*DISCLAIMER: This is a transcript of episode 8 – Managing Anxiety and Depression with CBD from our Full Spectrum Living with CBD podcast. Click here to listen to the podcast episode or click here to watch the video.
Ep8_MANAGING ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION WITH CBD
Meredith [00:00:06] All right. Welcome back to Full Spectrum Living with CBD. I am your co-host, Meredith, and I am here with Jessica and Adriane. And today’s topic is a really important one. We’re going to talk about CBD and its ability to help with anxiety and depression. So, Jessica and Adriane, you guys are both so passionate about this. And I know you wanted to share how you’re seeing impacts made for people with anxiety and depression. So, Adriane, I think you had something real specific you wanted to share to kick us off.
Adriane [00:00:36] Yeah, absolutely. We felt, you know, especially given the time of year, this is really important to kind of talk about anxiety. And we have a really it’s probably one of my favorite testimonials with regard to anxiety. So its a little long I’m going to kind of paraphrase, but I’m going to read it here. So her name is Crystal. And she said, “I have had severe generalized anxiety disorder and autophobia since I was a little girl. I’ve literally struggled with anxiety severely my entire life. Recently, it’s gotten to my worst point. I contacted doctors, therapists, hospitals. All anyone wanted to do was to put me on Xanax. I didn’t want that. A friend of mine told me about CBD oil, so I came to your store in desperation. I literally walked in the store, sobbing my eyes out from anxiety attacks that had persisted for three days straight. They let me sample it in the store, and within 10 minutes I had calmed down and was smiling. That was about three weeks ago. And guess what? I haven’t had a panic or anxiety attack since I walked into that store. Nothing has helped me like this. And I finally feel happy, calm and friendlier. It’s literally saved my life and I want to scream it to the world. I love you guys!” So that, stories like that is what makes us do what we do. Right. It’s one of the reasons why we keep fighting the way that we fight and we create the products that we do is we love seeing that kind of result. And we do this with people with anxiety. She’s not the first person that’s come in and panic attack and we’ve given them a sampling in the store. But her I do remember this very clearly. I think Jessica does as well.
Jessica [00:02:12] Yeah, actually. So I gave her that sample. I had spoke to her a little bit before she came in. And as soon as she walked in, it was it was an urgent situation. She was extremely distraught, yeah, exactly. So that really stands out to me as lot, a lot as well, because I witnessed that personally and just see that that level of change so immediately, it was just a really dramatic experience for everyone that was there that day and for her, clearly. Her family as well. And like Adriane said, it’s just, it’s not the first. It won’t be the last. My sister, a lot of her, the benefits that she’s gotten from CBD are that it’s reduced her anxiety and she’s been able to cope with it more effectively. So this topic in particular is definitely one that’s close to home. I think for all of us.
Meredith [00:03:09] For sure. So maybe you can help us understand how does how does this work then? Like, why does this work? Why why does CBD work for anxiety and depression?
Jessica [00:03:21] I mean, I think there’s a lot of different reasons. I think we’ll know more about it coming up in the future. There’s as we mentioned in our last episode of physician and researcher Stacy Gruber, who is studying CBD rich whole plant extracts specifically for anxiety. So, can’t wait to hear what comes of that because it looks really promising, according to her presentation that we saw it CannMed last week. So I think some of the things to watch out for and consider as to how it’s helping that we’ll be learning more about in the near future. It dramatically improved sleep for a lot of people. And so I recently went to a health conference where that was the main topic was sleep and lack of sleep and its effects on anxiety and depression and the very direct correlation between the two. If you’re lacking in sleep, you’re going to eventually become depressed, probably anxious as well. That was the point, the takeaway of this. So, CBD helps with sleep. It helps a lot of people very quickly for sleep. So I think that’s one way. I think another way is just through gut health. CBD helps to effect the endocannabinoid tone. There’s a physician actually here in Washington. He’s a neurologist and a cannabis researcher named Ethan Russo. And he has talked a lot about CBD and its need to be full-spectrum and the benefits. Now he’s talking more about benefits of that for gut health. And you know, we’re learning a lot about CBD and the endocannabinoid system. We’re also still learning a lot about gut health and its effects on mood. But it’s also, again, a direct connection between gut health and mood, so the relationship there, I don’t specifically know, but there seems to be a connection that that’s another way it’s potentially helping.
Adriane [00:05:20] I would say just from from personal experience, you know, my husband who suffers from Crohn’s, the pain and that it would cause him and the fact that there were times where he couldn’t leave the house. Yes. Definitely affects his mood, definitely affected the way that he interacted with people. And since he’s been taking CBD, not only has it helped with his gut and the issue that he was experiencing, but yeah, absolutely. His mood has improved significantly because he can go about his daily business. He can live life the way that everybody expects to or wants to. And again, it’s stress management. It’s managing those external stressors that are coming at you. And, of course, diet. Right. It’s not you don’t eat Taco Bell and then it takes CBD and then expect that your gut microbiome is going to be in tip top shape.
Meredith [00:06:09] Yeah just don’t eat Taco Bell.
Adriane [00:06:12] There you go.
