You can argue that humans weren’t created (or evolved, depending on your point of view) to handle chronic stress. For 99% of the history of the human experience, stress was acute: find enough food and fresh water, and fend off the occasional sabre-tooth tiger attack.
Lucky for us stressed-out homosapiens, we have an innate system in our body that can help us cope with chronic stress. This system is called the endogenous (internal) cannabinoid system, or more simply, the endocannabinoid system (ECS).
The ECS is important because it promotes homeostasis. Homeostasis is when all body systems are functioning optimally; everything is balanced. The ECS functions by promoting cellular communication. If your neurons are firing hyperactively and you can’t calm your mind, the ECS receptors, which are located throughout your body, can come to the rescue and chill you out…
..But only if you feed your ECS the substance it needs to exert its therapeutic actions.
And that specific substance is pure, full-spectrum, hemp-derived CBD oil.
High-quality CBD oil, which doesn’t get you high, activates ECS receptors.
Here’s our top 5 reasons and benefits we love using CBD oil everyday…
#1: Calm Your Mind
You don’t have to get high with THC (or other drugs) to slow down a racing mind. Hemp-derived CBD (which is non-psychoactive) may help if you’re overthinking. One action of the ECS, when activated with CBD, is interacting with serotonin receptors. Serotonin is a mood stabilizer and one of the “feel-good” chemicals of your nervous system. The more serotonin is activated, the less racy your mind will be.
#2: Ease Anxiety
For more chronic worrying and anxiety, CBD has shown promise in many research studies to help alleviate anxiousness. The ability of CBD to potentially ease anxiety is also because of its serotonin-activating properties. Serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter (involved in communication between cells) not only regulates mood but also social behavior.
One of the most common anxiety disorders is social anxiety. Although more research is needed, studies like this one on anxiety related to public speaking suggest CBD may help ease social anxiety. CBD has also shown promise in preliminary research studies to ease the effects of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
#3: Improve Sleep
Not being able to shut off your mind at night can ruin your sleep. Although it’s not yet exactly known how CBD works for sleep, here’s one reason why it may help improve sleep quality: Oral CBD has been shown in studies (like this one) to lower cortisol levels in the blood. Cortisol is one of the body’s stress hormones. The more stress you have, the higher your cortisol levels. Chronic stress can interfere with the body’s deep-sleep states.
A 2019 study showed that CBD improved the sleep scores within the first month for two-thirds of the 103 adult patients. Another study comparing CBD to a prescription sleep aid concluded that CBD increased the duration of sleep.
#4: Pain Management
The ECS not only activates serotonin when fueled by pure, full-spectrum hemp oil, leading to a happier, calmer you, it also regulates your pain receptors, dulling them in a sense, so you don’t feel as much pain. In addition, the ECS also controls the body’s inflammatory response. Inflammation is great if you get, say, a paper cut, but you need the inflammation response to be in the Goldilocks zone, i.e. just right. Pure CBD oil does just that. This research study in Frontiers in Pharmacology concludes: “The evidence from current research supports the use of medical cannabis in the treatment of chronic pain in adults.” (CBD is one of three of the major active compounds in medical cannabis.)
#5: Stress Relief
As you learned above, CBD can be effective for calming the mind, easing anxiety and lowering stress hormones. Obviously, these benefits help to manage stress. But CBD may help manage stress in other ways, too. For example, research shows that the compound may help lower blood pressure and support blood circulation.
Although cannabis has been used for thousands of years, researchers have only skimmed the tip of the iceberg in unlocking the therapeutic potentials of CBD. But now that hemp cultivation has become legalized at the federal level in the US (since 2018), thousands of people have benefitted from CBD, including these top 5 reasons to use it every day.
Warning: Not all CBD products are created equal. Look for a pure, full-spectrum hemp oil that is third-party tested for every batch sold. Max & Steven’s is the gold standard of hemp-based CBD.
