The internet world is all abuzz with the latest craze in pain relief: CBD oil. CBD is a compound common to all plants in the cannabis family, and highly prevalent in Hemp. The good news about Hemp is that the legal form of it has less than half a percent THC. In even better news, people have been finding out that CBD can help with arthritis and other joint pains.

If you’re new to CBD, it stands for cannabidiol, and it’s not a psychoactive agent. That means it won’t get you ‘high.’ But scientists discovered recently that the human brain has specific endocannabinoid receptors, or CBRs, which react to CBD. The reaction is considered “weak” in that it doesn’t get you high. The effects CBD does have, however, can be quite impactful.

We reviewed six CBD oils for joint and arthritis pain, and all of them are great for a specific need. So whether you need something light for beginners, something potent for experienced users, the best on the market for zero-THC, we found the right product for you. Be sure to read some of our research notes and FAQs at the end.

Spruce CBD: Best for Arthritis

Spruce CBD makes our list not only because of the rave customer reviews regarding its use for arthritis, not only because of the range of products, but because we believe the company is committed to best business practices and great products.

The makers of Spruce use a unique cannabis strain that they trace back to 1812. This strain has a terpene profile that is unlike anyone else’s. For a quick chemistry review, terpenes are a chemical responsible for how a fruit or vegetable smells. The terpenes of pine trees are harvested for commercial aromatics.

In the case of CBD oils, terpenes are thought to assist with what’s called the ‘entourage effect.’ This is essentially the idea that the full spectrum of chemicals from the hemp plant assist one another in reception in the brain. Basically, with terpenes present we get a better pain relief from the CBD oil itself.

Spruce CBD uses that unique strain of hemp with its characteristic terpene profile. That distinct profile gives Spruce CBD better and more even arthritis pain relief than many of the other products we reviewed.

According to their customer reviews (which they edit to make sure they’re fully compliant with FDA regulations), Spruce CBD is effective with all types of arthritis, including osteoarthritis. Spruce CBD works through either tinctures (orally ingested oil) or with their salve. The salve works great because you can rub it into a specific joint for more targeted relief.

CBDfx: Best Formula

But there are other ingredients that can help with easing aching joints and arthritis. That’s why everything from aspirin patches to muscle rubs come with a host of other ingredients to help with the pain relief.

CBDfx has a similar approach with their products. Their muscle and joint cream, for instance, has three other key ingredients to help with pain relief. White Willow Bark has been used for centuries to successfully help with aches and pains, and CBDfx adds it here to help the cannabinoid in their cream. They also use menthol for a soothing, cooling effect, and caffeine to help stimulate blood flow.

If you decide to go with the recovery set from CBDfx, it will also come with gel caps and a bath bomb. The formula for these products follows the same philosophy as for their cream. CBDfx has found that there are successful ingredients in many products already on the market. Rather than replace those effective formulas with pure CBD, they add to those formulas with their high-grade CBD. This results in the best formulas we reviewed for arthritis and joint pain.

For their gelcaps, CBDfx adds MCT, or medium-chain triglycerides, which are used to treat inflammation, an essential benefit for any arthritis or joint relief. And the bath bomb has eucalyptus, which has also been used for joint and arthritis pain.

When you explore the full line of CBDfx products you’ll even see that some of their offerings even blend with all-natural mushroom varieties, their energy drinks have the essential amino acid L-Arginine, and their cookies are packed with protein. All of their products come with CBD plus they’re formulated with the proven benefits common to their product type.

Royal CBD: Most Potent

In case you missed it in the name, that’s 2,500mg per bottle, or a whopping 83mg per drop. For comparison, we’ve seen some salves and creams with only 250mg in the whole jar, and you’re getting nearly a third of that in a one mL drop from Royal CBD.

Royal CBD has a few products that can help with arthritis and joint pain. They have a cream and a roll-on gel that are both 500mg of broad-spectrum CBD (meaning no THC). While either of these options are effective for targeted pain relief, it’s their full-spectrum oil that got Royal CBD on our list.

At 2,500mg per bottle, we didn’t find a stronger CBD product on the market from a reputable source. Royal CBD uses only the highest grade hemp grown right here in the US, and uses state-of-the-art extractions for the purest CBD you’ll find on the market.

All of that means that you’re not only getting high-potency, but high-quality. And that’s important, because there are products out there with less-quality CBD in similar potencies that won’t actually get you the relief you need because of impurities in the end-product.

Royal CBD is able to keep their standards high and their product pure—even at such high potencies—by working tirelessly to control the entire manufacturing process. They source their hemp from organic suppliers and they maintain watch over every step of the extraction to ensure their standards are met and sustained.

CBDPure: Best for Beginners

After all, it’s right there in the name. There are absolutely no fillers, dyes, additives, or even flavors in CBDPure. That means you’re getting only the most pure form of CBD for your joints and arthritis.

Not to get too scientific, but when you’re trying new things it’s probably best not to overcomplicate things. If you dramatically change your diet, exercise, and lifestyle, you may not be able to know for sure which of those three things improved your health.

