A CBD market analysis reveals opportunities for chiropractors, who say, “The clinical results I have experienced and seen with my patients have been encouraging and powerful.”
Total CBD sales today are roughly $1.9 billion per year according to BDS Analytics in a CBD market analysis. However, this number is expected to increase to $20 billion by the year 2024, representing a staggering 49% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
As a comparison, Becker’s Hospital CFO Report indicates that the entire U.S. health care revenue cycle management market is only anticipated to have a 12.89% CAGR. CBD product growth is almost four times that.
BDS goes on to say that approximately two out of three consumers (66%) who currently use hemp-derived CBD products are also in full support of cannabis legalization. In fact, more and more states are already moving in this direction, with USA Today reporting that Illinois is almost there, making it the 11th state to weigh in on this topic, and New York and New Jersey may be next.
More CBD research, FDA approvals
Perhaps one of the biggest CBD-related events that has occurred in the recent past is when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first-ever drug containing CBD. It was June 25, 2018, the drug was Epidiolex, and it was approved for patients with one of two hard-to-treat and rare forms of epilepsy: Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome and Davet Syndrome. Though, according to the FDA itself, this is just the beginning.
In a recent FDA consumer update, the agency states that it “is working to learn more about the safety of CBD and CBD products.” Additionally, a few of the areas it is striving to gain more knowledge in include:
- The effects that CBD has on the human body, both short and long term;
- The risks that CBD use poses for specific populations, such as children, the elderly, and pregnant women;
- CBD safety for pets; and
- The impact of combining multiple products that each contain CBD.
As these answers are being sought, the FDA is working to create a regulatory process that considers these things and more. This is going to take a while, due in part to the length of time necessary to conduct solid scientific studies, but the agency’s desire to support consumer safety suggests that more research will be conducted on CBD in the years ahead, likely resulting in more FDA drug and product approvals.
CBD and chiropractic
Speaking of research, studies are “being expanded into the power of the innate endocannabinoid system, fueled by CBD to improve homeostasis in the human body,” says Mark Lindholm, DC, of Natural Health Family Chiropractic in Elkhart, Ind., and author of A Doctor’s Perspective on CBD Oil: Science, Success Stories, and Changed Lives. Lindholm adds, “The clinical results I have experienced and seen with my patients have been encouraging and powerful.”
Lindholm further states that the much-anticipated growth of CBD products will open a financial opportunity that is “attractive to most chiropractors” in his CBD market analysis. He goes on to predict that, “within three years, it won’t be a matter of if your patients will be using CBD, but can you provide them with a high-quality product that is safe, clinically effective, third-party tested, researched and won’t cause them to flunk a drug test?”
The FDA is already shutting down fly-by-night companies, taking a firm stance against those that are filing false or misleading claims. In its consumer update the FDA states that it has “warned companies selling CBD products they claim are intended to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure serious diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, psychiatric disorders and diabetes.”
Yet, once CBD is better understood, better researched, and proven effective in the treatment of certain health conditions, it is a supplement that is perfect for chiropractic professionals says Lindholm.
“CBD is in our wheelhouse,” he says, “as many of the biggest benefits patients see from the use of these products are things chiropractors already focus on with their patients. The applications for using both oral and topical forms of CBD in a chiropractic clinic are enormous.”
