Cannabis CBD for Health & Fitness? – Everything You Need to Know

Cannabis CBD is the millennial miracle. Millennials have helped generate the hype and may be carried away with it. There’s reason to believe CBD offers medicinal benefits. But you can infer from fact and fiction that cannabis CBD can also support a health and fitness lifestyle.

Somewhere among the hundreds of cannabis CBD-infused products are dozens favored by the hiking, jogging, biking, and rock-climbing generation. CBD products — toothpicks, candies, oils, lotions, rubs, lubes, and more — are filling the shelves in dispensaries throughout the increasing number of states permitting sales and possession of medicinal marijuana as well as the states with fully-legalized cannabis.

We’re talking cannabis CBD here —

Hemp-derived CBD has taken the media lead lately because it is legal everywhere and has enjoyed its welcome by the organic food supplement set. But cannabis CBD travels with some THC unless it has been processed out of the strain. So, you may benefit from everything you know.

1. Not a cure. Cannabis CBD does not cure anything. The medical conditions it appears to benefit have no cure. It’s also true those conditions have no other cure in prescription medication.

Cannabis CBD influences symptoms. Cannabis THC has a clear mechanism of action. That is, it binds with neural receptors in the brain and body. The receptors are near the narrow synapses separating nerve cells throughout the nervous system. When they bind to the receptors, they help them do their job smoothly transmitting messages. If, however, the THC is potent, it will excite those receptors creating the psychoactive experiences many seek.

Less is known about how cannabis CBD works. It does not bind to the receptors, but it appears to run interference with body and brain processes affecting or assaulting those receptors. Some of those same processes cause the symptoms of many medical problems. It may also act in coordination with THC to balance sensitive systems with some unclear biochemistry.

2. Treating spasms. Pharmaceutical research and development have produced the first FDA-approved medications with more in the pipeline. With comparable research restricted by U.S. constraints on cannabis, this development is left to manufacturers in Great Britain and Israel.

However, Epidiolex● has been approved for treating recalcitrant epilepsy in some children resistant to other therapies. It is administered in cases of Dravet Syndrome and Lennox-Gestalt Syndrome. Dravet Syndrome appears in a child’s first year as fever-related seizures maturing as myoclonic seizures and risking developmental difficulties.

Lennox-Gastaut syndrome begins with early childhood seizures. More than three-quarters of affected children have tonic seizures accompanied by learning problems and intellectual disability.

The National Institutes of Health also reports Epidiolex “may offer therapeutic relief to chronic pain conditions as well.” The NHI also notes, “Available in Canada and Europe, nabiximols, a specific extract from the Cannabis plant, has demonstrated great benefit in the treatment of pain related to spasticity in multiple sclerosis, cancer, and otherwise chronic pain conditions.”

It stands to reason that cannabis CBD may relieve the muscular spasms, inflammation, and pain associated with vigorous exercise.

3. Fat-soluble. Cannabinoids (CBD, THC, etc.) are fat-soluble. They dissolve in lipids to work throughout the human anatomy. Typically, cannabinoids must go through combustion or extraction to release their benefits. So, you should be wary of advertised claims that cannabis CBD will cure your ills when applied externally.

There are scores of lotions, balms, and solves claiming relief if applied to the skin. Some of the products may, indeed, provide relief from exercised muscles. But there are two things to keep in mind. First, the CBD must be an ingredient in some skin-penetrating medium like coconut oil. You’ll want to read the labels to comparison shop for products with the most promise for the buck. Second, much of the relief felt in massaging tense muscles results from the massage itself. The external kneading of tight muscles may or may benefit from cannabis.

Cannabis CBD may soon be available in water-soluble forms. Canadian research has pioneered nano-processing to speed the bioavailability of cannabinoid effects in manufacturing CBD oils and lotions.

4. Anti-inflammatory. Some 54 million adults and 300,000 children suffer some form of rheumatoid arthritis. Millions more are burdened by some other auto-immune disease. In most cases, doctors recommend exercise to forestall advance of the disease. And, at this point, there is no cure for arthritis, lupus, fibromyalgia, ankylosing spondylitis, and more.

However, the pain symptomatic of these conditions is also related to inflammation which responds to cannabis CBD therapy. CBD apparently boosts the body’s natural response resisting attack by the anti-bodies that accumulate as inflammation. As CBD attaches to CB2 receptors, it prompts the body to produce more of its natural cannabinoids.

Exercise in the interest of health and fitness stretches and contracts muscles, nerves, and joints. The upside lies in boosting and enriching blood flow; the downside comes with some related pain. Cannabis CBD has a way of easing the pain if administered before and after exercise. Because it has none or little THC, there is no intoxication.

5. Dosing. Health and fitness require some commitment. They need a consistent regimen that includes diet, discipline, and exercise. Beyond that, it’s hard to prescribe a cannabis CBD dose that’s right for you. There are so many factors to consider — weight, height, gender, DNA, medical history, and more.

However, a dose of 10 to 15 mg cannabis CBD daily should prepare you to titrate up to a dosage that works for your health and fitness wants and needs. You shouldn’t expect a miracle at the start, but a commitment to daily dosing consistent with your commitment to exercise should make a difference in how you feel about your systems and yourself in general.

Everything you need to know —

You need to know cannabis CBD is not a miracle cure. Smoking cannabis to get your CBD presents risks to your respiratory health and fitness. But you can infer — from its success in treating muscular and neurological spasms, inflammation, and pain — that cannabis CBD has medical benefits beyond the current research.

Cannabis CBD oil remains the most convenient, discreet, and bioavailable administration. Currently, you must comparison shop closely to confirm testing, purity, ingredients, and dosage in cannabis CBD-derived products in salves, beverages, and edibles. An increasing market is buying into CBD benefits for health and fitness, and using the smarts that keep them active, they can shop and buy wisely.