Being an athlete, no matter the level or sport, involves a lot of ongoing physical training. Resistance training, cardio, practice – all of that physical training can place a lot of strain on the human body. The physical training can also provide considerable benefits to athletes, but such activity has to be coupled with proper recovery.

Athletes recover from training in various ways, from applying ice and heat to sore muscles to stretching to other wellness strategies. The incorporation of medical cannabis therapies is becoming more common among athletes across the globe, especially cannabidiol (CBD).

One of the main benefits of CBD for athletes is the cannabinoid’s anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation is the human body’s natural response to intense physical stress and is a prevalent issue among athletes. Over time, chronic inflammation can develop in an athlete’s joints, and that can impede performance in addition to being painful. Numerous studies, including one conducted by researchers in Poland, have found that CBD is associated with a reduction in inflammation.

CBD has also been found to provide neuroprotective benefits to people who use it. Incorporating neuroprotective strategies is particularly important for athletes who compete in sports that place them at a higher risk of experiencing traumatic brain injuries, such as boxing or American football.

A team of researchers affiliated with health and academic institutions in North America previously collaborated on an examination of cannabidiol and its efficacy as a neuroprotective therapy. The researchers’ findings were published in the journal Front Neurol.

“CBD targets many of the cellular, molecular, and biochemical changes associated with traumatic brain injury (TBI) by mediating the regulation of neurotransmitters, restoring the E/I balance, preventing BBB permeability, increasing BDNF and CBF, and decreasing both ROS/NOS and microglial inflammatory responses.” the researchers wrote.

It is important to note that while cannabidiol is a great recovery tool that athletes may consider, the benefits of CBD do not rise to such a level that its use should be considered as being too ‘performance enhancing’. In an ongoing effort by cannabis opponents to maintain the stigma surrounding cannabis use by athletes, their rhetoric has seemingly shifted in recent years away from ‘cannabis is bad for athletes’ to ‘cannabis should remain banned because it is performance enhancing.’

CBD and other cannabinoids can provide significant benefits to athletes, but there is a big difference between providing wellness benefits and enhancing performance to such a level that the use of cannabinoids should be banned alongside anabolic steroids. After all, electrolyte drinks and ibuprofen provide wellness benefits to athletes, but they are clearly not enhancing performance to such a level that they should be banned like anabolic steroids, and the same is true for cannabis.