CBD Health Benefits

You may think it odd that we have qualified the benefits of CBD oil “for humans”, this is only because we wanted to make a clear distinction as there are also benefits of CBD oil for dogs.

This, in itself, should give you an indication of the all-round health benefits of CBD oil, and its dramatic increase in popularity is well documented. However, there may be a few of you who have heard of CBD oil, yet are still unsure what CBD oil is, exactly.

You may know more about CBD oil than you might realise. It is only thanks to marketers keen to avoid any sense of ‘stigma’ associated with the product that its name has changed.

Why?

Because CBD stands for cannabidiol, (pronounced canna-bid-eye-ol), which is just one of 114 identified compounds found in the cannabis plant. Yes, that’s right, cannabis. However, this is not an illegal substance – far from it, and its legality is the reason for the move away from the term ‘cannabis oil’ and inappropriate associations with cannabis as a drug.

So why is CBD oil legal but cannabis illegal?

Because cannabidiol is not the specific compound in cannabis that gets you high, that’s THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. Because there is no THC in CBD oil there is no high, and it is the high, the mind-altering element, which provided the grounds for making cannabis illegal.

Not for hundreds, but for thousands of years there have been many health benefits derived from a wide variety of plants. Until the developments in science and technology, particularly within the last century, we have had to accept that certain medicines work, but have never known why.

This is very much the case with cannabis, whose history of use for medicinal purposes dates back to 2737 B.C in ancient China. Legend shows that Emperor Shen Neng was one of the first leaders to recommend the use of marijuana tea for the treatment of a number of illnesses including gout, rheumatism, malaria, and poor memory.

The history of Middle Eastern and Indian cultures reveals considerable use of cannabis in the treatment of illness dating back long before the first millennium, though it took many centuries before Western culture included cannabis in its ‘medicine cabinet’. William O’Shaughnessy, a doctor in the British East India Company was one of the first Westerners to promote the benefits of ‘medical marijuana’ for rheumatism and nausea to Americans, as well as the British.

With the last century’s advancements in science and technology, we have now been able to specifically identify what elements in cannabis have medicinal properties, and in particular, cannabidiol. Testing on both humans and animals has enabled us to not only get a better understanding of how cannabidiol works, physiologically, but also to identify other ailments which may benefit from the use of CBD.

There is a particularly strong body of research which is focusing on the use of CBD for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease, Crohn’s Disease, multiple sclerosis, various cancers and acute pain. This information can be found at the National Library of Medicine.