Abstract
The use of cannabidiol (CBD) among athletes is becoming extensive and frequent. This could be due to the elimination of CBD from the list of prohibited substances by federations and international institutions of sport. The legalization and resulting production, and commercialization of CBD, could increase its intake in sports professionals. This commercialization of cannabinoids has fueled a race to study their properties, benefits, and risks for health and performance in athletes. Although there is evidence that suggests some beneficial properties such as anxiolytics, antidepressants, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidants among others, the evidence presented so far is neither clear nor conclusive. There are significant gaps in knowledge of the physiological pathways that explain the role of CBD in sports performance. This mini-review examines evidence suggesting that CBD has the potential to be used as a part of the strategies to recover from fatigue and muscle damage related to physical and cognitive exertion in sports.
Highlights
Recovery has become a crucial topic in recent sports research and could determine physical (Trecroci et al, 2020b), physiological (Rojas-Valverde et al, 2018), and cognitive (Trecroci et al, 2020a) performance, considering the high frequency and density of competitions
Central and peripheral fatigue related to physical exercise manifests itself as pain, weakness, inflammation, loss of functional mobility, decreased force generation, feeling of tiredness, alteration of vital signs, and reduced concentration, among others
Considering that exercise-related damage and fatigue mediate inflammation, proliferation, and oxidative stress in most cases, it is hypothesized that CBD-related inhibitions in oxidative stress and neuroinflammation could have some therapeutic potential in sports research (Gamelin et al, 2020)
Summary
Recovery has become a crucial topic in recent sports research and could determine physical (Trecroci et al, 2020b), physiological (Rojas-Valverde et al, 2018), and cognitive (Trecroci et al, 2020a) performance, considering the high frequency and density of competitions This has led the researchers, coaches, and athletes making plans and managing recovery strategies as part of the general exercise prescription (Martínez-Guardado et al, 2020). One of the best known strategies is the intake of plant-derived products such as ginseng (Rojas-Valverde et al, 2020), green tea (Machado et al, 2018), cherries (Bell et al, 2014), curcumin (Fernández-Lázaro et al, 2020), spinach (Bohlooli et al, 2014), and beetroot (RojasValverde et al, 2020) These organic products have shown anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and analgesic properties as other cognitive benefits that promote recovery from exercise-related fatigue (Bongiovanni et al, 2020)
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