CBD oil, how it is made and used
CBD oil is famous for its potential in easing symptoms of common health conditions such as neurological and anxiety disorders among others. Other possible health benefits that are linked to CBD oil include reducing pain and inflammation. CBD oil is derived from the cannabis plant. As it is derived directly from the plant it can be considered a natural product.
Before choosing to use Cannabidiol, this is what CBD stands for, it would be a good idea to understand its benefits, side effects, how it is made, how it should be used, etc. This article will provide all the necessary information about CBD oil before you jump into using it to relieve any condition as it is said to do.
How Is CBD Oil Made?
This type of oil is derived as the natural extract from marijuana and hemp plants. The oil is made by extracting the Cannabidiol from the buds and flowers of these plants.
Based on the information provided by the manufacturers, CBD oils don’t have any psychoactive or addictive elements. The supplement can be added to different products, including drinks, lip balm, and gummies. Below is a detailed guide step-by-step on how CBD oil is made:
Step one: Planting Hemp Plant
First, the soil is carefully prepared and then tested for herbicides before the hemp seeds are sowed into that ground. Hemp is a beautiful plant and is planted closely together, usually as close as four inches apart. Besides the ingredients for CBD oil, hemp produces top-quality quantities of biomass. This is returned to the soil and decomposes to feed nutrients back into the ground. Once hemp is planted, normally from May to June, it grows rapidly, it will take up to 60 days for the plant to reach maturity.
Step two: Harvesting Hemp plant
These plants are harvested in and around October depending on the local climate. A sample of every crop is tested and cleared before the official harvest. Plants are air-dried in a well-ventilated area after being harvested, and this process takes 3 to 4 weeks. The flowers are stripped once dried and then shipped to the manufacturers, who then extract the cannabinoids.
Step three: Extracting CBD from dried Hemp flower
This is where CBD is removed from a hemp plant. And there are various extraction methods, including:
– CO2 extraction
This method uses carbon dioxide. It isolates cannabinoids right under extremely low temperatures. Condensed and super-cooled carbon dioxide cools and extracts CBD oil without residue and chemicals.
– Ethanol extraction
The method involves soaking plants in high-grain alcohol to extract CBD oil. Ethanol extraction is the most effective in the market, therefore the cheapest and most widely used.
– Oil extraction
The hemp plant is heated in this method, then cooked in a carrier oil like olive oil. The essence of the plants is transferred into the carrier oil.
Step 4: Making CBD oil and topicals
At this point, CBD is in the purest form extracted from a plant and combined with ingredients like carrier oil and flavoring. This allows the working ingredients to be absorbed by the body. The carrier oil is full of natural saturated fat and that has the advantage to be easily absorbed directly through the liver into the rest of the body. This way the CBD enters the bloodstream and is distributed through the body,
Step 5: Lab testing and packaging
Before the CBD oil is packaged it is tested by an outside laboratory, so everything is up to the desired specifications. Afterward, it is bottled in the cleanest surroundings possible so there is no chance of contamination. In addition to testing for safety, each sample of CBD oil is also tested for potency and purity.
How is CBD oil used?
CBD oils are used in a variety of ways and for different purposes. However, this oil should be used based on the manufacturer’s instructions. As always, carefully read and follow the instructions provided by the manufacturers on the labels. The dosage of CBD oil depends on the strength, form, and concentration of the oil. The instructions are there to prevent as many as possible interactions with medication you possibly take, side effects, and other problems. Always consult your doctor before taking supplements and get his approval.
Here is a link to an article that gives precise instructions on dosage
– Sublingual CBD
This way, a user will place a few drops of tincture or oil or a small bit of the powder right under the tongue. You should hold the oil there for some seconds, maybe 3 to 5. Overall, this will allow all active ingredients to get absorbed in your bloodstream through the mucus membranes in your mouth.
– Inhaled CBD
The oil can also be inhaled via vaporizing oil or preferably adding powder or oil to e-cigarettes and smoking them. This way the inhaled CBD enters the bloodstream through the lungs. This is a very fast way of delivering CBD to the body through the bloodstream.
– Ingested CBD
You can use CBD oil by swallowing it and allowing it to pass into your system through the digestive tract. After swallowing, the oil is metabolized by your liver and sends its compounds to the whole body within a few hours. Besides this method, CBD oil is ingested in tinctures, drops, and capsules or even added to beverages and foods. In addition, CBD can be ingested as a powder, that is made by removing the plant matter to eventually reveal crystalline powder with no odor or taste.
