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Debunking Myths: Top 6 CBD Misconceptions & What You Need To Know
Some of the information you may see online about CBD is more myth than fact. Here are the top 6 myths about CBD and the truth about them!
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Everything You Need to Know about THCa vs THC
THCa is the non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in raw cannabis and live cannabis plants. Unlike THC, it doesn’t produce a euphoric effect, but still has plenty of benefits.
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What Are the Benefits of THC?
From pain relief to deeper sleep to better sex, here are the benefits of THC, a natural compound found in the cannabis plant
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CBD vs. THC: Which Is Right for Me?
Like all cannabinoids, THC and CBD interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system. We know that our body creates endocannabinoids that plant-derived cannabinoids supplement in order to regulate appetite, pain, mood and energy. So which one is right for you?
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What Is a CBD Tincture: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners
What Is A CBD tincture? CBD tinctures are liquid extracts that make dosing easy and convenient. Learn about CBD tincture uses, CBD tincture benefits, and dosage.
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How Going Solventless Better Protects Our Planet
If you’ve ever tried any of Papa & Barkley’s CBD and other wellness products, you already know that we’re big believers in the power of all-natural ingredients. If you look at what’s in our award-winning CBD Releaf Balm, for instance, you’ll see it contains things like beeswax, coconut oil, and tea tree oil. You’ll also see what it doesn’t contain: chemical solvents. What are solvents? In this context, solvents are chemicals commonly used to extract CBD from plants. While they’re effective at separating CBD and other medically active compounds from cannabis, solvents can present serious drawbacks as well. What’s more, there’s a cleaner, more environmentally friendly way to achieve the same goal by relying on relatively simple solventless infusion equipment instead. This begs a question: Why would you use solvents in the first place? In today’s post, we’ll explore that topic and more. As you’ll learn, solvent-free CBD infusion is not only kinder and gentler on our planet and the people who live on it, but it’s at the very leading edge of functional medicine production, allowing us to access all the benefits of the cannabis plant without the use of chemicals (or anything else that shouldn’t go on our inside your body). Are you ready? Let’s dive in! Solvent Free CBD Extraction: Why It Matters If you’ve spent any time on our CBD 101 Blog, you know that CBD is a cannabinoid, or what you might think of as an innate “active ingredient” of the cannabis plant. As shown by a number of clinical studies, CBD has the potential to help us fight stress, support faster muscle recovery, and impart other beneficial effects. But not all CBD is created equal. As a growing number of us are realizing, how it’s extracted from the cannabis plant makes a difference, both in relation to its purity and to its impact on the environment. CBD can be extracted from plant matter in one of two basic ways: Through the use of solvents or without them. Solvent-based extractions use chemicals such as butane, CO2, or propane to remove the CBD and other active compounds from the plant matter. Then the solvent is “purged” (or washed away) so that the resulting concentrate is safe for you to use. By contrast, solventless infusion equipment relies on gentle heat and pressure to remove the CBD from the plants. It’s an inherently simple process with a lot of downstream benefits, which we’ll explore in greater detail in just a moment. One of the major issues with solvent-based extraction methods is that producers who use them must safely dispose of those chemicals once they’ve been purged. This requires the use and upkeep of sophisticated and costly waste-management systems to ensure that no one is harmed by such compounds—both onsite during production and outside in the air we breathe and the water we drink. What’s more, many of those solvents give off high levels of volatile organic compounds, otherwise known as VOCs. These chemicals pose a threat to the people handling them. According to the American Lung Association, VOCs can cause multiple health problems, including difficulty breathing and nausea, and they can damage the central nervous system and other vital organs. We’re not willing to take that risk with our team. As we mentioned earlier, a properly made solvent-based product should be free of any solvent residues. But here’s our point: At Papa & Barkley, it’s our stance that any given product should be assessed not only for its health benefits or risks to the end user, but to everyone who comes in contact with that product. In other words, stating that a solvent-based product is safe to use isn’t the whole story. From the impact on workers who must handle such chemicals to those who live in the vicinity of such production facilities, we feel that solvent-based extraction is a decidedly unnatural way to access the healing power of this all-natural product. Why Are Solventless Products Better? A Holistic Approach That said, we’d prefer to focus on the positive, and at P&B we believe solvent free CBD infusion is only one part of a more balanced approach to CBD-based care. Here are just a few of the ways we use this technique to produce our thoughtfully made wellness offerings. Outdoor Growing Some cannabis cultivators prefer to grow their plants indoors, arguing that this allows greater control over light, moisture, and other environmental factors. However, this approach requires significant amounts of electricity to maintain a temperature- and humidity-controlled environment. That’s one reason we prefer to let Mother Nature do the work, growing our vibrant cannabis plants outdoors instead. Organic Growing Methods When your goal is producing exceptional all-natural products, it makes sense to refrain from adding anything you wouldn’t want in your body or on your skin. This includes synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and other questionable products. Instead, we source our sungrown cannabis from farmers who cultivate using organic and regenerative principles, and chemical-free inputs for healthier soil and a healthier you. Solvent-Free CBD Infusion As we referenced earlier, our solventless infusion equipment uses gentle heat and pressure—really, that’s all!