CBD Oil Diarrhea: Can CBD Cause Diarrhea?

CBD oil is known for its variety of health benefits ranging from helping to ease pain to alleviating mental health disorders. The uses of it are diverse, however, it’s also said to have some side effects. One of the topics that’s often talked about is CBD oil diarrhea. 

Not much is yet known about the side effects of CBD, but some of them have already been noticed. CBD oil diarrhea is one of the cases. So, let’s find out, can CBD oil cause diarrhea, and if so, how to deal with CBD oil diarrhea. 

How Does CBD Affect You?

Before we delve into the topic of CBD oil diarrhea and does CBD oil cause diarrhea, we must first cover the way CBD affects you. Many have heard about the benefits of CBD, but few know where they come from and how CBD interacts with your body.

First things first, you must understand that CBD is one of the more than a hundred cannabinoids found in the Cannabis Sativa plant. While the most well-known cannabinoid remains THC, CBD is definitely gaining popularity with the numerous positive effects it has on your health. 

Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the psychoactive cannabinoid, and CBD is the non-psychoactive one. CBD works by targeting your endocannabinoid system, a biological system that has cannabinoid receptors in various parts of your body. 

By targeting CB1 and CB2 receptors, CBD provides the positive effects everyone is currently talking about. However, sometimes things go wrong and instead of getting relief from your symptoms, you experience side effects, one of them being CBD oil diarrhea. 

What Causes Diarrhea?

Now that we have talked about CBD, we must also briefly discuss diarrhea in order to understand CBD oil diarrhea. Diarrhea is characterized by watery loose stools and a frequent need for a bowel movement. 

The causes of diarrhea are numerous. It can be caused by food intolerance or allergy, medicine intolerance, a viral or bacterial infection, parasitic infection and a few more of the less common causes. Getting diarrhea is a sign that your body is affected by something that it is not supposed to tolerate. 

Due to various different causes of diarrhea, it might be tricky to find out which is the factor that led to diarrhea. However, it’s not that hard to recognize it. The symptoms of it include nausea, cramping, abdominal pain, bloating, in some cases fever, and a frequent urge to evacuate your bowels. 

While it can definitely be unpleasant, diarrhea usually passes without severe risks to your health. The problem arises when you get chronic diarrhea. There are various risks concerning it, the most prominent one being dehydration. 

It’s extremely important to stay hydrated in case of diarrhea. However, it might not always be easy if you’re losing lots of fluids.  Make sure to contact your doctor if you notice any symptoms of dehydration despite consuming a sufficient amount of fluids.

CBD Oil Diarrhea

Now that we talked about CBD oil and diarrhea, let’s talk about the issues of CBD oil diarrhea, which might be one of the side effects of CBD oil. 

Due to the increased popularity of CBD and more and more people becoming curious about its effects, there are various researches of the effects CBD has on you conducted. Most of them concern treatments of various illnesses, but there are some that point out the side effects CBD might have. So, does CBD oil cause diarrhea?

A study conducted in 2017 suggests that CBD can cause quite a few different side effects^[1] such as sleepiness or lowered blood pressure, and CBD oil diarrhea is not an exception. In fact, it’s one of the most commonly reported side effects. 

It’s been noticed that diarrhea usually occurred with regular and frequent usage and not as much when it CBD wasn’t taken regularly. So, that leads us to believing that those who are trying to treat chronic illnesses with CBD are in the highest risk group of getting diarrhea as a side effect. 

The exact reason why CBD has an effect on diarrhea is yet to be found. However, there are a few speculations of possible reasons. One of the highly likely ones is that your organism treats CBD as a foreign substance as it’s simply not used to it.

It’s quite common that travelers who visit exotic countries don’t tolerate the street food they can get there. It occurs due to the fact that it’s just totally different from what they’re used to eating. They get digestion issues such as diarrhea and nausea. 

It’s not much different when it comes to CBD. If you’re not a cannabis smoker, nor have you indulged in CBD products before, your body is not yet used to the substance and the effects it has on you. Because of that, your organism treats it as an enemy, trying to get rid of it. 

Some people might get used to it and stop getting these symptoms of intolerance, while others may not. The best way to get used to any kind of new food, drug or supplement is by taking it at smaller doses at first and increasing it afterwards. 

Another reason why CBD might cause diarrhea is that this cannabinoid affects your appetite and metabolization. Studies conducted show that cannabis has an effect on your appetite. ^[2]

Many have heard that consuming cannabis causes a raised appetite, otherwise known as munchies. It’s common among those who use the drug recreationally, and they report that they get intense food cravings after consuming marijuana. 

However, what’s important to note in this CBD Oil Diarrhea guide is that the raised appetite is associated with THC and not CBD.  While THC is known for raising appetite and causing cravings, CBD can have a totally opposite effect, and sometimes is even used for weight loss. 

If you’d like to know more about how CBD can be used for weight loss and its effects on appetite and metabolism, check out our guide written about CBD and weight loss. 

Studies have been conducted on CBD’s effects on rats’ appetites.^[3] The studies showed that giving CBD to rats reduced their food consumption. Letting us believe that CBD can be used as an appetite suppressant. 

