Chiropractic Economics: High quality CBD oil: What to look for with efficacy and stability

The following was first reported in Chiropractic Economics by Christina DeBusk.

According to the International Food Information Council Foundation’s 2017 Food & Health Survey, more and more Americans are taking positive steps toward living healthier lives.

And many of these steps involve taking a natural approach.

Case in point: this survey found that almost 90 percent of the 1,002 adults surveyed are working toward higher levels of health simply by drinking higher amounts of water and other beverages to keep them more hydrated.

Additionally, almost 80 percent of those surveyed are also cleaning up their diet by consuming healthier foods, often by increasing the amount of fruits and veggies they eat. Why are we as a society so intent on changing our behaviors naturally?

The most common reason cited by the survey takers was to lower their weight. However, the second most reported goal was to protect long-term health and/or prevent future health conditions, and one all-natural supplement that many contend offers hope in this regard is cannabidiol, or CBD.

CBD explained

High Times, an online cannabis resource, explains that CBD is just one of 60 compounds—called cannabinoids—found within the cannabis plant. Furthermore, whereas the cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is commonly known for eliciting a type of high effect, CBD does not have the same impact.

High Times states that it is this lack of high that has made CBD legal in many areas, even when marijuana itself is not. And many times CBD is derived from hemp, a plant that does not contain enough of the psychoactive properties to evoke a high effect.

This creates more natural options for individuals focused on increasing their level of health, even if they live in areas where cannabis is against the law. But how can CBD potentially help enhance health?

Health and CBD

Research has found that CBD can potentially help with a variety of health-related issues. For example, one study published in Therapeutics and Clinical Risk Management found that cannabinoids have been found to help treat pain.

Another study, this one published in Neurotherapeutics, shares that the evidence “strongly supports CBD” as a treatment for disorders related to anxiety, such as generalized anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. This is critical as the Anxiety and Depression Association of America reports that "anxiety disorders" are the most common mental illness in the U.S.”

Even the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) has conceded that CBD has been found to offer many different health benefits, while also appearing safe for use. They indicated this after reviewing 25 studies, ultimately reporting that no “significant side effects” were found.

However, as with any dietary supplement, not all products are created equal. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to supplemental factors related to product quality, efficacy, and stability.

Importance of CBD product quality, efficacy, and stability

According to the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), quality references a supplement’s “identity, purity, strength, and composition.” In the U.S., this standard is upheld by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an agency tasked with ensuring that good manufacturing practices are followed so that consumers can be assured that supplements contain healthy levels of ingredients, aren’t contaminated, and are labelled properly.

Efficacy is critical as well as this factor determines how well a particular supplement works, or its ability to provide the intended results. Some of this effectiveness is derived from the quality and level of the ingredients, as well as the user taking the product as directed. However, how well a product works also depends on its stability.

Stability is one factor that is generally underestimated, especially in regard to CBD. In fact, after testing 13 different products, the FDA found that 11 of them didn’t meet their claims. Shelf life can be estimated using two types of stability testing: real-time and accelerated stability tests. In accelerated tests, products are stored at elevated stress conditions such as temperature, pH, and humidity.

Stability tests conducted under the guidelines of groups such as the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) can help assure the validity of results. One of their tests involved assessing product stability on TruGen3’s standardized help oil soft gels TruEase®. Upon the conclusion of the study, it was determined that this product was “very stable,” a finding that has come to be the exception more than the rule within the CBD industry.

“TruEase®, is the first soft gel containing CBD with measured and proven stability data ensuring the consumer receives the same levels of active ingredients from the first day of production to the last day of the promised shelf life,” says Jesse Lopez, CEO and founder of SourceOne Global Partners. Lopez adds that this makes TruGen3 “the first to deliver a precise and consistent solid dosage form of Cannabidiol (CBD) formulated in a patented delivery system with a long history of safe and effective use to the healthcare practitioner channel.”

So, selecting a supplement that offers stability helps increase consumer reassurance that the product can provide relief, even if it has been sitting in their medicine cabinet for a short while. But how much CBD should a person consume?

CBD dosage recommendations

After an interview with a neuroscientist, the cannabis resource Leafy indicates that cannabidiol is no different than other pharmaceuticals in that “different doses of a drug can have different effects.” Plus, the answer is even more complex as, according to Leafly, dosage is also often dependent on the underlying health condition as some require higher doses for a therapeutic effect whereas others respond more positively to lower doses.

This means that proper dosage is often determined on a case-by-case basis. Thus, working closely with healthcare providers can help CBD users receive the best possible results…at the safest possible levels.