—to extract the purest CBD possible from our 100% USA-grown plants. That means our partners and employees aren’t exposed to the VOCs present in most solvents, and there’s no need for complex waste management systems to dispose of such solvents, either. Renewable Ingredients Finally, we go out of our way to use renewable ingredients such as beeswax and medium-chain triglyceride (MCT), a pure coconut-derived oil that provides its own benefits as well. As numerous studies attest, MCT oil may promote weight loss, help manage blood sugar levels, and provide other corollary advantages. Solvent-Free CBD Infusion: Why It Matters to Us At Papa & Barkley, we’re committed to harnessing the full power of plants. That’s why all of our products are made with solventless, whole-plant infusions that contain the full spectrum of terpenes and cannabinoids present in each plant we harvest. From our award-winning topicals to our joy-sparking edibles and our convenient and effective tinctures, you’re putting these therapeutic plants to work with each and every one of our products. Do you have other questions about the benefits of solventless extraction? Just ask! We’re always here to help.
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Separating Fact from Fiction: CBD and the Placebo Effect
If you know Papa & Barkley, you know that we’re passionate about CBD news and the potential of this all-natural plant medicine to reduce age-related aches, support faster muscle recovery, and even foster a natural state of calm and wellbeing. Today, we’re especially excited to share recent CBD research that offers new and fascinating insights into the placebo effect and how it affects our experience of acute pain. If you’re interested in how to leverage cannabis as a gentle and sustainable response to physical discomfort—even including acute pain—this post is for you. CBD for Pain Relief: The Experience of Acute Pain Like it or not, pain is a part of life. While pain can be bothersome, it’s helpful to think of it as an essential warning system that tells us when something threatens our physical health and safety. Even so, when we’re experiencing pain—especially high-volume acute pain—it can feel like the warning came too late. There are many pharmacological responses to pain, ranging from gentle homeopathic remedies such as massage to more intense medicines like opioids, all with their own pros and cons. The reason we focus so keenly on CBD here at Papa & Barkley is a very personal one: Our best-in-class topical Releaf Balm helped our founder’s father overcome debilitating back pain. That’s because CBD can promote our bodies’ natural ability to regulate pain, reducing pain by helping modulate the actions of signaling and repair cells. CBD also impacts pain-perception mechanisms in the brain by stimulating receptors to dampen the signals of pain. What Is the Placebo Effect? How Placebo and CBD Work Together A moment ago, we mentioned the placebo effect. What is the placebo effect? Simply put, it’s a phenomenon whereby a pharmacologically inert substance—such as a sugar pill—stimulates healing effects simply because the subject believes it will improve their health. It’s a fascinating quirk of our physiology, and it’s 100% real. So, what does this have to do with CBD? As we mentioned earlier, CBD exerts effects on our experience of pain. But as recent CBD research from Syracuse University suggests, part of its efficacy also comes from the power of the placebo effect. Let us explain. We tend to think of the experience of pain as being a single variable, like when doctors ask you to rate your pain on a scale of 1 to 10. But as Martin De Vita—one of the authors of the study—explained in an interview: “If you think of pain as the noxious noise coming from a radio, the volume can represent the intensity of the pain, while the station can represent the quality.” In other words, how the discomfort feels on a qualitative level is different from how severe it is. And as the study found, CBD—in addition to reducing the severity of some types of pain—had an effect on the quality of the pain, making it less unpleasant and more manageable. Echoing the findings of other clinicians, De Vita points out that it’s important to know where your CBD actually comes from. At Papa & Barkley, we make our award-winning CBD products from 100% USA-grown hemp plants, then triple test it for purity and safety. Our complete line of Releaf products—including topicals, capsules and drops— are thoughtfully formulated to ease discomfort and support your body’s natural ability to regulate pain. In Conclusion: More Evidence for CBD’s Ability to Soothe Discomfort The role hemp and cannabis play in relieving discomfort is complex, and research is currently underway to illuminate how cannabis terpenes (the aromatic “essential oils” that give hemp and cannabis plants their unique aromas and flavors) and other active compounds in the plants might be impacting its efficacy. But one thing is clear: This latest study adds weight to the notion that CBD helps us manage physical discomfort in several different—but complementary—ways. Do you have other questions about the placebo effect or using CBD for acute pain?Reach out anytime; we’re always here to help!
