Whether you suffer from stress, insomnia, migraine or skin problems:a few drops of CBD oil and your complaints would disappear. Do those drops really work?
It seems ideal:you have been tired for a while or you lie at night due to stress staring at the ceiling for hours, so you drip some CBD oil under your tongue every morning for two weeks and your complaints are gone. At least that's what you read when you google CBD oil. Because the vegetable oil is said to be the panacea for stress, insomnia, mood swings, migraine and joint complaints, but also reduces pain in serious conditions such as cancer, Parkinson's disease and rheumatism. In fact, it would even slow down diseases such as cancer. Online there is a lot of jubilation stories and drugstores also stock up on the oil en masse and advertise it. But what is that castor oil made of? And how does it work?
Read also: ‘Starting with CBD oil in 4 steps‘
“CBD stands for cannabidiol, a substance extracted from flower buds and leaves of the hemp plant,” explains cannabis researcher Arno Hazekamp. “Hemp is legally grown for the fiber and is often confused with the cannabis plant.” Logical too, because hemp and cannabis plants come from the same family. “They are both cannabis plants. Yet there is a big difference:cannabis plants contain THC, the well-known mind-altering substance that many cannabis smokers are concerned about. Hemp contains little to no THC, but a lot of CBD.” And that substance has been sold in pharmacies since 2007, because it is said to have a relaxing and analgesic effect and would provide more energy. Even though the plants are related and the substances THC and CBD are closely related, they work completely differently:CBD, unlike THC, has no psychedelic effect and is not addictive.
So it won't get you high. In addition, the oil is legally available, because it does not fall under the Opium Act. Weed or THC oil does fall under that law and is therefore only available on prescription and at a few pharmacies in the country for seriously ill people. What exactly CBD does in your body is quite a technical story; it acts on the endocannabinoid system, part of our nervous system. The plant cannabinoids in CBD oil resemble our body's own cannabinoids and therefore 'fit' on the same receptors. Manufacturers use that as a feat of arms for their health claims.
After using CBD oil, your body gets a signal, as it were, that pain must be soothed and inflammation in joints reduced. In addition, CBD gives digestion a boost and the oil has a relaxing effect. But is that true?
Although CBD oil has been sold for 12 years now, the oil only really became popular when news channel CNN broadcast a documentary in 2013 about the American girl Charlotte Figi (then 5) who was born with severe epilepsy. She had hundreds of seizures a week.
Her parents had tried everything and then heard about CBD oil. Finally, they tried. The girl recovered quickly.
Hazekamp confirms:“In studies it has been established that CBD oil works in the long term in some forms of epilepsy. About a quarter of the patients has been helped by it.” But does that mean that CBD is a medicine? And has it also been proven that it works against all those other ailments and disorders? “The trouble with CBD oil is that it has become so popular so quickly that the market is actually ahead of research and legislation,” says Hazekamp.
“Millions of people worldwide use it, but nobody really agrees on what
CBD oil is now:a medicine or dietary supplement, because the effect on many conditions has not yet been proven. There are indications, but besides the effect on epilepsy_ nothing is really certain. So you can't say:CBD oil works against stress complaints, rheumatism and migraine, but you can't say that it doesn't work either. We just don't know. And before you do find out what it does for all those disorders, you are years further. Such clinical research takes a lot of time.”
There are quite a few online sellers who make such health claims, when they are not allowed to. The Nutrition Center also warns against believing the claims:"No health benefits have been shown, so manufacturers are not allowed to say that they have." So if you read that it has been proven that CBD oil really works against joint pain or rheumatism, then that is not correct. Most online sellers circumvent these claims and write:“Google CBD oil, then you can read for yourself about the beneficial effects of our oil.” Good to know:according to the WHO it has now been established that the molecule CBD is harmless.