– Topical CBD
This is what we call it when a CBD-infused product is applied to your skin. The two most common reasons to use it in this way are CBD oil for pain and CBD oil for anxiety as well as to reduce inflammation. The topical products include salves, creams, shampoos, lip balms, personal lubricants, and bath salts.
What are the benefits of CBD oil?
– Reduces Pain
CBD oil can reduce the sensation of physical pain, and arthritic pain, all the way to neuropathic pain, caused mainly by multiple sclerosis. Also, some people with inflammatory diseases causing pain in the body can try CBD oil and see if it benefits them.
Click here for more information on the topic.
– Alleviates anxiety and depression
Based on information by the World Health Organization, more than 300 million individuals suffer from depression worldwide. And for a lot of these people, this leads to anxiety. CBD oil for anxiety comes in here. This is because the oil can reduce anxiety and depression symptoms in people. In addition, it can help fight public speaking anxiety and social anxiety too. As a general rule, with respect to the latter two, it allows you to concentrate on the task at hand without constantly being distracted by you overthinking what you are about to do.
For more information click here.
– Prevents Diabetes ( always consult your doctor first)
CBD can prevent insulitis, which destroys the pancreatic beta cells. This condition causes type 1 diabetes. Further, CBD can even lower the side effects of other related diseases, including neuroinflammation and memory deficits.
For further reading on the subject, click this link. It will bring you to a very extensive article on the subject from the National Library of Medicine.
– Can treat viable drug addition ( always consult your doctor first)
Drug addiction affects brain circuits, and this leads to drug dependency. CBD can help correct these people’s brain circuits responsible for stimulating this addition by reducing the craving for the drug, but by no means it has been shown that CBD has any effect on the actual addiction. Cbd is not a stand-alone cure for any form of addiction. For further reading click here.
– Reduces blood pressure ( always consult your doctor first)
The major cause of cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and strokes is high blood pressure. However, taking CBD oil every day can lower blood pressure. But there is not a definitive verdict yet from the scientific community as studies on the topic don’t give a uniform understanding of whether it is indeed effective or not. A study that gives a positive indication of the effectiveness you find here.
– Prevents and eliminates Acne
CBD oil has anti-inflammatory properties that help lower sebum production in the skin. Excessive production of sebum leads to Acne forming on the skin surface. And this leads to blackheads and unattractive pimples. Consuming CBD oil can lower sebum production, thus pimples will clear fast. This of course varies from person to person. A very good article on CBD and Acne you can find here. It will also give information on the effect of CBD on other skin conditions.
– Antipsychotic effects
CBD is also found to reduce the psychotic symptoms of people suffering from a diverse array of mental disorders. This subject is way above my pay grade, and I direct whoever is interested in this, to a fairly recent article published in the National Library of Medicine. This would be a good starting point to learn more about the subject
– Fights Insomnia
CBD oil for sleep! Yes, if you have trouble getting sleep try this oil. The oil will reduce sleep difficulties as it’s linked to anxiety reduction and worries, which is the main cause of someone being unable to fall asleep.
If you want to know more on the subject, here is a comprehensive article from the Sleep Foundation.
– Helps fight cancer ( always consult your doctor first)
CBD’s anti-inflammatory properties can help provide anti-tumor effects. The oil can fight various cancerous tumors in the colon, brain, prostate, breast, or lung. But it is never a good idea to ignore your doctor’s advice and what his expertise tells him what the best course of action is. If you want to give CBD a try, ask him and conform to his recommendations. No definitive studies have been done on humans. There have been some trials on animals but no definite verdict on if and in how much it is an effective treatment. The link to an easy-to-read article for further study into this subject is here.
The Potential Side Effects of CBD oil
– Dry mouth
– Reduced appetite
– Fatigue
– Diarrhea
– Drowsiness
– Interactions with alcohol and other drugs
– Liver damage
– Reduction in male fertility
– Changes in alertness, and this might make driving challenging
– Mood changes such as irritation and irritability
– Gastrointestinal issues and loss of appetite
Different ways to Benefit from CBD oil
– Edibles
Edibles are a discreet and great way for you to try CBD. You will find a variety of tastes in CBD edibles, such as truffles, gummies, or mints. CBD taken through edibles is partially absorbed via the digestive tract and liver. It takes around two hours, and the body assimilates around 30 to 20 percent of the total amount of CBD that goes through the system.
