12 Incredible Benefits of Using CBD Oil for Your Mental Health

12 Incredible Benefits of Using CBD Oil for Your Mental Health

The global market size for CBD oil is expected to skyrocket from $414.7 million in 2019 to a mindboggling $3.2 billion by the end of 2026. 

The rapid growth of the CBD oil industry is attributed largely to the increasing interest in the health effects of CBD in recent years. An increasing number of studies suggest that CBD may have numerous mental health benefits. 

But exactly what is CBD oil? How does it work? More importantly, how can using CBD be beneficial for mental health?

If you’re asking these questions, you’ve come to the right place. In this comprehensive guide, we tell you all you need to know about CBD and its benefits for mental health. Read on to learn more. 

What Is CBD?

CBD refers to a product that’s derived from cannabis. It’s one of the many cannabinoids occurring naturally in the hemp plant. The other popular cannabinoid is tetrahydrocannabinol or THC.  

While the two compounds come from the same plant, they have different psychoactive effects. For instance, while THC will make the user feel high, CBD doesn’t. In fact, using CBD oil can help counter some of the negative effects of THC, including paranoia, appetite issues, and so on. 

How Does CBD work?

Every cannabinoid produces effects in a person’s body by interacting with cannabinoid receptors. These receptors are part of your endocannabinoid system. 

Your body has two main endocannabinoid receptors:

CB1 Receptors

There are found throughout your body, with particular concentration in the brain. Their purpose to co-ordinate your movement, mood, emotion, pain, memories, appetite, and so on. 

CB2 Receptors 

CB2 receptors are found more commonly in your immune system. They regulate pain and inflammation. 

CBD works by stimulates the body to produce more endocannabinoids. 

Is CBD Legal?

Before starting to use CBD oil, many people want to know whether the product is legal or not. CBD and other hemp-extracted products got declassified in 2018. That means CBD is legal under federal law as long as it’s derived from industrial hemp. It also means that the product must contain no more than 0.3 percent of THC. 

CBD is also legal at the state level in many states. Actually, you can use CBD oil in any state where cannabis has been legalized for medical or recreational use.

How Is CBD Oil Beneficial for Mental Health?

One of the many proven CBD benefits is its ability to help people with a variety of mental health conditions. This is good news for many of the 46.6 million American adults who live with different diagnosable mental issues. 

Here are some of the top ways CBD enhances mental health. 

1. It Can Help With Epilepsy

CBD has been shown to have a variety of benefits for people with neurologic disorders. The compound can decrease the severity and frequency of seizures. 

Such disorders as Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) and Dravet syndrome often do not respond well to most anti-seizure medications. CBD is highly effective in reducing the frequency of disorders in epilepsy patients. 

2. CBD Is Effective for Anxiety

Anxiety disorders are common for a significant population of the US population. One of the many CBD oil benefits is that it helps alleviate the symptoms of these disorders.  

Some of the anxiety conditions CBD has been shown to be effective for include:

Generalized anxiety disorder

Social anxiety disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Panic disorder

But while the product has great potential in countering these defects, more research is still essential to determine what therapeutic effects CBD has and the potential effects for people with anxiety disorders. 

3. CBD Can Help Treat Depression

Depression has always been one of the top mental disorders in the US, affecting a large portion of the US adult population each year. Thankfully, there are effective treatments for depression, including medication and psychotherapy. 

In recent years, interest in alternative and complementary treatments has been on the rise. Health experts have investigated CBD’s potential for having antidepressant effects. 

Some antidepressant treatments act on your serotonin receptors that are found in the brain. Low levels of serotonin can trigger the development of depression. CBD has been shown to impact how your brain responds to the levels of serotonin in your body, alleviating depression. 

4. CBD Oil Decreases Sleep Difficulties

Since CBD has a calming effect on the user, it can help treat sleeping difficulties. As you already know, sleep is a vital component of your overall well-being. Yet so many American adults hardly get the amount of sleep health experts recommend for each night. Well over 50 million Americans suffer from different sleep disorders.

Failure to get sufficient sleep can trigger a number of serious health conditions, including depression, obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. 

Many health experts now recommend using CBD products to sleep better

5. CBD Can Help with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PSTD affects millions of Americans across the country. Symptoms include re-experiencing previous traumatic events, nightmares, and intrusive thoughts. 

CBD oil can help reduce the symptoms of PSTD. For better results, CBD is used in addition to regular psychiatric treatment. 

6. CBD Oil Can Be Used for Bipolar Disease

Bipolar is another common mental illness affecting Americans. Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme mood swings and changes, from low, depressive episodes to high, manic ones. Sometimes, these episodes last for weeks on end.

Mood swings that result from bipolar can often be extreme and precarious. Some people may experience such symptoms as the hallucinations and delusions caused by psychosis. 

CBD oil has proven effective in treating bipolar disorders. It helps reduce mental impairment and improve your mood. Generally, CBD boosts a positive outlook, leading to a more optimistic perspective on life. 

7. CBD Can Help with Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disorder that results in damage to brain functions such as memory. The condition is particularly common among adults above the age of 65. This illness is the number one cause of dementia. 

Currently, there isn’t a known cure for the disease. 

