It never occurred to me to use CBD for HG until this week when Amy Schumer posted that it was the only thing that helped calm her suffering. https://www.bravotv.com/the-feast/amy- schumer-pregnancy-nausea-hyperemesis-cbd-the-lord-jones. The cannabidiol (CBD) insanity exploded because the US government amended the Farm Act in 2018 and changed hemp from illegal to a commodity. It is now considered a crop and can be harvested and sold just like wheat or corn.
I live in Las Vegas, and it really is the wild west when it comes to CBD. Suddenly CBD stores are everywhere, both on every corner shopping plaza and online. A close friend even started selling it via direct sales. CBD can come from either hemp or marijuana plants, and there IS a major difference. The strain from hemp does not have THC, the psychoactive ingredient that makes people look at someone and say, “ahhh…weed.” Although the strains with THC are also legal in NV, I always believed that it would be dangerous to ingest while pregnant. The thought that marijuana use in pregnancy should be advised against during pregnancy is supported by the BMJ, one of the world’s oldest medical journals out of England:
https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k5000/rr
The first question we are all asking is… is hemp-based CBD oil safe during pregnancy?
I started with an online search and was disappointed, although not surprised, to find the internet lacking clinically relevant information. My biggest disappointment is this post from the original go-to book on pregnancy: https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/your-health/cbd-oil-use- during-pregnancy/. Not only does the author only mention CBD from marijuana, not the hemp strain free of THC, it then goes on to list all the usually unhelpful nausea “remedies” that do nothing to relieve the intensity of HG like eating lots of small meals and trying dry foods like crackers. Clearly, the author was not an HG survivor, or was a man.
I then searched the medical databases for “CBD and pregnancy”, which brought up search results for pregnant women who have problems with their common bile duct. Trying again… “cannabidiol and pregnancy” brought results with marijuana. Nothing new resulted from my fourth attempt… “hemp and pregnancy.” This listed even stranger results, all with THC or drug use while pregnant. It’s a good thing I’m not doing this while having HG or I probably would have reached my limit after my first search.
Next, I tried the Lord Jones webpage and found this: “If you are Pregnant… Please consult your physician before using our products.” This made me wonder why Amy Schumer would try it without knowing if it was safe during pregnancy. I wondered who recommended she try CBD oil and if there was any scientific data that could be referenced to help with my research. That was when I flashed back to my times with HG and remembered the feeling of desperation to relieve nausea and vomiting. It put in perspective why she might have been willing to try an experimental remedy.
Finally, I reached out to Melanie Kane, a pharmacist cannabis expert, for answers and was surprised by her response. Click here to read how she works with pregnant women using cannabis. In the end, the only published research I could find was a very small study done in Israel. For a thorough and informative article on using CBD in pregnancy, take a look a this Knoji article written by Caitlin Soloff.
If you’re using any form of cannabis to help with your HG, please email me at info@hgpharmacist.com the type (CBD or THC) and if it helped or not, so I can share the results.
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