CBD Myths: Don’t Let These Fool You
With CBD use on the rise, it’s no surprise that there are various myths floating around. If you’re unable or unwilling to separate fact from fiction, you may end up making a mistake in regards to how you buy and use CBD (and that’s just the start). With that in mind, let’s dive into five of the most common CBD myths: CBD is Addictive You don’t have to look far online to find an article telling you that CBD is addictive.  While it’s okay to have this concern, it’s nothing more than a misconception. This is typically believed because of the association of CBD with the marijuana plant. If you have concerns about taking CBD, especially those pertaining to addiction, consult with your doctor. They can provide more information on how CBD affects your mind and body. CBD Can Get You High Once again, this is a widely held myth because of the fact that CBD products, like CBD oil and CBD gummies, are extracted from the marijuana plant. Here’s what you need to know: cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid. In other words, it doesn’t have the power to alter your mental state.  Even though CBD can’t get you high, it does have the potential to benefit you in many ways, such as boosting your energy level.  CBD is Too “New” to Use Although CBD may be new to you, it’s been used by people for hundreds upon hundreds of years. It didn’t come in the same form as what you have access to today, but it was used nonetheless. For example, many people have used CBD in folk medicine and religious ceremonies.  So, while CBD may be something you’re just considering for the first time, it’s anything but new.  It is Illegal There’s a lot of gray area when it comes to the legalization of marijuana. What states is marijuana legal? Is the federal government okay with the use of marijuana in states that have passed legislation? Does CBD fit into the same category? Depending on where you live, it may be illegal to buy and/or use CBD and marijuana. However, don’t assume that this is the case. Learn more about the laws in your state, as this will help you decide if you can legally use CBD. How Do I Know What’s True? That’s the million-dollar question. You want to use CBD to your advantage, but you’re unsure of exactly what’s available and whether it’s even legal in your state. Once you learn more about legislation in your state, turn your attention to reputable sources on the topic of CBD.  For example, you can browse online retailers of CBD to learn more about their products, intended use, and potential benefits. Or maybe there’s a CBD store in your local area that can point you in the right direction. Final Thoughts on CBD Myths Call them myths, misconceptions, or simple misinformation. Regardless, you need to separate fact from fiction when it comes to buying and using CBD. Start by learning more about the four myths above, and then expand into other areas of interest. You’ll soon have a better understanding of all things CBD. 
Are You Familiar With the Long and Rich History of Hemp?
While you may only be familiar with how hemp is used in today’s day and age, it actually has a storied history that’s well worth paying attention to. When we look at the past, it’s easier to see how hemp can be used for the better in the future. For instance, the 2018 United States farm bill was a big step in the right direction as it legalized the cultivation of hemp throughout the United States.  For the sake of this article, we’re going to focus on the long history of hemp, including how it was used many (many) years ago. Hemp Clothing Today, it’s easy to make clothing with the right technology and access to high-quality products such as varying types of cotton. However, this wasn’t always the case - and that’s why hemp was used far and wide for clothing. Over the years, archaeologists have found hemp clothing at historical sites across the globe. One such example found in modern-day Iraq is believed to be more than 10,000 years old. So, while hemp clothing isn’t popular today, this wasn’t always the case.  Hemp Paper Just the same as clothes, paper wasn’t easy to come by thousands of years ago. To combat this, hemp was used to produce it in small quantities.  While unsubstantiated, it’s believed that Ts’ai Lun, a Chinese court official, invented paper by crushing hemp and combining the result with tree bark. Today, paper is made from trees, but that wasn’t always the case. Hemp was the go-to material for many years.  Food  Most people don’t think about hemp being food, but when you look back at history this wasn’t always the case. Take for instance hemp seeds. These can be consumed raw, cooked for easier digestion, and even pressed into an oil. Adding to this, many people have used the flowers from hemp to make tea.   Thanks to the ease of growth and nutritional benefits, hemp was a staple in many people’s diets from year’s past.  Pain Relief  Get this: there is written evidence that hemp was used as a pain reliever thousands of years ago. By using it to mix teas and oils, people from ancient China relied on the concoctions to treat a variety of ailments. Remember, this is well before the days of modern medicine. Hemp was one of the only options, and many historians agree that it was widely used. Hemp and Religion It should come as no surprise that hemp has been part of religious ceremonies for thousands of years.  For example, there are religions that believe the effect of hemp allows them to better connect with their spiritual side. You’re not going to find too many people today who are using hemp for religious purposes, but it’s interesting to consider how this was mainstream years ago. What Are Your Thoughts on the Future? Now that you have a better idea of how hemp was used in the past, it’s time to turn your attention toward the future. Do you see hemp growing in popularity, once again, over the years to come? Could you even see it being used in one or more of the ways detailed above? With the cultivation of hemp on the rise in the United States - as well as many other parts of the world - it’ll be interesting to see the impact that it has over the next several years. Don’t be surprised if people find new and exciting ways to use hemp in their life.
Could These Foods be Responsible for Your Stress?