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Cannabis and the Gender Gap: How Men and Women Use It Differently
Even as research into cannabis unlocks a number of potential uses for cannabinoids such as CBD, there's one little-noticed detail: Men and women tend to use it for different reasons. Let's drill down into the stats to see how different genders use it (and how they could derive even greater benefits from this gentle and sustainable plant-based medication). CBD for Women, CBD for Men: What the Science Tells Us In previous posts, we’ve focused on some of the many benefits of using cannabis to boost mood and support better sleep, among others. In addition to supporting deeper, more restorative sleep, clinical studies suggest that this remarkable plant-based compound has a role to play in reducing the changes in wellness associated with aging, empowering faster muscle recovery from overexertion, and supporting our mental health and wellness. Exciting as these developments are, they ignore an intriguing fact about CBD for women: They tend to use it differently than do men. Here are a few examples of how—and why—this might be the case. When it comes to CBD for stress relief, a study indicates that women tend to absorb it differently than men. One study done at Yale’s Cchool of Medicine suggested that women absorb more CBD more quickly than men, and researchers there hypothesize that women may in fact derive greater anxiety relief from CBD as compared to men. This idea is supported by a cross sectional study that found, in general, women tend to use CBD for sleep and stress relief, while men tend to use it to relieve post-workout muscle discomfort. In addition, that study suggested that women tend to derive more subjective effects from CBD, an effect generally supported by the Yale study. But here’s a crucial aspect of that study: One of its goals is to determine whether there’s a “ceiling” on the effects of CBD for stress relief in women. According to Dr. Sarah Lichtenstein, who headed the Yale study: “If there is a point at which higher doses trigger a neurobiological mechanism that blocks the anti-anxiety effects of CBD, that could very likely lead to different effects for women and men.” This would be an illuminating discovery. As we’ve shared previously, while CBD is well-tolerated even in very large doses, it’s important to determine your optimal dosage for best results. When it comes to CBD for men, the trend appears to be more towards treatment of specific complaints—such as helping overexerted muscles recover—than for generalized health and wellness support. There’s another intriguing detail about CBD for men: According to one animal study, CBD may suppress the natural breakdown of testosterone in the liver. Does this have any effect on libido? It’s hard to say, but the concentration of endocannabinoid system receptors in male sex organs suggests that cannabinoids such as CBD have a role to play in regulating the production and breakdown of this crucial sex hormone. The fact that CBD may reduce levels of the “stress hormone” cortisol—a known suppressant of testosterone production—may add weight to this argument. CBD for Women, CBD for Men: Shopping Differences The differences between men and women do not stop at how active compounds from cannabis may work in their bodies: Men and women tend to purchase differently, too. While historically there have been more male than female cannabis consumers, more and more women are seeking out cannabis to support health and wellness. When shopping, women purchase topicals, tinctures and edibles more frequently than men. In contrast, men purchase more cannabis flower and concentrates. CBD for Health and Wellness: In Conclusion We’re passionate about our customers’ health and wellness and the potential of this all-natural plant medicine. Do you have other questions about how to use CBD to support your health and wellness? Reach out anytime; we’re always here to help!
