2021 HME Business Handbook: Pain Management
Ramping Up Your CBD Product Knowledge to Address Patient Needs
It's critical for providers that are offering CBD to understand how it works and how it benefits different types of clients.
- By Thomas Pappas
- Jun 01, 2021
Many HME providers
are adding CBD to
their lineup of product offerings,
and for them to maintain their
reputation for being home
healthcare product experts for
their communities, it is important
for them to have some solid
understanding of CBD.
For those unfamiliar with
CBD, it is a chemical compound
called a cannabinoid, which is
produced by the cannabis plant.
One cannabinoid most everyone
has heard of is tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), the psychoactive
component that causes a high in
recreational marijuana. CBD,
also known as cannabidiol,
is the cannabinoid often used
in managing chronic pain,
insomnia and anxiety.
When it comes to CBD products
derived from hemp, the hemp
plant is part of the cannabis
family, which falls primarily
into two groups, marijuana and
hemp plants. Marijuana comes
from cannabis that contains
a much higher level of THC,
whereas hemp contains only trace
amounts. As you might know,
hemp is a very flexible plant that
can be used to create products
such as textiles, building materials,
industrial products, paper,
foods, and body care products.
CBD: WHAT’S IN A NAME?
There are two main types of CBD derived
from hemp plants:
- Full Spectrum CBD contains 0.3 percent
THC or less. With so little THC, hemp
doesn’t have intoxicating effects.
- Broad Spectrum CBD contains zero THC.
Our bodies produce CBD, but in most
cases, simply not enough of it. So, not
unlike other vitamins and minerals, we
take supplements to make up for our
dietary and bodies’ shortfalls.
The endogenous cannabinoid
molecules made by your body are also
called endocannabinoids. Discovered by
researchers in the 1990s, the endocannabinoid
system (ECS) is a security and
defense system that seeks to maintain
internal harmony and balance (homeostasis)
within the body. The ECS relays
information between different systems
in the body, regulating functions such
as sleep, mood, appetite, memory and
reproduction. The ECS responds to
various stimuli, like injury, chronic inflammation,
and different forms of pain, and
protects cells and cell components, like
the mitochondria and nerve cells, which
are sensitive and prone to damage.
MAPPING CBD BENEFITS TO PATIENT NEEDS
Bearing the ECS’s functions in mind, CBD
products offer a variety of primary treatment
benefits: pain, inflammation, stress,
anxiety, depression, and insomnia.
Bearing those treatment benefits in
mind, it’s easy to start to see various
patient groups that could find CBD
useful. Going to ProjectCBD.org, a
non-profit information gathering site
dedicated to promoting and publicizing
research on CBD, there are many medical
studies that are seeing positive outcomes
in a variety of care arenas.
In the case of pain management,
there is a broad range of patient groups
suffering joint and musculoskeletal pain
that have found benefits from CBD.
This includes sufferers of these types of
conditions: osteoarthritis, polymyalgia
rheumatica, low back pain, chronic pain,
and muscle spasms.
Similarly, CBD has been used to
treat patients with internal and nervous
system pain from conditions such as:
neuropathic pain, migraine, fibromyalgia,
endometriosis, cancer, chronic fatigue/myalgic encephalomyelitis, premenstrual
syndrome (PMS), and inflammatory or
irritable bowel pain.
When it comes to stress, depression
and anxiety, CBD is being used for
patients with these types of conditions:
anxiety, depression, PTSD, and insomnia.
Lastly, CBD has also been used to
treat issues related to neurological and
cerebral conditions such as: Tourettes
syndrome, tremors, seizures, multiple
sclerosis, autism spectral disorders
(ASD), Parkinsons disease, peripheral
neuropathy, and brain trauma/damage.
CBD is being purchased with the goal
of mandating good overall health. The
successful seller is knowledgeable so that
he or she can educate clients and make
most pertinent recommendations.
POINTS TO REMEMBER
- Providers looking to offer CBD
must be experts in how different
patients can use it. This maintains
and underscores their reputation as
a trusted resource.
- CBD is a cannabinoid that is typically
derived from hemp. Fullspectrum
CBD has trace amounts of
THC, the chemical in marijuana that
produces a “high,” while broadspectrum
has none.
- CBD works in concert with the
body’s naturally occurring endocannabinoid
system (ECS) to address a
number of issues.
- CBD benefits patients suffering
from a wide variety of conditions,
such as pain, inflammation, stress,
anxiety, depression, insomnia
and neurological and internal
conditions.
LEARN MORE
To read more news and features about
pain management, visit hme-business.com/pain. To learn about Crosstown
Concepts Corp.’s CBD products, visit
crosstownconcepts.com.
This article originally appeared in the May/Jun 2021 issue of HME Business.
About the Author
An HME industry veteran, Thomas Pappas is the founder and CEO of Crosstown Concepts Corp., which produces an FDA-registered product line of CBD pain formulas. He can be reached at [email protected], and is accredited with ProjectCBD.org.