It’s been a few days since I started using the CBD vape pen (AKA e-cig). I’ve had some interesting experiences do far. Some good, some not so great, but the not so great stuff was my own fault.
Good stuff:
- significantly reduced muscle stiffness
- Significantly reduced pain
- Increased typing speed with fewer errors
- Significantly more energy
- Significant improvement in my endurance
- Greater flexibility
- Less scatter brained/easier to focus
- Elimination of urinary urgency ( I can run again!)
- Reduction of what I call “overload” (That’s when noises seem overly loud, and lights are overly bright. For those of us with ms, it can be overwhelming.
- Reduced fatigue. (I have not needed a nap, or felt too tired. I can function from 6 am until 11pm without an issue)
- Less mixing up of words. (I’ve not told the kids to put anything in weird places in two days)
- Better concentration
- Less irritability. (Probably caused by the reduced overload issues)
Over the last two days I have been able to do a 30-40 minute work out PLUS walk 6000-8000 steps each day.
Today, for my morning work out I played the Wii U Fit running games. I did the Short Run twice, and the Long Run once, plus played the Hula Hoop game for a full 6 minutes. That gave me 35 minutes of constant activity. I didn’t need to sit and rest afterward, and I didn’t need a nap. I was able to go on with my day, and as part of that day, I have taken 8010 steps, and it’s only 6:03 pm here. Four days ago, I was unable to do the Short Run game at all because it caused fatigue, and after 30 minutes on the Wii Fit, I needed a 60 minute recovery period because of ms fatigue. Before I started the CBD taking 5000 steps left me tired and mildly drained by evening.
On top of that, I have only sat down for less than 90 minutes total all day. You might remember that I’m experimenting with standing more and sitting less based on an article by Dr. Mercola. Well, until two days ago, I could stand until 1 or 2 pm before I became fatigued and needed to sit down.
My legs are tired and a little sore, but it seems to be to be a “normal sore.” The kind of sore that people without ms might experience after a sudden increase in physical activity. I’m not fatigued, I’m not irritated or grouchy, and I can still put my head back without having to open my mouth. The muscles in the shoulders are a little tighter than they were when I first posted about CBD, but there is a reason for that, which I’ll get to in a few seconds.
The Bad:
- Increased blood pressure
- Increased pulse
- Heart palpitations
That’s it. Those are the only bad side effects I’ve noticed, and like I said, they were my own fault. I started too quickly and caused a healing crisis, and for me healing crisis means heart palpitations, increased blood pressure and increased pulse. When I started feeling my heart pounding, I freaked out just a bit and took my blood pressure. It was running in the range of 147/90, I take my blood pressure weekly just to monitor it and it’s usually around 135/82 ish. The high blood pressure scared me even more so I quit taking the CBD for the day and monitored everything very closely. It all returned to normal about 12 hours after my last hit of CBD. I had pretty much decided to stop taking it at that point when my husband reminded me that it’s happened several times before. Twice, I went to the ER thinking I was having a heart attack. Both times they admitted me and ran a slew of heart and circulatory tests. Everything came back normal. There was nothing wrong with my heart. The doctors both times called it “Unexplained Palpitations” and sent me home with instructions to “keep an eye on it, if it comes back, see your doctor.” It didn’t come back until I had more ms healing.
The first time was shortly after I stopped eating gluten, MSG and processed food, and added various supplements aimed at improving my health and functioning. About 2 months into the new supplement and eating plan I had a healing crises – part of that healing crisis included heart palpitations.
The second time was shortly after I started taking LDN.
I’m not sure what triggered it the third time, but I had a significant healing event where several of my daily symptoms disappeared or improved. Two weeks after the improvements I my heart started pounding so hard I could hear it.
Each of these times, I had no real chest pain, just mild discomfort, and the pounding. Like I said, doctors cleared me of any heart issues.
Since I wasn’t having any pain, I decided to skip the CBD and see if the symptoms went away. They did. That was Wednesday. On Thursday morning, my shoulders, neck, and legs were back to their typical stiffness and the pain was back. I decided to see if just two hits of CBD would help. I took my blood pressure and pulse immediately before I used the vape pen, and again 15 min, 25 min, 35 min, and 45 min after. Yes, it seems like a lot, but I was still not entirely convinced it was a healing crisis, and not the CBD causing the problems My blood pressure and pulse did not increase after the CBD. I had no pounding in my chest, either. I did notice a decent amount of relief from the symptoms I was having.
I took another two hits around 9pm Thursday night, and monitored blood pressure, ect for an hour afterwards. No change.
I’ve done a good bit of research, and from what I found, CBD does not cause increased blood pressure or heart palpitations. In fact medical marijuana is sometimes used to lower blood pressure. But, of course that is the whole plant, not the CBD extract from a different hemp plant, like I’m using. So, based on that research, I have to conclude that my reactions were caused by a healing crisis.
For now, it looks like 2 hits, twice a day is enough for me to have significant symptom reduction without any kind of side effects or healing crises.
