Of the 100+ known cannabinoids found in the genus, Cannabis, cannabidiol, commonly known as CBD, is definitely one of the most fascinating. As a cannabis coach, the most frequent question I hear is, “how can CBD oil aid so many different conditions. It doesn’t make sense.” Hopefully this beginner’s CBD guide will shed a little light on this fantastic cannabinoid.
Allopathic and homeopathic medicine
It doesn’t make sense in our current and most frequently applied model of allopathic medicine (a system of medical practice that aims to combat disease by the use of remedies, as drugs or surgery, producing effects different from or incompatible with those produced by the disease being treated). However, it does make sense homeopathically (a system of medical practice that treats a disease especially by the administration of minute doses of a remedy that would in larger amounts produce symptoms in healthy persons similar to those of the disease). as a whole, we are accustomed to Pharmaceuticals or surgery for a problem, which is the basis of allopathic medicine and we don’t generally think in terms of 1 treatment handling a variety of processes and ills. In homeopathy, the working theory is less, is more, and one should take the least amount that is therapeutically effective.
The answer to this most frequent question is both simple and complex: the phytocannabinoids system of the cannabis plant, which protects the plant from external and internal threats, and of which there are over 400 different chemicals, works synergistically with our own endogenous cannabinoids system, called the endocannabinoid system (-endo meaning internal or within). This system, discovered in the 1990s and named after the cannabis plant, helps modulate our internal system through a process called upregulation. Medicine.net defines upregulation as “an increase in the number of receptors on the surface of target cells, making the cells more sensitive to a hormone or other agent.” For example, there is an increase in uterine oxytocin receptors in the third trimester of pregnancy, promoting the contraction of the smooth muscle of the uterus. In cannabis terms, the endocannabinoid system receptors are increased by the use of cannabis.
Cannabidiol breaks open the allopathic model and crosses the barrier of allopathic and homoeopathic medicine just as it crosses our blood brain barrier. Learning how to maintain health, heal disease, and malfunction in our bodies through more natural means, weather vegetable, mineral, or animal in nature is how the homoeopathic medicine model works. Cannabis falls directly in the middle of the homoeopathic model. We are now learning that the best medicine is integrative, employing both homoeopathic and allopathic models keeps us far healthier than the single method either camp employs.
How CBD works
We have an endocannabinoid system (ECS) which consists of CB1 receptors and CB2 receptors in the brain, organs, connective tissues, glands, and immune cells of our body. Scientists believe there are more than two receptors, but they remain elusive at this time, although they are rapidly gaining on identifying a CB3 receptor.
The endocannabinoid system performs myriad different tasks for us, but it’s goal remains constant and that is to provide balance or homeostasis, which simply means “the maintenance of a stable internal environment despite any fluctuations in the external environment.” The simple answer to the often asked question of how CBD provides so many beneficial in differing functions within our bodies and aids so many different disease functions lies squarely within the complex endo cannabinoids system. If you are healthy, take small doses of CBD to maintain your endocannabinoid health as you would any vitamin, in low and daily doses. If you have MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, autoimmune, cancer, or any other complex disease, take CBD in higher doses to help modulate or fix those diseases and to help control pain, inflammation, and balance within your system. If you have neurological issues, you will need a combination of THC and CBD to regain your balance in health.
Taken alone pure CBD does not have properties to make you feel euphoric and you may not even feel it working in your body at first, but it is working in various and definitive ways. You will sleep better, have less anxiety, lower inflammation, and have many other positive effects, but the high associated with THC is not a complication with CBD. CBD isn’t always something that you will necessarily notice affecting you immediately if you have been sick for a while; It has to have time to modulate and repair your system first period you may not feel anything just like you don’t feel vitamins working right away, but trust that it is in there regulating, controlling, and healing your system. CBD also regulates the high of THC, so it is also a convenient stand by for those who find they have overmedicated with THC.
Sources of CBD
There are two main sources of CBD, the hemp and the cannabis plants. At THC levels between 0 and .3%, if you are healthy and taking CBD to remain that way, the hemp plant is sufficient to perform that duty for you. It can also significantly help with issues such as epilepsy, high blood pressure, inflammation, and pain as demonstrated through the Charlotte’s Web hemp. Charlotte’s Web is named for Charlotte Figi, a little girl who is gone from constant seizures lasting hours to no seizures. Little Charlotte, the youngest patient at the time in Colorado to try CBD, was just two when she began her CBD routine.
Hemp CBD does not require a license in Florida. However, if you’re chronically ill or have major illnesses, you will want to obtain your cannabis card to take the medical grade full spectrum CBD found from the cannabis plant. Cannabis obtained CBD has various amounts of THC and other cannabinoids to help you heal faster and which are more powerful than CBD alone. This process is known as the “entourage effect,” meaning your own cannabinoids will respond more quickly to the upregulation because of the properties within the plant.
Currently...
Growers and breeders who are now aware of the benefits of CBD to our bodies are working hard to develop strains which carry varying levels of THC and high CBD for a faster response to various diseases. They aren’t trying to breed the THC out of the plant, rather they are breeding it to increase the ratio of CBD to the THC. Strains like “Katelyn Faith,” one of the CBD richest strains in the world was named after an 8 year old girl from Montevideo Minnesota who died from complications of Battens Disease less than four months before Minnesota’s medical cannabis law took effect. The strain “ACDC” is typically 19% or greater. Strains such as “Remedy” contain over 15% cannabidiol, while “Cannatonic” is 1:1 CBD to THC and the “Harlequin” medical strain stands at a 5:2 ratio of CBD to THC. It is important to note that some of these cannabis strains incorporating the entourage effect of the full cannabis plant, may cause you to feel some psychotropic activity, but you still won’t feel “high.”
From skin products, to soaps, edibles, oils, and flower, CBD is an incredible natural product that helps modulate so many different problems, diseases and conditions including cancer and addictions. If you are over 40, I personally recommended using them all. I love my hemp derived anti-aging face cream and soap. It has really made a difference in my skin and has completely eradicated psoriasis. For muscle spasms, I lavishly rub CBD massage oil into muscles and spasms are gone within a few minutes. My blood pressure is lower, my heart rate is lower, migraines are reduced, inflammation markers are down, and all my test results are good. If there ever were a fountain of youth, I am convinced CBD is it because I am living proof. As a lupus, osteoporosis, and migraine sufferer, I suffer no more and I am recapturing some of the energy and vitality of my youth.
Types of CBD
ISOLATE
Contains only CBD. There are no other cannabinoids, including THC, or terpenes.
MULTI-SPECTRUM
Contains isolate and other components such as terpenes or flavonoids.
FULL SPECTRUM
Contains full range of cannabinoids, including less than .3% THC as well as terpenes, flavonoids, and other components.
A brief side-note
There is a reason our government holds patent number US6630507B1 which states, “cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This newfound property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated disease, such as ischemic, age related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectant’s, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and HIV dementia.” It goes on further to expressly calling out CBD for its non-psychotropic activity.
Let's move forward
Thomas Edison said, “there were never so many able, active minds at work on the problems of diseases now, and all their discoveries are tending toward the simple truth that you can’t improve on nature.” With over 27,000 scientific articles on cannabinoids research, it is now quite obvious that this statement holds true. Happy healing!
