Best CBD Cream for Anxiety

There are many aspects to consider before purchasing a topical CBD cream for the treatment of your anxiety. It is now a well-known fact that CBD can temper with mood, inflammation, pain, and sleep, among many other aspects of the human body as well. 

It is safe to assume it might contradict with your natural biological clock, or even it might not bode well with other prescription medications. To understand each and every concept related to CBD, read the buying guide below, and the mysteries will quickly unravel, and the question knots in your head will become untied.

Benefits of CBD Cream

We have frequently advertised using CBD infused products, but most of them are oils that need to flow through the digestive system, and in some rare cases, they can produce GIT disturbances such as diarrhea and nausea. 

To avoid these issues, a new method to introduce CBD has been discovered that does not mess with your GIT. By using CBD creams, you can easily relieve your anxiety due to the psychoactive effects of CBD as it mimics the endocannabinoid stimulators in your brain and keeps your skin moisturized.

CBD reenacts the chemicals such as serotonin that activate the endocannabinoid system of our brain, which is responsible for mood elevation, and even in the deficiency of serotonin, it mimics the chemical and tricks the brain into creating happiness if taken regularly.

Strength and Potency of CBD 

The strength with which any chemical produces a change in the human body is called its potency. The higher the potency, the stronger the drug will be, and it will impose an effect on the human body in a faster and effective way. 

This does not mean that we should always take medicinal drugs with higher potency levels because sometimes they can even cause toxicity due to their relative clearance rate from the body. For CBD creams, there is no absolute law about the minimum or maximum potency levels that force manufacturers to follow the rules.

 Every company produces CBD infused creams with potency levels that they think might perform well in the general market. You can see CBD creams with as low as 300 mg potency and as high as 2400 mg.

As far as dosage is concerned, for humans, there is no relative mechanism that defines the amount of CBD one should introduce to their system for achieving desired results. It comes down to your own tolerance levels and the level of your anxiety as well. It is best to start low with 300 mg CBD topical cream and gradually work your way up the potency ladder if your body doesn't react to lower levels of CBD.

THC Levels

Tetrahydro cannabidiol is one of 113 elements of the cannabinoid family. It is found in conjunction with almost all other cannabinoids, which results in its presence in all of the plants, including the Hemp plant. 

THC is the element that is dominant in the marijuana plant, but its dominance is replaced by cannabidiol, aka CBD in the hemp plant. Almost every cannabinoid has psychoactive abilities, but not all of them have an intoxicating effect on humans. 

THC is the most intoxicating element of the cannabinoid family, and with its majority in marijuana, it is responsible for the 'high' or stoned feeling after puffing up a joint. Despite its psychoactive healing abilities, due to its intoxicating effect, its consumption is banned for usage under US federal law.

However, due to the prevalence of THC in all of the cannabis plants, including hemp, there is a small percentage of THC allowed in every CBD related product. The percentage that is safe and legal to consume or manufacture in a CBD related product is 0.3 percent. 

Be sure to check it before you purchase a CBD cream for anxiety. But do all the creams have THC incorporated in their formulas? Read it below in the spectrum ranges of CBD creams.

Legality 

There is a common misconception regarding the cannabinoid family, and that is that all elements of this family have the ability to induce intoxication. The rate of delusional thinking a proper marijuana joint can induce is borderline dangerous, and that is the reason behind their ban for consumption in the United States. 

However, after finding out that CBD does not have any intoxicating effect; rather, it contains only medicinally beneficial psychoactive properties; the ban was lifted from only CBD products. Due to the prevalence of THC in all CBD related plants, a small legal percentage was set that was safe for human consumption and did not pose any intoxicating effect no matter the amount of product used.

The legal percentage of THC in all CBD related products under the US constitution is 0.3 percent. Otherwise, if the product does not contain any THC, it is safe to consume in all states of the country. 

Half-Life of CBD 

The case of every person who uses CBD infused products is different as we cannot assume pre-existing conditions and the rate of metabolism of CBD in every person's body. But the half-life of any chemical product helps explain the duration they will stay in the body before being metabolized by the liver and cleared by the kidneys. 

The typical half-life of CBD in a normal human being with no other medical conditions is 1-2 days, but there is no guarantee that it will be the same for everyone. Due to limited information present on the topic, the best assumption is that one dose of CBD stays in the human system of 1 or 2 days.

 But in some cases, it was found that CBD was still circulating in the system past two days of the last dose. However, it is certain that CBD does not flow around in the human body past seven days; even in complicated cases, CBD is excreted in 7 days, and the system becomes clear. 

Even to achieve optimum effect, there is no specific dose or even time, so one has only to guess, and work with the conditions produced with smaller doses and work their way around the way their body reacts. For maximum effect, it is advised that you must apply the CBD infused cream at least two times a day, so at all times, there is fresh CBD running through your system.

Psychoactive vs. Intoxicating 

A drug or a chemical is called psychoactive when its functions include apparent changes in mood, sleep, and if it has the ability to alter chemical combinations of neurochemicals. An intoxicating drug, on the other hand, is something that alters and plays with consciousness. 

The state of delirium, when produced in a human, is also called an intoxicated state, and thus, drugs associated with this state are called intoxicating drugs. In the case of CBD, it has mood-altering effects due to its relation to the endocannabinoid system of our nervous system. 

Through these mood-altering effects, CBD is supposed to treat diseases like depression, anxiety, psychosis, dementia, and Alzheimer's. Since the mood-altering mechanism involves changes in the chemical makeup of nervous stimulators, CBD is termed as a psychoactive drug. 

On the other hand, CBD is not intoxicating at all, as it is often wrongfully accused of inducing 'high' in people. The chemical associated with the stoned condition and thus being intoxicating is THC, which is a close relative of CBD because they share the same genus. 

