Can CBD Oil Cause Throat Irritation? Looking At CBD’s Side Effects

CBD appears to provide many medical benefits without serious side effects, making it popular with consumers and triggering major interest in the medical world.

That doesn’t people won’t experience any negative effects after using CBD oil. A dry mouth is relatively common, and those new to CBD or taking extremely high doses every day may notice fatigue, a decreased appetite, or diarrhoea. More serious problems requiring a doctor’s visit almost never occur, though.

Throat irritation isn’t on any authoritative list of potential CBD side effects. Some users, however, do report irritated throats after taking CBD oil — and there are several reasons why that could happen.

CBD may interact with the glands that produce saliva, and it may also increase the production of a neurotransmitter that affects saliva production. Dry mouth, of course, is caused by a lack of saliva that’s also needed to lubricate the throat, so its absence may also cause throat soreness or irritation.

CBD oil contains more than just CBD (short for cannabidiol), so other ingredients might also be responsible for throat irritation.

Cannabidiol is combined with a so-called carrier oil to boost the CBD’s bioavailability (how much of it can be absorbed by the body). Users could be allergic or sensitive to the carrier oil, or there could be impurities in the oil. Some producers also add flavourings or other health and wellness ingredients, which might also cause the reaction.

Other, less likely causes could be allergies to cannabidiol or THC (there’s a small amount of the psychoactive substance in most types of CBD), or throats that are already sensitive or mildly irritated from smoking tobacco or marijuana or exposure to other irritants.

Minor throat irritation can be eased by sipping on water (throat lozenges can help as well if they don’t contain irritants like menthol). If the irritation continues to be a problem, users can try CBD oil that uses a different carrier oil and contains no other ingredients, try CBD isolate oil (which contains no THC), or try a different type of CBD product like capsules or edibles.

That’s the summary. Here’s the full explanation.

What Is CBD Oil?

The easiest way to answer that question is to start with a look at CBD.

What is CBD?

Cannabis and hemp are sibling plants and contain almost all of the same plant compounds. The two most important (to humans, not to the plants) are CBD and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), members of a class of compounds called cannabinoids. They each appear to provide impressive medical benefits, and THC is also the cannabinoid that makes weed users high.

Cannabidiol is non-intoxicating, non-addictive, and doesn’t cause serious side effects. That’s the reason its purported health benefits (only shown in preliminary research so far) are intriguing to medical authorities.

Cannabis plants contain lots of THC and very small amounts of CBD, making the marijuana harvested from it ideal for people who want to get wasted. Hemp has very little THC but high levels of cannabidiol, which is why the CBD used to create CBD oil is extracted from hemp plants.

How Does CBD Work in the Body?

There’s a network of receptors throughout the body that governs a large percentage of all important bodily functions, including thought, memory, pain, sleep, inflammation, and many others. It’s known as the endocannabinoid system (ECS).

Neurotransmitters called endocannabinoids are produced in the body and work as messengers in the ECS, shuttling between receptors, organs, and other systems to carry control messages. Endocannabinoids are very similar in chemical structure to cannabinoids like CBD (and THC), allowing the cannabinoids to interact with the ECS to send their own messages or alter others.

In a nutshell, that’s how CBD works. Once it’s consumed and processed, it can change the way some of the body’s most important functions are carried out.

What’s in CBD Oil?

CBD, of course, is the active ingredient in CBD oil. However, cannabidiol isn’t absorbed well by the body, so it needs a partner to help it be absorbed more completely and deliver its effects more effectively.

That partner is known as a carrier oil. MCT oil, coconut oil, and hempseed oil are most commonly used as carriers in CBD oil because they are absorbed well by the body’s tissues. Their chemical structures also allow them to quickly move through the digestive system where stomach acids and enzymes can destroy much of the CBD if it’s allowed to linger there.

Other carriers like olive oil can also be used, but the best CBD oils are made from cannabidiol, MCT oil, and nothing else.

What else would be added to CBD oil? Some producers want to hide the earthy flavour of cannabidiol that many people find objectionable, so they add flavourings. Others want to make their products more attractive to buyers, so they add extra health and wellness ingredients.

And as we mentioned at the start, all of those added components in some CBD oils can be problematic to users who are sensitive or allergic to them.

