Does CBD Impact Progesterone and Estrogen?

Progesterone along with estrogen are known as female sex hormones, which play a big role in the reproductive system and organs, improving the well-being of the body for women. CBD can modulate the way that these are expressed, but right now, this is still at the early stages. 

How these hormones Work 

The hormones are used as ways to receive messages that are impacted by the endocrine glands, and this triggers the changes.  You have a master gland, which is the pituitary gland.  Men along with women actually have the same hormones, just expressed differently. Progesterone along with estrogen are what’s seen in women, testosterone in men. But men can produce the same, but it’s at lower levels. 

For those who don’t know, progesterone is basically the building block which makes the sex hormones that’s there. the ovaries and testes both create these, but they play a role in the regulating of menstrual cycles, and it can impact how sperm production happens in guys. 

Progesterone also helps with a lo of functions, such as: 

• Improving blood sugar 

• Controlling and increasing bone mass 

• Controlling brain activity 

• Converting fat stores into energy 

• Controlling the production of thyroid hormones 

• Improves libido 

• Improves mood 

• Supports sleep 

Estrogen is pretty much what helps with sex drive, erectile function, and sperm production in men.  For women, this s what helps with the egg follicle growth, the thickness of your uterus, uterine health, forming breast tissue.  This is something that is also changed based on the different stages people are in. 

It also helps increase the following: 

• Bone density 

• Changing physical features when puberty hits 

• Maintaining emotions and mood 

• Skin that’s healthy 

• Improving your cognitive skills 

• Boosting muscle mass 

• Metabolism 

The Science of CBD and these hormones 

Right now, the effects of CBD on these are still in the early stages. Right now, most of the research that’s there looks at the whole plant, on these hormones 

The interaction of both of these offer an increase in the production of hormones, followed by the entourage effect, so it can help with improving this in a person. 

But they can also modulate the way the hormones work within the ECS, and it can help with increasing the hormonal functions. 

In a study done in 1980, it was found that the high levels of CBD didn’t change our estrogen levels, but it wsa found that CBD actually did suppress the production, since it can inhibit aromatase production.  This is important for the production of this. It can also deregulate the decidualization, which is something that plays a part in pregnancies. It wsa found that it can lead to problems with fertility, but it requires more research before the agree to conclude that.

The findings of this on progesterone were done mostly on rat studies. It wsa found hat it can actually inhibit progesterone expression within the rats. Some do theorize that this might’ve bene created due to the metabolic interactions between the enzyme and the cannabinoid which creates this. This is something that it  could possibly be an issue, but we need more studies. 

Right now, ther is nothing that says CBD can ruin pregnancies, or impact the production of this, but as you use it, know that this is a study without too much behind it, due to the fact that most of the studies are done with the whole plant, rather tan just an isolate, so it’s important to look at this, and also note that it may create hormone imbalance. 

Marijuana and Driving: Actually Safe?

Some people have heard of the scenario where they get too high, get in a car, and then, they end up running into something. While it’s something you shouldn’t do, actually, it was found that the opposite happened.  The illegalization of marijuana didn’t actually change the amount of accidents, and in some cases, it decreased this. There’s some research that validates, which is based on the reports that were found, the performance of drivers, and also the auto insurance information that’s there. You shouldn’t doit, but it also may mean you’re safer on the road, at least when alcohol is involved. 

Marijuana is Safer than Alcohol when Driving 

We always hear about no driving under the influence, and that's true. You also hear in some states that you shouldn’t’ drive under the influence of marijuana. This is something that's normally not promoted by anyone, but actually, it’s something that is considered a bit less risky than say, driving under the influence of alcohol. 

This may be because some users are able to consume cannabis in place of other materials that are mor intoxicating and dangerous, and most drivers tend to chance their behavior and make sure to drive in safe ways compared to how they may with alcohol of course. There was a study done on this actually, which looked at the driving performances of people after they’ve smoked a marijuana cigarette. They were given dosages that are up to 30 MG THC in some cases, and they went through a series of trials that were on roads that were closed. 

Drivers did begin the test high, and they had larger blood plasma levels. The tests were also conducted after the drivers consumed the alcohol in a simple combination. 

It was found through this that those drivers who used marijuana and were under the influence of this, were able to keep the insight of the performance that they did and were able to compensate in a lo of cases, especially through using more effort, slowing down, and the like, so the effects on this were quite small. 

There were some different summaries which also did highlight the relative risks of those drivers that were impaired as well especially when compared to say alcohol and being under the influence. 

THC and the Levels of Accidents 

Probably the biggest way to look at this, is the amount of crashes that weren’t fatal. The ones that did get into crashes, they looked at the amount of alcohol, marijuana, and some of the other substances which might be there. There was no chance of an increased risk in those who didn’t have larger levels of THC. There was a very small increase in those who have 5 ng/ml in their blood. 