– Topicals
Topicals are designed to get applied directly onto the skin. And you can find various CBD-infused lotions, salves, balms, transdermal patches, and creams. Topicals are good for treating localized pain and skin conditions such as eczema.
– Sublingual products
Some edibles contain preservatives and sugar. Therefore, a sublingual product would be the best choice for people who may want to avoid the additives. These products are designed to get absorbed right under your tongue. And they include tinctures solutions, which are made via soaking cannabis flowers right in alcohol or oil. The most common ways for application are oils, sprays, and lozenges.
– Smoking and vaping
You can also get CBD into your system by smoking the cannabis flower. Some would say doing it this way gives you also the added benefit of THC, but that is up for debate and certainly not within the scoop of this article. Secondly, you can use a vaporizer along with a cartridge that contains CBD oil. You preferably inhale CBD concentrates like sugar waxes with a vape pen with a concentrates chamber.
The main benefit of smoking and vaping is that it allows CBD to almost instantaneously get into the bloodstream. In 10 minutes or less, you may have absorbed 56 to 34 percent of CBD.
Talk to a doctor
I know I have said this already a few times but that is only to stress the importance of this, there are a lot of people around who think that their opinion trumps the knowledge of certified doctors. Don’t listen to them, go talk to your doctor. Above you have a lot of different ways you can take CBD, however, not one is the best. Therefore, it would help to try various methods to see which works better for you. I’ll say it again before you do any of this, it is always wise to talk to a doctor and get his opinion on whether this can be of benefit to you. He knows your medical history and that is of huge influence on the potential benefit of this to you. Especially when you are on any medication this should be done.
Final Thoughts
There you have it. Now that you know how to use CBD oil, along with other necessary and useful information about CBD. There is little doubt nowadays that there are areas where CBD is a viable alternative to other medications, but this should never be explored without consulting a doctor first. A professionals opinion counts for a lot
CBD Online
PURE ORGANIC CBD
The best website selling CBD oil, based in Europe that I have found is without a doubt Pure Organic CBD. All of the cannabis, from which the CBD oil is extracted, is grown and harvested in Switzerland. It is set up in such a way that all the compounds needed for the production of CBD oil are extracted while leaving absolutely no chemical residue. The final product is pure, organic CBD oil that is lab-tested twice for purity and quality. On top of that, they have an extensive education program and on top of that, they invite you to get in touch with them what the best way to use CBD oil and in what dose to use it in your specific case. They are certified by BIO SUISSE as well, this is not just a marketing gimmick but a genuine guarantee of the quality, purity, and ethos of the whole company. The one limiting factor of the company is that they are available in Europe only.
- If you want to know what products are available, click here.
The product range is Full-Spectrum CBD, Broad Spectrum CBD, CBD Topicals, and CBD for Pets (dogs and cats)
CBD Glossary
When evaluating products, it is useful to understand some of the terminology used in the CBD market.
- Δ9-THC – Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the intoxicating cannabinoid produced by cannabis plants. CBD products must contain < .3% THC to be legal.
- Broad-spectrum – Like full-spectrum, a type of CBD product that contains all compounds found in cannabis but with no THC.
- CBC – Cannabichromene is a non-intoxicating compound found in hemp. It has pain-reducing benefits.
- CBD – Cannabidiol is the cannabinoid most produced by a hemp plant. The goal is to produce strains of hemp with high CBD and low THC.
- CBD-A – Cannabidiolic Acid is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid produced by the hemp plant. Initial research shows wide health benefits.
- CBG – Cannabigerol is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid produced in low amounts by the Hemp plant. There has been little research about the effects of CBG.
- CBN – Cannabinol is another non-psychoactive cannabinoid that is created in the processing of hemp and CBD. It has been shown to help with anxiety and has a relaxing effect for many users.
- Full-spectrum – As opposed to an isolate, full-spectrum CBD products contain all chemicals found in cannabis, including THC. They must have less than 3% THC to be US Federally legal.
- Hemp – A type of cannabis plant that contains little or no THC. It must be less than 0.3 percent THC to be considered hemp. The plant itself is also used for textile and other applications.
- Isolate Here all THC has been removed. This is a CBD product that contains only CBD.
Here are a few websites that tell you more about the scientific findings with respect to CBD oil.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6285406/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19729208
https://www.drugandalcoholdependence.com/article/S0376-8716(16)30133-8/abstract
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1576089/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3579246/