Your Hearing, Some New Studies
Whatever you want to call it, cannabinoids have long been linked to helping a wide range of medical conditions. Vertigo, nausea, seizures, and more seem to be helped with cannabinoids, according to anecdotally available evidence. So scientists resolved to find out if cannabinoids could help with tinnitus, too.
Tinnitus could actually be triggered by cannabinoid use, as it turns out. Based on the research, over 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 having tinnitus symptoms after 24 hours.
Added research indicated that marijuana use could aggravate ear-ringing symptoms in individuals who already deal with tinnitus. This basically means, there’s some very strong evidence that tinnitus and cannabinoids don’t really mix all that well.
How Cannabinoids Make Tinnitus Worse
There are a couple of definite ways that cannabinoids can cause your tinnitus to get worse. The first is that your tinnitus can happen more frequently. Also, your bouts of tinnitus can get more intense when you use cannabinoids. More intense ringing that can be much harder to dismiss can be the result.
The study also appears to indicate that cannabinoids are capable of causing the onset of initial tinnitus symptoms. To put it another way: after you start using cannabinoids you could develop tinnitus symptoms even if you had no symptoms before.
Unknown Causes of Tinnitus
Just because this link has been discovered doesn’t necessarily mean the underlying causes are very well known. It’s clear that cannabinoids can have an effect on the middle ear and symptoms of tinnitus. But what’s causing that impact is much less evident.
But we know that marijuana use, in contrast to other mood altering substances such as alcohol, can cause tinnitus.
Research, unquestionably, will continue. Cannabinoids these days come in so many varieties and forms that learning the fundamental connection between these substances and tinnitus could help individuals make better choices.
The Miracle Cure Beware
Recently there has been lots of hype about cannabinoids by marketers. That’s partly because attitudes are changing about cannabinoids (and, to an extent, is also an indication of a desire to go away from opioid use). But cannabinoids can and sometimes do produce undesirable effects, according to this new research, and this is particularly true concerning hearing.
You won’t be able to avoid all of the cannabinoid fanatics and evangelists in the world, the marketing of cannabinoids has been very aggressive.
But tinnitus and cannabinoids are clearly connected based on this research. So no matter how much advertising you see for CBD oils, if you’re concerned about tinnitus, you should probably avoid them. The link between tinnitus and cannabinoids symptoms has been pretty securely established by the research, so it’s worth exercising a little caution.