Hemp Extract

The quality of functionality of the entire product depends upon the quality of the hemp plant and the way CBD is extracted out of the plant. Most people believe that only US farms are up to date and produce quality hemp that can, in turn, give optimum quality cannabidiol. 

We believe that any farm that has proper equipment run by a farmer who understands his product can produce not only the generous amount but pure hemp, which breeds cannabidiol as its major cannabinoid. 

It's all about the certification of the farm, and since higher quality hemp requires a ton of work, it probably costs more than usual, and thus, the resulting product will bear a much higher price.

Extraction Method

There are different methods of extracting CBD from the hemp plant to retain maximum cannabidiol and only 0.3 percent of THC so that the product remains legal to sell. There are three significant methods of CBD extraction that are popular in the market these days. 

The extraction method is essential to produce a concentrated form of CBD that is viable for human use. The first method is solvent extraction; it is the cheapest method and uses alcohols such as ethanol and propanol to extract CBD from the plant. 

The mixture of solvent and concentrated CBD undergoes evaporation, and only concentrated CBD remains. It is a dangerous as well as a potentially toxic method due to the presence of remnants in the cream, if possible, to avoid such products.

Perhaps the safest way of CBD extraction is the oldest way as well, through olive oil. The plant contents are heated for activation, mixed with olive oil, and then reheated, and the strained oil contains both CBD and olive oil. It doesn't produce concentrated CBD, but it does produce safe products.

The most advanced and beneficial way of extracting CBD is with the help of CO2, but it is expensive as well. The plant contents and super coolant Co2 is mixed in a container, the pressure separates the components which leave CBD at the bottom, and CO2 is removed from the top, leaving a safe product for consumption. 

Interactions with other Medications

The human body has a natural detoxification method that happens inside the liver with the help of a bunch of enzymes. All of the drugs and chemicals are broken down into safe components and excreted out of the body through the kidneys. 

If anything disrupts this mechanism of elimination of drugs, then it essentially disrupts the effects of allopathic medication. Even though CBD does not directly interact with any type of medicine, it still interacts with liver enzymes, especially CYP450.

There are various components of CYP450, and those specific components are given the job of elimination of a certain type of drug. Sometimes CBD increases the functionality of CYP450, and for other components, CBD tends to reduce their functional ability.

In this way, some drugs get eliminated from the body faster than their expected rate and do not get the time to perform their desired action. In other instances, some drugs remain in the system longer than expected and keep reinforcing their actions again and again. 

It is best that you must consult with your physician and get your doses of medication adjusted according to the dose of CBD you are introducing to your system. Even though some topical CBD creams do not enter the bloodstream until or unless they intend to, even in these cases, it is best to have professional guidance.

Procedure of Application

The procedure to use CBD creams is not as complicated as CBD oils, and you do not have to hold it still for 60 seconds. Instead, it is just as simple as applying any other type of cream or lotion. First of all, make sure the area you have chosen to apply the cream is neat and clean, preferably wash the skin before applying CBD cream. 

Secondly, make sure that the skin is dry by patting it down with a towel. When you have prepared a clean and dry area, apply a generous amount of cream to your skin. Just like applying any other lotion, we advise you must massage it onto your skin until it is completely absorbed. 

Once the cream is absorbed into your skin, the CBD will work its way through the lymphatic system into your cardiovascular system and ultimately reach your nervous system where it will perform its required action. 

Quality Testing

In the greedy world we exist in, we cannot trust any product without having the surety that it has been thoroughly tested and declared safe for humans. The same goes for CBD products as well. If the concentration of the formula of the cream is slightly off, it can disrupt the pH of your skin, which has dire consequences. 

Most CBD products go through rigorous testing from the manufacturers themselves. But it is still better to check if the product has been tested by a third-party laboratory. If the description of the cream states that the product has been tested by a third-party lab and conceived a positive, unbiased opinion, then it is safe to purchase. 

In other cases, it is always better to reconsider purchasing a slightly expensive but a reassuring product rather than testing the limits of your skin.

Side-Effects

The reason behind this sudden uprising and fame of CBD is that it is a very well tolerated chemical by a large group of people. Even for patients with pre-existing conditions, if medications are properly adjusted, CBD keeps on inflicting positive change. In very rare scenarios, some people may observe some common side-effects of CBD, but none of those side-effects are long-term. 

Some short term side effects that may persist over the course of a few days until the chemical is eliminated from the body are drowsiness, nausea, dry mouth, fatigue, and reduced appetite. It is crucial to note that there is a very small percentage of people that react to CBD in a bad way; the larger demographic is usually fine with the consumption of CBD. 

Most of the symptoms are only related to the consumption of CBD oil because, in some cases, the digestive tract does not absorb CBD, and it causes malfunctions such as nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. 

However, in the case of CBD cream, the chemical component of CBD is not introduced to the digestive tract, so some of those side-effects can be ruled out. CBD infused creams do not trigger any skin conditions like rashes; rather, they treat them, and it can be counted as a secondary benefit in addition to the treatment of anxiety.

Cost 

There are many types of CBD infused creams, and so the relative cost of these creams is dependent upon a number of variables. As the level of potency increases, we observe a shift of rates towards the higher grade in these creams. 

The spectrum of cannabinoids also imposes a great deal of change in the rate of CBD creams. The area where the hemp plant is grown also impacts the cost of the cream significantly. And last but not least, the established companies with a good market name tend to charge way more than their newly established competitors. 

It all comes down to the specificity of the product you want for yourself. One thing is for sure that these creams, however expensive they may be, cost way less than the lifelong expenditure on anxiety medication.