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What Is CBD Oil Used For?

While we still may not know what is CBD oil used for in its fullest potential, a host of varying considerations have taken form in its continued research.

By Donald GrayPublished 7 years ago 8 min read
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In a world rife with cannabis and the leniency of its usage now growing ever steadier into the future, many are questioning the necessity of CBD oil in line with its globally known counterpart, THC. More of us are begging for answers to questions, such as: what is it? How does it work? What benefits, or side effects, come from its continued use? And, how much of a difference does it really have from the more popular form of marijuana, if any?

All of these questions are viable, but certainly hard pressed in the entire scope of things. Many are wondering if, in some capacity, these CBD oils could be a replacement of the more controversial form of THC. Others flock to the readily available CBD, searching for the more conscious and formulated high, over those lazy, "couch potato feelings" received by the former. Still, others harken back to marijuana and argue for its own uses in accordance with their lives.

Instead of choosing one or the other, we will be asking some very pointed questions, so as to pick apart the facts with an avid eye for what is fact and science. As such, to really understand what is CBD oil used for, we have to know what the plant is in its entirety. Let's get to the nitty gritty basics and hack together a formulated answer as we pick apart many ideas and concerns felt in this big green business and its fabled magical grass as a new medical product.

Where Does CBD Come From?

Before we ask what is CBD oil used for, one must understand what CBD oil really is. CBD, or Cannabidiol, is one of 60 different kinds of compounds engineered within the phytocannabinoids. It is mostly contained or built up in the plant’s hemp, an offspring of cannabis sativa, which is the same strand used to make marijuana.

THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the most powerful active ingredient found in cannabis, operates as the mind-altering component when smoked or consumed. These sensory effects, which are worked within a person's endocannabinoid system, highlight the plant's psychoactive nature; a few of these attributes include drowsiness, forgetfulness, and hunger. While THC can be used in certain medical experiments and other such scientific purposes, it doesn't always receive the same positive reception when it comes to legality and public opinion.

CBD oil, on the other hand, does not share the same psychoactive effects as THC. Second only to TCH, in terms of abundance, CBD oil is growing in popularity for its therapeutic properties. More medical professionals are now discovering its uses and benefits, due widely to the misleading and otherwise misinformation associated to phytocannabinoids in their entirety.

How CBD Oil Works

Despite having no psychoactive alterations to human decision making, CBD oil does change a person’s feeling of physicality, which is a very important concept in the world of medicine and political insight. What this means is that CBD oil can bring the same, or similar effects of marijuana without those cloudy head highs so commonly associated to the compound.

Every cannabinoid, like CBD or THC, attach to receptors in the human body. These receptors are CB1, which can be found all around the body but are most common in the brain, and CB2, located and controlling one's immune system, hence regulating the feelings of pain. While THC acts only on the CB1 receptors, CBD oil works in an entirely differently and more complex route.

By indirectly influencing a wide range of different bodily receptor systems, such as opioid, dopamine and serotonin, CBD can create a multitude of synapsed signaling among neurons with the correct receptors. This also creates an increased production of cannabinoids in the body by indirectly affecting the communication between CB1 and CB2 receptors.

What Is CBD Used For?

Now, with THC on the immediate rise, plus the use of other mainstream drugs creating problems for the pharmaceutical world, the controversy surrounding CBD oil is, more than ever, a staggering battle over those who feel that narcotics are wrong in their entirety, countered by specialists who believe CBD, and its lasting effects on medical anomalies, will greatly benefit pharmaceutical production entirely.

In basic terms, CBD oil can be applied to a multitude of medical issues, some of which include pain relief, anxiety reduction, cigarette addiction, and even the decreasing of acne. Because of this high degree in volatility and productivity between the body's internal receptors and neurons, CBD oil now treats an assortment of issues, one such being childhood epilepsy.

What Is CBD Oil Used For: Childhood Epilepsy

The one specified article above discusses the benefits of medical marijuana on epileptic children, then discussing the many observations associated with these discoveries. The American Epilepsy Society underwent a series of trials observing children with known epileptic symptoms. The CBD oil was distributed in the form of edible concentrates that were fed to the participants every day, showing in some cases nearly half of a decrease in known seizures.

Despite their lengthy discoveries and earth-shattering postulations, the society's research, and researchers, are still largely scrutinized, due to the government's federal ban on the narcotic, as well as the public's pressured opinions. In the early spread of government approval, some of these doctors and researchers are not only excited to be testing the uses of CBD and other similar compounds, but they are also hopeful in finding specific cures that could change the way we view marijuana as a whole.

