Lift Your Mood and Control Depression With CBD

It’s a completely normal experience to be sad on occasion. It’s a real cause for alarm when you feel this way for long stretches of time. Our lives are full of ups and downs that can trigger bouts of depression, but that doesn’t mean we’re completely helpless against it.

It’s important that we check in when things seem out of balance. In times of stress, it’s easy to avoid reading the signs our bodies send. Feelings of isolation, self-doubt, mental fog, and fatigue can all be tell-tale signs of underlying depression. This can lead to impairment of the things that matter in life, like your health, relationships, and overall well-being.

Pharmaceutical responses, like anti-depressants, are more commonplace than ever. However, when you look to mother nature, you’ll find there are ways you can improve your mood the natural way.

Our bodies are made for Botanicals

Turning to an herbal approach is not only plant-forward but science-backed. Within hemp sits the humbly potent mood booster, cannabidiol (CBD).

Hemp-derived CBD sits at the crossroads of natural supplements and cannabis. It gives you the opportunity to use this botanical as medicine–just as humans have done since 2600 BC. To understand how it works, it’s helpful to first understand why it works. Whether we evolved to get used to it or were designed to receive it, the human body’s built-in endocannabinoid system (ECS) reveals that cannabinoids are essential to our inner harmony.

The endocannabinoid system (ECS) not only creates its own cannabinoids, but is ready and willing to receive them, as well. The ECS is made up of the body’s CB receptors (CB1 and CB2), as well as enzymes that help to activate and metabolize cannabinoids. These receptors function throughout the brain, body, and immune system.

Before its discovery, it was unclear how the components of hemp and cannabis had such an effect on the body. With knowledge of these receptors, we can now see how the body uses cannabinoids for good.

The Science Behind CBD and Depression

Depression manifests in many ways, and it does so throughout the population. One in six people within the U.S. will feel some degree of depression over their lifetime. Ultimately, depression is a sign that something is out of whack, and a reminder to check in with ourselves. The end-all answer to depression isn’t exactly easy, but therapeutic benefits can be sowed straight from the earth with plant medicine.

Human studies of CBD use reveal that it can assist in the treatment of depression, anxiety, and psychosis by improving the protection of vital brain bliss molecules like anandamide. Like CBD, anandamide functions along the ECS and can be found in nature. Real-food ingredients, like cacao, are bursting with “the bliss chemical” anandamide (which answers why it feels so good to eat chocolate).

As label-reading consumers, we know that the answer to a good mood doesn’t always lie solely in diet. Like eating chocolate, the happy feelings of eating food are fleeting. When you add CBD into the mix, you have a better chance of holding onto your happiness. CBD has proven to have promise of anxiolytic and anti-panic powers, but it also has the ability to protect your brain’s levels of anandamide.

By feeding and protecting your anandamide levels, you’re boosting your mood, but CBD also holds promise of promoting protection from other bodily threats. Studies suggest CBD has qualities to protect against cancer and neurodegeneration. Using CBD for depression gives you added benefits and peace of mind.

One study illustrates how higher doses of CBD can decrease anxiety levels in people preparing for public speaking. The right dose varies by person, but CBD’s effects can work in anyone’s favor.

Even if it takes time to find the right amount, CBD is more or less entirely safe to experiment with. Whereas an excess of THC, as in marijuana, has the potential to increase anxiety, hemp-derived CBD extract will have only trace amounts (less than 0.3%) of THC, giving all the power to CBD and its calming, but not intoxicating, effects.

CBD combats Inflammation

Feeling depressed can have real consequences on your well-being and there are seemingly limitless ways in which it can be triggered. Minor upsets in your life, such as a poor diet, lack of sleep, and feeling overly stressed, can all cause neuroinflammation that result in your depressed state.

Of all of the active ingredients within hemp, CBD shows the strongest inclination for reducing inflammation. Inflammation can occur when the immune system is triggered and your body is experiencing oxidative stress.

CBD has actually been shown to have antioxidant properties, helping to combat this overactivity. It works as a way to modulate the natural cycle of stress and inflammation within the body. This means that where depression and inflammation occur, CBD can help to negate it.

Tips to Maximize CBD Effects

It’s important not to put unwavering emphasis on the benefits of CBD, but to understand how you can maximize its potential. In conjunction with this botanical, it’s crucial to create a positive lifestyle, diet, and self-care routine for yourself. Opting for the holistic, plant-forward approach helps you reap the benefits that come from nature.

The power of cannabis meets the beauty of natural ingredients with our range of CBD chocolate bars. They offer an anandamide-rich indulgent treat packed with mood-boosting CBD botanicals. Made only with sustainably-sourced ingredients, it’s good for you as much as it’s good for the earth.

Beyond cannabis, botanical mood-boosters exist throughout nature. Other herbal ingredients, like St. John’s Wort, saffron, lemon balm, or lavender, can play a role in keeping you happy, healthy, and feeling grounded. The beauty of CBD is that it can be combined with these functional ingredients to create a soothing mental state.

If you happen to be taking anything else for your depression or anxiety, your doctor will know best if there are any warnings or side-effects of CBD.