- CBD Oil
- by cbdexqui_admin
Why The Old Ways Are Not Safe
Let’s face it. Anti-anxiety medications work, or millions of long-term users would not be taking them on a regular basis. And millions of others would not use them to get through short term acute crisis situations. But millions do take them, and they DO work. So, the question begs an answer. Why question their use then? The simple answer to that is:
They are addictive.
And they are dangerous.
And coming off them can KILL you!
Benzo’s as they are commonly known by, were the wonder drugs of the 1960’s. They were prescribed not just for anxiety but for alcohol abuse and drug withdrawal, depression, dementia, calming psychosis, and helping with sleep disorders. Valium and Librium were the first to be developed. These drugs were so liberally prescribed that Valium even had the incredible nickname. ” Mother’s Little helper”, if you could believe that! But believe that you must. Doctors thought they were doing their patients good by prescribing these drugs to them. It took 10 years before the warning signs started to show. Benzos were reputed to be safe, and initially they were oblivious to the risk of addiction. Before long, benzos became among the most frequently prescribed medications in America.
A second benzo craze began in the1980s when Xanax became the new wonder drug. Xanax quickly became, and remains, a best seller. Xanax is the most dangerous of all benzodiazepines because it has a short half-life. This refers to the amount of time it takes for the concentration of the drug in the blood to peak after one dose. When a drug has a shorter half-life, it tends to take effect MUCH more quickly, and the person can feel it MUCH more rapidly, and this indicates a VERY high potential for abuse of the drug.
So How do they work? The human brain contains many different neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters are for communicating messages between brain cells that can have either tranquilizing or excitatory effects.
When someone feels overly anxious, the brain becomes over excited and are over-active. Tranquilizing transmitters quickly send messages to brain cells that slow down activity in the brain and reduce the symptoms of anxiety. GABA is a tranquilizing neurotransmitter, and billions of brain cells respond to its signals. Benzodiazepines work by enhancing the effect of the neurotransmitter GABA. The drugs contain chemicals that add greatly to the calming effect that is already produced by the human body and will keep the brain in a much more tranquilized state. A person is addicted when the body cannot keep a person calm on its own and the body does not produce enough of its own GABA to calm the body. That is when withdrawal symptoms start.
Between 1996 and 2013, the percentage of people in the U.S. using benzos jumped more than one-third from an already remarkable 4.1 to 5.6 percent. Something that is especially troubling is that benzo use is so high (nearly one out of ten) in the elderly, the group that is the most likely to be harmed by them. And women are twice as likely as men to be given a prescription
One thing that is amazing is that the psychiatric indications for benzos can be counted on the fingers of one hand. All of the legitimate indications for benzos are extremely short term. However, in real life most people take these drugs for long term, most with doses high enough to be addicting, and for all the wrong reasons.
Benzo popularity derives from their ability to quickly relieve anxiety, reduce worry, help people relax, and to deal with social anxiety and social speaking fears. Doctors enjoy prescribing them as it gives patients what they want, and it gets them in and out of the office quickly with great ease
Benzo’s harm in 3 ways. 1st is of course is deadly overdoses. They are responsible for over 30% of all overdose deaths. Many times, they are in combination with opioid and alcohol overdoses. 2nd is the deadly withdrawal process. Unlike opioid withdrawal, which is uncomfortable but won’t kill you, benzo withdrawal CAN kill especially by having seizures. It lasts much longer; it is much more painful, and it is much more miserable. And the 3rd is that it affects motor skills and cognitive skills, causes dementia like symptoms, causes falls, accidents, and causes these things especially in the elderly. Other side effects from benzodiazepines can manifest in drowsiness, confusion, dizziness, blurred vision, weakness, slurred speech, lack of coordination, difficulty breathing and even coma. Chronic abuse of these drugs leads to insomnia, anorexia, headaches, weakness and even anxiety, the very condition they are prescribed to treat.
Benzo’s are prescribed to improve the quality of a person’s life and yet almost all of the time it does the complete opposite. With so many lives destroyed you would think the government would step in as it is doing with the opioid crisis. The benzodiazepine crisis is worse, yet we hear silence from our government.