If you thought the possibilities of what is CBD oil used for ended there, you'd be sadly mistaken. Though the research performed and collected by the American Epilepsy Society did fan the fires for what is next ahead, entirely new excitements arose from the plethora of ailments that CBD oil was found to slow down or eliminate.

What Is CBD Oil Used For: Addiction

For those of you who just want to kick smoking the almighty cigarette, yet can't seem to find the right footing to reach that goal, CBD oil may actually be your guiding savior. Interestingly, researchers from one study of 24 smokers showed that, in the course of one week, the participants who were given CBD saw a 40 percent drop in cigarette intake, rather than those who were given placebos or an inhaler. As such, according to this study:

"CBD may have acted to weaken the attentional bias of smokers to smoking stimuli." — Celia J. A. Morgan

In which case, it would be assumed, that there might be some inclination or a possibility that CBD oil could be a new medically conducive way of reducing addiction and even addictive pharmaceuticals. What better way of ridding the streets of crime and narcotic abuse than by using one of the most well-known narcotic offshoots against its counterparts? CBD can be engaged as a natural deterrent from the more dangerous and harmful chemicals that are, in all actuality, overprescribed to benefit the larger and more profitable pharmaceutical companies.

What is CBD Oil Used For: Acne

That's right, CBD can actually help you with your acne problem, and here's how: inhibiting lipid synthesis.

What's that? Well, they're basically fatty acids and residues that lurk on your face, leaving behind dirt and other byproducts that make your skin breakout. The Journal of Clinical Investigation preformed a series of tests involving the sebostatic proponents of CBD on human sebaceous gland, determining that the oil does down regulate and inhibit the production of NRIP1, or nuclear receptor interacting protein-1. To spare you more of the brutal details, it worked.

"Collectively, our findings suggest that, due to the combined lipostatic, antiproliferative, and antiinflammatory effects, CBD has potential as a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of acne vulgaris."

The tests and subsequent findings can be found here, but more uses for CBD oil hasn't finished just yet. In fact, this isn't the first time weed or a form of cannabis is being used to treat medical ailments. Over a long history, the marijuana family has been used as a remedy throughout history, all for a number of varying reasons.

What is CBD Oil Used For: Neurological disorders

Some of the most epic discoveries on CBD oil were found to have positive effects on brain function. Such complex neurological disorders that CBD has somewhat amended include Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), Schizophrenia, insomnia and anxiety.

CBD is a well-known producer of anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety effects when ingested, causing extreme calm within the user. Because of the oil's antipsychotic effects, those with PTSD can live a much better life by ignoring the mind numbing fluctuations that comes with extreme anxiety and mental breakdown. Through CBD oil's relieving components, PTSD patients can actually function with a much more stable form of mentality and overall environment.

Similarly, those with Schizophrenia likewise share an uncommon balance of anxiety and mental deprivation with PTSD patients. By calming their minds and basically numbing their mental incapacities, the CBD oil exerts less pressure on the anxious and negative thoughts associated with Schizophrenia patients and allows them the ability to experience the world much more fluidly.

Insomnia, too, was found one of CBD's most prominent agents of effectiveness. Since the oil has fatigue and tiredness as some of its few side effects, it was used to treat insomniacs over leading counterparts, which tended to leave patience feeling tired after use or led to an addiction. Fortunately, CBD oil can be used as one of the safest alternatives to sleep apnea medications.

What Is CBD Oil Used For? Diabetes, Fibromyalgia, Cancer, and much more...

The list for CBD oil and its accumulated uses has, as it would seem, grown over a long period of time, and still continues. One such curing agent that CBD offers is diabetes, for which it reduced and prevented splenocytes and cytokine from causing autoimmune diseases. As for Fibromyalgia, CBD makes use of the anti-inflammatory proponents by reducing patients' symptoms and pain, which is more to be said for the typical medications of Fibromyalgia, such as opioid pain medications and corticosteroids, both of which have addictive traits. Through this, CBD oil can be used to benefit the addictiveness and overprescription associated with harmful medications.

Even more cases where CBD has helped in exponential capacities involve multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease, mad cow disease, and even cancer. An extensive list of how and what CBD oils do for cancer patients exists here, but it can't be difficult to see just how progressive and necessary CBD oil can be if used properly and in the correct quantities. The overuse and overprescription of harmful drugs that lead to more issues with narcotics needs to come to an end. One way to do that can be through CBD oils and other products associated with marijuana. As negative as it may at first be seen in the public, more of a proper stance towards the use and experimentation of CBD oils must be developed into the future.

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About the Creator

Donald Gray

Politics may be a disgusting battlefield, but it is a necessary vice in our country, and a particular fancy of mine, like productivity and success. These are important facets in the modern world, and must be expounded upon.

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