(Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Canal_St_NOLA_CBD_Sept_2009_Custom_House_2.JPG)A natural remedy for anxiety alternative to ibuprofen. An antidote to anxiety. A sleep aid. A post-workout recovery booster. Those are some of the claims about cannabidiol (CBD) oil. You may have heard about this cannabis extract, which is said to provide widespread health benefits without the drawbacks of marijuana. And because of new federal legislation, you’ll probably be hearing a lot more about CBD over the next few years. Already, a growing number of athletes, including many in the trail running and ultramarathon community, consider CBD a key part of their regimen. And because of these early adopters, my interest piqued on CBD and its proposed benefits. Could CBD help my running? Can it help yours? I decided to find out. But before we explore how runners and other athletes use CBD, here’s what you need to know. CBD is shorthand for cannabidiol, one of the more than 100 cannabinoids found in cannabis.
CBD products are said to deliver their many claimed benefits by boosting the body’s endocannabinoid system, which is a system that “is a unique signaling pathway that controls the function of a variety of systems throughout the body, including the cardiovascular system,” says Nicholas DiPatrizio, Ph.D., a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine. Endocannabinoids are familiar to runners because of their theorized role in running-induced mood boosts. That euphoric phenomenon is thought to be from activation of the same receptors in the brain that the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana acts upon. CBD “works through distinct-albeit not definitively identified-signaling systems than THC,” DiPatrizio says. CBD is non-psychoactive, which means it doesn’t produce a high. Almost all commercially available CBD products are made from industrial hemp, a cannabis plant that, by definition, contains not more than 0.3 percent THC. In December, President Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalizes industrial hemp. It had previously been federally classified as a Schedule 1 drug; its production and distribution were prohibited.
The upshot: The federal Drug Enforcement Administration can’t interfere with the interstate commerce of industrial hemp. CBD products made from hemp are as legal as most other commercial nutritional supplements. In terms of athletics, hemp-derived CBD was removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency’s list of prohibited substances earlier this year. Hemp legalization and more companies targeting athletes should further separate CBD from its cultural association with marijuana. How Do You Take CBD? visit TerraPro CBD official site products come in a variety of forms, including tinctures, TerraProCBD.net gel caps, and topical applications. One athlete-focused company, Floyd’s of Leadville, offers a protein recovery powder and a carb drink that contain CBD. Another athlete-focused company, PurePower Botanicals, offers capsules that combine CBD with herbs and other purported medicinals, such as turmeric. PurePower says that the non-hemp-derived ingredients increase the effectiveness of the products’ CBD. How Popular Is It? In 2017, U.S. hemp-derived CBD sales totaled an estimated $190 million. At this point, companies offering CBD products are more akin to craft breweries than large corporations.
That has been the case because of hemp’s previous federal legal status; banks and other financial institutions under federal oversight couldn’t be involved. Now that hemp has been legalized, look for bigger players in the health industry to enter the CBD market and for sales to increase dramatically. What Claims Are Made About CBD? Advocates say it helps with a wide variety of conditions, from anxiety and insomnia to inflammation and nausea. Because of the workings of the endocannabinoid system, there’s at least a theoretical basis for these claims. “The endocannabinoid system is found in every organ throughout the body and controls many physiological processes, including food intake and energy balance, learning and memory, and pain processing, to name a few,” says DiPatrizio. “It can affect everything from emotion to pain to appetite to energy metabolism to brain function to even the immune system and inflammation,” says Hector Lopez, M.D., a consultant to PlusCBD Oil, one of the top-selling brands. So far, though, check this out there’s scant clinical evidence for the claimed benefits of CBD.
