Over recent years, Cannabidiol (or CBD) has become more popular, leading to more research on the number of health issues that it could be used to treat. Famous celebrities have endorsed the use of CBD for a variety of different conditions, and some retailers have quoted double the amount of sales of CBD products between 2018 and 2019 in the UK alone.
Due to being rich in healing properties, CBD has become a remedy for soothing pain, improving the quality of skin and even benefitting mental health issues. However, for anyone who may consider using CBD as a remedy for their own ailment, it would help to gain further information on it, including how it works, how it impacts on your body, and even something as basic as what CBD is in the simplest of terms.
In this blog, we will highlight what CBD does and the symptoms it’s effective in treating.
What does CBD oil do?
In the human body, there is something known as an endocannabinoid system (or ECS). This was originally discovered in the nineties during research into the effects of THC. Although many questions remain unanswered in regards to how the endocannabinoid system functions, it’s an important part of processes such as memory, sleep, mood, appetite and fertility. The primary function of the ECS is to maintain homeostasis in the brain.
When CBD oil is used, it has a positive effect on your ECS in the sense that it doesn’t infringe on your CB1 and CB2 receptors. Although research is uncovering more information on how CBD interacts with the ECS, the latest findings suggest that it either prevents endocannabinoids from being broken down or it binds to a receptor separate from CB1 and CB2 that is yet to be discovered.
What is CBD good for?
Research suggests that CBD could also have an impact on digestion, inflammation, cardiovascular system function, bone growth and remodelling, muscle formation, skin and nerve function, metabolism, stress and liver function.
In relation to the many processes maintained by the ECS, it’s been suggested that CBD can help to treat epilepsy, relieve chronic pain, arthritis, muscle pain and injuries to the spinal cord, as well as pain in neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s and strokes. It’s also been suggested that CBD could be active in preventing the growth of cancerous cells in the body.
By using CBD oil, you could improve the quality of your skin by reducing inflammation, which can be crucial in severe cases of eczema and psoriasis. It can even be used for a variety of mental health issues through altering the way the receptors in your brain react to serotonin. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has stated that this effect could potentially benefit symptoms of high stress levels, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and insomnia, and it’s likely to promote a feeling of normality through removing symptoms of stress and anxiety such as reducing your heart rate to a more natural level.
