Grace Morris
Videographer, Animator, Editor
Cannabinoids:
How CBD might effect your health
By Grace Morris
Right before starting her career at Elon, alumna Victoria Rodriguez had major surgery.
“I had my spleen removed and that was particularly painful,” Rodriguez said.
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During the healing process after her surgery, Rodriguez experience tremendous pain, so she started looking for other methods to deal with the pain beside prescription pain killers.
“I was interested in THC but it's not legal in this area. So I was like, what's like a legal alternative?” she said.
Sandy King, now a manager at CBD NC, was also in a similar position. Struggling with managing her ADHD and not wanting to take conventional medications, like adderall, she was looking for an alternative.
“When I take the [AHDH] medicines it kind of made me feel zombied out,” King said.
What both eventually found was Cannabinoids, or CBD, a chemical derived from the marijuana plant. Rodriguez found that using CBD helped to manage her pain and felt healing to her, while King says it helped her with her ADHD.
“I haven’t had to take medication for over 5 months just using the CBD oil instead,” King said.
What is CBD?
In 2018, after the passage of the Farm Bill, states were legally allowed to grow Hemp. Hemp is a form of the Marijuana plant that contains very little THC , or the active ingredient in Marijuana that causes a high.
CBD comes from the Hemp plant and has recently become popular for having what many claim is a wide variety of health benefits. Benefits that Rodriguez says are real.
“It seems like snake oil at this point, it’ll cure almost anything. The problem is there is not a lot of good research,” said Elon University Physician Ginette Archinal.
Currently prescription Epidiolex, is the only use the FDA, or Food and Drug administration, has approved CBD for. Epidiolex is a type of seizure medication that contains CBD. According to Epilepsy Foundation, research has shown that CBD helps to control seizures and can even be an option for people who have epilepsy, but who have not responded to traditional treatment.
While anecdotal evidence suggests CBD decreases anxiety, allows for better sleep, and can help with pain management, the FDA has not weighed in on these other uses. This means that most CBD products are totally unregulated, allowing for the processing of the plant to vary and allowing manufacturers to add in other ingredients without disclosing it to the customer.
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“That’s part of the problem because CBD does have an effect on your liver, and it can increase the metabolism of other drugs," lee said. "So you can either, for the most part, block metabolism of certain drugs, which will increase the amount of drug in your bloodstream."
COVID-19's effect
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not found any research suggesting CBD can cure the virus, it is still being added to a variety of products. Hand sanitizer infused with CBD is one product now on the market.
But a few CBD companies are trying to profit off the fact that there is no known cure for COVID-19. The FDA has been sending warning letters to companies that are “selling fraudulent products with claims to prevent, treat, mitigate, diagnose or cure coronavirus disease”. Nova Botanix LTD DBA CanaBD, the CBD Online Store, Native Roots Hemp, Indigo Naturals, and Neuro XPF are all companies selling CBD products that have received official warning letters from the FDA.
But despite fraudulent claims, sales of CBD are also on the rise with the Hemp Business Factbook reporting sales between 1.1 and 1.3 billion last year.
Forbes Magazine even reported earlier this year that CBD sales were expected to spike because of the coronavirus. Since many believe CBD reduces anxiety, during a stressful time like quarantining during a pandemic, many have been turning to CBD in recent weeks in hopes of managing their anxiety, according to Forbes. In fact, of the general population around 5% are turning to CBD products during quarantine to help with mental health and wellness, according to CNN.
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While some CBD companies are attempting to take advantage of the uncertainty during the pandemic, other CBD companies are choosing to donate the profits they make while the country is on lockdown. CrazyCalm and Smile are two examples of this. CrazyCalm is donating the profits it makes from online orders to DirectRelief.org, which is an organization that provides medical resources to healthcare professionals. While, The UN COVID-19 response fund is currently getting donations from the profits Smile makes from it’s gummies.
But even though CBD is popping up as a wellness solution, there is still not enough research about CBD products to know their full range of side effects or benefits. And while the research might not be quite there yet, Rodriguez and King still swear by CBD.
“It's not a cure all or an end all be all, but it's definitely a nice way to decompress at the end of the day,” Rodriguez said.
“If I have just a little bit of it will give me like, calmness and like, help me feel less anxious and also help with physical pain that I'm dealing with,” Rodriguez said.
But while King and Rodriguez claim they have seen great benefits from using CBD. The medical community is fairly split of whether or not those benefits are real or perceived.
The research behind CBD
Robbin Lee, a pharmacist at Total Care Pharmacy, says that’s why he doesn’t stock CBD products.
“There are lots of people making CBD products. And since they're not regulated, there's no way to know precisely what you're getting. You have to rely on the people selling it, and that's kind of made it sort of the wild west of selling CBD,” Lee said.
It’s a fact that causes concern for Rodriguez, but won’t stop her from using it.
“I prefer to vape it but I have to be really careful about making sure that I source solid CBD that isn't laced with fillers. So you can't really go to like cheap gas stations to get your CBD,” Rodriguez said.
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Vaping is just one of the forms in which CBD can be consumed. It can also be used as a topical cream or oil, and can also be eaten or smoked. Dog treats are even available, and advertised as a way to calm your pets. But while CBD can be consumed in a variety of forms, it doesn’t come without side effects.
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While little research has been done on the effects and benefits to CBD, according to the Mayo Clinic, it has been found to have side effects like drowsiness, fatigue, dry mouth, diarrhea, and reduced appetite. As well as interact poorly with other medications you are taking like blood thinners. But because so little research has been done, it’s still too early to know details on who these benefits and side effects effect, or if there are other unknown side effects.
“It's hard to know if that's true for a broad spectrum of people or if it's just for that one person, or if it's placebo effect,” Lee said.