Effects of CBD Oil

Preliminary research has shown that cannabidiol appears to ease an enormous range of medical conditions. It hasn’t been approved by authorities to treat any illness, disorder, or disease except for a few types of rare childhood epilepsy, but it may help people suffering from conditions like:

• Chronic pain caused by inflammatory and anti-immune diseases including arthritis, diabetes, and asthma
• Anxiety, stress, depression, and more serious mental health disorders
• Insomnia and sleep disorders
• Neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases
• Heart health risks like high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels
• Acne and other skin diseases and conditions
• Substance use disorder
• Some types of cancer

Many of those issues are currently treated with prescription medications associated with significant side effects, but CBD is relatively benign. Most users simply may experience dry mouth just as when using cannabis products.

Those whose bodies aren’t accustomed to cannabidiol, use extremely high doses, or take high doses regularly may experience tiredness, a lower appetite, or diarrhoea, but those problems usually go away quickly or are mitigated when doses are lowered. Serious side effects requiring medical treatment are extremely rare and usually due to interactions with other medications.

Why Would CBD Oil Cause Throat Irritation?

No research has directly connected CBD use with throat irritation, but the number of anecdotal reports citing the problem makes it clear that it’s possible to have an irritated throat after consuming CBD oil. Why would that happen?

CBD and Possible Throat Irritation

Existing research provides a few hints about why cannabidiol might irritate the throat.

We’ve already discussed the endocannabinoid system. Research published in the journal Pathophysiology reports that there are ECS receptors in the jaw’s submandibular gland, which is one of the glands that controls the release of saliva.

It’s possible (although not yet documented) that CBD interacts with those receptors to alter the amount and consistency of saliva being released — and a lack of saliva would cause not only a dry mouth but perhaps a dry throat.

There’s another possibility. The fatty acid FAAH seems to play a big role in regulating salivation. It’s also responsible for metabolising the endocannabinoid anandamide, and there’s some evidence that CBD increases the amount of anandamide in the body. That could overwhelm FAAH’s ability to regulate saliva, causing less saliva to be released and an irritated throat.

It could simply be that the user is allergic to CBD, but those allergies are extremely rare. The most common type of CBD (full-spectrum CBD) also contains a very small amount of THC, so a THC allergy is a remote possibility.

What seems more likely, though, is that cannabidiol is not the culprit.

CBD Oil Ingredients and Possible Throat Irritation

As discussed earlier, CBD oil has at least one other ingredient and perhaps more. Those ingredients could be responsible for causing irritated throats in users.

• Carrier Oil: Users could be allergic or sensitive to the carrier oil that’s mixed with cannabidiol to create CBD oil. MCT oil, coconut oil, and hempseed are the most common carrier oils, but others like olive oil or avocado oil are sometimes used as well. Low-quality producers may also fail to ensure their carrier oils (or CBD) don’t contain impurities that could cause issues.
• Added Ingredients: Some companies add flavourings or other health and wellness ingredients to their CBD oils, any one of which could trigger allergies or sensitivities in users.

How to Handle Throat Irritation from CBD Oil

Throat irritations may be so mild or temporary that users can get rid of them by taking a few sips of water or sucking on a throat lozenge or cough drop. (Avoid lozenges that contain irritating ingredients like menthol or eucalyptus oil which can make things worse.) And some users may already be susceptible to throat issues if they smoke or are exposed to environmental irritants.

If irritation caused by CBD oil can’t be quickly alleviated or ignored it makes sense to search for the cause of the problem. Here are some steps to take.

1. Change the CBD oil you’re using. If your current oil contains flavourings or other ingredients, choose a different one that contains only cannabidiol and a carrier oil. If you’re already using that type of CBD oil, try ones that use different carrier oils. And be sure to purchase the highest-quality oil from the most reputable producer you can find, to eliminate the possibility that poor-quality oil is to blame.
2. If those changes don’t work, try using CBD isolate oil instead of full-spectrum or broad-spectrum CBD oil. That will eliminate the possibility that you’re allergic or sensitive to THC since CBD isolate contains no THC.
3. If you still have no luck, try a lower dose of CBD oil; that may at least lessen the throat irritation the oil is causing.

If the irritation persists, you can consider consuming cannabidiol in a different form, either CBD capsules or CBD edibles. And if the issue remains, there’s a good chance that you’re sensitive or even allergic to CBD. In that case, your best bet is to stop using CBD completely.

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