What is CBD oil? With all the recent hype about marijuana or cannabis or whatever you might know it as, it can be very confusing when one plant has so many names. CBD is a constituent of the whole marijuana or hemp plant, which has a great many medical benefits.
Through a careful process, the CBD Oil is separated from the host marijuana plant and preserved in other organic oils. It is very safe to take, but very effective for many medical conditions. Science is finding more and more evidence of the medical benefits of CBD.
Medical marijuana refers to using a whole cannabis plant, or a plant’s active constituents, for the treatment of various ailments or conditions. If you’re not treating ailments or conditions, marijuana can’t be labeled medical marijuana.
With all the current hype about medical marijuana, it’s easy to be confused between the terms cannabis, marijuana and hemp. Cannabis is a category for a plant species that includes both hemp and marijuana. The best way to think about cannabis is with an analogy: hemp and marijuana are to cannabis as lemons and oranges are to citrus. Two related but different plants, from the same horticultural family.
The characteristic that defines marijuana from hemp is the content of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound in cannabis that gets users high and which is sought after by recreational marijuana smokers. Hemp is almost devoid of THC but high in another cannabinoid – cannabidiol (CBD). Hemp has 0.3 percent THC or less while the threshold for marijuana starts at a THC concentration of 0.31 percent or higher. Both forms of cannabis, hemp and marijuana, have been shown to contain medically beneficial levels of differing cannabinoids, active compounds found in the cannabis plant.
Cannabis contains over 85 cannabinoids, some of which have been found to have therapeutically beneficial properties. The two major cannabinoids found in cannabis that academic and scientific studies demonstrate to possess the most therapeutic properties are cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), though a number of other cannabinoids, like cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabinol (CBN), also exhibit health benefits.
These cannabinoids interact directly with the body’s endocannabinoid system – a signaling network found within every mammalian species on Earth. It features two cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2 receptors, which THC and CBD “dock” with to provide their therapeutic effects. THC, the mind-altering ingredient in cannabis, has been shown to increase appetite, reduce muscle control problems, and reduce nausea, pain, and inflammation. CBD doesn’t cause a psychoactive effect like THC, but it has been shown to reduce pain and inflammation, as well as be effective in killing certain cancer cells, controlling epileptic seizures, and treating mental illness.