Jessica [00:06:13] I think to elaborate on that, though. Like there’s an association between like you produce serotonin in your gut. And we all know that that it is a major player in mood. And so imbalances, there are another component of that. You know, it goes far beyond just like my stomach is upset and I’m ticked off about it. You know, it’s actually communicating your health to your brain and that is affecting your mood state.
Meredith [00:06:48] So I’ve heard people say that, you know, oh, you know, marijuana makes me anxious. You know, like if I if I had if I were to ingest marijuana or smoke marijuana or something that makes me anxious, makes me really anxious. So do you feel like there’s a like an urban myth out there about, you know, the relationship between marijuana, CBD, the kind of products you offer and anxiety and depression and whether it really is helpful or isn’t helpful?
Adriane [00:07:17] Well, I think that’s where it comes back to the by-directional effects of cannabinoids and how it interacts within the body. So if something has the ability within these products, if it can reduce anxiety, it also has the ability to exacerbate. Right. So those high THC, it may have that effect in large quantities is typically what they’re seeing from studies or what actually the recreational users are reporting back on themselves. It’s going to be that significant intake of that that’s going to really kind of exacerbate that anxiety. But overall, largely from a CBD standpoint, people receive an overall feeling of calmness, mental clarity. It’s actually bringing that anxiety level down, not even going into how it affects with the gut and the serotonin. Of course, you know, layering on top of that, of course, improving sleep, layering on top of that.
Meredith [00:08:09] Yeah. Yeah. So I think you had a couple of I think that’s a good distinction to make. There’s a difference between kind of overindulging and using the therapeutic dosage that you all recommend for people. And I know you had some other stories that you wanted to share with us.
Adriane [00:08:26] And another one, Leslie here, which she left us a review and says “over the past few months, my anxieties have been through the roof. And sleeping was almost impossible, not wanting to take a prescription medication that causes side effects. I decided to try the Genesis Blend. After the first night’s use, I was able to fall asleep fairly quickly and steadily throughout the night. The best part is I didn’t feel drugged or groggy in the morning. Unlike prescription meds, I can take this day or night with no adverse reactions.” And again, it goes back to that whole regulatory thing. And that’s one of the first things that people sleep, see is going to be improved sleep patterns. During that CannMed conference, again I’ll probably reference this my entire life. But during that CannMed conference, one of the first things that Dr. Dustin Sulak says that he does with his patients is focusing on “I’m gonna get you sleeping better” because once you’re sleeping better, other things fall in place. Your anxieties reduce, your depression is improved, your pain is relieved slightly. So, again, let me get you sleeping better than we can focus on the other conditions that you’re dealing with.
Meredith [00:09:35] And Jessica, I think you had something you were thinking about sharing before we heard that that testimonial.
Jessica [00:09:41] Absolutely. I mean, it directly relates to what Adriane just was talking about, too, though. So there’s a study that I was wanting to kind of share that is kind of just a little more proof of this actual effect. So, you know, being in the industry we’re in we can’t make any claims, we can’t say that it does anything, but we certainly can share research where it seems to draw some pretty clear conclusions and I wanted to share a study. The title of it, if anyone wants to look at it is “Cannabidiol and anxiety and sleep”. And it’s a large case series. And the reason I wanted to share this one for a couple of reasons. So it looked specifically at anxiety and sleep and CBD. So very relevant to our conversation right now. And what they found was that over 80 percent excuse me, just under 80 percent of their clients saw a significant reduction in their overall state of anxiety. And this was measured with that. I can’t remember the name of it. They don’t want to waste time, but we’ll link the studies so you can read further into it. But it was measured and showed a statistical reduction in anxiety in 80 percent of the clients. And I wanted to share that for the reason that that seems to really confirm what we’re seeing. I mean, I would even say it feels like 80 or 90 percent of our clients are seeing relief that they’re coming in for anxiety. It’s one condition in which it’s just so likely that people are going to see benefits and see them quickly. So the study found that within a month those people had experienced that anxiety relief, and it seemed to continue to decrease slightly over the next three months as they did this study. Although the main change was that first month. So, again, that confirms what we’re seeing. We’re seeing that within a few days, sometimes even day one, people are starting to see results. And certainly within a month they’ve seen some very big changes in their overall state of anxiety and then sleep as well. So we’ve mentioned sleep a few times. This study, look specifically at that. They found that 66 percent of the participants had improved sleep quality as well. And again, that seems pretty clear in what we’re doing. That majority of the people that we’re working with are seeing improvements in sleep.
Meredith [00:12:07] So when you start working with somebody and they come in or they contact you and they say, I have anxiety, I have depression. Do they start out with a certain dosage and then get kind of like a maintenance level or how? How do you instruct them to utilize the products and which products do you feel like, again, we’ve talked about this before, but there’s there’s a lot of different options out there. So what’s really best and how do you help someone decide how much?