So for what that means is simple, the THC concentrations that are small are usually accepted in both the upper, and the lower benchmarks when law enforcement is trying to understand the operation of a vehicle.As said before, most of the impairment happens after the initial consumption. Within the first two hours, it’s much higher, but then, over time, it definitely decreases, especially after four hours. 

So while it may seem like it’s a lot safer if you’re looking to et on the road after having a marijuana cigarette, it’s important as well that you take your time, and wait about six hours in order to ensure that the HTC leaves your body and isn’t causing impairment. While you should not drive high, this is important information, and it does shed insight on the impacts of THC on the body, mind, and the like as well.

Texas Tries to Ruin Cannabis for Everyone, Once Again

If you have been following marijuana legalization and policy throughout the United States for any serious amount of time, then you are probably familiar with some states being very stubborn - particularly, the southern states and most conservative ones. Texas has been notoriously against the use of marijuana for quite some time.

Even medical marijuana patients are limited to marijuana strains and products with a THC cap at 1%, which is absolutely abysmal. How on earth are medical marijuana patients actually going to use cannabis to treat their medical conditions if they can’t even use THC? However, for residents that live in states with very restrictive medical marijuana programs, a new type of THC began to show promising signs for treating serious conditions and also existed as a loophole in the ban on THC products.

Delta-8 THC, which I have talked about many times in my previous posts, is technically legal under the federal government law, since it is considered to be derived from hemp. Consequently, Delta-8 gained serious popularity in places where standard THC products were banned, and it can come in the form of vapes, gummies, and whole flowers.

Yesterday I actually went out and bought a disposable vape cartridge with Delta-8 and Delta-19 THC, since normal THC where I live in Indiana is not legal. Anyways, Delta-8 gained enough popularity to the point that Texas lawmakers caught wind of it. Now, they are proposing to put the same ban on Delta-8 THC that they have on other THC products. For a state that loves to tout their free market and civilian rights, they sure do love to restrict people from using a natural drug like marijuana. It’s hard to believe how many people in Texas are living with serious medical conditions and do not even qualify for using a 1% THC product. In this article, I am going to spend some time talking about my least favorite state and why they are attacking Delta-8 THC products. 

It’s really hard to say exactly how much Delta-8 products were being sold in Texas in the last few months. While we know that smoke shops and vape shops were having a hard time keeping this type of THC in stock, we also know that Delta-8 could also be purchased over mail order and shipped with UPS. This means that it is really hard to know how much Delta-8 was shipped into the state without the lawmakers knowing. Like I said before, Delta-8 is technically considered to be derived from hemp, which makes it legal under federal law.

Basically, Texas wants to change the state’s definition of what is considered to be hemp so that they can ban the use of Delta-8 THC as well. Honestly, I really don’t know why Texas is going so hard in the paint to make all forms of THC illegal. Other states have great examples of well established and profitable medical marijuana programs, and people getting high occasionally is not going to crumble society in America as we know it. I guess my main question to Texas lawmakers is - why is this such a big deal to you? Now, I don’t expect any of them to read my articles, but I hope that what I write about at least gives you some insight into what goes on in Texas regarding cannabis policy and legislation. 

The worst part about all of this is that there has not been enough time to inform residents in Texas about law changes and Delta-8. This means that a lot of people could get caught with illegal forms of marijuana and not even know it.  

Time to Bust Myths About Chronic Pain - Medical Marijuana

Unless you or someone you know has dealt with chronic pain, you may not have a great understanding of just how debilitating it can be. Only within the last few decades has the medical community begun to take chronic pain seriously. The problem with chronic pain is that it can be hard to pinpoint exactly what is causing it or where the pain is stemming from. What this means is that some patients are not even believed when they report intense symptoms of pain over long periods of time.

Chronic pain is one of the many conditions that can be treated with medical marijuana, and I think that it is important to bring some attention to chronic pain in this post. More specifically, I wanted to address some common myths that surround conditions of chronic pain and what they mean for the medical users that suffer from this type of diagnosis.

Living with chronic pain day in and day out can be hard enough, but things take a turn for the worse if you are regularly told that your pain is “all in your head”. Imagine telling someone that? I simply do not understand. Anyways, here are some common misconceptions about chronic pain and why you should not believe them.

The first myth about chronic pain is that it is imagined. This is one that is extremely frustrating, yet surprisingly common for people with a chronic pain diagnosis. Of the many reasons for this, the most prominent one is that chronic pain can be unpredictable. Some days are better than others, meaning that one day a patient might only experience mild pain symptoms, while other days the pain is so severe that they can’t make it into work. Whatever the case is, it is important to remember that people do not simply imagine chronic pain.

