Everyone is familiar with the effects of marijuana. Fewer people are familiar with the way in which CBD (cannabidiol) works in the human body and even fewer people understand how it impacts the brain. As a product, CBD is still in its infancy and there is a lot to learn, more research to be done and public education to happen.
Common knowledge is that CBD and marijuana are related. That is true and they both have an impact on the brain. The basic difference is that CBD doesn’t have THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) in it, so you won’t get the feeling of being stoned. You don’t need to feel stoned to get many of the same benefits though, as we’ll explore.
What Happens the Moment CBD Hits Your Bloodstream?
First, the way that you take your CBD has a lot to do with how quickly it goes to work. Drops or spray that are used sublingually will be absorbed into your blood stream within in a few moments and begin working within ten to fifteen minutes. If you consume CBD, as in adding drops to food or taking drops with food, you can expect it to take as long as digestion for it to find its way into your blood stream. That can be anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours.
To absorb the CBD oil in the quickest way possible, inhaling it into your lungs via vaping pen is the fastest method. The lungs move blood through constantly, absorbing oxygen from the air you breathe. The CBD is taken up in the blood stream from there, rather than having to go through the digestive process. This is like taking a bypass route, directly towards relief.
Now that the CBD is in your blood stream, it is carried through your body until it reaches the brain. More research is necessary to fully understand what happens, but here is what we do know:
There are two types of receptors in the brain that have been named CB1 and CB2 receptors. They are part of the endocannabinoid system, a part of your body that is designed just for using cannabinoids. Let that sink in a moment. That’s a huge piece of information. Your body is designed to work with cannabinoids.
Cannabinoids work in reverse compared to the way nerves are signaled typically. The brain connects to itself via neurons. Your brain controls the entire body, even the things that you aren’t consciously thinking about – like breathing. Crying, clenching your fist in anger, swallowing food, and everything that happens in your body is controlled by the brain and the neurons that travel back and forth.
While the brain is sending messages that cause anxiety and excitement, endocannabinoids can intercept some of this chaos because they travel in the opposite direction as everything else does. They are the guardians of what gets through. They can cause things to settle down and be more controlled in your head. Sometimes your brain gets overwhelmed when neurons (your brain’s circuitry) gets overwhelmed with too many thoughts going on at once. Think of the endocannabinoids as little soldiers who throw themselves in the way of the chaotic thoughts in your mind. They block them so that you don’t respond. In this way, anxiety is controlled; anxiety being just one example.
Your thoughts can be slowed, overactivity of the mind can be controlled, and thoughts can become more organized. You might be able to see, with only a small amount of imagination, how life-changing this can be for some people. In fact, anyone going through a stressful time could benefit from this affect. Your brain might be screaming orders out to your body like crazy, but the endocannabinoids only allow the things that really are important to get through. All the minor stuff is simply ignored. What a state of calm this can produce!
Cannabinoid Receptors, Endocannabinoids and What They All Do
Your body produces the endocannabinoids. Cannabinoids are introduced into your body via CBD or marijuana. They are keys, to put it simply, that activate the endocannabinoids to travel between neurons in the body, like little soldiers that are part of a happy army.
The difference in the way marijuana and CBD work is simple and explains why the huge difference in how we react. The CB1 reactor is the one that is most compatible with THC, which is in higher concentrations in marijuana. Extraordinarily little to almost no THC is present in CBD products. THC is what kicks the CB1 receptors into high gear. When CB1 is in charge, your little army acts differently.
CB receptors control how you feel regarding pain, mood, and whether you are hungry. They also dictate when you are sleepy. CB2 receptors are mostly involved in cells that deal with inflammation. Swelling, for example, happens because the body reacts to an injury by sending fluid to that place. This fluid is filled with immune cells. They are an important part of the healing process. Swelling is truthfully a good thing! Who knew?
CB2 receptors help to control inflammation but sometimes issues with chemical imbalances and autoimmune diseases can cause these receptors to not function correctly. Introducing cannabinoids to them help them work correctly to make inflammation go away and therefore, you feel better and heal faster.
So, we know that CBD has a use in reducing inflammation and THC has a use in causing the brain to sort of check-out for a while. Both have benefits and medically speaking, marijuana has its place when people are suffering severe pain. Largely, however, CBD alone has as many health benefits for people without suffering the psychoactive issues of not being in control of appetite, emotions and fine motor skills. You can still drive, study, and function clearly when using CBD.
There is a lot more to the way it all works, in precise scientific terms, and you can do more reading on that here. The process is fascinating and when you have a clear understanding of it all, you’ll realize the opportunities exist for using CBD oil in your personal journey to health. CBD products and hemp are often said to be what will change the world.
If more people are open to the use of these products, there is no doubt that the overall attitude of the entire world would change. The vibration of the entire planet would likely change because happiness would be far more prevalent.
Some of the Many Uses of CBD
CBD has a lot of everyday uses that every person on the planet can benefit from, no matter who they are or where they come from. Some suggestions for using CBD:
Inflammation
This is typically the most often used purpose of CBD oil. A lot of people enjoy the benefits of using CBD for things like arthritis pain, symptoms of chronic conditions such as Crohn’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, cancer treatment and more. If you have any sort of chronic condition, even fibromyalgia, you will likely get positive results from using CBD as a daily supplement to reduce your pain, inflammation and symptoms.
Mood
By activating the receptors and sending endocannabinoids to quiet down the neurons that are driving you mad, you can expect an elevation in mood as a result. People with depression, bipolar, anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and any other issue related to mood and mental health can benefit from the use of CBD. The endocannabinoids help bring balance back to your system, which improves your overall mood. This enhances the enjoyment of life for so many.
