Getty Image / Fayez Nureldine / AFP
At 70-years-old, former WWE star and wrestling legend Hulk Hogan is feeling better than he has in years and that’s due in large part to breaking a ‘vicious cycle’ of pain pill addiction.
Speaking with Muscle and Health Editor-in-Chief Danni Levy, Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) discussed how the damaged done to his body from wrestling led to 25 surgical procedures in rapid succession, and how the pain/recovery from those procedures left him battling opioid addiction.
In the video below, Hogan said “I had doctors writing me prescription after prescription, and all of a sudden, it became a vicious cycle. I was hitting the pain pills hard because I’d had to endure twenty-five procedures, including ten to my back, facial operations from being kicked, knee and hip replacements and abdominal and shoulder surgeries.”
So, I’d be remiss not to mention at this point that Hulk Hogan has launched his own CBD/Cannabis/Mushroom line of products with Carma HoldCo, the company behind Mike Tyson’s weed gummy ears and Ric Flair’s ‘Ric Flair Drip’. Because next in the interview, Hogan discusses how coming to discover CBD helped him break that ‘vicious cycle’ of pain pill addiction. Which, there’s no reason to doubt, but it must be mentioned that Hulk Hogan has a financial interest in CBD’s success now.
He went on to say:
“There was a period of time, about five or six years ago, where I was in crazy pain to the extent I couldn’t even function. When you have back surgery, it takes a good year for your body to recover, yet they were cutting on me every four months. I needed pain meds at that stage, that’s for sure. But once things started to wind down, they continued giving me the same meds. It got to a point where I’d recovered from the tenth back surgery, and the pharmacy would call me and say, ‘your prescription’s ready,’ and like a dog chasing a bone, I’d go pick it up. ”
“Then, finally, I just looked at myself and said, “I’m not in pain. I don’t need this. My body hurts from all the wrestling injuries, but I’m not in this excruciating pain that I can’t live with.” But then the CBD took me to a place where my joints don’t hurt so much when I wake up. When I pick weights up, I don’t have to do four or five sets before things start to become clear. I can tell as soon as the CBD hits my system, it calms everything down. The inflammation instantly went away with CBD. Usually, my wrists are swollen like crazy by the end of the day. Now they’re fine. I noticed an immediate change as soon as I started on it.”
The latter reads a bit like a sales pitch but I can say, anecdotally, I’ve seen success in my own life in the past from using CBD to treat athletic injuries. And a former roommate of mine who went on to become an MLB All-Star pitcher saw his career completely rejuvenated thanks to CBD helping him reverse muscle loss.
At the end of the day, I think the big takeaway here is Hulk Hogan found what worked best for him and he was able to break the vicious cycle of pain pill addiction that so many people in American have suffered from and continue to suffer with.
If you’d prefer to read through his interview versus watching it, you can click through on that link back at the top of the article.