Just because the pain can be hard to describe and pinpoint does not mean that it is made up. Additionally, patients with a chronic pain diagnosis do not really control their pain - instead, it controls them. That is why so many patients turn to heavy painkillers and opioids to try and find some relief from their pain. However, medical marijuana has been a great resource and alternative treatment option for people that are in severe pain. Plus, who doesn’t love getting high? I know that I do! Anyways, back to talking about chronic pain.

The next misconception about chronic pain that I want to talk about is that medical marijuana users must be high in order to relieve their pain symptoms. Contrary to what I just said in the last paragraph, many medical marijuana users do not rely on cannabis simply to get high. IN fact, most chronic pain patients do not want to become impared when using cannabis to control their pain levels. In fact, the myth that every medical marijuana user just wants to get high is what the people that want to keep medical marijauna illegal will tell you, but it is just not true.

Ask anyone who regularly deals with chronic pain. Many medical marijuana patients are simply looking to make their pain more manageable, not trying to land themselves on a different planet. Most patients want to find that perfect dosage that allows them some relief from their pain without feeling high and dumbed down all the time. I’m all for getting high now and then, but I cannot imagine being high every day. I feel like I wouldn’t be able to function well. 

The last myth that I want to talk about is that medical marijuana patients, specifically those with chronic pain, simply prefer to smoke cannabis. While smoking weed is a popular form of cannabis ingestion, it is by no means the only way.

A THC Measuring Device that’s Opening the Door to cannabis research

When different police officers and workplaces use samples to find for THC, they usually are looking at how impaired a person is, especially for driving. But with the cognalyzer, it’s a neurotechnology that actually does look at whether or not directly if someone else is stoned or not. This is a neurotechnology that measures your brain waves to provide the right level of insight on how stoned a person really is.  

While old measuring devices would use the saliva and blood to test for this, it didn’t really look at the mental state. However, this is definitely helping people look at the true effects that marijuana has on your brain. 

The problems with Current Testing 

THC-infused cannabis creates a euphoric sort of high sensation. While its good for enjoying the evening, if you’re over here getting stoned and then operating machinery, it can impact how much of a risk this is causing.  It’s something that can impact your motor controls, and the ability to have proper reaction time. 

This is why people use blood and saliva testing for this, and if you have that in you, you can be charged with reckless driving. While this is great, assigning numbers to different bodies, the problem is that there isn’t a direct correlation which exists between the molecule concentration and how psychotropic these experiences are as an experience which is happening within your head.  

This of course also come with the problem of how valid the experiences are. Lots of researchers don’t actually believe that they’re very safe, and it’s something that also creates issues because of false flags.  That then creates legal implications.  It’s less about how the person is affected by weed, and more about if there is weed in your body, then you get charged, when you really may not have had it for a long time. 

How to Cognalyzer helps 

The cognalyzer is one that’s pretty much the answer. Why is that? It works with the brain directly and looks at the activity of the brain. 

This is basically a novel kind of EEG machine, and it is something that’s beyond being just an idea, but instead, it’s something that is used to help actually provide real research to a device. This is something that’s used to detect the brain’s activity, and it’s something that’s much more effective for treating people’s conditions. 

In a study on the brain, they mentioned that the current standards used to define the impairment of a person and that cannabis use are something that’s currently still limited, which is why this is objectively the best solution. It’s something that detects the metabolites in your bodily fluid immediately, rather than days after you take this in. 

During the process, they tried this by putting the electrodes on a person’s head, took a baseline reading, and then they used different data on brainwaves to offer real, diagnostic results. It was found that there was an accuracy of at least well over 80% out here, and the research did as well look at sensitivity used to help with this, and it also scored high in a lot of the areas. 

They found that if you did use a gel to test the THC performance, it was better, and it’s a suitable tool that could spell the difference for testing in your workplace. Hopefully, we’ll get to see more of this kind of soon, but for now, there is definitely some hope that this could replace current testing, hopefully sooner rather than later when you’re looking for valid testing methods. 

Protecting Cannabis Concentrates

The battle to legalize medical marijuana in the United States has been a slow, uphill one. Many people would say that it has not been without its ups and downs. However, if we take a moment to reflect on the progress that has been made in our country regarding cannabis legalization and acceptance, we have come a long way in the course of a decade or so. 

Pretty much every state now, with the exception of a couple that shall remain nameless, have constructed some sort of medical marijuana program that gives patients with certain conditions the option to use legalized marijuana products. Of course, the fight for cannabis never ends. Many states that do have medical marijuana programs are still extremely restrictive with what types of products are allowed to be used, where they can be bought, and so forth. One of the many problems that are beginning to occur in various states is the potency of cannabis concentrates. 

