WARING: This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is a addictive chemical.
Will CBD get me High?
Nope. The cannabis plant is made up of two main players: CBD and THC. CBD is the non-psychoactive portion of the plant, so what that means is you won't have any effects like euphoria, you won't feel sedated or altered in any way.
There are two possible exceptions to this. The first is that some people, for unknown reasons, just react differently to CBD. About 5% of people say they feel altered after taking CBD. Usually they're the same people who have side effects from Advil or Tylenol. You never know how your body will react to any new supplement, so when taking CBD for the first time, do so safely, preferably at night or evening hours.
It's also crucial to buy third-party-tested CBD for quality assurance. Because the FDA doesn't regulate CBD, it is possible to buy a product that is more or less potent than advertised, or even contains small amounts of THC.
What is Hemp?
You've probably heard the terms cannabis, marijuana, and hemp all tossed around in relation to CBD. The plant Cannabis sativa has two primary species, hemp and marijuana. Both contain CBD, but there's a much higher percentage in hemp, which also has very low (less than 0.3%) levels of THC compared to marijuana.
When people talk about hemp oil, they're referring to oil extracted from the seeds of the hemp plant. There are no cannabinoids—CBD or THC—in hemp oil. This ingredient is packed with healthy fats and often appears in beauty products for its moisturizing benefits.
What are the Benefits of CBD?
1. Manage Stress and Anxiety, Naturally:
A daily regimen of CBD, may reduce your body’s natural stress response and stress hormones (bye Cortisol!) according to mounting evidence.
A 2010 study cited in Journal of Psychopharmacology found an oral dose of 400 mg of CBD reduces symptoms of social anxiety disorder in humans. This study found CBD has anti-anxiety properties.
Patients with social anxiety disorder received a 100 mg dose of CBD one and a half hours before participating in a stress-triggering exercise. Results showed a significant reduction in anxiety levels, cognitive impairment, and reduced discomfort in speaking in social settings.
It’s important to recognize that these studies are investigating the efficacy of CBD isolate vs a full spectrum hemp extract.
Like a thermostat, CBD should kick in right when you need it, ideally bringing you back into balance. CBD may help our brains access and reduce the breakdown of important chemicals that we produce — like serotonin and anandamide (a.k.a the “bliss” molecule). The result is a life hopefully filled with more joy and relaxation… and way less stress.
2. Reduce Pain and Inflammation:
Research suggests that both sublingual (under the tongue) delivery and topical use, may support moderate chronic pain and inflammation reduction. A 2015 study indicated that mice given topical CBD for arthritis had significantly less inflammation and pain signals after only four days without any side effects.
3. Improve Your Sleep:
Get your zzz ? and feel rejuvenated. There are many ways in which CBD can support more restful and deeper sleep. The World Health Magazine in a 2017 report, stated, “There is also preliminary evidence that CBD may be a useful treatment for a number of other medical conditions. More research is needed, but there is promising evidence for chronic pain, anxiety and other challenges that prevent us from a deep sleep.
4. Heal Without a Habit:
CBD is not known to be addictive, so keeping the same dose in your regiment is perfectly fine.
5. Achieve Clarity Not a High:
CBD is not know to have psychoactive and phototropic effects. Yes, it is derived from Cannabis, however it only contains trace amounts of the compound THC, which is what has the altering effect. Even though THC and CBD share a nearly exact formula, one critical difference in their molecular structure that gives each compound unique medicinal properties. THC has a cyclic ring while CBD has a hydroxyl group –– and this one is different, ehy THC will get you high and CBD wont. In fact, CBD may moderate THC's effects by alleviating stress and anxiety.
Edibles, Tinchures, Vapes.. Best way to take it?
It really depends on what your goal is and why you're taking CBD in the first place.
Some people don't want to ingest anything and therefore prefer a topical CBD cream or ointment. You can apply it to muscles, joints, and ligaments and still get a nice, localized release.
The biggest differences between tinctures, edibles, and vape pens are speed of delivery and how long the effects last. Vape relief is faster but wears off faster too—usually in about two hours. Say you wake up in the morning and pulled your back out, you might want to take CBD through a vape pen, which delivers in 10 minutes.
Tinctures and edibles take longer to work but last four or five hours. A tincture looks like a little liquid that you put under your tongue, and you feel relief within half an hour. If you prefer to taste something, you choose an edible, whether it's a capsule, gummy, or baked good.
What Should I look for when Shopping for CBD?
There are literally hundreds of CBD brands at this point, here are a seven keys points you should keep in mind when shopping.
