alt="Remember"/> New findings have led not only to more sophisticated combinations of CBD but also to adaptations of CBD from its more raw extracts into complex formulations. These cutting-edge creations are versatile and can be topical or ingestible.
Applying CBD to the skin
Topical applications of CBD can treat both external and internal issues. The external treatments don’t absorb beyond the top three layers of the skin. These options — ranging from lotions, salves, creams, and balms to oils — are prevalent in both the skincare and the pain markets. The list of benefits here is particularly long. The primary targets are inflammatory skin conditions, including dry skin, itchy irritations, dehydration, and rough patches and cracks. CBD is also an antioxidant and thus is touted for protecting skin from the signs of aging as well as addressing more difficult skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and acne.
Treating internal conditions topically is a little more complicated. The skin is the largest external organ; it serves as a protective barrier that either allows or prevents substances from reaching the bloodstream. Topicals designed to treat external (surface-level) skin conditions don’t need to penetrate below the outermost layer of the skin, but to take care of internal complaints, CBD must reach the bloodstream. That’s where transdermal agents come in.
Topical applications for internal benefits are known as transdermal agents (or transdermals). Transdermals require a penetrating agent — something that damages the skin in a microirritation. This microirritation allows the active agents to pass through the skin and into the bloodstream. Think of those pain relief patches that seem to change temperature. The “heat” is the penetrating agent (the cooling is there to mediate the heat sensation). The CBD market has only briefly approached transdermals, but a host of companies offer patches specifically for localized pain.
Eating or ingesting CBD
When choosing an edible/ingestible form of CBD, you have two important considerations:
Bioavailability (the amount of a substance that reaches the bloodstream)
Onset time (how quickly the CBD takes effect)
Sublingual applications (applied under the tongue) are the fastest-acting and most calibrated of CBD offerings next to smoking. Chewable tablets like mints; gums; and dissolvable strips, tinctures, teas, and oral sprays all fall under the sublingual category because they’re in your mouth for a while. And the sublingual oil market is one of the most dominant categories in ingestible CBD.
Sublingual action is made possible through the medicine meeting the mucous membrane under the tongue. The membrane and connective tissue under the tongue contain capillaries (the smallest and largest concentration of blood vessels). On sublingual administration, the medicine dissolves and is absorbed into the bloodstream through the tiny network of blood vessels. The faster the medicine hits the bloodstream, the faster the onset. The least obstacles in the way of the medicine reaching the bloodstream means the largest amount of bioavailability.
Other forms of edibles (like chocolates, candies, or gummies) have the disadvantage of having to travel through the gut for absorption. The problem is that they encounter quite a few warriors (such as stomach acid) along the way, which challenges their bioavailability and onset time. Supplements like capsules and powders, and anything else you may swallow, struggle with the same obstacles. On the flip side, they have the comfort of a more traditional supplement market.
CBD: The New Treatment of Choice?
“Illegal, illicit narcotic banned by the government for over 40 years is now making its way into the hands of the severely ill and having incredible benefits!” I just made that headline up, but it sounds like something you could’ve read in all the frenzy over CBD since it was declassified in 2018. (See the later section “Looking at the Legality Surrounding CBD” for that move.) CBD has the appeal of an affordable, accessible miracle, but the frenzy is just a fad. For CBD to really have long-term staying power, we need to see maximum benefits and efficacy in the CBD medicine space. That may require a few more years to apply research. We need patient-backed outcome studies to attest to successes in a uniform and repeatable way.
So yes, for now, this is just a fad that requires a lot of work on behalf of the customer for positive outcomes. That or a really good friend, or book, which might be able to provide some guidance to start the process of sorting through the weeds. (No pun intended.)
Providing a natural alternative to Western healthcare
The timing of the legalization of CBD couldn’t have been better. In this day and age, people are more and more disillusioned with traditional Western healthcare and are therefore looking for alternative remedies to legitimately heal what ails them. The Western focus tends to treat the symptoms; natural and alternative medicines tend to focus on the whole and the underlying causes or roots of an ailment.
CBD falls into that natural category right now. Its compatibility with the human body is truly remarkable. The introduction of CBD and other cannabinoids addresses a general balance that can potentially systematically ease symptoms caused by a core root condition. It may even address the condition in some cases.
And it’s proving to be quite successful for some in the experiential phases of exploring CBD as a personal remedy. As the science and uses evolve, more targeted remedies and more customer education will become available.
Move over, opiates: Considering CBD for treating pain
One of the more promising areas of study and usage for CBD is pain. The chemical is a nonaddictive alternative to opiates because of its anti-inflammatory action. CBD expedites the body’s inflammatory response system and alleviates pain sensations while simultaneously speeding up recovery.
Opiates tend to be a pharmacological tool applied to both acute and chronic pain, but they present more of a problem with the latter. Pain that persists for long periods can be harder to treat because it has perpetual effects on the neurological state. The result: more opiate use over longer durations. This prolonged use comes with a host of side effects, including dependency.
If the end result is relief either way, and one opportunity presents fewer side effects and less risk of dependency, the winner seems clear. All the hows and whys of this are explored in more depth on a condition-by-condition basis in Part 3.
Looking at the Legality Surrounding CBD
CBD is now a legal extract from a hemp plant, so long as no THC is present in the product. (In some cases, 0.3 percent or less THC is acceptable.) The task now is unpacking the unnecessary criminalization of the plant. Coming back from the implications of being a Schedule 1 drug is challenging, but the future of cannabis is bright.
Breaking down the criminalization of CBD
In the 1930s,