Your inexplicable feelings of stress, fear, and anxiety are valid. We are all a unique culmination of our experiences, and no two people dealing with stress will have the same treatment plan. What we can do to figure out ours is to reach out to a professional (like our in-house specialist) and try different approaches that heal us from within.India Hemp Organic’sCannaBliss Stress Busterfull-spectrum hemp oil could be just the solution you are looking for. For chronic stress disorders, it is crucial to avoid self-medication, so please seek professional help and consider hemp oil as your secret weapon along the way to mental contentment!
What Is Stress?
Once upon a time, when humans were hunter-gatherers, stress was a safety mechanism in the body. When we perceived a threat, our hearts began to race; blood and adrenaline were pumped to essential body parts to do one of two things. Fight or flight. In the 21st century, we do not usually find predators or enemies chasing us. But, those defense mechanisms still remain.
Now, our brains perceive broken relationships, exams, deadlines, taxes, and other “normal” things as threats and cause the exact same reaction. Is this a bad thing? Well, it can be. A regular amount of stress is healthy to keep us motivated and striving to perform better in our personal and professional lives. With that said, stress can get out of hand when we do not know how to deal with it. And this can lead to anxiety disorders, mood disorders, depression, and other psychiatric conditions.
The Consequences Of Stress
Stress - when prolonged over time, can lead to any of the mentioned disorders – which may sneak up on us. Stress-related disorders manifest themselves in our body, behavior, and mind.
- Difficulty breathing and panic attacks
- Nausea and appetite changes
- Unexplained weight fluctuations
- Itchy, break-out-prone skin
- Lowered libido
- Overwhelm and dread
- Loss of motivation
- Trouble with sleeping and concentrating
- Unhealthy habits (picking at skin, hair, grinding teeth)
Although this is not the end of the symptom list, what this tells us is that stress can seriously impact our day-to-day lives. Remember that we all have a breaking point, and when we reach it- it shows. Often, people turn to unhealthy habits that will cost them in the future. As some psychologists like to call it - instant gratification – is a lion in sheep’s clothing when it comes to stress. So how do we keep stress in check healthily?
How Stress Is Treated
Traditionally, stress can be managed using therapy, medication, and lifestyle changes. Medication and professional therapy can be expensive, and pills sometimes cause more harm than good with countless side effects. Stress in manageable amounts needs constructive outlets like exercise, meditation, music, art, and massages. These are accessible to everyone and really are effective. Try them out and see for yourself!
Other forms of alternative medicine are hypnotherapy, aromatherapy, acupuncture, and Ayurvedic treatments. These therapies can make a difference in people with chronic or unmanageable stress. Speaking of Ayurveda, cannabis extracts fall into this category. And in the next section, we will explore why it can be a good idea to add hemp oil to your stress management plan.
How Hemp Oil Can Help Manage Stress
Scientists have studied the benefits of hemp oil/ full-spectrum cannabis oils for stress since the1990s. In fact, cannabis was recreationally used across cultures to calm the body and appease the mind. Of course, this is no longer legal but using the compounds found in the Cannabis sativa, or hemp plant – is! (You can read about the legality of hemp oil in our previous blog!)
Hemp oil contains a compound called CBD, or cannabidiol – which interacts with the endocannabinoid system (ECS). We all have an ECS system - and this system controls many aspects of our being, including the heart, the brain, and the immune system. All these are affected by stress – does racing heartbeat, feeling sickly, and brain fog sound familiar? Then hemp oil may have an umpteen amount of benefits for your stress!
To read more about the mechanism in which CBD binds to receptors and neurons in the body to regulate inflammation, sleep, body temperature, and “feel-good” hormones like serotonin, head to our previous blog.
Relevant Research
A 2020 survey found that 340 CBD users had better sleep, were more relaxed, and had less stress. Out of all the types, edible CBD products seemed to work best! Additional studies conducted among over 400 subjects in New Zealand supported these results for stress and anxiety. (And you can find more studies in the references.)
Sometimes it is better to get a clearer picture of CBD oil for stress from someone first-hand rather than reading a research paper.In 2018, Molly Boswell shed some light on the subject. She documented a week of using CBD oil to lower her anxiety – and oh, it did just that! It’s interesting because it takes consistent use (longer than a week) to see proper results. But in this article, Molly acknowledges that even if it is a placebo, just the act of adding a few drops of CBD oil into her routine made a difference. That is the sheer connection of the body and mind! Pretty cool, huh?
References:
https://www.vitafoodsinsights.com/cognitive/cbd-stress-new-data
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2568977/
https://jcannabisresearch.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42238-021-00061-5#ref-CR74
