And people are only bound to get curiouser and curiouser. The European market alone is expected to grow with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40 percent from 2022 to 2029. Even slower adopters like Ireland are slowly coming around.
But this industry can’t survive on curiosity alone. Today the trendiness of CBD is a rising tide that’s lifting all brands. Tomorrow, however, businesses will need to find a more stable foundation to stay afloat.
The nature of CBD already provides brands with a valuable way to build equity beyond novelty. One of the biggest reasons people hesitate to try CBD is simply because they don’t trust the industry yet.
And the pause is warranted. A sobering study from the Centre of Medical Cannabis has found that up to 62 percent of UK high street CBD products did not contain the amount of the compound advertised on the label. Some contained THC, the substance that gives cannabis its hallucinogenic properties. It’s also completely illegal in the UK.
Interest in CBD products may be higher than ever before, but trust in brands is still shaky. Flashy designs and trendy marketing can convince someone to buy once, but customer support and transparency is what will win loyalty and repeat sales.
CBD brands can start building that trust from the packaging up. Wary of brands playing loose and fast with facts, cautious customers will prefer businesses who can support claims and make test results available. Some brands have responded by adding QR codes to the packaging that link to lab results.
If you’re a reseller, make sure you only buy from reputable brands or white label product manufacturers. Colorado-based Bluebird Botanicals allows customers to view Certificates of Analysis on their website.“We have heard from customers that that’s one of the reasons they buy from us. Because they know that when they buy our products, they are going to know exactly what’s in them and what’s not in them,” says Michael Harinen, the company’s Chief Brand Officer.
CBD, despite its increasing availability in numerous forms, is not easy to get into. First time users can easily get lost in the terminology and proper use. What are isolates and terpenes? What’s the difference between sublingual and oral ingestion? Is vaping safe?
The answers to these questions can be found with research, but not readily. It can also be tricky to separate truly informative sources from snake oil salesmen.
Brands can build loyalty by reaching out where customers are grasping. Origin’40, a UK-based CBD retailer, creates that connection by stationing trained CBD experts in their stores. “I saw a massive gap to bring a consultative retail experience to the sector,” says managing director Marcus Fox.
Most of the time, when you go into a shop, you already know what you want. The only thing you’ll probably ask a store assistant is which aisle or shelf you can find it in. With CBD stores, that’s not the case. People don’t know their brands yet. Some spend up to half an hour just talking to assistants.
In-store experts need to be prepared for this appetite for information. The last thing you want is for your brand to appear ill-informed, especially when some customers are sceptical to a degree.
And brands should make sure that these are really teaching moments happening inside stores, instead of veiled attempts at pushing the product. Honesty is what will secure loyalty at the end of the day–anything less can permanently turn customers away from your brand.
Not all brands will have the advantage of having a physical storefront like Origin’40. The vast majority of CBD sellers are online only, but that doesn’t mean a more personal, one-to-one approach is no longer an option.
If the past couple of years has taught us anything, it’s that teleconsultation works. And it’s a lot more convenient for customers who are only beginning to shop around for CBD. Sellers can extend the same assistance as in-store experts across the web using live chat options. Brands can encourage visitors to schedule consultations at their convenience.
Once people do reach out, make sure to respond quickly. CBD is a fast-moving market. If you’re not answering their questions, someone else will.
There’s still a lot of trepidation surrounding CBD use. Search for “Can CBD…” on Google and some of the top auto-fill suggestions will be “...cause seizures”, “...cause psychosis”, or “...cause constipation”. Expect that more people will be looking for expert advice than with your average product.
However, that doesn’t mean you can leave your FAQ pages scant. The majority of consumers prefer to scour websites for information first, instead of going through direct channels like SMS or live chat.
Brands haven’t done a very good job of giving them what they’re looking for. Less than one third of companies offer self-service options. Informative resources can help satisfy potential customers until they’re ready to reach out to you directly.
CBD is a wonderful product that has the potential to be beneficial to many millions of people. But the burden of proof lies with sellers. In a market presently plagued by a lack of accurate information and transparency, customer loyalty will go to brands who can educate, provide honest assistance, and make documentation available.
]]>The general belief seems to be that antioxidants automatically mean good for your body. It has become a panacea of sorts. In CBD, being antioxidative is often paraded as one of the cannabinoid’s chief benefits.
But how much good does it actually do in your body? To answer that question, let’s take a closer look at how antioxidants work.
We still haven’t quite figured out what causes ageing. We know it happens because cells die. Theories abound on why, from biochemical reactions to cells having a predetermined expiry date.
