Here’s your CBD topicals: FAQ. Today, I’ll take some time to answer your frequently asked questions. Let’s just hop right to it.
What are CBD topicals?
CBD topicals, made from hemp-derived CBD, are a combination of CBD, carrier and essential oils. Long known for their therapeutic properties, essential oils have been used for millennia to treat everything from anxiety to aches and pains to acne and more. However, essential oils are extremely volatile and tend to evaporate quickly. So, before they are even absorbed into the skin, a good chunk of them evaporates into the air.
Enter the fatty carrier oil, which doesn’t evaporate at all. The carrier oil contains the essential oil to keep it from evaporating. As your skin absorbs the topical, the benefits of all the oils are absorbed with it. When CBD oil is incorporated into any combination of carrier and essential oils, along with other healing ingredients such as aloe vera, it activates the body’s cannabinoid receptor system. This activation allows the healing properties of each element to perform more efficiently and at their peak levels. As a result, the three oils combined into lotions, creams, salves and balms and work in concert to benefit many conditions.
What are the benefits of using CBD topicals?
CBD has been used for centuries as a healing agent. It’s a known anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, analgesic and antioxidant. The power of CBD can be associated with the endocannabinioid system, or ECS, present in everyone. The ECS is responsible for maintaining homeostasis, or balance, by regulating various processes in the body such as appetite, pain and mood, among others. CB receptors are found throughout the skin and the addition of a CBD topical can help promote healing and homeostasis.
Because topicals are available as lotions, creams, balms, ointments and salves, you can apply them directly to an affected area. So, it gets to the heart of the matter faster for:
- Acne
- Arthritis
- Bacterial infections
- Burns, including radiation burns
- Chapped, dry skin
- Fibromyalgia pain
- Itchy bug bites or poison ivy
- Inflammatory skin conditions
- Joint and muscle aches and pains
- Neuropathy
- Rash, eczema, psoriasis
- Wounds
- Youthful skin
How do you use CBD topicals?
Apply topicals directly to the affected area. These topicals not only contain CBD, they have a host of essential nutrients that promotes healthy skin. CBD’s antioxidant properties can help promote the skin’s collagen and elasticity by protecting against free radicals and ultraviolet rays. Its antibacterial properties also help protect you from infections.
The skin, with its own endocannabinoid receptors, absorbs the topical quickly. All of the therapeutic and beneficial components go to work with the help of the CB-1 and CB-2 receptors, little guardians that kick into gear to help create balance when the ECS signals a problem. It penetrates deeply into the skin, going beyond the first layer. When an imbalance occurs, the conditions listed above can crop up. Applying a topical helps to boost the ECS, helping to restore balance.
How does using topicals differ from using oils and tinctures?
The CBD oil from hemp can be used as an oil, tincture or edible. Or, as we’ve already established, when combined with carrier and essential oils, it becomes a topical, such as a balm, salve, lotion or cream.
When you swallow the oil, tincture or edible, your liver metabolizes the CBD. What’s left moves to the blood stream and travels through the digestive system. Finally it’s distributed through the ECS. As a result, it can take hours for you to feel the effects of CBD.
Topicals, on the other hand bypass the whole digestive process because they are applied directly to the skin. The CBD interacts with the ECS receptors located throughout your skin getting to the heart of the matter much faster. In addition, the results can last longer when used for a localized condition such as pain, rash, wounds or nerve issues.
How often can you use them?
The beauty of CBD topicals that are a combination of CBD, carrier and essential oils, is that you can safely apply CBD as often as necessary because there have been no reported side effects associated with the products. Another plus is that because CBD is nonpsychoactive, you don’t get high when you use it.
First, you need to know what to look for when buying CBD topicals. There are a lot of products available, but not all are what they claim. So do your research and be sure you are buying clean, organic products that don’t have chemicals or toxins.
Next, once you find the product you need, take it slowly. If you have sensitive skin or allergies, perform a patch test on the inside of your elbow and wait 24 to 48 hours to ensure you don’t react. If you’re applying it to your face, test it on your forehead or jaw.
Always apply to clean dry skin. Gently rub the topical on the affected area and massage the product into the skin fully. The act of massaging produces heat, which opens pores, allowing deeper penetration.
Have more questions?
If you have questions not addressed here, feel free to reach out and ask us. We’ll do our best to respond to your questions or concerns as clearly and understandably as possible. We’re here to help you find the products that will be the most beneficial based on the condition you want to treat. Visit the Lost Remedy website to learn more about CBD topicals and what is in them.