After a state legalizes medical marijuana, the next step is to determine what type of products are allowed to be used, and the potency that they can have. Concentrates, for example, are basically just THC extracts that can be inhaled through a vape pen or such product. As the name suggests, these products are highly concentrated THC and are very potent. This means that marijuana patients only need to take one or two hits before they begin to feel its effects. But can this be a problem if not used properly? Well, that is the question that fuels the fire for banning high potency cannabis. 

You see, research suggests that there are safety concerns with using highly potent cannabis concentrates over a long period of time - and that is true. Concentrates are more potent with THC than any product ever has been before. Some products can even contain up to 65% or 80% THC - that is a lot! So there are some serious concerns among legislatures in several states that are looking to cap the potency allowed for marijuana concentrate products. 

While it is always a good idea to be cautious about how much THC one is ingesting at any given time, concentrates do offer great benefits to medical marijuana users. Firstly, using a vape or pen is more discreet and portable, and overall less complicated than trying to roll and smoke a joint, for example. Plus, for the medical marijuana patients that are dealing with severe chronic pain, high levels of THC in concentrated doses make the most sense in order to manage their symptoms. At any rate, this issue is up for debate in a lot of states. 

Washington, for example, which is renowned for being one of the most cannabis welcoming states, has introduced Bills to cap cannabis concentrates for sale at medical and adult-use dispensaries at 10% THC. People in opposition of this Bill feel that it is too low - 10% THC does not offer medical users the proper treatment that one seeks out marijuana usage for. Arizona has seen similar Bills attempt to cap all medical cannabis, including concentrates, flower, and tinctures, at a maximum of 2% THC. This is almost a slap in the face for anyone that actually uses marijuana. With 2% THC, you might as well not even be using marijuana anymore.

In any case, I think it is important to find a balance when it comes to using cannabis concentrates. I do not recommend using highly potent THC unless you absolutely have to for a medical condition. If you are someone using cannabis concentrate with 80% THC, you may need to rethink some things about your life.

The best Medical Cannabis Strains for IBS

Irritable bowel syndrome affects many people, and it can sometimes get so severe that it turns into Crohn’s disease. IBS does cause a lot of symptoms, such as diarrhea, abdominal problems, and even bloating and feeling fatigued. It’s becoming more prevalent to, appearing in up to 15% of people over the age of 18.  While it’s not always life-threatening, it kind of is a major burden for some people. There have been some research done on the possibility of using marijuana for treating IBS and providing relief. If you do suffer from this, you should consider possibly getting a medical cannabis card.  You definitely will benefit if you do. With that said, here are some amazing strains that can help with the IBS pain you have. 

The best Strains of IBS 

If you suffer from IBS, while there isn’t a cure, relief is something that you should work for. This usually contains a lot of CBD in it, equal to or higher than THC in this as well. Cannatonic is one that’s good for relieving this. It’s a hybrid that usually has between 3 and 6% of the THC content, with the CBD content being almost 3 times it, sitting at almost 17% in some cases, and this is something that’s good for inflammation, and also doesn’t have a ton of different intoxicating results. 

ACDC is another one with a lot of CBD, but not a ton of THC., this is something that won’t cause a ton of psychoactive results in a person, which is good for offering relief especially if you want to feel good without getting high. It’s perfect for pain, depression, and those who deal with IBS . Harlequin is another one that’s high in CBD and offers pain-relieving capabilities this is basically a hybrid that’s pretty much painless for a lot of people, and makes you feel mellow while also building motivation and focus, and you won’t feel high as you continue to go throughout your day however it is that you choose. 

Jack Herer is another one, and it’s more sativa than indica, but is great for feeling uplifted and energized. While it’s not very high, it’s really good for relieving abdominal pain in the body and offers natural painkillers that are on the same level of opiates in some cases, reducing the tissue, chronic inflammation, pain, and stress too. 

Then there is gorilla glue, which is another hybrid that offers euphoric feelings, and lets you feel better, enjoying the leisure time that’s there. With a tone of THC in it, it can be really good for IBS pain, and is great for migraines, inflammation, spasms of the muscles, and so much more. it’s also a great strain for reducing vomiting, nausea, and also helps to stimulate the appetite, something some people with IBS do struggle with. 

It's something that’s great for a lot of people, and if you want to check this out, you should talk about getting your medical marijuana card today to help with this. Why this works is simple, the endocannabinoid system or ECS is something that offers benefits to various tissues, and it also helps with the reactions that cannabis has with the body, making it a lot better, healthier, and easier for you to manage. 

If you do suffer from IBS pain, know that you’re not alone. It’s a condition that’s debilitating for a lot of people, and you’ll definitely want to make sure that you do talk to a doctor to get the right cannabis for your needs, and the help that you can get today.