By Emily Gay
Staff Writer for CBD Provide
If you haven’t seen CBD on the menu at your favorite hipster coffee shop, you’ve surely seen the name somewhere else around. Touted by doctors, health gurus, fitness coaches, psychologists, beauty and media influencers alike, CBD is a booming industry with no signs of slowing down in the future. What’s even more promising than its multimillion-dollar potential? Its underlying reason for demand, the desire for safe and natural treatment options.
Why Is CBD So Popular?
As consumers continue to take control of their own health, the applications of CBD are endless in both mainstream and healthcare spaces. As a Psychologist and Director of the Cognitive Sciences Department at AnalyticsIQ, Inc., Sarah Cavrak, PhD aims to understand just that. In her nationwide research report, The Emerging CBD Movement: An Exploratory Data Summary, Dr. Cavrak identifies the main motivations for CBD use today. Presenting participants with the question, “why do you use CBD?”, two main categories emerged from the data.
Psychological vs Physical Ailments
Psychological symptoms was the dominant response category with stress and anxiety leading as the top two concerns. Under the physical ailments umbrella, pain management far surpassed all other categories with insomnia in second place.
Generation Stressed
The findings in Dr. Cavrak’s study point to an important shift in our collective health. It appears that CBD usage has not increased all on its own. Instead, it has increased in response to an overwhelming rise in stress, anxiety, and chronic pain in our nation.
As reported by The American Psychological Association [1], 44% of Americans are experiencing a higher level of stress now than they did five years ago. We are more stressed than ever before and it turns out, the pain is not just psychological. According to Dr. Cavrak, 75-100 million Americans suffer from chronic pain. Compounding these statistics is the reality of anxiety in our nation. As stated in the report, 18% of Americans (around 40 million adults) report symptoms of anxiety. Although, a whopping 86% don’t seek professional help.
What About CBD?
With such a high prevalence of psychological and physical disorders, it’s no wonder the demand for safer and more accessible treatment options is on the rise. And with new data indicating CBD’s lack of abuse-related effects [2], the treatment is showing all the more promise.
CBD, short for cannabidiol, is an active ingredient found in cannabis and hemp. Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD does not possess psychoactive properties and it cannot induce a “high” or altered sensory state. CBD works with the natural mechanisms in the body to restore balance, reduce inflammation, ease symptoms of anxiety and other ailments.
Ready for a less stressed and more vibrant version of you? You might just have to jump on the CBD bandwagon!
Sources:
[1] https://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/01/stressed-america
[2] https://www.who.int/medicines/access/controlled-substances/5.2_CBD.pdf