One of those theories is The Free Radical Theory. First proposed by Denham Harman in the 1950s, the theory posits that cells age because of oxidative stress caused by free radicals. Free radicals are unstable atoms from oxygen.
Free radicals interact destructively with cells, tissues, and organs by stealing electrons from them. The destabilised cells, in turn, go on to affect other cells. Over time, the damage accumulates, turning into conditions associated with ageing like high blood pressure or Alzheimer’s.
Oxygen is a natural by-product of natural metabolic processes. That means when cells produce energy, it also produces free radicals. Free radicals can also come from external sources like UV radiation and pollution.
Antioxidants are the body’s natural defences against free radicals. These neutralise free radicals either by giving the extra electron it needs to stop ravaging or by breaking its structure, rendering it inert. These defenders come in many forms, like Vitamin C and E, and they enter our diets through food like fruits and vegetables. The body also naturally produces its own, like alpha-lipoic acid and glutathione.
Like most plants, the cannabis plant gets its deep green pigmentation from a host of compounds. One of them is a substance called flavonoids. Cannabis plants carry an abundance of flavonoids–around 20, to be precise. Quercetin, apigenin, luteolin, and kaempferol are just four that are linked to strong antioxidant action. CBD also contains cannflavins, a type of flavonoid that’s unique to cannabis plants.
In plants, these flavonoids help with vital functions like growth and UV protection. In humans, the substance protects against free radicals. Ingestion of flavonoids have been shown to help reduce risk for organ damage and diseases linked to oxidative stress.
Another compound called terpenes can also contribute to CBD’s antioxidant potential. Terpenes are responsible for how plants smell and taste. Some terpenes found in CBD, like myrcene and limonene, are noted protectors against oxidative stress.
Users who don’t want to ingest CBD will be relieved to know that its antioxidant properties seem to extend to topical applications. CBD on skin can help cells recover from oxidative stress caused by UVA and UVB radiation. Research funded by the European Regional Development found that CBD treatment “would protect skin against external insults” and be “greatly beneficial” for eczema or atopic dermatitis–two inflammatory skin conditions that are linked to free radicals and oxidative stress.
Protecting cells from damage seems quite straightforward, as positives go. But as with most things related to the balance in our bodies and the wellness industry, the maths isn’t so simple.
CBD appears to exhibit strong antioxidant properties, even stronger than that of Vitamins E and C. However, the amount of antioxidant potential in your CBD product depends on a few factors. One is the solvent the cannabidiol is mixed with. One study found that CBD with hemp oil had the highest antioxidant content. Another found that mixing CBD with certain oils like sunflower oil may even reduce its antioxidant properties.
Current evidence suggests that antioxidants are at their most beneficial when coupled with nutrients. For instance, the Vitamin C and the flavonoid hesperidin in citrus fruits work in tandem to fight diseases that cause the production of free radicals–that’s more effective than just antioxidants handing out electrons in an effort to stabilise the molecules.
Cannabidiol’s antioxidant properties appear to be mitigated by the same effect. Some researchers have found that compounds in hemp oil complement CBD’s ability to neutralise free radicals. Together, the pair were found to have stronger antioxidant abilities than pure CBD or crude hemp oil alone.
Fortunately, CBD on the market already comes in many forms. You have pure isolates, but the vast majority of products combine CBD with other ingredients, like hemp oil and olive oil. Olive oil contains a high level of phenolic compounds that keep free radicals from multiplying.
There are also CBD-infused vitamin and mineral supplements. Elixinol’s Immune Booster gummies contain Vitamin C and zinc. Vitamin C is already a known antioxidant, while zinc is known to protect against oxidative stress.
Beyond gummies and capsules, you’ll also find CBD-infused food products like oat bars and dark chocolate. Oats are rich in flavonoids and other antioxidant compounds. Dark chocolate, which many consider a “healthy” chocolate, contains more antioxidants than fruit juice.
So to answer the question of whether CBD is a good and reliable source of antioxidants: yes, but with reservations. Preliminary research says that CBD does have a good antioxidant profile, but needs to work synergistically with other ingredients to maximise its effects on the body.
The findings echo the current clinical consensus about antioxidants: they’re good for your body, but supplementing won’t do as much as many wellness brands claim. The best course of action, according to medical experts, is still a balanced diet. Take your CBD, but don’t forget your fruits, veggies, and grains.]]>But you won’t be seeing the World Health Organisation making a statement about the findings just yet. Like many studies that link CBD to other diseases, cannabidiol demonstrated its ability to neutralise COVID in a test tube. Numerous studies need to be done before the results at one lab turn into physicians prescribing CBD oil for COVID. That’ll likely take years.