In today’s day and age, there’s no denying the fact that avoiding stress is easier said than done. And while it’s okay to have some stress in your life - as there’s no way around it - you must protect against this taking a toll on your mental and physical health and well-being. There are a variety of things that can lead to an abundance of stress in your life, including things such as your job, your family, your health, and your financial circumstances. However, there’s something you may be overlooking: Your diet.  If you’re eating unhealthy, assuming that it has nothing to do with stress, you’re making a big mistake. Here are five things you should cut from your diet if you’re concerned about stress getting the best of you in the future. Sugar Sugar makes you feel good when you’re eating it, but that doesn’t last long. And if you’re stressed out as it is, the last thing you want to do is add sugar to your diet. When you’re stressed, your body releases cortisol, which helps manage that stress as well as your sugar levels.  However, when your cortisol levels rise, it can result in a variety of health concerns such as headaches, sleep problems, and a weakened immune system. Alcohol Just the same as sugar, you know that an alcoholic beverage is a great way to unwind. But before you pick up that bottle, it’s best that you first consider the impact it could have on your health. It’s easy to believe that alcohol is a good way to melt away stress, but it can actually have the opposite effect on your body. It increases the production of stress-causing hormones, which only makes things worse on you in the long run. An alcoholic beverage every now and again is okay, but don’t go overboard. If you do, it could lead to more stress in your life - and that’s what you’re trying to avoid. Processed Carbohydrates Yes, you’ll enjoy the taste when it’s going down, but processed carbs can result in fluctuating blood sugar levels, which can also result in mood swings.  Additionally, processed carbs can increase inflammation in your body, which puts more strain on you and additional stress.  Caffeine Just the same as alcohol, it’s easy to believe that caffeine can help control stress. After all, you rely on it to wake you up and help you to deal with all the stress that the day brings. The problem with caffeine is that it can overstimulate your adrenal glands, which increases your heart rate and blood pressure. Subsequently, you’ll feel a jolt of anxiety and stress.   Coffee is the number one culprit of caffeine, but other foods and beverages with a high concentration include energy drinks, tea, many types of soda, and chocolate. Sodium Are you in the habit of reviewing food and drink labels before you consume them? If so, you know that high levels of sodium are everywhere. Sodium can cause stress when consumed in large amounts, such as is the case with most processed foods.  Also, sodium increases your blood pressure, which impacts your body’s ability to fight stress. How to Fight Back Against Stress At this point, you may have concerns about your diet. You may even realize that you need to change what you eat and drink to improve your health. Fortunately, when you make changes for the better, you’ll realize that you’re better equipped to deal with stress.  You can also look into alternative methods of fighting stress, such as exercise, massage therapy, and the use of cannabidiol (CBD) supplements.  No matter what you do, don’t let stress linger. If it’s dragging you down and impacting the way you live, as well as your health, make some changes for the better. 
If you’ve done any research on cannabidiol (CBD), you’ve probably been barraged with content about its wonders and how it effectively helps everyone who takes it. But the truth is, CBD doesn’t help everyone, and if you’ve used a CBD oil tincture that didn’t work for you, you might be confused. There are several reasons that CBD might not work. Sometimes it’s user error and other times it has to do with the quality of the product or even your DNA. Let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons CBD actually isn’t for everyone. You’re using the wrong dose. Most of the time, individuals who aren’t feeling the effects of CBD simply aren’t using the correct dose. They might take too much and experience unpleasant side effects as well. Experts recommend that you use a small dose at first and incrementally work your way up. This allows you to see how your body will tolerate the CBD. It will also build-up CBD in your endocannabinoid system, just like acetaminophen or ibuprofen do. This may change the dose you need overtime. You’re expecting too much from it. Many users of CBD oil believe that it will transform their worlds. If you’ve ever used medical marijuana before, you might expect the same transformative results. However, CBD is not marijuana, and it can do wonderful things, but that doesn’t mean it will offer all the benefits you imagined. First, let’s look at what CBD is and how it differs from other cannabis products. Cannabidiol is a product of the hemp plant. It’s refined using a special CO2 extraction method that fully removes the THC from the product. If you use isolate CBD, it takes out all the terpenes and vitamins that come from the hemp plant as well. Broad spectrum leaves those goodies in without traces of THC. Full spectrum has less than 0.3 percent THC, but it’s not noticeable enough to register in your system. Without THC in your cannabis products, you can’t get high. For many users of medical marijuana, getting high is one of the biggest benefits because it removes the pain and suffering and helps calm your nerves. You won’t get that with CBD sold legally throughout the United States. Even if you’re fully aware that you’re not going to get high from your CBD dose, you might still be expecting more than the product can give you.  