If you’re like most Americans, the seemingly never-ending quarantine order might have you feeling a little on edge. These are stressful times for everybody, from the person stuck in a 350 square-foot New York City apartment to those who are fortunate to have a large backyard to move around in.
Eric Schnell, founder of beverage company Mood33, which creates hemp-infused herbal teas, can attest to that.
Before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, his No. 1 best-selling tea was “energy,” which promised consumers a natural boost with no crash.
In the following weeks, the “calm” tea drink has outsold every other variety as Americans look for ways to reduce coronavirus-related stress and anxiety.
“Certainly the past 90 days, this has been a busier Q1 than we ever expected for our brand,” Schnell says. “We as a brand are 40 percent over our projections for the first three months of this year … and it’s because people want CBD products.”
Schnell, a longtime beverage entrepreneur, has been a believer in the benefits of CBD since 2014 when he first tried it in oil form. “Ten minutes later I felt relaxed and that was in the middle of the day at the office,” he says. “I’m saying ‘Whoa, this is the exact opposite of Red Bull.’”
If you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years of need a quick refresher course on CBD, it stands for cannabidiol, and it’s a chemical compound that binds to your body’s receptors to regulate things like inflammation, pain management, and mood. While it’s associated with marijuana, there are two important things to know – CBD won’t get you high, and it’s found in more plants than just marijuana (such as black pepper and hops).
CBD has long been controversial, not only because of its link to weed but because many people claim its benefits are exaggerated or simply not true.
We decided to examine what the science says about CBD and whether it will actually calm you down during this stressful time, and to provide you with tips to finding the right stuff.
There’s a pretty big consensus in the scientific community that CBD can help calm you down. One of the earliest studies was a 2011 review published in The Journal of Psychopharmacology that found CBD was associated with “significantly decreased subjective anxiety” when compared to a placebo. The test subjects were people who suffered from social anxiety disorder.
Later studies found similar results. A 2019 study found 57 out of 72 anxiety sufferers saw improvements in their first month of using CBD, and 48 people had better sleep.
And in Japan, a double-blind study found teenagers had less anxiety when they took a high dose of CBD daily for a month.
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Side effects happen, but they’re rare
Buyer beware, but there are times when CBD has the opposite of its intended effect. There have been cases of CBD increasing anxiety in some people, and in one study it caused “sexually inappropriate behavior” that disappeared after the test subject discounted use of the compound. Two other patients in the same study said they felt “fatigued” because of the CBD.
Usually, these side effects can be traced to too high of a dose or low-quality CBD.
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Finding the right CBD
Schnell told Muscle & Fitness his company is rolling out a QR code on all of its cans, which will allow consumers to find lab reports on all of its CBD samples. This is important because if you’re going to try CBD for mood management, or any other purpose, you need to know you’re getting the best product.
Make sure you’re getting hemp oil, and not hemp seed oil. The latter contains no CBD at all. Also look for specific milligrams of CBD on the bottle – if a company uses generic terms when referring to its CBD content, you’re most likely getting duped.
Look for U.S. or European-grown hemp, as those areas produce the highest-quality CBD and verifies it wasn’t grown near dangerous contaminants.
In terms of dosing, start small before you experiment with anything too big. Experts recommend beginners start off with 5-10 mg every 3-4 hours, and taking more if needed.
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The Verdict
Whether in drink or oil form, CBD is a worthwhile investment to ease your anxiety until this quarantine gets lifted.
While a lot of brands can be quite pricey, there are some out there that offer affordable options. There are certainly worse, and less healthy ways, to try to calm down.