The findings highlight one of the few certain things we know about CBD: that there’s a lot we don’t know about it. To look at what science is currently saying about the therapeutic properties of the compound, we’ll look at one area where CBD has been under the microscope for years: pain relief.
CBD’s reputation may shift rapidly depending on where you’re looking, but pain relief is still largely the most common reason people take it. Its non-psychoactive and non-addicting qualities make it a primary choice for people looking for an alternative to opioids and medication.
Arthritis patients use CBD to treat symptoms, despite a lack of solid, conclusive evidence. “Even though there isn’t clinical trial literature for most common uses of CBD, people don’t necessarily follow what clinical trials say,” says Kevin Boehnke from the Michigan Medicine Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Centre.
Others use it for muscle and nerve related pain. Of the Britons who have tried CBD, 71 percent took it for pain relief, believing in the compound even though research has only really begun to ramp up following the wave of legalisation in major markets.
In the US, the National Football League seems to believe there’s more to CBD than just placebo effects. The group has made a formal request for more information and research into the compound’s use in pain management.
Belief in CBD’s pain regulating effects is not completely unfounded. In fact, that eager belief may be part of the reason people find it effective.
Researchers from Syracuse University have found that CBD’s pain soothing property is half pharmacological, and half believing it works. “We found improvements in pain measures caused by the pharmacological effects of CBD and the psychological effects of just expecting that they had gotten CBD,” says Martin De Vita, one of the researchers in the study.
But even then, exactly how expectations of relief and the cannabinoid work together to reduce pain is complex. “We found that sometimes pharmacological effects of CBD brought down some of those, but the expectancies did not. Sometimes they both did it. Sometimes it was just the expectancy”, says De Vita. Findings also show that while CBD didn’t significantly reduce the magnitude of the pain, the compound made it easier to deal with.
We can also infer that CBD has some kind of effect on how our body perceives pain by looking at what it interacts with in our bodies: the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS is a network of receptors and neurotransmitters that controls critical functions like sleep, mood, and pain.
While we don’t know the exact mechanisms of CBD in the ECS system, we do know that they affect the activity of the receptors. Researchers believe these interactions are probably responsible for the health benefits people experience–we just haven’t decoded exactly how yet.
CBD has also been used for treating serious medical conditions. Canada approved the use of Sativex, a THC and CBD spray, for treating neuropathic pain from multiple sclerosis in 2005, and again in 2007 for difficult-to-treat cancer pain.
While most products place the cannabinoid front and centre, in the lab, it's rarely alone in a test tube. Many trials test CBD with THC or medical marijuana, making it difficult to tell what CBD can really do on its own.
Nabiximols, which is the only CBD medication pharmaceutically approved for pain relief, contains cannabidiol combined in a 1:1 ratio with THC. Jason White, the chair of the World Health Organisation’s Expert Committee on Drug Abuse, estimates that there are less than ten randomised control trials (RCTs) that use pure CBD.
Another barrier to more definite data is the lack of human trials. Whilst promising results have been found, many of CBD’s biggest pain relief claims are based on animal studies. Cannabidiol has been found to reduce pain and inflammation caused by arthritis, but in rats. Another found pain mitigation in dogs. The study from Syracuse University is the first experimental trial that looked at the link between pure CBD and pain relief in humans.
There’s growing evidence that CBD does have some effect on mitigating pain. But until science catches up with conclusive data from human trials, it's best to remain picky in the products you use.
Some advise taking a conservative approach until the science is clearer. “I think the medical community is looking at this with cautious interest, still wanting to make sure people don’t forget anything strong enough to help you can also hurt you,” says Dr. Brent Bauer, director of the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program.
Generally, it’s a good idea to be cautious of anything that tries to market CBD as a wonder drug for pain relief. Users should also be careful around dosage, as there’s currently no tested standard for treatment. Doctors recommend against relying only on CBD for pain management, but don’t prohibit people from using it. Healthcare professionals also warn against taking cannabidiol if you’re taking medication to treat health conditions.
With its natural origins and non-addictive property, CBD exhibits considerable promise as a pain relief agent. Currently, lack of data limits applications, but with increasing consumer interest and commercial viability fuelling studies we’re only set to uncover more about the link between CBD and pain relief.
Disclaimer: This article is not meant to be prescriptive--please consult your healthcare provider before taking CBD for pain relief.]]>