CBD may be best known for its relaxing, calming effects. CBD reduces autonomic arousal, having the inverse effect of THC on the body. CBD’s anti-anxiety effect is why many in the cannabis community talk about how CBD relieves paranoia, although that is not scientifically proven yet. CBD is also known for its anti-nausea and pain relieving effects. It really depends on why your body’s specific needs and the quantity in which you take CBD.
Our bodies are thought to produce endocannabinoids by the billions every day. “We always thought the ‘runner’s high’ was due to the release of dopamine and endorphins. But now we know the euphoria is also from an endocannabinoid called anandamide,” its name derived from the Sanskrit word for bliss, says Joseph Maroon, MD, clinical professor and vice chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. We produce these natural chemicals all day, but they fade quickly because enzymes pop up to destroy them. That’s where CBD comes in: By blocking these enzymes, CBD allows the beneficial compounds to linger.
What you gain from Full Spectrum CBD is called the “entourage effect.” Studies have suggested that CBD is most effective when it’s combined with other cannabinoids. Each cannabinoid has its own properties and confers its own benefits. Working together, a synergy is created that boosts the healing properties of CBD. Full spectrum CBD does, however, bring with it the sticky issue of THC. The government regulates concentration levels of THC at 0.3 percent, an amount which results in minimal psychoactivity.
This is good news for the best CBD oil companies because the Farm Bill allows for the legal cultivation of industrial hemp, under certain circumstances, which can be a source of CBD. But CBD can also come from non-industrial hemp, namely the marijuana plant that most are more familiar with. Therefore, whether or not CBD oil for pain is legal can be a question of which “version” of the cannabis plant it was sourced from. If it was sourced from industrial hemp, (which contains less than 0.3% THC by volume), and it was cultivated under the Farm Bill, then it is legal. 
While the other CBD oil stores have high-quality products, our choice simply came down to variety, potency and price. Whichever you choose to go for, though, know that all of the companies above have an outstanding store and offer a wide range of effective products, from CBD oils to Terps and even CBD creams. Plus, most have a 100% money back guarantee policy, which is quite nice!

Scott Shannon, MD, assistant clinical professor at the University of Colorado, recently sifted through patient charts from his four-doctor practice to document CBD’s effects on anxiety. His study, as yet unpublished, found “a fairly rapid decrease in anxiety scores that appears to persist for months,” he says. But he says he can’t discount a placebo effect, especially since “there’s a lot of hype right now.”
Transparency: Receptra Naturals’ website has a database where you can look up lab reports for their products. The first time we checked, we got some 404 errors for a couple of the lab reports, but these glitches seem to have been fixed since then. We were able to see third-party lab reports for all their tinctures (though, apparently not for their topicals). 
This is why Amanda Oliver, 31, a career consultant in Charleston, SC, pops a CBD gummy bear each night before bed. “I used to lie there tossing and turning as my mind raced from work projects to whether I had set the home alarm,” Oliver says. One piece of candy with 15 milligrams (mg) of CBD is enough to shut off her brain and facilitate sleep. She also swears by the CBD oil she takes at the height of her period, which she says quells her debilitating cramps.
That leaves those touting CBD’s effectiveness pointing primarily to research in mice and petri dishes. There, CBD (sometimes combined with small amounts of THC) has shown promise for helping pain, neurological conditions like anxiety and PTSD, and the immune system—and therefore potentially arthritis, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cancer, and more.
When administered alone, CBD is an effective anticonvulsant in maximal electrical shock (MES), magnesium-free, 4-aminopyridine, and audiogenic models (7, 8). Co-administration with AEDs leads to various effects; anticonvulsant effects of CBD are enhanced with phenytoin or phenobarbital but decreased with chlordiazepoxide, clonazepam, trimethadione, and ethosuximide. In a recent study using an acute pilocarpine model, although CBD administration reduced the number of animals displaying seizure activity, CBD did not appear to have any significant effect on the number of seizures per animal (7).
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