CBD oil and other related products have recently experienced a considerable increase in popularity, becoming one of the latest buzzwords in the health and wellness industry. But CBD is much more than just a dietary supplement, as it has the potential to significantly improve people’s lives and research is underway to find more and more possible applications.
However, it is still new to most of the general population, so it is easy to become confused about the effects and benefits of CBD Oil. And it is also easy to get confused when choosing between many and many of these products on offer. That’s why we’ve created this guide with a lot of useful information on the subject, so read on if you want to learn more about CBD and the products created from it.
What is CBD?
To truly understand CBD products, we must first understand what CBD is and what its properties are. The term CBD is an abbreviation for cannabidiol – an organic chemical compound found naturally in hemp plants. It is among more than 100 other chemical compounds found in these plants, and all are collectively referred to as cannabinoids.
These compounds interact with the endocannabinoid system – a complex system involved in the regulation of a variety of physiological and cognitive processes in the human body. Each one of the cannabinoides has a different effect in this system, and the investigators still try to discover the exact properties of them.
The best known of these compounds is THC, the main psychoactive component help, which causes the high with which hemp is often associated. Meanwhile, CBD is another compound that is prominently found in the plant, but, unlike THC, it is not psychoactive. In fact, some research shows that its effects counteract those of THC and that it may have antipsychotic properties.
There is also research suggesting that it may have various health benefits, from relieving stress and helping you sleep better to treating epilepsy and various neurological disorders. That, of course, has sparked a great deal of interest in it and created a growing industry for the manufacture of products containing it.
What is CBD oil and how is it made?
CBD oil is produced by extracting oil from hemp plants with a high content of cannabidiol, creating a product that provides all the benefits of CBD, without any of the psychoactive effects. Therefore, it is considered legal in the USA, in most EU countries and in some other countries, as long as it does not contain THC or does not exceed a certain amount. However, since laws may differ from country to country, you should first check your local regulations before you buy to make sure they do not cause you any problems.
There are two main ways to produce CBD oil: using CO2 or ethanol as a solvent. The first method is certainly better because it allows for purer extraction, however, it is rarely used, at least for now, as it is quite expensive. Therefore, ethanol extraction is the most popular method to do so, as it is much faster and easier.
It is important to add that there are also two different methods to extract cannabidiol from the plant: one is called whole plant (or “full spectrum”) extraction method, while the other is called isolation method. The full spectrum method means that the oil contains not only CBD but also some levels of all other cannabinoids, while the isolation method means that none of them are included in the oil.
Another thing to note is the difference between CBD oil and hemp seed oil. Although some manufacturers try to blur the lines between them with misleading marketing, they are strictly not the same. CBD oil is extracted from the hemp plant and must contain high levels of cannabidiol, while hemp oil is made from hemp seeds and, while useful for many things, contains nothing.
The reason for intentionally mixing these two things lies in the fact that CBD is much more difficult to extract, making it more expensive, while hemp seeds are much cheaper as an ingredient, so some manufacturers are trying to capitalize on recent interest in CBD products by marketing one like the other.
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