Can CBD Help Stop Leg Cramps?

• Leg cramps have many possible causes: overexertion, stress-related tension, or involuntary nerve activity.
• CBD can help relieve and prevent leg cramps by relieving tension, promoting healthy sleep, reducing chronic pain, and alleviating exercise-related muscle soreness.
• Not all CBD products are the same; consider various strains and administration methods to find the one that best suits your needs.

It’s the middle of the night, and you’re stuck staring at the ceiling waiting for a leg cramp to finally subside. Leg cramps may not be overwhelmingly painful, but they’re certainly a nuisance—especially when they keep you from falling asleep.

Luckily, there’s a plant-based, all-natural solution that could help you discover normalcy and improved quality of life: CBD. While you might be skeptical about using CBD for leg cramps (especially if you don’t know the exact cause of the cramp), countless patients have reported that CBD has offered the support they need to treat and prevent cramps.

If you’re on the hunt for an effective leg cramp treatment, this guide is here to help.

Leg Cramps: Causes and Conventional Treatments

Cramping is a somewhat vague symptom that can have many possible causes, including:

• Overexertion – After (or during) an intense workout, shopping trip, or workday, your body might be trying to recover from excessive muscle strain.
• Compression – If you have another physical condition (like a mobility concern), the muscles in your legs might be more compressed than normal. Compression can agitate nerves and lead to cramping.
• Chronic pain – When you’re in pain, you might adjust your gait, posture, or everyday activities to compensate. As a result, these adjustments might lead to soreness in unexpected places—or it might cause cramping.

In terms of treatments, healthcare providers typically recommend:

• Increasing water intake
• Stretching and light exercise
• Over-the-counter pain relievers (like NSAIDs and acetaminophen)

In very extreme cases of chronic cramping, providers may prescribe muscle relaxants (especially when cramps are accompanied by spasms).

CBD for Leg Cramps

If the conventional treatments above don’t work for you (or you’re looking for a more holistic formula instead of a pharmaceutical solution), consider cannabidiol (CBD). CBD is one of the most prevalent cannabinoids found in the Cannabis sativa plant and is renowned for its pain relief, relaxation, and sleep support properties.

Let’s dive into how patients might use CBD to relieve some of the causes (and associated symptoms) of leg cramping.

Physical Tension

CBD can relieve muscle tension that can both cause and become a symptom of leg cramps—how do we know?

• Clinical evidence – Studies have shown that CBD has anticonvulsant properties and can relax the muscles. These are key effects for people living with cramps, soreness, and spasms.
• Anecdotal reports – Patients have successfully been using CBD to treat muscle cramps and spasms for many, many years. While the Western medical system may not recognize this anecdotal evidence, there’s no denying that people are getting the relief they need with CBD.

Sleep Disturbance

Leg cramps often manifest at night, leading to:

• Sleep disturbances
• Fitful sleep
• Difficulty falling asleep in the first place

Luckily, one of the most well-publicized benefits of CBD is sleep support. Countless patients use CBD to:

• Relax their bodies and minds – Whether you struggle with everyday anxiety symptoms or just can’t turn your brain off before bed, CBD can help. Certain strains promote an overall sense of calm, and CBD’s muscle relaxant properties can help relax your body as well as your mind.
• Get more restful sleep – CBD can also improve the overall quality of your sleep. Whether you’re recovering from muscle soreness, want to replenish your energy after a long workday, or simply need restorative sleep to feel more like yourself, CBD can offer the support you’re looking for.

Leg cramps might be keeping you from falling asleep—or perhaps you’re so worried about getting a night time cramp that you’re struggling to nod off in the first place. In either case, CBD could offer the respite you need and restore your sleep hygiene.

Chronic Pain

CBD is a safe, non-psychoactive, and non-addictive pain relief solution. Not to mention that it’s highly effective—according to both clinical data and anecdotal reports from medical cannabis patients.

Chronic pain can be both an underlying cause and a symptom of persistent leg cramping. These two ailments can also form a vicious cycle that seems nearly impossible to escape.

If you’re looking for an all-natural, plant-based alternative to pharmaceutical interventions (like opioids, which carry significant risks of dependence and overdose), consider CBD. While we’ve compiled a complete guide to how CBD and THC work for pain relief, here’s a brief synopsis:

• Cannabinoids (CBD and THC, among others), interact with our endocannabinoid system (ECS) receptors. These receptors are built-in: everyone has them.
• These receptor networks play many roles in nerve signaling throughout the body, one of which is signaling pain perception.
• CBD can interact with ECS receptors to interfere with pain signaling and reduce overall felt pain.