In a similar way, if you are trying a CBD product for the very first time, and it also has a ton of other ingredients for joint pain, ou may not be able to know that it’s the CBD relieving your pain, and you won’t be able to gauge the extent to which it is helping your pain.

With a product like CBDPure you can take the oil and whatever effects you feel—good or bad—you know are from the CBD. This will not only let you know if you have any allergy to the CBD, it will also let you know exactly how much the cannabinoid itself is helping. Sadly, some people try CBD and have a negative reaction to some of the additives, then they think that CBD as a whole is not for them.

Not many people actually have negative reactions to pure cannabinoid, and that’s why CBDPure keeps their product, well, pure.

The other reason for recommending CBDPure to beginners is their low potency. This is important for the simple reason that you don’t want to take too much of a pain reliever, build a tolerance to that level, and then when pain increases you have no other dose to go to. With CBDPure’s low 300mg level you can get used to the effects of CBD without having to worry about having taken too much.

Medterra: Best Pure CBD

After reading about the benefits of pure CBD, you may have been left wondering, “well that sounds great, but what if I want something stronger?” If that’s you, then you should really check out Medterra’s line, especially their Hemp Oil Tinctures.

One thing to note about their tinctures is that they use something called Isolate Hemp Extract, which means it’s only the cannabinoid, with no THC. While they can’t guarantee that this means you’ll pass a drug screening, it does mean you don’t have to worry about any THC interactions in your system. Even a mild allergy to THC can be triggered by full-spectrum CBD products.

With Medterra you’re getting the strongest, pure Hemp Isolate on the market. And when it’s this pure, most really does mean best. How much do we mean by most? We found their highest end CBD has 6,000mg of Isolate per bottle. That’s more even than our highest potency full-spectrum.

There are some who say that full-spectrum is better, and there are certainly those who argue a lower dose of full-spectrum is more potent than a high dose of Isolate. And that’s why Medterra doesn’t win Most Potent. But for purity and strength of the hemp Isolate, Medterra is definitely the Best for Most Pure.

Medterra does offer a line of creams for topical relief of joint and arthritis pain, but we didn’t delve too much into those because they do have other ingredients, like aloe vera and menthol. If you’re reading this for the best pure CBD formula, you may want to stick with their tincture.

Joy Organics: Best THC-Free

By eliminating the THC from their broad-spectrum CBD oils, Joy Organics still delivers a potent product that can help with your joint and arthritis pain. You will still get the cannabinoids, the terpenes, and the flavonoids that make CBD so effective for so many people.

The only thing you’re not getting is the psychoactive agent THC. And even though Joy Organics can’t guarantee you’ll pass every drug test (read our full review on why) they do provide third-party lab results that show there is 0.0% detectable THC in their tinctures and other products.

That’s right, 0.0%. While a lot of products claim to be THC-free, Joy Organics actually goes the extra steps and has a third party lab verify that they’ve taken the THC out of their CBD products. This leaves you with all of the benefits of cannabinoids and none of the worry.

And to top it all off, like it says in their name, Joy Organics has received USDA Organic status for a number of its products. That’s the second reason they got our recommendation as Best THC-Free. Not only can they offer an independent lab’s analysis that they really are THC-Free, but they’re also simply one of the best products on the market, period.

Combine their USDA Organic status with their 0.0% detectable THC and Joy Organics is the clear choice for anyone looking for a CBD alternative that has no THC.

Conclusion

For millions of people every day, treating chronic pain is the main priority from waking up in the morning to trying to get to sleep at night. Finding safe, legal, non-addictive, and effective pain relief can really turn someone’s life around.

We found each of the six CBD products above to have substantial indications of assistance with chronic joint or arthritis pain. But we couldn’t narrow it down to a simple 1-6 list. Each one had its own specific advantages over the others. Whichever you decide on, we feel confident in the six products we recommended.

What the Science Says about CBD for Arthritis

Because CBD is still so newly legal, there haven’t been enough studies to prove concretely just why and in what circumstances CBD is effective for arthritis pain relief. There are millions of anecdotal reports, and of course THC has its own pain-relieving attributes, but rigorous CBD-Arthritis claims have not been mapped out.

We did find an article published through the National Institutes of Health that strongly indicates that CBD is effective for all types of chronic pain management. But that article specifically deals with easing pain and not necessarily with the treatment of arthritis.

The difference here is not only academic. If you are suffering from worsening arthritis due to medically identified underlying issues, you should still take whatever medication your doctor has prescribed to eliminate those causes, rather than simply mask the pain.

If you are taking medication to treat the inflammation or other auto-immune cause of arthritis, however, and you are still struggling to manage the pain, then consult your doctor about adding a CBD treatment to your regimen.

But do not cease taking prescribed medication for an underlying medical condition simply to begin taking a medication to ease pain. Because CBD has not been approved to treat any condition or disease, there’s not way to predict how your underlying arthritis will react when you stop taking your medication.

As pointed out in this article from the Arthritis Foundation, CBD cannot cure your arthritis, but it may help with the pain. Therefore, stay in consultation with your doctor.

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