SHEDDING LIGHT

Shedding Light on CBD by C. Mac McMillan, PharmD

By now, you may have heard of CBD oil or cannabidiol oil, but still have your concerns. How can something so healthy and so good for you be so controversial at the same time? You may have thought about trying someone else’s CBD oil, or have tried it and maybe felt there was no big difference in the way you felt afterwards. If this is the case, you are not alone. Cannabidiol oil therapy is very individualized. This means the dose and dosage form that work for one person may not work for you. One of the biggest fears of patients afraid to try CBD oil is they do not want to get “high”. But getting high only comes from tetrahydrocannabinol or THC which is the chemical that causes the psychotic effect in marijuana. Marijuana and hemp both come from the same species of the cannabis plant (Cannabis sativa); the difference is hemp naturally grows up to 15 feet tall and has very narrow stalks to support it. Marijuana was purposely cultivated to be short and bushy to increase the amount of THC that the plant would produce. Holding a leaf from either plant in front of you would not be enough to visually tell the difference. So, how do you determine which form of CBD is good for you? That depends on both your quest for overall wellness and the target area which you feel needs the most attention. For instance, if you are anxious because you have a big day coming up where you have to speak in front of a group of people and you want to keep your nerves calm, you may want to use a low dose patch to give you a slow release of CBD for half of the day. If you feel like you need to get a good night’s rest but don’t want the groggy feeling in the morning that many prescription sleep aids leave you with, you may want to try an oral capsule. There are topical and transdermal forms available to treat both conditions on the skin as well as those that can penetrate deep into muscle areas. There are also bath bombs that you drop in your tub that calm your mind and relax your body all while enjoying a hot bath. Transdermal CBD is so versatile that it often comes alone in salve or with other pain relievers like menthol, camphor, arnica and lidocaine, to name a few. When paired up this way, the CBD is the driving force that allows deep penetration and pain relief for six to eight hours, long after some of the traditional products on the market have worn off.

CBD is an old remedy that is relatively new as it reenters the market, and with the overall health benefits being realized, many people are seeing real results when they give it a try. For years it was rumored that cannabis was causing more help than harm to the human body, but it was hard to pinpoint anything scientific as long as it carried a negative social stigma. This was due to those who purposely cultivated and abused the species for the psychotic euphoria. It wasn’t until the endocannabinoid system (ECS) was discovered in the early 1990’s that the medical community began to realize we were really on to something. Furthermore, unbiased information is helping those who are interested to better understand that this ancient plant that grows like a weed really has two forms, and hemp—the one that contains very minimal amounts of the psychotic chemical THC—was actually used for its fiber strength in the paper, clothing and textile industries. But can a few bad apples really spoil the whole barrel? Yes! And they did! Now, healthcare providers are working delicately to undo years of miseducation about the plant and allow it to reenter the marketplace as a very beneficial nutritional and overall wellness supplement.

How do you choose the CBD oil product that’s good for you? Align yourself with a healthcare practitioner who knows about CBD oil and offers you options to address your issues. Realize that

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