Sleep
CB receptors help in balancing sleep cycles and helping you get a god night’s sleep. Using CBD can help you beat insomnia and sleep more soundly so that you are well-rested. This also has an impact on overall health and mood. You will find your self to be less stressed when you are getting enough sleep. Sleep is important to the body. Without proper rest, the body doesn’t get the time it needs to repair bone, muscle, tissue, skin cells lost, little cuts and scratches that must be repaired, collagen that is needed must to be produced, etc. Your body needs that down time to do especially important work.
Appetite
If you are an overeater or an under-eater, CB1 might be the culprit. By introducing CBD into your system daily or with food, your body will be able to easily regulate appetite. If you are trying to lose weight, CBD can be a big factor in helping you get hunger and nervous eating under control. If you are needing to gain weight, CBD can help to stimulate your hunger when your body needs to eat. Your neurons should communicate your needs more effectively to your brain, with the CBD unlocking your receptors.
Pain
CBD helps to activate the receptors so that pain is dulled. If you suffer from joint pain, back pain, aches and pains associate with aging or from a bad accident that happened years ago, you may find great relief from the sharp edges of pain when using CBD. Some people have reported being able to avoid highly addictive opioids by using CBD oil instead.
There are other benefits of using CBD that still warrant more research. While there is little data to support these claims yet, many people claim to have seen these effects and there is little doubt that CBD has had a positive impact for them because of all we know mentioned above. Here is a list of things that may be in the future for CBD and if you have one of these conditions, you will likely want to give CBD a whirl.
Anti-tumor benefits
Some testing has shown that CBD use in high concentration has slowed down the growth of cancer cells. This may also prove to be a great benefit to those suffering similar ills, such as leukemia.
Anti-anxiety
Tests were done in 2011 that gave concrete evidence of drastic changes in patients who suffered from PTSD. There is great hope for CBD in the use of mental health in the future for patients who now suffer with bipolar, personality disorders, and other mental illness issues that have long been ignored for treatment without a lot of red tape. By having a product that people can take that is easily gotten, without prescription, there is hope for more mental health treatment options.
Additional Way CBD Works Within the Body
Research has also shown that CBD works in harmony with the serotonin receptor 1A. Serotonin plays an important role in regulating hormones like cortisol. Cortisol is associated with metabolism and stress response. Stress eating is something you’ve likely heard of before. Stress eating is a result of cortisol issues.
Cortisol issues also impact oxytocin. Oxytocin levels have an impact on social behavior, which can present as social anxiety. If you find yourself being prone to agoraphobia (not wanting to leave the house or venture far from your neighborhood) then you could have an issue with cortisol and ultimately, serotonin levels. CBD might be able to assist you resolve these issues.
For people who have withdrawn from family and friends by avoiding social functions, it is likely that your serotonin levels are the root problem. While there are medications for this, the list of side-effects is long and some of them can be serious. CBD could be your answer, with little to no side-effects at all. Plus, this is a natural (not man-made chemical) product that nature grew specially to work with the human body.
By influencing serotonin 1A receptors, CBD oil may play a particularly important role in the future treatment of neuropathic pain suffered by diabetics, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and nausea from chemotherapy.
Since before the 1930s, people were using marijuana because they claimed that it helped with all the afore mentioned issues. Marijuana was made illegal in the 30s because of the psychoactive nature of the plant. When people became impaired, it was frightening because it was largely misunderstood. Not to mention, even marijuana users today understand that they are impaired and should not be driving or operating heavy equipment. Motor skills and cognitive thinking are impacted just as if under the influence of alcohol. Alcohol was also made illegal at about the same time in our history. People truly fear what they do not understand.
Governments also hate what they can’t regulate and make money from. Now that we have scientific evidence of how THC and CBD impact the body, we know that we can extract one from the other so that people can enjoy the benefits without the high. When you don’t get stoned, you can function normally. Without the pharmaceutical industry tampering with the natural product, CBD oil, people can sure that they are getting a plant-based product that is safe. You can’t overdose on CBD. You might take a little too much and make yourself sleepy. Taking too much to start with might cause you to get a case of diarrhea that will clear as soon as you reduce your dose and then more slowly increase it until you feel the desire effects.
With the new regulations that allow the sale of CBD, the government is making money, people can get relief without prescriptions, most law enforcement agencies are onboard because there is less likelihood of car accidents are problems with otherwise impaired individuals too. The person who gains the most is you. You are now empowered to use a supplement that has a list of pros that is nearly endless.
The cons are basically, don’t take too much to start off with because you might get sleepy, have diarrhea, or even give yourself a headache…slow it down some. You aren’t told how much to use, you are impowered to figure that out for yourself. You aren’t going to tear your liver to shreds or hurt your kidneys. You won’t develop lethal doses in your bloodstream from taking CBD. Probably the worst that will happen is that you make yourself sleepy.
CBD comes from the hemp plant and hemp is often applauded as the plant that could save mankind. Aside from CBD extraction, hemp fibers can be used for clothing and other textiles. Hemp is edible from seeds to stalks. The oil is extracted from the entire plant, but the seeds also produce hemp oil, sometimes called hemp seed oil. The seeds can also be eaten as a diet supplement and are considered a whole source of protein. They are better for you than flax, and we all know how great flax is.
Hemp used to be used in ancient times for making pottery, it was part of the clay mix from which the pottery was made. Most people always assumed straw was used but hemp may have been used just as often in certain parts of the world. We have archeological evidence of hemp being used in places like Taiwan, for example. In China, hemp was discovered as a medicinal plant. They were always the herbal Master of Medicine. It should come as no surprised that if hemp held miracles inside of it, the Chinese herbologists would discover it, approximately 3000 years ago.
Sources:
- https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/news/20180507/cbd-oil-all-the-rage-but-is-it-safe-effective
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cbd-oil-benefits