So, you think that you’re a real CBD fan? CBD isn’t just one of the hottest supplements to hit the market in years; it’s also incredibly interesting. No matter how much time you spend reading about CBD, you can’t possibly know everything about it – so we’re going to help rectify that. Do you want the inside scoop on what the CBD industry is really all about? By the time you finish reading these amazing CBD facts, you’ll know more about CBD history than any of your friends. Let’s begin!
You Can Potentially Test Positive for THC While Using CBD
CBD comes from industrial hemp, which is legal to grow in the United States and many other regions that restrict cannabis farming and consumption. Industrial hemp is legal to grow because it contains almost no psychoactive THC. Note, though, that we said almost. Industrial hemp does contain THC; it’s just not enough THC to get you high – even if you smoke the plant. However, even a trace amount of THC is a potential cause for concern if your employer requires you to undergo drug screenings. If you regularly consume large doses of full-spectrum CBD oil, you could potentially end up with enough THC in your system to show up on a drug test.
Thankfully, websites like cbdreviewsuk.co.uk exist to help you understand which CBD brands are safe to use. CBD isolate is a white powder extracted from a raw full-spectrum hemp extract. After filtering and refinement, CBD isolate is over 99 percent pure. It doesn’t contain any THC that a laboratory can detect. If you are concerned that using CBD could result in you looking like a marijuana user when you take a drug test, CBD isolate is the perfect alternative.
Hemp Is Being Used to Help Clean the Chernobyl Disaster Site
Hemp isn’t just great for humans; it’s also terrific for the environment because it has the ability to improve soil quality. Hemp is what’s known as a bioaccumulator or bioremediator. It draws undesirable substances such as industrial runoff, pesticides and heavy metals out of the soil. Farmers across the world are growing hemp crops to clean contaminated fields. Hemp has even been planted around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, where it has helped to rid the land of radioactive strontium and cesium.
Hemp’s ability to pull undesirable substances out of the soil isn’t just great for improving produce quality and grazing conditions around the world. It’s also the reason why you should be extremely careful about researching the origin of the hemp before buying any CBD product. China is the world’s top producer of industrial hemp. The soil in China is also notorious for its heavy metal pollution. Chinese wholesalers export cheap CBD oil and CBD isolate around the world. Is that the CBD you want to buy?
We Have Known About CBD for Nearly 80 Years
In 1940, researchers from the University of Illinois isolated CBD from wild hemp and published their findings in a scientific journal. To obtain CBD from hemp, the researchers used ethanol as a solvent to extract raw oil from cannabis. They then exposed the raw oil to ammonia to obtain a pure crystalline substance. The researchers named the substance cannabidiol or CBD. Their process for obtaining CBD is not entirely different from the process that we use to produce CBD isolate today. The researchers documented the chemical structure of CBD and published their findings. It’s fascinating to realize that scientists discovered how to isolate CBD from hemp extract many decades ago. The researchers also noted, however, that CBD had no “marihuana activity” and thus considered it of little interest. Scientists didn’t begin discovering the potential benefits of CBD until many years later, when they began to turn their attention away from THC as a primary research topic and explore hemp’s many other compounds.
CBD Has Become an Important Prescription Medication
As far as modern medicine has come, there are still many diseases we can’t cure and many patients whose needs aren’t being met. One of the areas in which we still have a long way to go is in the treatment of seizure disorders. We don’t fully understand what causes seizures, and until recently, all of the prescription medications available for treating seizures worked poorly and had terrible side effects. One of the first things researchers discovered about CBD is that it alleviates certain types of seizure disorders with no apparent side effects. That property of CBD was so readily apparent that many states immediately enacted laws making CBD legal so those suffering from seizures could obtain it.
To date, seizure reduction is the only medical benefit of CBD proven beyond doubt. The British company GW Pharmaceuticals created a medication with a standardized dose of CBD – Epidiolex – and put the drug through extensive human trials to prove its effectiveness and safety. The FDA approved Epidiolex for the treatment of Dravet Syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome in 2018. It is the first purified cannabis-based medication that the FDA has ever approved.
The Endocannabinoid System Is a Recent Discovery
Did you know that it has only been about three decades since researchers discovered the endocannabinoid system? We have obviously known about the euphoric effects of cannabis use for thousands of years. It was only recently, though, that we began to learn more about the individual compounds in cannabis and how those compounds interact with the body. In the mammalian body, the endocannabinoid system is used to send chemical messages between cells. Your body manufactures cannabinoids – endocannabinoids – to transmit those messages and regulate functions like appetite, mood, sleep and responses to stress and pain. We have at least two types of endocannabinoid receptors in our bodies. Using cannabis brings exogeneous cannabinoids into your body, and those cannabinoids react with your endocannabinoid receptors by stimulating them or by binding to them and inhibiting the activity of other cannabinoids. The complexity of the endocannabinoid system is one reason why we still don’t fully understand the potential benefits of CBD even after decades of research – but we’re learning more every day. It’s an exciting time to be alive.