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The Benefits of Consistent CBD Use for Your Wellness
At Papa & Barkley, we love sharing information about the many benefits of CBD, such as the ways this all-natural plant compound can support muscle recovery, help us manage stress, and contribute to a better night’s sleep. But while some people use CBD as a medicine, for others it provides the most benefit when treated as a daily supplement. Why? Many clinicians agree that it’s easier to treat symptoms such as muscle pain or soreness when they’re mild. And because CBD exerts a gentle relaxing effect on our nervous systems, many consumers find it more supportive when taken on a regular basis rather than waiting for stress or other symptoms to escalate. Read on to uncover the benefits of CBD, and how those benefits may be maximized when you make CBD a part of your daily wellness routine. What Is CBD? A Partner In Wellness One question we often get from people who are curious about CBD but who have not yet tried it is: What does CBD do? CBD is a cannabinoid, a plant compound that interacts with our bodies through the endocannabinoid system, or “ECS.” The ECS, in turn, is a vital regulatory network that helps our bodies stay healthy, regulate memory and sleep, and maintain homeostasis, among other functions. Because CBD exerts a gentle modulating effect on the receptors of the ECS, one way to characterize it is that it’s “speaking the same language” as our body’s own regulatory system, offering us a natural partner in our day-to-day wellness. What are some benefits of CBD? Studies suggest that CBD helps manage the body’s response to normal inflammation, such as that caused by minor strains. It also helps reduce the perception of discomfort by modulating pain signals in the brain. As numerous studies suggest, CBD also helps soothe stress. One corollary effect is that because stress and sleep can be closely associated, CBD has the potential to help us find deeper, more restorative sleep. That’s one reason we include it in our lineup of all-natural sleep products. CBD’s Benefits: The Power of Consistency As we referenced at the beginning of this article, many clinicians point to the benefits of consistent CBD use. In addition to helping us sustainably manage persistent pain, there are indications that regular CBD intake helps promote greater equilibrium for our immune systems and our overall wellness. Each person’s ECS—with its vast network of receptors found throughout the body—is different, and while some people experience immediate relief when using CBD, still others find they derive the most benefit from controlled and consistent use. Initial research also suggests that imbalances in the ECS, called endocannabinoid deficiencies, may even contribute to certain chronic and difficult-to-treat conditions. While harnessing the benefits of CBD to help soothe aches, restore calm and sleep better when you need them has helped many people in a pinch, the consistent support of our endocannabinoid system through a daily wellness routine that includes CBD can offer a variety of benefits. “I've had problems with my knees for the last few years. This is the only product that helps,” said Adam. There are ECS receptors found throughout the skin, where they work to maintain balance and modulate normal inflammation. If you regularly experience aches and strains related to regular exercise or chronic symptoms, regular use of topical CBD may be just the thing to keep you comfortable and mobile. “I tried a jar of the CBD Releaf Balm 3-4 years ago for sore spots,” said Shawn Bellefeuille. “After a couple of purchases I decided to start getting it on the subscription program, I’m a firm user of the product.” Shawn’s also seen the benefits of CBD for supporting better rest: “I’ve also used the drops for sleep. I tried another popular person's sleep drops, Papa & Barkley works better for me.” Then there’s the topic of stress. As all too many of us know, stress typically isn’t a one-time experience. Rather, we tend to experience microstressors throughout the day alongside larger flare ups during particularly challenging episodes of our lives. Regular CBD intake can help keep the sensations associated with stress to a manageable level. The result? You get to experience a more supple, balanced, and ultimately sustainable response to life’s inevitable stressful situations. Cassandra has found support for stress relief and sleep with regular use of CBD. “Great for stress and sleep! We've been using this product for years and have an auto-renew subscription. Truly makes a huge difference in our daily well-being!” Explore the Benefits of Consistent CBD Use with Papa & Barkley Papa & Barkley was founded with one product: our bestselling Releaf Balm, developed by our founder Adam Grossman to help his father manage debilitating back pain. Since then, we’ve expanded our award-winning product line so that we can widely and openly share the benefits that all-natural, clean and solvent-free CBD products have to offer in a variety of different formats. If you’re interested in learning about potential CBD benefits, you’re in the right place. Whether you access it through our classic Releaf Balm, Releaf Gummies or other great CBD products, we believe—and a growing body of clinical data suggest—it’s a safe, effective, and sustainable response to a host of chronic symptoms and conditions. Do you have more questions about the potential benefits of CBD? We’d love to help you realize the full potential of this all-natural compound. Just drop us a line; we’re here to help.
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