In recent years, CBD has proven effective in alleviating underlying symptoms of Alzheimer’s, including agitation and aggression. CBD oil has also been shown to be effective in dealing with the root causes of Alzheimer’s. 

With routine use of CBD, the ability t recognize faces increases significantly. There’s also a significant reduction in social withdrawal and overall cognitive deficits.

8. CBD Oil Can Be Used for Parkinson’s Disease (PD)

PD is a severe neurological disorder whose effects worsen progressively with age. The disease primarily affects the nervous system. It adversely impacts speech, mobility, and motor skills.

Just like Alzheimer’s, there isn’t a known cure for PD. However, there’s a list of options and medications that can help manage PD’s symptoms and boost your quality of life. CBD is one of these options. 

One of the best things with CBD oil for PD is that it doesn’t have the side effects that most other PD medications have. These side effects include insomnia, ankle swelling, urinary problems, liver damage, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, and skin blotching. 

People with PD who use CBD oil experience better sleep. They also experience a huge improvement in mobility, tremors, and pain. CBD has also proven beneficial in preventing inflammation that’s often associated with PD.    

9. CBD Oil Can Help Treat Multiple Sclerosis (Ms)

MS is another progressive neurodegenerative condition that’s characterized by damage to nerve cells found in the brain and the spinal cord. Some of the symptoms of the condition include blurred vision, speech impairment, muscular miscoordination, weakness, tremors, persistent fatigue, jerking, and so on. 

Thankfully, there are approved therapies that can help mitigate the symptoms of MS. But many of these therapies come with severe side effects.

Recent studies suggest that CBD can help with most symptoms of MS, including involuntary muscle contraction, pain associated, and tremors.

10. CBD Oil Can Be Beneficial for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

Few neurological conditions are as debilitating to the motor neurons and spinal cord as ALS. This condition progressively weakens your muscle system. ALS affects tens of thousands of people in America and hundreds of thousands worldwide. 

At the moment, there’s no known cure for ALS. Much focus now is on CBD’s potential to counter the effects of ALS. The use of CBD has been shown to slow the progression of ALS. 

11. CBD Can Help People with Huntington’s Disease (HD)

HD is another neurological disorder whose effects include breaking down someone’s brain cells. The condition is characterized by slow eyesight, unusual eye movements, rigid muscles, jerking motions, and writhing movements. 

If you do not control HD early enough, it can severely affect your ability to reason, speak, and walk. 

CBD has been shown to be useful in fighting HD. Routine use of CBD oil can help slow down the progression of HD. Patients who use CBD also experience less muscle spasticity and better eye movements.

12. CBD Oil Can Help You Quit Smoking

Smoking is one of the most dangerous addictions. The habit can cause untold damage to your health and overall well-being. Tobacco addiction is a huge risk factor for several cancers, heart disease, glaucoma, bronchitis, sexual dysfunction, bronchitis, diabetes, and hypertension.

Most smokers in the country want to quit. The only problem is that cessation is not an easy thing, especially when it comes to quitting cold turkey.

CBD oil can greatly lessen the level of reward a smoker’s brain gets by using tobacco. This helps loosen your dependency on smoking. In other words, CBD acts like a nicotine patch, only without the serious side effects that come with smoking and the scary withdrawal symptoms that come with quitting. 

Possible Side Effects of CBD Oil

As you can see, CBD has lots of benefits for mental health. That, however, does not mean that that CBD oil is entirely devoid of any side effects. Generally, users of CBD oil can tolerate the product well.

However, some people still report experiencing some of the following side effects:

Anxiety

Appetite changes

Nausea

Mood changes

Dizziness

Drowsiness

One of the things that make it difficult to understand all the potential side effects of CBD is the absence of regulation. There are also no standardized manufacturing guidelines, which results in inconsistency when it comes to the purity of the product and labeling. 

Considerations Before Taking CBD

Besides the potential side effects that come with using CBD, there are other considerations to take into account when thinking of using CBD oil. These include:

Interaction With Medication

CBD oil can potentially affect your condition and may interact with other medications that you’re taking. For example, CBD can interfere with the metabolism of some medications, changing how they function. In some cases, CBD can worsen anxiety.

That’s why you need to talk to your physician before starting to take CBD oil. This is especially important if you have any pre-existing medical or psychiatric conditions.

Drug Testing 

Previously, there have been reports of CBD oil users failing drug tests. This has happened even in cases where people used CBD products labeled as being without THC.

While the vast majority of CBD products have only trace amounts of THC, these products can still result in a positive result on drug tests. Keep in mind that full-spectrum CBD products can have higher amounts of THC.

Labeling Inaccuracies

Mislabeling also seems to be one of the common issues affecting CBD products. Many CBD products that are sold online are mislabeled and contain high levels of THC. 

This is a significant problem, particularly for people taking CBD to tackle such mental health conditions as anxiety. That’s because THC can have undesirable psychoactive effects. Besides, higher levels of THC can lead to positive drug test results. 

Trust CBD Oil for Better Mental Health

Mental health conditions are common today as they’ve always been. Unfortunately, many of these conditions have no known cures. 

However, CBD oil has proven helpful for many of these issues, offering the promise of a better quality of life for people with such conditions as anxiety, depression, sleeping problems, Alzheimer’s, and many more.  

Would you like to read more content on the health benefits of CBD oil? Please keep visiting our blog.

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