CBD Wellness Chief Operating Officer Javier Vargas is an expert in the field of CBD.
In this Q&A, he answers a few questions about the effectiveness of CBD, the difference between full spectrum and isolate, and how to seek the right brands.
What are the benefits of CBD?
There are many health and wellness benefits from this amazing plant. CBD Wellness, CBD specifically, is a powerhouse when it comes to health and wellness, aiding a wide array of ailments and conditions such as pain, inflammation, sleep aid, nausea, energy, stress, anxiety, reducing high blood pressure and cholesterol. CBD works by interacting with a vast collection of different cells and receptors throughout our bodies that make up the endocannabinoid system, and CBD helps balance your endocannabinoid system which, in turn, helps with ailments. More than anything, CBD mimics the effect of serotonin.
How does CBD mimic serotonin?
Serotonin is a powerful chemical that stabilizes mood. CBD Wellness oil products act as an effective substitute for serotonin and can help people who have serotonin deficiency. All of those things put together make CBD Wellness a powerful painkiller, anti-anxiety medication, and natural sleep aid. Since CBD does not affect the brain the way THC does, it does not get you high.
It works like this:
• CBD affects serotonin receptors. Serotonin, to oversimplify, is a chemical that makes you happy. CBD mimics the effect of serotonin, giving it an anti-anxiety effect.
• CBD interacts with the TRPV1 receptor, which affects inflammation, body temperature, and perception of pain.
• CBD is an anti-inflammatory, CBD activates the endocannabinoid system, which has all sorts of advantages, including treating arthritis through topical salves.
• CBD also indirectly deactivates or blocks the GPR55 receptor. The GPR55 receptor is associated with cancer cell growth and bone loss.
• CBD makes you more sensitive to GABA, a calming neurotransmitter. Sensitivity to GABA helps relieve anxiety.
• CBD prevents the reuptake (reabsorption) of certain neurotransmitters. Preventing reuptake causes these neurotransmitters to build up in the brain, which can treat certain mental health problems.
How much CBD do you have to consume for there to be an effect?
It all really depends on each person (what’s their ailment severity, how quickly they are wanting to see the effects and ultimately how effective the product you’re using is). We typically recommend our 700 mg tinctures to the majority of our patients to use a half to one dropper (10 to 20 mg dose) morning and night as a starting regimen and from there, you’ll be able to adjust your dosage, either more or less as you notice improvements. Some people use it only a few times a day, while others use it every few hours. There are no negative side effects for taking too much, so experimenting with what dose regimen works best is key. As well as sticking to the dosing regimen. For topical pains we are recommended our salves and liniments. They target specific areas, for example, if someone has neuropathy or arthritis in hands, feet, or knees, targeting the site with our topicals will yield extremely fast results. Whereas our tinctures require a little more time to build up and begin work in your system.
How do you know if a CBD oil/infusion is of a high quality?
Unfortunately, you really can’t know for sure until you try the products. The majority of products on the market actually don’t contain the compound or very little of it. Do your research on the company, how long have they been in the industry, types of products, and recognition or awards.
Some red flags we have found after hearing from hundreds of people are to stay away from multilevel CBD brands, franchised CBD stores, internet or social media-based CBD brands, and white label CBD brands. Although it is tough deciphering through all these low-quality marketing brands, try to see if they have their own farm, extraction and manufacturing lab and state issued licenses for hemp or marijuana.
CBD Wellness has been in the industry for 12 years, we offer a wide selection of products to best suit the needs of every patient. Whether it is a small topical to put in your bag or for on-the-go relief or a tincture to help with a night’s sleep, we got you covered.
Each year we win numerous awards voted by patients due to the effectiveness of our products. This year alone, we won top brand and top products on the following websites: Arizona Top Dispensary & Brands, Best Tucson Dispensary & Brands, Best Phoenix Dispensary & Brands.
What is the difference between brands?
The biggest difference between brands is what is actually in the bottle and its effectiveness. One of the biggest challenges in botanical medicines is milligrams. Milligrams are a measurement of weight, and in the cannabis plant there are hundreds of compounds as well as fatty acids and oils. The compound CBD is what costs the money, many brands either through ignorance or trying to profit more, create their products in a “CBD oil” that contains less than 10% of the actual compound CBD. This means, if you bought a 1000 mg product, it has 1000 mg of cannabis oil but only 100 mg off that is actually CBD. Its estimated that 90% of the products out there are like this, which is a part of the reason why so many say, ‘I’ve tried CBD and it didn’t work’. It’s not that CBD didn’t work, it’s just that the product you bought didn’t contain any or not enough.
There is a lot that goes into properly formulating an herbal product. Each and every aspect of the process can easily change the end product. This includes proper growing of plants, extraction, and purification of the compounds, formulating the compounds (time, heat, pressure all affecting how and what the compounds do) and the final formula ensuring the compounds are bio-available to ensure delivery. Our product mgs stated in on our labels is the actual amount of CBD in it: for example, our 700 mg tincture contains 700 mg of activated CBD in the bottle.
What is the main difference between infusion of CBD in food/drinks versus CBD oil tinctures?
When it comes to using infused food/drink products, the effects typically take longer to go in effect due to your body needing to break down the food/drink it’s in. A lot of these infused products usually contain a lot of sugar as well which is a huge cause of inflammation/pain while CBD aids with reducing inflammation, just seems counterproductive to us. While oils such as tinctures and topicals likes salves/balms contain no sugar (at least CBD Wellness products don’t) and are able to be infused with a full spectrum CBD oil formulation that contain all the cannabinoids and terpenes which is why our products are so effective and continually work for our patients even after years of usage.