You bought your CBD from the wrong company. Don’t buy false advertising tricks that claim CBD is the same no matter where you buy it. CBD is in somewhat of a rocky industry, and it’s easy to find a good product from a reputable company if you know what to look for. However, it’s not FDA regulated, and shady companies might falsely advertise the contents of their oil. Always look for CBD that’s been carefully cultivated using fully organic hemp farming methods. It should also be third-party lab tested with published results to show that you’re getting what you pay for. You gave up too early. CBD products work by influencing the endocannabinoid system in your body. This system is responsible for hormone regulation and helping the body reach homeostasis. You might feel a difference after using CBD one time because it caused the cannabinoid levels in your blood to spike. However, not everyone feels that, and it’s always more effective when you give it time. CBD needs time to build up in your system before it can be truly effective. With the right dosages and several days, weeks, or even months of using CBD, you will probably notice a significant difference in your system. Many medications work this way, and you don’t want to give up on CBD too early. You might have an undiagnosed medical condition that CBD can’t help. Perhaps your expectations for CBD aren’t being fulfilled because it’s not the right thing to treat what you have. CBD can do a lot for helping you relieve symptoms of a problem, but it can’t cure you. If you’re not taking the proper medications for the illness you’re experiencing, you won’t be getting any better. Additionally, you might be experiencing an unknown illness that’s currently undiagnosed. You might be trying to use CBD to heal you, but the problem gets worse because you don’t have the direction of a doctor and the right medications to take care of it. Your CBD dose will interact with a prescription medication. Interactions with CBD are rare. Many CBD users even report feeling no side effects at all when using CBD. However, there are a few uncommonly used medications that CBD can interact with. Studies have shown that those who use CBD or other cannabis products can experience reactions if they’re already taking blood thinning drugs, sedatives, anti-seizure medications, chemotherapy drugs, and even a few allergy medications. There’s not a full list of drugs that interact with CBD because there has not been enough research on the subject to produce it. Therefore, you should always consult with a physician who’s familiar with CBD before using it if you’re currently taking a prescription medication. You’re already feeling great every day! CBD is not made for those who are already perfectly healthy.  As mentioned previously, sometimes users take CBD products, like CBD gummies, expecting a floating entourage effect. They expect to feel 10 times better than they did before—but that only works if you were feeling poorly before. CBD can’t fix what’s broken if nothing is, in fact, broken. So, keep CBD in mind for when you fall upon hardship in future times. But for now, enjoy feeling great every day without helpful supplements like CBD.
4 Overlooked Compounds Found In Full Spectrum CBD Products
You would be forgiven to think that all CBD products, such as CBD oil and CBD gummies, are composed of just cannabidiol (CBD) with no other ingredients or chemical compounds.  Whilst different species of cannabis can be treated to isolate just the CBD component, there are actually 421 building blocks found within cannabis, with cannabidiol being one. But what are some of these other compounds and what can they do for us? Here are 5 overlooked compounds that can be found in full spectrum CBD products.  Terpenes  It is easy to overlook terpenes in favour of the more famous CBD compound, but research is suggesting that terpenes are responsible for a wide range of benefits. Like other compounds found in cannabis, terpenes binds with our CB2 receptors, which are found on top of the cells within our immune system. It is this binding that can reduce inflammation and help to modulate immune system responses. Terpenes also give cannabis its unique smell and depending on the quantities of the types of terpenes found with your particular product, the smell can change from batch to batch.  CBG CBG was first uncovered by researchers in the late 1960’s and has been deemed as the mother of all cannabinoids. Like is daughter CBD, CBG in a non-intoxicating compound that can produce an array of physiological benefits. The research into CBG is still in its infancy but it is thought that it antibacterial and mood stabilising properties. One of the reasons that CBG is often overlooked is due to the expense that it costs to synthesize it, as CBG gives rise to the other 80+ cannabinoids found in cannabis, it takes a lot of processing to produce a small quantity.  CBC  Cannabichromene is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid, just like it’s sister CBD. One of the key differences between CBC and CBD is that CBC doesn’t bind with the cannabis receptors located within our bodies, but it is thought that it has anti-tumour capabilities. Due to its inability to bind with the receptors, CBC needs to work with other cannabinoids to allow its healing properties to take hold. This is known as the entourage effect where the effects of cannabis on the body become more than the sum of its parts.  CBDV Cannabidivarin is also a non-psychoactive cannabinoid but it is thought that it works with CBD to produce anti-convulsant properties. When research was in its infancy it was thought that CBDV bound with CB1 receptors which are located in the brain to produce the anti-convulsant properties, however new research is suggesting that it binds with an entirely different set of receptors to help modulate this condition. Research is still ongoing into CBDV and its effects on the body.   Final Considerations  These four overlooked compounds can be found in full spectrum or whole plant extracts. Research is still ongoing into how they interact with one another as well as how they work together to produce some of the health benefits listed here. It is worth noting that if you are concerned about taking a full spectrum or whole plant extract product due to the levels of THC, then look for a CBD brand that has been derived from hemp, as this is naturally lower in THC.  The health and wellness industry has jumped on CBD as the miracle cure for an array of conditions, when in actual fact it is the other 420 compounds working together that produce the largest array of benefits. Whilst the research is still in its early stages when we are talking about these compounds, what is clear is that they all work together to produce benefits that are more than the sum of their parts. 
5 Cliches about CBD You Should Avoid
As a Public Service Announcement, and if you haven’t already heard, cannabinoids and get-you-high marijuana are NOT the same thing!