How to Use CBD for Leg Cramps

With all of the above in mind, how can you start using CBD for leg cramps?

Choose a Cannabis Strain

The first step is to choose a cannabis strain—a subtype of the cannabis plant with a unique profile. Every strain is one-of-a-kind, and everyone responds to each strain in their own way.

There are a few ways to start your search for the perfect strain:

• Talk to a cannabis healthcare provider – A medical cannabis clinician can help you choose a strain that matches your needs—or help guide your search if your first strain isn’t a good match.
• Talk to a budtender – Professionals working behind the counter at your local dispensaries or pharmacy (affectionately called “budtenders”) are experts on cannabis products. They hear about what works and what doesn’t from patients like you all day, every day.
• Research online – Online resources like the TeleLeaf blog can offer lists of patient-favorite strains for a wide variety of medical challenges: Here’s our guide on strains for muscle spasms, for instance.

Choose an Administration Method

With a strain in mind, you can choose an administration method that works for your lifestyle and preferences. Here’s an overview of your options:

• Smoking – Smoking cannabis flower (pure plant matter) is a tried and true way to introduce cannabinoids to your system. However, it isn’t very subtle; it produces smoke and odors. That said, it’s fast-acting and simple.
• Vaping – Vaping offers the fast action of smoking without the smoke and odors. Vape products can be a little pricier than raw cannabis flower, however.
• Edibles – Cannabis-infused candies, baked goods, and beverages aren’t as fast-acting as smoking and vaping methods, but they’re incredibly subtle, simple, and precisely dosed. Edibles are a great choice for cannabis newcomers.
• Tinctures and oils – Alcohol-based liquid extractions (tinctures) and fat-based extractions (oils) also offer the subtlety some patients are looking for. While precise dosing can require some calculations, tinctures and oils are also a great match for newcomers.
• Topicals – If you struggle with acute cramping and pain, cannabis-infused topicals (lotions, balms, and ointments) can work wonders on localized pain. Plus, these products don’t reach the bloodstream; if you’re nervous about ingesting or smoking CBD, topicals offer a very beginner- and skeptic-friendly starting point.

Refine Your Dosage

We recommend starting with a small dose of your cannabinoid of choice (CBD or THC)—especially if you’ve never used cannabis before.

While you’ll likely need to experiment to find your perfect dose, here are a few potential starting points depending on your experience level:

• Complete newcomer – Consider smoking just a puff or two of a smokable product (a joint or a vape), taking edible or liquid doses or 5 mg or less of CBD or THC, or using a pea-sized amount of a cannabis topical.
• Infrequent user – If you’ve used cannabis before, but very infrequently, the doses above are likely a good starting point for you too.
• Moderate user – If you already use cannabis products around once a week, start with around five puffs of a smokable product or 7 to 10 mg of an edible/liquid product. A dime-sized amount of a topical is generally a good starting point for familiar users.
• Frequent user – If you’re already using THC every day or multiple times each day, adding CBD to your regimen likely won’t make you nervous. That said, consider starting relatively small with unfamiliar products: around 10 puffs of a smokeable, 10 mg of a CBD edible/tincture/oil, or a quarter-sized dollop of a topical are all moderate starting points that could work for you.

TeleLeaf: Your Connection to Medical Cannabis

This is a lot to take in—especially for newcomers to CBD and medical cannabis. Remember that there are professionals you can lean on when you need advice about cannabis treatment.

TeleLeaf is making it easier than ever to find cannabis-informed healthcare providers you can trust. All you have to do is reach out to our network of providers to match with a licensed, expert clinician who gets you.

You deserve to heal, and TeleLeaf is ready to help you get there.

Sources:

Muscle MX. CBD for Muscle Spasms: What You Need to Know.
https://musclemx.com

Mayo Clinic. Muscle Cramp.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/muscle-cramp/symptoms-causes/syc-20350820

Cleveland Clinic. Muscle Relaxers.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/

Therapeutic Advances in Neurological Disorders. Evidence for the Efficacy and Effectiveness of THC-CBD Oromucosal Spray in Symptom Management of Patients with Spasticity Due to Multiple Sclerosis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

University of Colorado Boulder. CBD Shown to Ease Anxiety without the Risks that Can Come with THC.
https://www.colorado.edu/today/2024/02/27/cbd-shown-ease-anxiety-without-risks-can-come-thc

Forbes. CBD for Sleep: How It Works, Benefits, and Risks.
https://www.forbes.com/

Cureus. Efficacy, Safety, and Regulation of Cannabidiol on Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing Opioid Use Disorder.
https://www.cdc.gov/overdose-prevention/prevention/preventing-opioid-use-disorder.html