If you’re trying to help control a chronic pain problem, or looking for a way to reduce the impact of light anxiety or depression without recourse to clinical drugs, CBD may be the answer for you. Mostly available in the form of an oil tincture, CBD (cannabidiol) in a compound extracted from the cannabis plant with a growing reputation for boosting your sense of wellness as well as addressing specific issues like pain, inflammation, insomnia and anxiety, depression and low mood.
Buying CBD
As you may have noticed from the above paragraph, CBD is derived from the cannabis plant, so you might wonder how you can buy it, or if it’s legal. Fortunately, CBD is entirely legal – and free from the psychoactive effects people associate with cannabis.
Following a World Health Organisation report into CBD, which found it wasn’t addictive, and didn’t impair your judgement or perception, it’s become widely and legally available as a health supplement and complimentary medicine. You can it in health food shops and pharmacies as well as from specialist online retailers.
How to Take CBD Oil
Taking CBD oil is very straightforward. You can buy different concentrations of the oil in tincture form, so you can start out with a low dose and opt for stronger doses in future if you find it effective. These tinctures come in a bottle with a dropper, to make it easy to measure out how much you want to take.
The most direct way to take CBD oil is to drop your dose under your tongue. This is known as taking it sublingually. Here, it can be absorbed into the blood stream quickly, whereas if it enters your digestive system there is longer delay while it is processed by your body.
Other Ways to Take CBD
Some people don’t care for the flavour of CBD oil, or are looking for a more discreet way to take a regular dose of the compound. You can drop it into food or drinks – though if you’re adding CBD to your tea, you need to add milk (or a milk-substitute) because CBD is a lipid. As a fat based-molecule, it won’t dissolve in water. You can buy ready made CBD tea either as teabags, or over the counter in increasing numbers of cafes, but using a dropper and oil allows you to truly control the dose.
CBD edibles are also available. These are made by manufacturers using CBD oil, often in the form of gummy sweets or chocolate. They’re easy to work into your lifestyle, and discreet, if that’s a concern for you, but it’s harder to know how much CBD you’re taking in any one dose, and they are slower to take effect on you.