Because the oil has become so extremely popular in a short time, cannabis researcher Hazekamp warns about the quality of the oil for sale. To the
To get CBD from a hemp plant, you have to extract it. That sounds complicated, but it can already be done in a simple laboratory. Because there was suddenly so much demand for the oil, labs were set up in no time, often abroad. But nobody checks it. After all, there are no laws and regulations yet. In Brussels and even in the UN they are currently scratching their heads about what to do with the oil and how to get the market under control.”
The Nutrition Center sees CBD oil as a dietary supplement and says that the government and the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority are discussing which regulations the oil must comply with. “Because those regulations are coming, is a fact.”
All in all, the CBD world is quite obscure, says Hazekamp. “When you buy a bottle, you never know for sure what is in it:whether too many pesticides have not been used on the hemp plants, whether the oil comes from a clean laboratory and how much THC and CBD it contains. Because every bottle of CBD oil also contains a bit of THC. There is no other way, because a small amount of this substance occurs naturally in the plants. To prevent CBD oil from falling under the Opium Act, it has been determined that the THC content is a maximum of 0.05%, so negligibly little.”
In practice, it appears that some labs do not care too much about the THC limit, but are also not honest about the actual amount of CBD in the oil. Hazekamp examined the contents of 46 bottles of cannabis oil at the end of 2017. And the result was surprising:some bottles contained no CBD oil at all, but pure olive oil. In other bottles, the percentage of CBD and THC was not correct. There was much more or less of the substances in it. Similar results were also found in studies in other countries. “Actually, buying CBD oil is like playing Russian roulette,” says Hazekamp. “In many cases, the labels say nothing at all and quality marks do not exist.”
But does he advise against using it? "New. CBD is simply the newest herbal remedy that many say you must have tried. I believe it really works for some people. But just like with other nutritional supplements and medicines, it does nothing for another part. Some swear by vitamin C and echinacea, others by CBD oil. CBD oil is not addictive, vegetable and you can not overdose, so really little can go wrong. If it doesn't help, then it doesn't hurt. Just don't expect miracles from it.”
Want to try the drops? In that case, the researcher does recommend that you buy the oil in a shop or pharmacy and not online. “There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with oil from stores. In addition, because of their image, shops only want to sell good quality products. And as a consumer, you also have a clear point of contact for questions at a large retail chain. So you can buy a bottle there with peace of mind.”
Do you try it and feel a difference within two weeks? So there is a good chance that the oil will work for you. If you don't feel anything, there's a good chance that won't happen again and you have to wait for the next miracle cure...
The dried hemp leaves and flowers from which this tea is made contains 1.7%_cannabidiol. The tea would boost your immune system and ensure a good night's sleep.
Because CBD oil often has a bad taste, these candies have been developed. Each drop contains 2.5 mg of cannabidiol. Available in eighteen flavours.
Irritated, dry skin? The CBD in this ointment would help recovery and soothe irritation.
Whether the CBD in this soap is absorbed enough into your skin to have an effect is the question, but in the worst case you will only be left with a clean sheet.
If you use CBD oil, it will probably also be on your holiday packing list. Yet Arno Hazekamp warns not to take the oil with you just like that. “Even though there is only a maximum of 0.05% THC in CBD oil, if customs find your bottle suspicious and check it for THC, you may have a positive drug test, because a test can rely on that small_ percentage THC. And so you can just be accused of drug smuggling. I know stories of people who took the CBD oil to Croatia and Russia and ended up in jail there.”
Consumer program Radar conducted a large survey of CBD use among panel members in 2017. 6,000 members indicated to use the oil. Most used it to reduce joint pain (40%). Others hoped their sleep problems (37%), chronic pain (34%), nerve pain (17%), psychological complaints (10%), skin problems (8%), tingling hands and feet (8%) and high blood pressure (7% ) to deal with. Opinions were divided about the effect of the oil:about half indicated that they benefited 'somewhat' from the oil, 30% had no idea that CBD oil relieved the complaints. 17% are completely convinced of the oil. A few dozen people suspected that the use of CBD oil actually made the complaints worse. No other large-scale consumer studies are known yet.
Source:Santé March 2019, text:Priscilla Borgers
