 Does CBD improve cycling performance and recovery? Many people have started taking CBD to reduce anxiety and inflammation, as well as a long list of other health ailments. And now it's starting to be marketed towards athletes. As always, today we're gonna be investigating whether or not these claims hold up to the science as well as addressing some of the mislabeling and testing concerns associated with taking CBD. Welcome back to another video. Recently, CBD has exploded onto the market with new companies popping up all the time. I personally have been approached by four different CBD companies looking for me to review their product on this channel. That's not what this video is. I'm not reviewing anything. I'm just looking at the current research on CBD. And this video isn't tied to any CBD brand. Claims have been made that it can help fight inflammation, pain, anxiety, promote better sleep, as well as a long list of other health related issues. Not too surprisingly, it's also starting to be marketed towards athletes as a performance and recovery aid. For those of you that don't know, CBD or cannabidiol is a chemical compound found in cannabis. Interestingly, marijuana, natural and synthetic THC, and synthetic cannabinoids that mimic the effects of THC are banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. However, WADA has made an exception for CBD in or out of competition since 2018. Unlike THC, CBD is non-intoxicating, meaning that you won't get high from taking CBD. Wow, why am I not surprised? Of course, this nerd would do a video on the lame part of weed. However, as it turns out, a lot of these products are mislabeled and don't contain the amount of CBD that they claim or even contain more THC than you might think. This article on cannabinoid labeling accuracy found that of 75 products purchased from 47 different brands, only 17% were accurately labeled with some products containing significantly more THC than labeled. This study on labeling accuracy of CBD extracts sold online found that with respect to CBD, 42% of products were under-labeled, 26% were over-labeled, and 30% were labeled accurately. THC was detected in 18 of the 84 samples. For anyone who's racing and has the potential to get drug tested, this is a huge problem. This article on CBD use in professional and amateur athletes takes a strong stance stating that the content of commercial CBD often contains banned substances such as THC, a problem which should present risks that far outweigh any benefit for athletes and their support staff. Therefore, the most appropriate risk minimization strategy is to avoid all CBD products to prevent inadvertent doping from these often contaminated products. Getting your CBD from a reputable source is extremely important and may just flat out not be worth the risk if you are a racer. I went on the website of a popular CBD company that I won't name here and on their own website, they had this FDA disclosure. Be advised, studies have shown that consuming hemp foods or oils can cause a positive result when screening urine and blood specimens. Therefore, if you are subject to any form of drug testing or screening, we recommend that you do not ingest CBD or hemp oil. All right, exciting announcement, guys. Cupcake-flavored hypergain beast mode mass gain or raw addition now comes with CBD infusion so you can further maximize those gains. Now, there's no way of telling how much CBD is actually in here or how much THC for that matter, but given how good I felt after taking it the other day, it may be a little bit over the legal limit. With that important disclaimer out of the way, if you're so curious about whether or not CBD will improve your cycling performance and recovery like many companies and athletes alike have been claiming, then stick around. Cannabis affects the endocannabinoid system which is thought to be responsible for the runner's high or that good feeling that you get when you do endurance exercise. Many believe that this is due to endorphins, but research suggests otherwise. According to this review on endocannabinoids in exercise, endorphins are too large to cross the blood-brain barrier. The endocannabinoid system, on the other hand, has a close interaction with dopamine that has a function in the brain's reward system. The endocannabinoid system is also implicated in the control of motor activity and mediates peripheral effects such as vasodilation and bronchodilation that may play a contributory role in the body's response to exercise. Given the link between the endocannabinoid system and exercise, is it possible that CBD could have a positive effect on exercise performance? Well, research on CBD is still new, so there's a lot of work to be done, but modulating the activity of the endocannabinoid system with CBD may offer tremendous therapeutic promises for a diverse scope of diseases, ranging from mental health disorders, neurological and movement disorders, pain, autoimmune disease, spinal cord injury, cancer, cardiometabolic disease, stroke, TBI, osteoporosis, and others. Let's take a look at CBD's effects on anxiety since reducing anxiety is one of CBD's biggest supposed benefits. This study tested the effects of CBD on anxiety associated with public speaking. In a double-blind, randomized trial, subjects received either a placebo or CBD before a public speaking test. What they found was that pretreatment with CBD significantly reduced anxiety, cognitive impairment, and discomfort in their speech performance, and significantly decreased alert in their anticipatory speech. This review on CBD