For many, the mere mention of cannabis immediately conjures up images of people sitting on couches, eating junk food, and watching TV. However, times are changing and people are beginning to learn about all of the different cannabinoids that exist in the cannabis plant – including CBD. CBD is short for cannabidiol, and it is one of over 100 cannabinoids found in cannabis plants.
Unlike THC (the cannabinoid that gets users high), CBD does not have any psychoactive effects. This means that you can use it without feeling “high” or “stoned.” In recent years, CBD has become increasingly popular as more and more people learn about its potential health benefits. Here’s everything you need to know about CBD.
What Exactly is CBD?
The best place to start when learning about CBD is by answering the question “what is CBD?”. CBD is short for cannabidiol, and it is the second most active, of the 100+, cannabinoids in the marijuana plant.
Many people choose hemp when they want to consume CBD, however, there isn’t as much CBD in the hemp flower as there is if you were to consume CBD isolate. In terms of legality, as long as there is less than 0.3% THC in the extract, then it is completely legal.
What is the Best Way to Consume it?
The next biggest question that always gets asked is what is the best way that CBD should be consumed. The answer to this is another reason why CBD is so popular; there are many different ways to consume CBD, and each is useful for different situations.
For example, if you want to reduce pain over a longer period, CBD can be consumed in the form of edibles, which have a duration of around 8 hours. If you need help falling asleep, but you don’t have any problems staying asleep, then using a vaporizer from Daily High Club’s offer seen here can work very well, since the duration of the vaporizer’s effects is around 2 hours.
When choosing a consumption method for CBD, you also need to take into consideration how much you need to be consuming. It’s far easier to consume high concentrations of CBD in the form of edibles than it would be to vape it.
How is it Different from THC?
The next thing that needs to be understood is how CBD is different from THC, and this is where it gets interesting. Many people are under the impression that CBD is non-psychoactive, and many brands often quote it as being non-psychoactive. This isn’t true, the biggest difference between CBD and THC is that CBD is not intoxicating, due to the way CBD interacts with the brain.
To understand what this means, it’s important to understand how THC interacts with the brain. THC can mimic something called anandamide, which is a neurotransmitter that influences things like pleasure and reward, cognitive processes, memory, movement control, appetite regulation, and more. Because THC prevents other neurotransmitters from being released due to how tightly it binds to the CB1 receptors, intense euphoria and altered cognitive ability are the result.
This doesn’t happen when CBD binds with the CB1 receptors, because it doesn’t bind as tightly, and results in the brain creating more CB receptors, which then leads to an increase in the natural levels of anandamide within the body. This is why CBD can provide many of the same benefits as THC, minus the intoxicating response.
What Benefits Does it Offer?
In terms of the benefits that CBD provides, there are quite a few. One of the primary reasons why many people consume CBD is because it provides immense pain relief due to its anti-inflammatory properties. More than this, CBD has also shown great promise in relieving the symptoms of anxiety. One test showed that those who consumed CBD before speaking in public showed far fewer symptoms of anxiety than those who did not consume anything.
CBD is also being used to manage a wide variety of medical conditions, such as addiction, insomnia, epilepsy, arthritis, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and more. Further research will need to be conducted to determine the degree to which CBD helps, and how much is needed to manage the various conditions.
