CBD is creating a lot of confusion, isn’t it? Every day, I’m seeing more and more questions like “What is CBD?” “Can CBD help me?” and “What kind of CBD should I purchase?”
It’s the last one, that is the focus of this article today. In your search for CBD, you may have come across the terms “full spectrum” and “isolate”, and you probably have questions about what that means. Great eye, by the way, because it is extremely important that you know the difference and make the right purchase . .. so what’s the difference?
Let’s Talk About Hemp Baby
You might have already noticed that CBD oil more often than not comes from the hemp plant. You’re probably familiar with hemp and that it has an association with marijuana, but they aren’t the same. Both hemp and marijuana are different strains of the Cannabis sativa plant, but hemp doesn’t have any notable levels of marijuana’s most notorious chemical, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Without THC, hemp and all derivatives from it can’t get you or anyone high. Don’t believe me, why just go to a hemp field and start lighting up and see what happens — you’ll still get arrested, but not because you’re high.
Take a look at the second half of name tetrahydrocannabinol. Besides sharing some of its name with cannabis, it also shares one with CBD (cannabidiol), CBN (cannabinol), CBG (cannabigerol), and a lot more. If you’re wondering if they all have something in common because of the name, then you are exactly right!
THC, CBD, CBN, CGC, and over a hundred more like them are all cannabinoids found in cannabis sativa and marijuana — just take out THC and you have hemp. While, CBD, CBD, CGC can’t get you high like THC, they provide therapeutic properties that repair and rebalance all organisms with a vertebrate.
They do this because mammals have an internal protection and repair system called the endocannabinoid system — your brain creates its own cannabinoids that act as neurotransmitters and will attach to receptors throughout the body. When activated these receptors promote physiological repair of the region they are activated in.
Think of cannabinoids as a unit of energy for multiple defense systems in the body.
Full Spectrum
So why do I go into a long tirad about cannabinoids when you are here about full spectrum and isolate? Well, by the name, you may have started putting together that full spectrum means it contains the full spectrum of the hemp plant including all other cannabinoids expect for THC, as well as terpenes (found in essential oils of plants and give them their aroma).
Isolate on the other hand, simply means CBD by itself, no CBG, no CBN.
All By Myself: CBD Isolate
So why just CBD? Well, CBD overwhelmingly contributes to cannabis, hemp, and marijuana’s medical properties. It does this by involving itself with the most receptors in the body, as well it’s often the cannabinoid found in largest quantity in hemp.
Because of this, we long thought that if we could separate CBD from the others, we would have a more medical and therapeutic drug because while the other cannabinoids and terpenes help, they don’t help anywhere near to the extent CBD does so we are just diluting CBD by including them. With this idea in mind, CBD isolate was created. What came of this powerful highly concentrated oil . . . well, nothing because there is a problem.
We were wrong in our thought that CBD was a lone wolf that could handle the job by itself. CBD is actually the opposite and is the leader of a pack, and without its pack (the other cannabinoids and terpenes) CBD is left defenseless.
Better Together: What Most Prefer Full Spectrum
The sum of the parts is greater than any individual components.
Even though CBD will have the greatest medical properties of any other chemical compound in hemp, it needs the other cannabinoids to do this. This synergistic phenomenon is called the “Entourage Effect” and it works in a few ways . . . .
The other cannabinoids share a lot of overlapping therapeutic effects with CBD, and can provide additional help — but wait couldn’t I just take more CBD? No, because another way the entourage effect works is certain cannabinoids and even some terpenes allow CBD to be absorbed easily, faster, and to be fully utilized when in the body. A ginormous way we see this is with dosing.
Isolate, is terribly difficult to dose. Full spectrum is nice and works like an endless ladder — the more you take, the higher up you go/the more you feel. After a while, it becomes pointless to take more because you can’t see the ground and the ceiling is endless.
But isolate isn’t like this — when dosing with isolate you’re trying to hit a small target from far away. Overthrow or overshoot your dose and you hit/feel nothing. Underthrow/shoot and the same thing happens. Isolate dosage works on a bell curve which requires a high dose to hit, where doses for full spectrum can start way lower.
This also brings up an important detail for those interested in giving your pet CBD oil. Our pet’s can’t tell us how CBD is working for them or if their dose is best, because of this stick to full spectrum for CBD pet oil.
But Wait! Isolate isn’t Down for the Count
It’s easy to think this means isolate is dead in the waters, but not so fast. First, for some isolate works better — there are reports of it providing more pain relief, as well, others report that isolate works better with their body chemistry. I would still recommend full spectrum, but if full spectrum didn’t work quite to the degree you wanted, you should consider isolating.
Next, isolate can be found for slightly cheaper — costs will most likely be offset, however, because a higher dose is required so you’ll go through the bottle faster. While it’s harder to hit your dose many reports isolate working much faster than full spectrum.
The biggest reason, some prefer isolate is if drug testing is an issue. Full spectrum CBD oil will not have enough THC to cause a high nor cause any ill effects to your health. However, THC will stick around in your system for a while and this could lead to you testing positive on a drug test. It’s very difficult to say whether full spectrum will or not — the more intrusive the test the easier it is to find THC. As well, it depends on how much CBD full spectrum you’re taking.
Drug testing for THC will certainly come to an end as CBD oil is completely legal across the United States, and medical marijuana is now legal in the majority of the U.S as well. But if you have concern you may want to start with isolate.
Final Thoughts
As VitaLeaf Naturals we believe it’s important to offer both full spectrum and isolate. Again, if you really want to get an accurate picture of how CBD can help check out full spectrum. But if you want to try isolate, check out our nano-enhanced which our customers are really liking, and we offer a social media group where you can hear from others how CBD isolate worked and what dosage worked best for them.
