5 Reasons You Should Take CBD Every Day

[caption id="attachment_366993" align="aligncenter" width="509"] CBD oil and cannabis leaf on yellow background.[/caption] Until we find a way to eradicate stress, physical discomfort, and sleep disturbances from the human experience (good luck), natural therapeutics like CBD (cannabidiol) will always seem attractive for daily use. CBD is a chemical compound known as a cannabinoid that occurs naturally in cannabis plants alongside THC and more than 200 others. Though it has yet to be FDA approved, the increasingly popular cannabinoid has been proven by research to help with stress, various forms of discomfort, sleep, and much more. This is why we can safely presume that everyone can benefit from CBD; it addresses these everyday, endemic issues affecting all of us. But why CBD specifically, how can it help with these problems, and is it safe? First off, it doesn’t hurt that your body already produces its own brand of CBD-like substances.

CBD Works With Your Body

Even though it may not feel like it after stubbing your toe, humans already have “hardware” in place to manage pain and inflammation. In fact, our bodies produce their own cannabinoid—a compound called anandamide—that interacts with a specialized pair of receptors labeled CB1 and CB2 to exert these analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects. Known as the endocannabinoid system (ECS), this network of receptors (there are more than two, by the way) and chemical messengers scattered throughout the nervous system can also address stress and other mental health issues that we’ll dive into later. Plug CBD into the endocannabinoid system, and even though it interacts with each receptor a bit differently than anandamide, we see many of the same effects. CBD also has several interactions with receptors outside the ECS that help with serotonin uptake and pain. Unlike harsh medications that gunk up receptor sites and/or hijack the brain’s reward processing system (ahem, opioids), CBD acts much more subtly to simply supplement what’s already going on.

Overdosing (and/or Getting High) Is Not a Thing

CBD producers, brands, and reviewers like ourselves are constantly answering this question: Does CBD get you high? The answer is a resounding no—at least in the conventional sense of getting high. While CBD is technically psychoactive because it promotes a subtle sense of calm, it is not intoxicating like its “cousin” delta-9 THC, which does get you high. To provide context, most CBD products provide between 5 to 100 milligrams of CBD per dose, and in studies like this one from the Nordic Cannabis Research Institute of Denmark, participants often took up to 1,000 milligrams a day with no reports of an overdose.

CBD May Clear Up Your Skin

Among the many helpful functions of the endocannabinoid system mentioned above is the maintenance of “cutaneous biology,” as this finding by Amway Corporation in Michigan put it. In the review, the authors noted that CBD can stimulate the production of antioxidant enzymes in the skin that help to combat the damaging effects of free radicals. Several other mechanisms have been proposed, including the anti-inflammatory potential of CBD, but this finding alone bears great promise as much-needed research into CBD for skincare continues.

CBD Can Take the Edge Off Everyday Aches

Pain is much more complex than we give it credit for, which is why the blanket statement “x product works for pain” is problematic, so we’ll say that CBD can help with some forms of pain. Indeed, a relatively large body of research points to various interactions that CBD has with receptors and other compounds that end up reducing pain. For example, this study from the Institute of Neurological Sciences in Nurnberg, Germany cites multiple cases of CBD reducing chronic and “neuropathic” (caused by nerve issues) pain.

CBD May Help You Manage Stress

Because you were begging for another technical term, we’ll just come out and say it: CBD interacts with 5-HT1A receptors to reduce anxiety and depression symptoms. These receptors are integral to serotonin production, and even though serotonin hogs the spotlight from all the other chemical messengers also responsible for a positive mood, it is very much in play.

Sleep Soundly (and Wake Up Hangover-Free) With CBD

There is still much research to be done, but studies are already yielding promising results in the vein of CBD for insomnia treatment, REM behavior disorder, and more. To end on a subjective note, we’ll tell you firsthand as avid testers of CBD products that the vast majority of full-spectrum CBD products we have tried from top-tier brands like CBDistillery have produced this effect. As always, we highly recommend deferring to your physician when trying out CBD, but after a bit of calibration to find your optimal dosage and product, we hope a daily CBD regimen can bring you the same peace it has brought us.