With every passing year, more and more people are starting to look for options on how to treat their diseases and conditions. Arthritis, cancer, stress, anxiety, panic attacks, and sleeping disorders. These conditions are deeply rooted in our society, some of them causing a lot of pain, others reducing our mobility because of inflammation, and others causing us depression.
When it comes to medicines that could deal with them in a very efficient way, both medicinal cannabis and CBD-based products enter the play. Sadly, a lot of people are often reluctant of trying them out just because they both are related to one single thing: marijuana.
Although medicinal cannabis has been legalized all over the world, and it is an industry that profits for over millions of dollars on a yearly basis, a lot of people still believe that it shouldn’t be legal under any circumstance, even when it has been proven to help people deal with epileptic seizures, with sleeping disorders, with inflammatory conditions, and with pain-inducing diseases.
The same can be said for cannabidiol products, even when it is pretty much harmless and doesn’t get anyone high, it can still provide a lot of health benefits, as shown over here! Even at this moment, CBD, which is also referred to as cannabidiol, is being studied as a possible treatment for Epileptic Seizures and Parkinson’s disease!
Still, I believe that most of the problems people have with these two options are consequences of the bad reputation marijuana once had back in the day. People just don’t know how medicinal cannabis and cannabidiol products work, thus, they misjudge their capabilities and refuse to understand their possible contributions to society.
For that reason, in this article, we will talk about the story behind medicinal cannabis, how CBD is different from it, how both of them work, and why more people should take these medications.
Let’s Understand Medicinal Cannabis a Little More
Did you know that medicinal cannabis has been used as a form of medication, more specifically speaking, as a form of analgesic, ever since ancient times? Ancient Rome, Egypt, China, and Japan used dried cannabis plants along with wine and other beverages to treat patients suffering from pain and inflammation caused by injuries, and stress and anxiety. Some people smoked it with pipes, and some others made a form of the modern blunt.
Even before the plant was considered illegal by many governments around the world, the plant was already present in our society as a form of medication, capable of greatly alleviating the pain caused by injuries or conditions, the inflammation and mobility reduction caused by diseases like Arthritis, and even depression and nerve attacks.
Getting to Know CBD and THC
Now, let’s talk a little bit about cannabidiol. This specific compound is much more recent, and it is derived from a familiar cannabis plant that contains really low levels of THC, which is the main compound providing the plant with its psychoactive capabilities.
This pant is renowned as the hemp plant, a plant which chemical structure only contains 0.3% of THC, making it non-psychoactive under all circumstances. The plant is used to create cannabidiol-based products because of its incredible higher levels of CBD in comparison to traditional cannabis.
Thus, a medication derived from the hemp plant is capable of providing the same results as medicinal cannabis, without the psychotropic side effects.
Why Are Both Capable of Aiding People?
There’s a particular compound of neurotransmitters located in various areas of our body known as the endocannabinoid system.
As shown at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system, it is capable of influencing various physiological functions of our bodies, from the way food tastes to the way our inflammatory reactions are caused. It can even reduce cortisol level, also known as the stress hormone, causing a relaxing effect capable of improving our quality of sleep and reducing anxiety.
The biggest difference between both CBD and THC is that CBD is much gentler when affecting by the endocannabinoid system, in comparison to THC, which is a lot more aggressive, intoxicating the user along the way, causing an effect that is commonly referred to as getting stoned or high.
This is exactly the reason why, although you can use CBD medication on animals, using cannabis and its variations is not recommended, because the endocannabinoid system of animals is much stronger and sensitive than ours, and THC can easily overwhelm it, causing a stronger intoxication that can affect them for a very long time, and even cause long-term side effects.
Are They Safe?
Medicinal cannabis is considered safe. To die consuming cannabis and its variations, you would have to consume an amount of cannabis that is pretty much impossible. When it comes to cannabis strains, you would have to consume around 1500 pounds in 15 minutes!
The plant is also non-addictive and doesn’t cause as much damage to the lung as cigarettes, but it should be still consumed in moderation.
CBD is capable of causing various side effects, mostly related to stomachaches and other similar problems like vomiting and diarrhea. However, these side effects can be dealt with by reducing the dosage you are consuming.
CBD Gummies and Other Products
You can find a lot of presentations of CBD products, and the same can be said from products infused with cannabis. Thing is, if you are a beginner in both, I will always recommend going for edibles, just because they are much easier to deal with and can be incredibly pleasant on some specific occasions. I myself use CheefBotanicals’ gummies, and you can check my review here in case you are interested.
The reason why I recommend going for edibles is that it is harder to suffer from side effects when you have a more solid idea of the amount of CBD you are consuming each day, thus if you ever end up dealing with side effects, you can easily reduce the dosage.
