CBD for the Holidays
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap radius”]T[/dropcap]his holiday season, consider an alternate route in the gift-buying arena, and pick up a CBD product for a loved one who is sick, has a chronic condition or just wants to feel better, but won’t take that step to get a CBD product for themselves.
One way to explain CBD use to friends and family is it allows the user to “stay functional.” That is, CBD is not psychoactive, so you don’t get that head-in-the-clouds feeling. Rather, a high CBD cannabis product gives the body and mind a slight and more prolonged lift towards less anxiety and less disease, and to more health and more happiness. And who doesn’t want more peace and healing in their lives during the season of joy, right?
In fact, CBD has such a mild effect on the psyche (yet powerful healing benefits on the whole body including having the power to tell cancer cells to commit suicide) that kids with debilitating conditions such as epilepsy and ADD/ADHD are being treated with CBD oil.
The reason CBD works so wonderfully in the human body is a fact even most doctors don’t know: Our endocannabinoid system is the most widespread receptor system in the human body.
Clustered in the brain and other major organs like the liver, this system of cannabinoid “receptors” quietly runs through our bodies much like the lymphatic system. First discovered in 1992, the role of the human endocannabinoid system is to maintain balance (or homeostasis).
“Cannabis tells the cells: Hey! Turn it down!” explains prominent cannabis doctor and advocate, Bonnie Goldstein. To put it simply, she says cannabinoids help the body to relax, to eat, to sleep, to forget and to protect.
Dr. Goldstein, who is the medical director for California-based Canna-Centers, also says our bodies don’t know the difference between naturally-made cannabinoids (yes, our bodies make their own form of cannabis chemicals) and ones introduced via smoking, teas, edibles or oils. She also says her patients react well to either constant, low doses of CBD products or short-term high doses for acute conditions.
Is Grandpa forgetting more than usual this year? Tell him Dr. Goldstein says cannabinoids such as whole plant extracts of CBD decrease the aging process, especially for the brain.
Think a staunchly anti-cannabis relative still just won’t get it no matter what? How about if CBD is good enough for kids. Yes, CBD has been a breakthrough miracle medication for a growing number of children.
Mother and now cannabis entrepreneur Tracy Ryan has spent the last several years trying to erase the stigma of CBD dosing for kids. After her daughter Sophie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the family decided to add a CBD oil protocol to her chemotherapy and it worked. Sophie’s brain tumor has almost completely shrunk and she is in remission. Doctors even say the miraculous shrinking of the tumor may have even saved her from going blind in one eye.
“CBD isn’t just for cancers,” says Ryan, who has created her own CBD oil products and sees about 250 patients a month in her Beverly Hills-based CannaKids clinic. “CBD is whole body preventative wellness that will one day be rolled out in big box retail stores.”
Know an uncle or cousin who suffers from dry winter skin, eczema, psoriasis or skin rashes? CBD not only has anti-inflammatory properties, but also stops new capillaries from forming. (Yes, CBD-based creams and salves really can reduce the redness of winter’s cold noses and cheeks.) Ryan also swears by CBD as an anti-asthmatic and sore throat remedy.
Armed with some cannabis education and a whole lot of compassion, this could be the year a relative or two has a breakthrough when it comes to understanding the healing wonders of cannabinol.
