- CBD products are growing in popularity to help treat pain and soreness.
- This has helped some users cut down on their perscription drug habits.
- Professional golfer Rickie Fowlers is one example of how CBD is helping athletes do the same.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Professional athletes are constantly looking for innovations to push their performance level, but they're also taking that same approach to finding the most effective recovery methods.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the newest innovations in sports recovery that gives athletes an alternative to prescription painkillers and opioids. It is one of the many chemical compounds found in cannabis or marijuana plants but is free of psychoactive side effects.
The chemical is formatted into oils and creams that can have anti-inflammatory effects if spread onto inflamed or sore parts of the body and mimic the benefits of other prescription drugs by improving mood, sleep, metabolism, and appetite.
Professional golfer Rickie Fowler is one of several athletes to partner with a CBD brand and advocate for its use in sports, alongside other big-name stars like NFL tight end Rob Gronkowski, women's soccer player Megan Rapinoe, and NBA player Klay Thompson.
Fowler has incorporated Level Select CBD products as a central part of his athletic routine, which allows him to avoid high-risk painkillers. He believes it's only a matter of time before it becomes a universal standard in sports recovery.
"I think this is just the start of it," Fowler told Insider. "There's a lot of great benefits of not having to resort to pills or painkillers. This is something that is natural and a lot easier on the body as far as not having to break down anything."
CBD has allowed Fowler to limit his exposure to painkillers to this point in his career but is well aware of the greater dangers that other athletes face with dependence on more dangerous drugs.
"For me, it would be Advil or ibuprofen here or there, so it wasn't anything crazy, but hearing other stories and what those products can do to your body that you don't really feel or don't really know about, that's definitely something to take into account," he said.
One example of a widely-used prescription drug among athletes that CBD may help replace is Toradol. It is an injectable nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug prominently used among athletes in all major sports, especially the NFL.
The drug comes with a high risk of internal bleeding and kidney problems-including kidney failure-when used for an extended period, which is precisely what most NFL players do with it.
In 2017, more than 1,500 former players filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the league and its teams of repeatedly administering painkillers like Toradol before and during games, without disclosing long-term risks and side effects. Toradol was allegedly not even the only painkiller being pushed on players.
One complaint in the lawsuit claimed that former Baltimore Ravens fullback Charles Evans would take an unlabeled envelope full of Motrin and Percocet given to him by the team's trainer, according to CNN. Evans died in 2008 of heart failure due to an enlarged heart, despite no family history of heart problems. While it was never confirmed that the drugs led directly to Evans' death, regular use of anti-inflammatories can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke from 10% to 50%, according to the American Heart Association.
Cannabis is currently a banned substance in the NFL and NBA, which includes related substances like CBD. However, progress is being made toward loosening those restrictions across all sports.
The NFL and the NFLPA filed a Request for Information (RFI) to researchers studying pain management alternatives to opioids in February.
CBD was among the top alternatives the league was looking to explore and even requested specific information about "The impact of cannabis or cannabinoids on athletic performance in NFL players."
Gronkowski is one figure who may prove to be an example of how CBD can lengthen an NFL player's career. Gronkowski, who underwent nine surgeries in his career, retired after the 2018 season at the age of 29 due to chronic pain but returned in 2020 to win a Super Bowl with The Tampa Bay Buccanneers.
During Gronkowski's year away from football, he experimented with CBD to help treat the pain he accumulated while playing football, he announced during a press conference for CBD Medic.
The recovery from CBD helped Gronkowski achieve a "pain-free" life for the first time since he entered the league. It is what allowed Gronkowski to get into what he called "the best shape of his life" and return to the NFL last season at the age of 31 to play a productive role for Tampa Bay's championship run. He is now one of the league's biggest advocates for allowing players to use CBD for recovery.
"I truly believe that all athletes should be able to use it," he told NBC.