So, what is CBD Oil?
CBD is one of the more than 100 chemical compounds found in the cannabis plant, which produces both marijuana and industrial hemp. CBD is very similar to THC which is what causes the “high” in marijuana. CBD does not make you “high” The CBD sold to consumers is a hemp-derived product, which legally cannot contain more than 0.3 percent THC. No matter how much you consume, you will not get high.
There is extremely well-documented evidence, from scientific studies and from the stories of people’s own personal experiences and from going back for at least 50+ years that cannabidiol (CBD) and also tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) may possibly have some positive effects for some conditions such as:
- Mild to moderate depression
- OCD-Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
- Social Anxiety Disorder
- PTST- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- GAD-Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Panic disorder
- Anxiety
- Nightmares
- Bipolar
- Schizophrenia
That is not to say that CBD or THC can treat these disorders, but the research is very encouraging. And the testimonials are even more encouraging. Thousands and even hundreds of thousands of people are reporting HUGE benefits from taking CBD oil and THC. Now that CBD has been taken off the controlled substance list researchers are racing to test CBD in many clinical studies. The 2018 Farm Bill took CBD off the Schedule 1 Controlled Substance List. Already, a medication called Epidiolex has been approved by the FDA to treat certain hard to treat seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Dravet syndrome.
It’s also important to note that no toxic dose for CBD is known, and there is no record from any source of a death or serious injury from CBD as of the time of writing this article.
BENEFITS OF USING CBD OIL FOR ANXIETY
- Calming of the body and the mind
- Relaxing of the body and the mind
- Improved mood
- Improved sleep, deeper sleep, falling asleep quicker, waking up less
- Less distracting thoughts
- Improved sense of well-being and happiness
- Less need or complete cessation of using anti-anxiety medication and thus less side effects
- Less need for anti-depressants or complete cessation and thus less side effects
- No chance of overdose
- no chance of drug interactions (except if you take medications where you shouldn’t eat grapefruit. Check with your doctor)
- no chance of addiction or tolerance
How Does CBD Work?
The endocannabinoid system is a complex network of cell receptors and neurotransmitters that are responsible for maintaining the intricate balance of homeostasis in our body. Cannabinoid receptors are spread throughout the entire body, with the largest concentrations in the central and peripheral nervous systems, and especially in the immune system. The ECS improves the communication between all those systems. It basically balances out the entire body.
The endocannabinoid system also controls a wide range of biological functions, including sleep, mood, temperature control, immune response, pain and pleasure perception, fertility, memory, and appetite.
Whenever something goes wrong with your health, the endocannabinoid system will then release its natural cannabinoids (endocannabinoids) to restore the balance in the body (Homeostasis) CBD doesn’t interact directly with cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2), it instead stimulates the endocannabinoid system to then produce its own cannabinoids. In addition, it slows their breakdown by inhibiting the FAAH enzyme, so the endocannabinoids will stay in your body for much longer working harder to maintain homeostasis.
Regardless of whether we believe it is safer or not, if you are considering using CBD for anxiety you should always talk to your healthcare professional. This article is not intended to treat or diagnose an illness or take the place of your doctor. It is meant to give you vital information so that you can make informed healthcare choices.
CBD oil can certainly have a positive effect in helping anxiety. With more and more research being carried out and more individual experiences being shared both online and, in the media, the future for CBD oil will certainly be out there for all to see. With the negative side effects being reported as almost nonexistent and the number of listed benefits growing with more research, we feel that it’s only a matter of time before CBD is accepted as a viable option within the medical community to help treat anxiety disorders. In the meantime, CBD is available online and there is a wealth of information available to everyone to do their own research themselves.
BIO: My name is Jennifer Corgan
I am a relatively new health and wellness blogger and I care very deeply about people’s health. I am excited to share with people the latest in natural health news and to share my passion for all things natural and wholesome. I am a mom to 5 and a grandma to 2 and I have a Blog and an E-Commerce Store. You can also find my page on Facebook: Nature’s Many Miracles
