Information-hungry patients are turning to Google in droves to research cannabidiol or CBD, with searches now eclipsing those for vaccination and exercise, according to US researchers.

After remaining stable until the end of 2014, search volumes for CBD took off, increasing year on year since then, with more than six million searches in the US in April 2019 alone, researchers from the University of California (UC) San Diego found.

Their review of search volumes for CBD and other health topics from 2004 to 2019 revealed that the number of searches for CBD was about 60% higher than for vaccination or exercise.

Unique CBD searches were over seven times higher than searches for acupuncture and also far out-stripped searches for meditation (three times higher) and apple cider vinegar (five times higher), the researchers reported in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.