1). What does the label look like? We don't mean the color or millennial font. If it's a dietary supplement, it should have a back panel with an FDA disclaimer and warning section, according to Beatty. Ideally, it would be preferable to have access to their third-party lab testing results too.
2). Speaking of which: Has it been third-party tested? Nearly every expert Health spoke to agreed that your CBD products should be tested by a third party to confirm the label's accuracy. This is a real concern in the industry—take the 2017 Journal of the American Medical Association study, for example, which tested 84 CBD products and found that 26% contained lower doses than stated on the bottle. Look for a quality assurance stamp or certificate of analysis from a third party (aka not the actual brand) or check the retailer's website if you don't see it on the product's label.
3). What's the dosing? This is a confusing one for many people. A lot of brands don't do a good job of clearly instructing their consumer on the dosing. When thinking about dosing, also consider whether your CBD is full-spectrum or isolate: Full-spectrum could include other cannabinoids like cannabidivarin or cannabigerol (this is important, since there's something called the 'entourage effect' when all together, they're more effective than any one of them alone, while isolate is 100% CBD. Some people might only need 10 milligrams of full-spectrum CBD, but with isolate, even taking 80 or 100 milligrams might not have the same effect.
4). Does it claim to cure any diseases? If so, hard pass. You should avoid any company that makes disease claims. If so, it means they're either willing to break the rules or they're not aware of the rules.
5). Is there a batch number? You know how you check your raw chicken or bagged lettuce every time there is a recall to make sure the one you bought isn't going to make you sick? You should be able to do that with CBD products too. "This is a huge indicator as to whether they are following good manufacturing practices. There should be a way to identify this product in case it was improperly made so the company can carry out a recall.
6). Are there additional ingredients in there? As with any supplement, you want to know everything you're ingesting in addition to the main event. For example, sometimes [CBD manufacturers] will add melatonin.
7). Are you buying it IRL? You can find CBD products in shopping malls, convenience stores, even coffee shops in many states right now. But when in doubt, natural grocers are a safe brick-and-mortar place to buy CBD. Typically they have a vetting process that does some of the legwork for you.
Sounds Good, but is it Legal?
First, a little background. Industrial hemp was legal in the United States until Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act in 1937. Some of our early presidents grew hemp. Nearly 80 years later, the 2014 Farm Bill took the position that states can regulate the production of hemp and, as a result, CBD. Then last year, President Trump signed a new Farm Bill that made it federally legal to grow hemp.
This means that consumers everywhere, if they're compliant with their state, can grow hemp and use hemp products, and among those will be CBD.
In other words, the latest bill removed hemp from the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA's, purview. Hemp can now be grown freely under federal law, which, of course, is huge. While it's legal under federal law, it's up to each state to set their own policy.
These policies vary widely. Marijuana and CBD are currently fully legal for both medicinal and recreational purposes in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington D.C. In 23 states, it's legal in some form, such as for medicinal purposes. Another 14 states permit just CBD oil. But both are illegal in Idaho, Nebraska, and South Dakota. For more information, the organization Americans for Safe Access has a helpful guide to the specific laws in each state.
Can You Travel with CBD?
That same 2018 Farm Bill means you can now travel between states with legit CBD products, as long as the state has not approved CBD. Flying with CBD should pose no issues now. However, if you're traveling with a tincture, be mindful of TSA limits on how much liquid you can carry on an airplane, (You can also mail CBD products, just like companies that comply with the Bill can ship their hemp-derived CBD products anywhere in the U.S.).
Will it Show up on a Drug Test?
It should not, as long as you're buying third-party tested CBD with no added THC, but athletes, who often are required to take drug tests that are more sensitive, "could potentially test positive" for trace amounts of THC if they've been using CBD products.
Final Thoughts
As a huge supporter of going the natural route in terms of treating illness and health concerns, I believe that CBD oil and hemp products are just as good as any other natural products on the market. All natural products have their specific uses and benefits, so why not explore and enjoy them if you choose? It feels so good to know what you’re putting in your body, and it is even more fulfilling when you are choosing products in a conscious way. When you know what specific products do for your body, you can listen to your body and determine what is best for you at that particular time.
As always, treating the underlying cause of the issue is even more important, in my opinion. Symptoms are usually a result of a deeper-rooted issue, so try to listen to your body and identify what it is trying to tell you. When the body responds in illness, your body is saying, hey, pay attention to me! I believe that the body has the ability to heal itself with the proper care that we give it. Of course, natural products will always be the better option when dealing with health concerns that traditionally require over-the-counter or prescription medications.