Click here to read an updated 2019 CBD article written by our pharmacist Hannah!
CBD (cannabidiol) therapy is a quickly growing field in the US. With the recent legalization of marijuana in some states and hemp processing legal in others, a lot of research is being done on the benefits of cannabis and hemp oils.
Here at Oswald’s we’ve been looking at a lot of natural and organic products lately. As good as modern medicine can be, it gets expensive and you need a prescription for many drugs that target specific conditions. This is why we started looking into CBD therapy.
Before we continue, I just want to clarify that the CBD products we currently sell are all completely legal. Our current CBD line, Ananda, lists section 7606 of federal law, which states “if the growing and cultivation of industrial hemp is allowed under state law overseen by the Department of Agriculture, then the product can be manufactured and sold as part of the state’s approved hemp pilot program.”
Whew. With that out of the way, let’s move on to the good stuff.
CBD Therapy in a Nutshell
This is a very brief ‘summary’ of CBD therapy, which was basically a nonexistent field for 80 years.
The field of CBD therapy (medicinal uses of cannabidiol) is fairly new. Cannabidiol was discovered in 1940, although research at the time deemed it to be not pharmaceutically active. Research as of 2018, however, disagrees with these initial conclusions.
There are 113 identified cannabinoids in the hemp plant, which accounts for close to 40% of the product from hemp extraction. Hemp is a variety of the cannabis plant. THC is one of the cannabinoids extracted from cannabis and is the chief perpetrator for the bad reputation of cannabis.
Believe it or not, the human body has what’s called an Endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS is a series of neurotransmitters that bind to cannabinoids introduced to the system. In layman’s terms: Your body’s central nervous system can process cannabinoids in ways that affect almost every part of your body.
Ananda’s Endocannabinoid System Diagram
THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the primary psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis. When people think of cannabis or marijuana, it is usually the effects of THC they are thinking about. Many CBD therapy lines (including our featured line, Ananda) filter out THC, eliminating the ‘getting high’ while keeping the ‘getting better.’
What CBD Therapy is Used for
So just what is this stuff good for? Well, you might be surprised.
ProjectCBD.org lists relief from common conditions like inflammation, pain, anxiety, psychosis, seizures, and spasms as maladies that can benefit from CBD. Major ailments including arthritis, diabetes, alcoholism, MS, chronic pain, schizophrenia, PTSD, depression, antibiotic-resistant infections, and epilepsy are being targeted for CBD treatment research sponsored by the US government.
Most uses of CBD oil have not been evaluated by medical professionals or approved by the FDA, but there are tens of thousands of users worldwide who sing the praises of CBD. People who begin using CBD products are usually at their wit’s end trying to find something that will help with whatever malady they are suffering from. Just like most other drugs, sometimes these people find what they are looking for.
Many medical reviews published in the last year have concluded after numerous trials that cannabidiol is an extremely effective treatment for certain types of epilepsy. Effective treatment of epileptic seizures with CBD is what has led to the field of CBD therapy exploding. If CDB medicine can help with intense seizures caused by a neurological condition like epilepsy, what else can it help with?
Side Effects and Disclaimers
CBD therapy isn’t all good. Just like all other drugs, it has side effects and has not been tested extensively for everything it can be recommended for.
Side effects for CBD supplements include diarrhea, dry mouth, lowered blood pressure, lightheadedness, drowsiness, and changes in appetite.
You should not start a CBD supplement regiment without first talking to your doctor or pharmacist. Any other medicines or prescriptions you are taking with CBD may need to be evaluated for any potential adverse reactions.
CBD may be able to help you relieve symptoms of conditions that have been plaguing you for years. If nothing else has worked for you or someone you know, CBD might be worth a shot.
Ananda Professional
Here’s where our choice for carrying Ananda as our CBD line of choice comes in: the chairman of Ananda’s parent company, Barry Lambert, started funding CBD research due to his granddaughter having a rare form of epilepsy that ‘modern medicine’ couldn’t help. CBD was the only thing that would help Barry’s granddaughter, so he decided to make a large investment and start researching how to extract the best parts of cannabis.
Ananda utilizes a ‘full-spectrum’ approach to CBD, an approach they call the ‘entourage effect.’ The entourage effect refers to refining groups of strong cannabinoids together. Cannabinoids achieve stronger therapeutic benefits when used together.
Remember the endocannabinoid system I mentioned earlier? Well, Ananda products seek to help the ECS maintain balance in the body. Ananda’s section on the ECS states that it “helps regulate sleep, appetite, digestion, hunger, mood, motor control, immune function, reproduction and fertility, pleasure and reward, pain, memory and temperature regulation.”
If you have any other questions, feel free to contact us or check out Ananda’s official FAQ.
For further reading check out Farma Health’s extensive CBD Article.