Studies on CBD’s effects on humans’ appetites are lacking, but some people claim that CBD goes well with suppressing appetites and avoiding snacking. However, the shift in your eating patterns, even if it’s reducing the intake of food might result in your body reacting negatively. 

One of the symptoms you could notice have to do with CBD oil diarrhea. Changing up your diet might come as shock to your organism. As you have learned, your organism doesn’t react well to shocking occurrences like this and it might result in you getting diarrhea.

Despite that, you shouldn’t worry too much, as this effect isn’t long-lasting. Throughout the years we have been adapting to new environments and all kinds of different foods, so it shouldn’t take long for your body to get used to consuming CBD. 

So, if asked can CBD oil cause diarrhea, you could say that it definitely could, but it shouldn’t take long for your body to adjust and it to stop. 

Other Side Effects

Now that we answered does CBD cause diarrhea, we must also talk about other side effects of taking CBD. CBD oil diarrhea isn’t the only downside there is to taking CBD. Now that you know the answer to can CBD oil cause diarrhea, you must also be wondering what else CBD can cause. Let’s cover that too!

Fatigue

Not only does CBD oil diarrhea a real side effect of taking CBD, but some people claim that CBD makes them feel fatigued. One of the popular reasons for taking CBD is tackling insomnia. Naturally, by that, it can be understood that CBD might make you feel more sleepy.

Despite that, some people are taking CBD for other reasons. They might want to deal with anxiety at work or any kind of pain. In some situations, they can’t afford to be fatigued. That’s when it becomes problematic. 

While CBD in lower doses is said to energize you, higher doses might make you sleepy or fatigued. However, it’s yet unclear how CBD affects people. It might have a different effect on you. So, if you’d like to avoid that, you should monitor how CBD affects you and choose the dose accordingly.  

If you’re looking to try out CBD oil, you should check out the best CBD oils, vape juices or gummies on the market. 

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Dizziness

One more side effect to highlight in this CBD Oil Diarrhea guide is dizziness. Some CBD users claim that CBD makes them feel dizzy. This side effect is rather uncommon, but it has some grounding to it. 

Studies show that CBD can lower your blood pressure.^[4] While for those who have higher blood pressure, this is beneficial, it isn’t such good news for people whose blood pressure is low. Lower blood pressure might result in sleepiness, dizziness, headaches and other symptoms. 

Usually, low blood pressure isn’t something to worry about. It might cause some unpleasant symptoms such as blurred vision, fainting, nausea, fatigue. It’s mostly felt when the person stands up quickly from lying or sitting down. Despite the fact that these symptoms are not life-threatening, no one wants to feel dizzy or fatigued. 

If you’re experiencing dizziness or any of the other lowered blood pressure symptoms caused by CBD, you should consider consulting your doctor, or lowering the dose of how much CBD you take. If it doesn’t help, you should check for other illnesses that might result in low blood pressure. 

Interactions with Medicine

Having discussed CBD oil diarrhea and other side effects we must also talk about CBD oil and drug interactions. While CBD is a supplement that’s usually safe to take, it might still interact with some drugs that you’re taking.

Drugs are metabolized in your liver by CYP3A4 enzyme. This particular enzyme is responsible for metabolizing various drugs. CBD is not an exception. Taking CBD might affect the way drugs are metabolized in your body.

CBD might make the enzymes metabolize the drugs faster, causing the drug to stay in your system shorter than they’re supposed to and higher doses of the drug assimilated at once. On the other hand, it might make them metabolize the drug slower, preventing the drug from targeting the illness effectively.

All this results in a lower effectiveness of the drugs, as well as an increase in many different side effects, both CBD and the drugs. So, if you’re taking any kind of medicine you migth have to monitor how it affects you more attentively, or even consult a doctor before using CBD. 

There are other side effects, but they aren’t as common as the ones mentioned here. You should always keep an eye on your well being and if you notice any unusual effects that could be attributed to CBD you should consult a doctor before continuing to take CBD oil. 

Conclusions

With CBD becoming more and more popular people start wondering about its side effects, especially does CBD oil cause diarrhea. The answer is that, yes, there might be a relation between CBD oil and diarrhea, even though it’s unlikely that you will experience any of the side effects. 

Other side effects you might experience are fatigue, dizziness, and interactions with medications. If you notice any of these side effects you should consider lowering the dose of CBD that you take, stopping taking it altogether, or consulting a doctor on what to do about it. 

Now that the fog on CBD oil and diarrhea has been lifted, you might feel more confident when it comes to trying out CBD knowing all the ways it might affect you. If you’re looking to buy CBD oil, you should check out our best CBD oil providers’ guide. 

Scientific References

1. Iffland K., Grotenhermen F. An Update on Safety and Side Effects of Cannabidiol: A Review of Clinical Data and Relevant Animal Studies'

2. Kirkham T. 'Cannabinoids and appetite: food craving and food pleasure'

3. Farrimond J., Whalley B., Williams C. 'Cannabinol and cannabidiol exert opposing effects on rat feeding patterns'

4. Jadoon K., Tan G., O'Sullivan S. 'A single dose of cannabidiol reduces blood pressure in healthy volunteers in a randomized crossover study.'