Vaping CBD oil can help you feel relaxed and can have a calming effect on the mind, helping to reduce feelings of anxiety without getting you high because CBD vape products do not contain the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). There many other CBD vape effects that may help you, like reducing your blood pressure and tackling chronic pain.
Introduction
CBD Oil is an extract from the cannabis plant – yes that’s right! Cannabis has been used medicinally in the United States for a long time; even now cannabis is legally available recreationally in many states in America. This is due to the recognition that there are chemicals in cannabis that have some medical benefit!
CBD products are often extracted from hemp plants as these are cannabis plants with very low levels of THC (no more than 0.3% in fact!) to avoid THC making it into the CBD product.
What Is CBD?
CBD, or cannabidiol, is one such component in the cannabis plant. It is the second main cannabinoid after the psychoactive ingredient, THC, and has been studied since the 1940’s. The study of cannabinoids is what led to the revelation of the ‘endocannabinoid system’ – an system inside most animals that uses cannabinoid-like chemicals to help the systems inside us communicate.
The role of the endocannabinoid system is wide and varied and more research needs to be done, but so far the evidence shows that CBD use helps to stimulate the endocannabinoid system, working to regulate the release of neurotransmitters, our immune response and more!
CBD Oil products are available in three forms:
CBD isolate – These products contain only CBD from the hemp plant.
Broad-spectrum CBD – These products contain CBD and flavonoids and terpenes also found in the hemp plant, but no THC.
Full-spectrum CBD – These products contain everything in the hemp plant, including low levels of THC.
How Do You Take CBD Oil?
The growing body of evidence for the benefits of CBD oil has led to the introduction of CBD oil to the retail market as a food supplement. This means you can probably find a variety of ways to take CBD, including tasty CBD gummy sweets, CBD oral drops that are administered under the tongue, CBD tincture that you can drink or add to a beverage – and now CBD is available in a preparation for vaping!
The Effect Of CBD Vape
Vaping CBD appeals to vapers and smokers alike – inhaling is a familiar way of consuming for such people, and vaping poses but a fraction of the risk that smoking does: in fact, Public Health England’s latest evidence review found E-Cigarettes to be 95% less harmful than smoking cigarettes! There is also evidence that indicates CBD can help to alleviate withdrawal symptoms, so vaping CBD could help you kick the habit for good.
So how does vaping CBD make you feel? The regulating of neurotransmitters can stop over-active areas of the brain that are associated with feelings of anxiety and depression, helping you to feel less stressed. One study found that CBD lowered blood pressure, in particular the blood pressure response to stress!
There are a few other ways that CBD oil can help reduce stress, including preventing the breakdown of the chemical ‘anandamide’ – a cannabinoid that takes its name from the Sanskrit word meaning ‘bliss’. You have probably met anandamide elsewhere; it’s found in chocolate and is probably one of the reasons we enjoy chocolate so much! Anandamide is involved in pathways that impact our mood, appetite, pain, cognition, and emotions – all of which affect our state of mind.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about CBD is the role it plays in modulating (regulating) many bodily functions. CBD plays a role as an ‘immuno-modulator’ as it ramps up our immune response if our immune system not working hard enough, but can help reign in our immune system and tone down the response in the event it overreacts. This can help to reduce inflammation in areas that are suffering – from your lungs to your joints and muscles. This effect could help to reduce feelings of pain, allowing for better relaxation.
This role as CBD as a modulator doesn’t stop with the immune system – studies have shown there could be a dose-dependent relationship between using CBD for wakefulness or to encourage sleep. The studies found that small doses of CBD helped promote wakefulness where doses of over 160mg seemed to promote sleep, demonstrating this regulatory effect! This could be useful for insomniacs to try to improve their sleep, as well as help people suffering through a day with a lack of sleep.
Why Vape CBD?
Of the variety of ways you can take CBD, why would you choose to vape CBD?
For smokers, swapping out the cigarettes for CBD vape is a great step as they can continue the hand-to-mouth, inhaling habit associated with cigarettes but with something that is far less harmful.
Non-smokers may choose to vape CBD because it is the fastest way to get CBD into the body, taking about twenty minutes for the CBD to get working – it’s also got the highest absorption for CBD products, with up to 56% of the CBD absorbed from a CBD vape. This could provide fast relief from feelings of anxiety in a stressful situation, help to improve cognition in an afternoon slump at work to help you stay productive, or take the edge off an injury that could be causing you pain.
The Negatives To Vaping CBD
The areas where vaping CBD could be considered weak or problematic are things like dosing: not every puff will be equal, so you will need to calculate the dose of CBD from the whole vape tank.
Vaping CBD does mean having a vape that is sufficiently powerful enough to vaporise the CBD as this can be a thicker mixture compared to normal e-liquid. That means dealing with a vape pen or vape mod and all the maintenance that goes along with it: cleaning the tank, checking and replacing the coils that heat up the liquid, and checking the batteries if they are removable.
It also means carrying your CBD oil e-liquid with you and refilling your tank on the fly. This can be a messy business and takes a few moments which isn’t great if you are caught in a situation where you are unable to perform the maintenance, refilling, or simply forgot to bring the CBD liquid bottle with you.
Some vape pens on the market are designed specifically for vaping CBD; the brands that do so offer pre-filled CBD cartridges and some even allow you to refill these a number of times with your own CBD liquid before ridding yourself of the cartridge altogether.
A final consideration for the negatives of vaping CBD is that you are restricted as to where you can vape – many establishments don’t allow vaping inside, and often vaping is restricted to the same areas as smoking. This could impact your ability to get a dose of CBD when you really need it.
Types Of CBD E-Liquid
There is a range of CBD e-liquid on the market – this is down to the different types of CBD product as well as the different styles of vape device.
CBD Vape e-liquid bottles – If you are using a refillable vape kit, then CBD vape e-liquid bottles will allow you to get vaping CBD right away. Just be aware that choosing a device designed to vaporise CBD may give better results than one intended for normal e-liquid.
Disposable CBD vape pens – While these may be the easiest choice; everything you need to start vaping CBD comes in a single package, disposable vapes work out to be expensive, wasteful and environmentally unfriendly. You are stuck with the flavour you bought until the liquid or the battery is used up, then the unit is thrown away (unlikely to be recycled).
CBD Pods – Pre-filled pods using CBD e-liquid means you eliminate any messing with liquids yourself, just pop a CBD POD on your pod vape and away you go. These use rechargeable batteries that will survive a decent number of charge cycles, helping you to remain hassle-free but also environmentally conscious!
Is Vaping CBD The Right Choice For You?
If you are mad about vaping, or are a smoker looking to quit, then vaping CBD could be the right choice for you. If you prefer to avoid going out in the cold in the dead of winter because you can’t vape in the office, or you prefer a straightforward approach to dosing your CBD (like using CBD Oil oral drops) where you don’t need a bunch of extra gear to see the benefits of CBD, then products like CBD Oil oral drops or edible CBD gummies may be a better choice.
How Does CBD Vape Make You Feel? – Conclusion
More studies on CBD vape effects for many of the issues mentioned need to be done, but the evidence for CBD use for a number of ailments is very promising. Whether you vape your CBD, or use an edible version of CBD products, CBD could help to improve your quality of life.