as a potential treatment for anxiety disorders, stated that overall current evidence indicates CBD has considerable potential as a treatment for multiple anxiety disorders, although they emphasize the need for further study in this area. Certainly some promising results, and even if CBD has no effect on performance and recovery, reducing anxiety associated with racing could have huge benefits. Many have pre-race nerves for days before the event and have trouble sleeping because of it. If this is a problem for you, then maybe giving CBD a try could be worth it. One of the other big reported benefits of CBD is that it may help in reducing inflammation. If this is true, then this could also be of value to athletes. To be fair though, most of the research done in this area has been on animals, not humans. Like this rat study that induced osteoarthritis in rats. They found that joint inflammation was reduced by local CBD treatment and prevented the development of joint pain at later time points. This review on cannabinoids as an anti-inflammatory drug came to the conclusion that cannabinoids suppress inflammatory response and subsequently attenuate disease symptoms. Those marketing CBD as a recovery aid for athletes are often citing studies like this. And it does seem plausible that if CBD can help reduce inflammation, that it may also be able to reduce post-exercise inflammation leading to aided recovery for athletes. The thing is, there simply aren't any studies that test the effects of CBD on athlete recovery, at least not right now. Another important thing to note is that sometimes you actually want inflammation after exercise in order to make necessary adaptations. This is a problem often cited with supplemental antioxidants. In a review on vitamin C supplements that affects on performance, the authors found that vitamin C supplements actually impaired performance in three human studies. The authors went on to say that large doses of vitamin C appear to reduce the training-induced adaptation. This review on the impact of dietary antioxidants on sports performance found that vitamin E supplements may improve altitude performance but impair sea level performance. The review concluded that acute antioxidant intake is probably beneficial while chronic intake likely impairs performance. Similar results have also been seen in ice bath studies which is another common recovery method amongst athletes. These two studies on the use of cold water immersion after lifting both found that subjects actually gained more strength in the control group that didn't use cold water immersion. This is because cold water immersion appears to attenuate acute changes in cells that regulate muscle growth and this means less muscle and strength gains. Things are not always black and white when it comes to recovery. A substance may reduce inflammation leading to aided recovery but then you might not get as many adaptations which means that you're not getting as much out of the hard work that you're doing which we definitely don't want. Now, if you're worried that eating a salad loaded with antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables will squash your gains, well, don't be. Many studies have been done on real food that contains high amounts of antioxidants like fruits and vegetables and they all come to the same conclusion. Antioxidants from fruits and vegetables reduce cellular oxidative damage without attenuating the cellular adaptive response so basically it's the best of both worlds. Could CBD act similar to this improving recovery after exercise without hindering adaptation or could taking CBD regularly slow your progression? We simply don't have the answer because the research hasn't been done. In fact, the research on CBD and athletics in general at this point is severely lacking just because it's so new. This article on cannabinoids and sports nutrition stated that the evidence is overwhelming that products are being marketed without being regulatory compliant and more centric to sports nutrition that there are tens of CBD marketed sports nutrition products. However, there appears to be zero actual scientific evidence to directly support the products and claim in the intended population at this time. It is clear that safety and efficacy studies of CBD applicable to sports nutrition are needed. There's probably enough data right now for CBD companies to claim that their products help with anxiety and inflammation. However, CBD companies that market specifically towards athletes that make claims of improved recovery or athletic performance simply don't have a leg to stand on. This does not mean that CBD doesn't work. It just means that we don't currently have the data available to say that it does. If you try CBD and it works for you, then that's great. Even if it didn't do anything, sometimes the placebo effect is powerful enough to make it so. What I will say though is that sometimes actually taking a look at the research can completely change your opinion on a topic. If you want an example of this, check out my stretching video. While some of the research on CBD does seem promising, the research on CBD's effects on athletics simply isn't there so we can't make a conclusion at this time. Okay, so basically what I'm hearing is that CBD is in weed and CBD could make you faster. Therefore, smoke weed to get faster. Cool, sounds like a plan. Thanks for watching. I hope you guys found this information helpful. If you did, be sure to give the video a like, subscribe, and share it with your cycling friends. I'll see you in the next one.