When it’s time to take your health and wellness goals to the next level and start really connecting with what your mind and body need, you have to know what you’re putting into them. As one of Northern Ireland’s leading CBD producers, we take great pride in being able to track the purity and quality of every single individual product we offer. We also take the time, and invest the effort, required to pick products that are the perfect fit in the first place.
With the CBD market bigger than ever before, being able to do all of this is more important than ever. The problem is that even the most questionable of products can appear perfect at first glance thanks to a clever bit of marketing. Let’s dive right into the details, so you can make an informed decision without delay…
What even is a cannabinoid?
We’ve all heard of cannabis, and virtually everyone is now familiar with the three little letters CBD. There will also be the well-informed of you out there who know THC is the psychoactive ingredient you want to avoid when ‘getting high’ is something you want to steer well clear of. But is that really enough to be able to make an informed choice about what you’re putting into your body? Not really…
At last count, scientists have discovered 113 distinct cannabinoids in the cannabis plant, of which THC and CBD are just two. A cannabinoid is a compound of chemicals composed of a variety of interlinking acids found in cannabis. In short, you can think of each cannabinoid as an ingredient or building block that makes the overall plant flourish and come to life. You can isolate them, take them in a wide variety of combinations, or ingest the whole plant at once.
Why does knowing which cannabinoids you take matter?
Not all cannabinoids were created equal, and if you think this is just us being rather picky, you need to know a little more about how they work and what they do. In the brain, there are trillions of receptors, each of which is continually bonding with the chemicals you put into your body. Certain receptors can only bond with certain chemicals, and every part of the brain is controlled in terms of its activity by the receptors in that neighbourhood.
Here’s a good example: the executive function and memory recall areas of the brain have their own distinct set of receptors. It just so happens that these parts of the brain are the most impacted by the presence of a range of different cannabinoids. This is why knowing what you’re putting into your body is vitally important if you want to fully understand the impact the products you’re putting your trust in will have on your mind and body.
While a full breakdown of what all 113 will do to your mind and body is a bit too lengthy for a quick article, we’re going to take a look at a few of the main ones. There’s no shortage of CBD and THC information spread all over our blog, and further afield, so we’re going to put those two to one side and focus on a few of the others that tend to get far less attention in the media.
THCVA is being investigated as a blood sugar stabiliser
The way you process a raw cannabis leaf is the biggest determiner of which cannabinoids you can extract at the end of all that hard work. Boil it and you’ll be able to separate out something called THCVA which is currently being seen as a potential game changer for those with pre-diabetes.
Diabetes is one of the biggest killers in every developed country due to the poor quality diets that are largely due to too much processed food and alcohol. Anything that can be done to naturally regulate blood sugar levels and help those at risk of becoming fully diabetic is to be championed; even more so if it’s a purely natural approach.
As one of Londonderry’s leading CBD suppliers, we’re interested in anything that uses the same raw ingredients as we do to make the world a better place. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as the research into the blood sugar spike and trough smoothing qualities of THCVA continues to gather pace and momentum.
CBDA could revolutionise skincare the natural way
We’re one of the UK’s leading suppliers of all-natural CBD health and wellness products, and that means we always have half an eye on other natural products about to hit the market. When you really want to get in-tune with mind and body, you need to provide it with nothing but a natural stream of goodness that resets the balance you were meant to have in the first place.
The good news for those of you who share these sentiments is that this is exactly the philosophy currently underpinning the exciting new research into CBDA. This complex little acidic compound may not be the easiest to extract, but when it’s isolated all signs are that it was well worth the wait.
It’s currently being trialled in a variety of skincare creams to help soften and nourish the skin in a way that steroid-based creams always struggle with. This is definitely something that you’ll want to pay closer attention to as the years go by, not least because CBDA has also been shown to offer the same anxiety-reducing properties as the much more widely known CBD.
CBDVA is being trialled to treat severe epilepsy
Anyone who keeps up with the news will have seen that a few years ago there was a really large noise coming from a small group of parents with child who suffer from severe epilepsy. The government initially suggested banning the import of CBD products containing CBDVA — the cannabinoid that naturally prevents server sufferers having to endure dozens of seizures a day.
When parents protested and highlighted the fact that CBDVA is in no way psychoactive, and only consumed for medicinal purposes, there was something of a reset from the lawmakers at the top. The interesting thing here is that by isolating CBDVA and breeding the resulting plants over several generations, you can optimally tailor the CBDVA levels to best suit the needs of the intended patients.
Not only is this a clever bit of science, it’s a great example of what happens when you keep an open mind and see the cannabis plant as the source of dozens of different natural goodness pathways.
Final thoughts
Now that we’ve touched on a few more of most useful cannabinoids in terms of the health and wellness, why not get in touch with the names of others you’d like us to take a look at in a little more detail.
This blog is designed to be a place to come and learn, explore and understand new concepts at your leisure, so we’re always happy to hear from you. And if you like what you’ve heard and want to go and take the next step, you can take a look at the efficacy details all of our products come with whenever you’re ready.
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