What Is CBD And Is It Really Good For You?
Why then is seemingly everyone taking CBD?
In the hope that it will improve the conditions listed previously, mainly anxiety. In one study, subjects who dropped CBD before public speaking reported less anxiety than those who popped a placebo. (They didn’t know what they’d taken.) Again though, the evidence, while promising, is very much preliminary. “Anxiety-related research on CBD is typically either just some neuroimaging or a one-day measurement, rather than a multi-week clinical trial,” says Patel. “But given the relatively low side-effect profile, CBD is appealing to consumers, so companies will line up to sell it.”
Side effects of CBD, you say? Should we worry?
Less publicised and desirable consequences of taking CBD can include fatigue, irritability, nausea (ironically, given that it’s marketed as a treatment) and, er, diarrhoea. CBD can also raise the level of other medications in your system, including blood thinners. You should consult your doctor before taking it at the same time as anything else, or indeed at all.
Nobody listens to experts any more. How much CBD should we take?
Good question: there are no guidelines on an effective therapeutic dose of CBD for any given condition. And it’s further complicated by the fact that the contents of CBD products can differ dramatically from what’s on the label. “This is a fairly big problem,” says Patel. A study of CBD products sold online in the US found that over half were underdosed or overdosed – mostly under, which is less of a problem than over, but still. Some also contained THC, unbeknownst to the purchaser. “Which is pretty bad,” adds Patel. In the UK, you can be fairly certain that products sold in the likes of Holland & Barrett adhere to EU regulations (for now at least). On the Wild West of the World Wide Web, less so. The NHS says of cannabis products bought online, “It’s likely most of these products – even those called ‘CBD oils’ – will be illegal to possess or supply.”