An Introduction to the Benefits of CBD Oil

CBD oil has become a popular commodity in the United States and other countries which have taken more relaxed approaches towards the legalization of hemp and cannabis. Some form of medicinal marijuana use is allowed by over thirty states. Additionally, CBD has become extremely accessible due to other changes in law, such as the national legalization of hemp - otherwise known as marijuana with less than 0.3% THC content. 

In several states, you can find kiosks and other establishments advertising and selling a litany of creams, oils, ointments and so on with CBD. The benefits of CBD have become more acceptable to mainstream society. But exactly what is CBD?

What Is CBD?

Plants are very complex structures on a chemical level. For every compound we learn about in a given species, there are a hundred or a thousand more that scientists haven't isolated yet. That being said, not all chemical compounds are created equal.

Take marijuana, for example. By now, most people have heard about two of the most important compounds discovered to exist in this increasingly popular plant. The first is THC, the ingredient responsible for inducing the well-known high users feel. But the second compound, cannabidiol (CBD), is a little trickier to describe.

While THC has been demonstrated to fight cancer in clinical experiments, it is CBD which has been associated with and linked to a vast majority of the non-psychoactive benefits to be derived from marijuana - we'll come back to those benefits later.

CBD is an alcohol - the same class of compounds as the substance we drink, ethanol - and is readily absorbed into the bloodstream. 

Similar to THC, CBD's chemical structure boasts a hydrocarbon "tail" which is constructed closely enough to the fatty compounds in our bodies that it allows CBD to dissolve into our stomach fat.

It does not get you high, so its use has been viewed favorably by a greater number of people. Some CBD is present in virtually all marijuana plant, at different levels that that of THC. There is a synergy between both compounds. This means that the psychoactive sensation felt by the consumption of marijuana is different to that for, for example, a pure sample of chemically synthesized THC. Even though the CBD doesn't work to get you high, its presence alters the users reaction to the drug.

There are some products, such as vape pens, that offer what they claim is CBD oil which gets the user high. It is important to recognize the fact that the FDA and other similar entities have not endorsed these claims and have provided lax regulation of the booming industry of CBD products. Gas stations and other commonly visited establishments have adapted to changing trends by dedicated more and more of their space to the sale of CBD vape pens and other products.

What Are The Benefits Of CBD?

CBD is thought to address a wide variety of medical ailments, with those of a psychological nature receiving considerable attention. Anxiety, depression, a reduction of the potential for THC to induce psychosis. There are reported cases of drug users shedding their habits of abusing more powerfully addictive drugs such as heroin with by weaning themselves sober with marijuana. CBD is more likely than THC to be somewhat responsible for any assistance in minimizing symptoms of withdrawal.

What Do You Need Know To Know About CBD Products?

Ultimately it's up to every individual to decide what to put in their bodies. That being said, there are plenty of institutions that have experimented with CBD; they've made some informative conclusions about the compound.

In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that genuine CBD extracts, that is products with CBD extracted directly from marijuanaor hemp as opposed to chemically synthesized compounds, are generally safe for the public to consume.

What Are The Dangers And Side Effects?

As the saying goes, the dose makes the poison. Given enough of it, anything, even water, could kill you. But that's not a good enough assessment for the things we put in our bodies, so scientists long ago established a concept called the LD50: the lethal dose estimated to cause a discernable level of toxicity in 50% of test subjects. This figure can be used to make educated and accurate estimations about how much of a substance need be ingested before animals can be expected to suffer from consuming a substance.

In an article was published by Current Drug Safety. It discussed an experiment conducted using rhesus monkeys. Fatalities occurred among their group when doses with 200 mg of CBD for every kilogram of body weight were administered. Death came quickly for test subjects who received 300 mg or more.

While rhesus monkeys are not the same as human beings, scientists cannot perform similar experiments on humans, so extrapolations are drawn from experiments that can be conducted.

An average person weighs about 165 pounds, or 75 kg. Compensating for the difference between this weight and the weight of a rhesus monkey, it could take almost the ingestion of almost 20 grams of CBD in one quick sitting before the LD50 for human consumption to result in a fatality. For reference, the typical amount of CBD oil consumed in one day by users approaches 100 mg. That's less than one percent of a lethal dose.

The Best CBD Oil

Options will differ on what might constitute the best CBD oil. Economic platforms such a Forbes and medical platforms such as Healthline have long lists of oil products but you can always go for CBD oil comparison and select the best CBD oil for yourself. Sites such as Amazon are sure to have available for perusal the highest rated CBD oil products out of thousands.