9 Best Topical CBD Salves For Pain (Review) In 2021

At age 7, Brett Botelho was told he would never walk again. He struggled with CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy) and a dozen surgeries for more than a decade. But his advancing condition forced the amputation of his left leg in his mid-20s, shortly after picking up a snowboard for the first time.

Botelho’s quest to get back on the mountain and onto the 2022 Paralympic team has required new strategies and tools. He was informed he wouldn’t snowboard for two years following the amputation of his leg, but cannabis-based topicals helped speed his healing and pain relief. In fact, Botelho was back on the mountain less than two months after he put on his first prosthetic.

Based out of Frisco, Colorado, and training with the adaptive sports program at Copper Mountain, he trains and competes in snowboard slalom, giant slalom, and banked slalom. Managing pain and healing from ongoing procedures is a constant battle, but CBD-based topicals have provided relief. They also helped him get off painkillers.

“Mary Jane’s Medicinals’ Super Strength Nano Salve has worked miracles for me,” says Botelho about his favorite topical. “I know for a fact I couldn’t be doing what I do on an everyday basis, along with recovery, without this product.” He also claims the Super Strength Nano made his amputation scar smaller and even promoted bone growth.

How do CBD-Based Topicals Work?

Mary Jane’s Medicinals happens to be a marijuana-derived topical salve only available in dispensaries in Colorado, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. But there are many hemp-derived “full-spectrum” products on the market that have similar properties. Salves with a blend of CBD and THC promote pain relief by interacting with the CB2 receptors in the skin’s layers. The amounts of THC in these topicals are too minuscule to have any psychoactive effect but work in tandem with CBD to mitigate pain—seemingly better than products with CBD alone.

The study of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is relatively new, only discovered in 1992 by researchers Dr. William Devane and Dr. Lumir Hanus. This “signaling system” in the body helps maintain a balance between various biological processes (like metabolism, pain signaling, immunity, and more) to operate at optimal capacity. The endocannabinoids and cannabinoid receptors of this system modulate presynaptic neurons and control how messages are sent, received, and processed throughout the body.

Trace amounts of THC in topical salves seems to be critical to how  pain signals are passed throughout the system. Communication between the brain-based CB1 cannabinoid receptors and the body-based CB2 receptors is affected by the absorption of THC and CBD, effectively downplaying pain signals.