Adriane [00:12:38] So with regards to our products, we recommend that everybody starts with our original strength Genesis Blend. So it’s our Green Label products that are on our website or on our store shelves. They start at a serving size of 10 milligrams of CBD per serving. They are full-spectrum, so they do contain cannabinoids and terpenes as well. Regardless of condition, we recommend that everybody starts there. It is a really low maintenance level, or really low starting serving size and a majority of our customers see relief there. Others over time will find that they may have to increase and find that they’re at anywhere between 15 to quite possibly 50. And for that we offer extra strength options. But for the most part, the majority of our customers will see relief there and then they, we recommend that they slowly titrate up.
Meredith [00:13:28] OK, great. So that makes it pretty simple for people. And is it a dosage that they take just once a day or multiple times a day?
Adriane [00:13:36] Twice a day is what we recommend starting out with. Now, some people have found that if they have a really fast metabolism, that it works best for them if they split those two servings across three or four times a day. It really depends upon the individual. I have some people come in store and they say that, no, I take it for sleep and I just take it at night and it’s fantastic. And so, again, it’s really about finding what works best for the individual, but it can, mean it can honestly vary in whether they take a half a serving or a serving and a half. But that 10 milligrams is a good starting point.
Jessica [00:14:11] It definitely seems to be to cover a broad section of our clients for sure. And I wanted to point out as well the nice thing about it is that it is so side effect free that if that’s too much for you, maybe we have a a little bit drowsy and that’s it. You know, if it’s not enough for you, you just increase. So your ability to play around with it is is it’s just really easy and safe for the client to do. I’ve seen people who’ve responded to a quarter of a dropper or half of a dropper and people who’ve needed the extra strength. And just one thing to consider is how it’s affecting you. Just try and be in tune with your body. Peak effects occur within an hour or two after you consume it. So if you’re just intentionally trying to evaluate that that effect within an hour or two of consuming it, it’s kind of note. Did it have an immediate improvement? How’s my mood? How easy is it to breathe? That kind of thing might help people find the right serving for them.
Meredith [00:15:14] So do you encourage people to maybe kind of journal that or something for the first few days? Because I think sometimes it might be hard to notice those those subtle changes that are happening. So is that something that you ask people to do to?
Adriane [00:15:27] Yeah, we absolutely will. Because to your point, whether it’s to notice the subtle changes as it as you begin or if its as a reminder of how you were feeling prior to adding CBD into your daily routine. Because we have some people that will come in and maybe they’re taking it for another condition or even quite possibly for sleep. They may say, oh, I’m feeling great. I don’t need to take it anymore. And will stop taking it for a few days because they don’t remember. And then all of a sudden a few days later, like, oh, yeah. This is why I was taking it. So, they’ll come back and they’ll buy another bottle. So, you know, having those notes and seeing how it improves. But then also kind of what else is going on in your life? You know, maybe you had a big presentation or there’s a lot of stress or, you know, your in-laws are coming into town for the holidays. You’re really trying to deal with certain things. It’s going to affect how your body is managing and what the stress that’s being put on your endocannabinoid system. So those days, you may need an additional serving or two of the extract to get you through. That doesn’t mean that you need to increase as a whole, but sometimes you’ve got to manage your system, your symptoms a little bit.
Jessica [00:16:33] And I think it’s just, you know, something that encouraging clients to check in with themselves and and monitor the effects more directly rather than waiting and in a week or so just making a decision. Did it help or not? I don’t know. I think it’s just something that’s best practice for anyone who wants to take their health into their own hands. You’ve got to just check in frequently and evaluate how things are going and be in tune as in tune with your own system as you can. I think that’s just another way to help practice that.
Meredith [00:17:08] Yeah, it sounds like you are really empowering your clients and that the products that you offer are easy for them to utilize and easy for them to ramp up, ramp down based on how they’re feeling. And that’s such a different approach than we have been, you know, brought up in in traditional Western medicine. So I think it’s it’s a bit of a mind shift, but it’s really great to see that level of empowerment happening. So before we jump off today, do you have one more story that you wanted to share?
Adriane [00:17:36] Yes. So one more testimonial here with regards to anxiety. And this is from Kristen and it says “From someone who has tried just about every prescription they offer for anxiety and depression. This oil has been my saving grace. I was on the verge of not being able to function as a normal adult. And since trying this, my anxiety has been at an all time low. I feel happy. I feel like a thousand pounds were lifted off my shoulders. The only regret I have is not trying it earlier. Thank you for helping me get my life back.”
Jessica [00:18:06] I feel like I got my life back. That’s again and again and again. We hear that. And it came up at the conference and got another round of applause. It was Sulak who said that. It’s just patients or clients or participants having access to something that they can do themselves that gives them their life back.
Meredith [00:18:27] Fantastic. So if someone wanted to learn a little bit more about your products or read your blog or any other information that you all share. I think your real mission is to educate people around what you’re learning and seeing with CBD. How would they find that information? Where should they go?
Adriane [00:18:44] Visit our website at bluegrasshempoil.com. Check out our Facebook page. There’s going to be studies. There’s going to be consumer testimonials. We’d love to hear your feedback on how it’s working for you and answer any questions that you have.
Meredith [00:18:57] Fantastic. Well, for this episode of Full Spectrum Living with CBD, I’m your co-host, Meredith, with our hosts Jessica and Adriane, and we will see you all the next time.