Cannabidiol (CBD) has its roots in marijuana and hemp plants, but it’s become synonymous with the health and wellness industry. As an organic remedy derived from plant-based compounds, CBD helps the body cope with physical pain and enter a relaxed frame of mind. There are even helpful guides explaining the health benefits of CBD for even more clarity.
CBD has become so popular that the alcohol industry is incorporating the remedy into its own products. A growing number of alcoholic beverage providers are producing CBD-infused shots, beers, and other cocktails to combine the underlying health benefits of CBD oil with the intoxicating effects of alcoholic drinks.
CBD and alcohol
Theoretically, you can add a few droplets of CBD oil into any cocktail of choice to combine the effects of CBD and alcohol. The team at Goop has compiled a list of CBD-spiked cocktails to impress any guests with creative CBD-infused alcoholic drinks, which you can use as a starting point to come up with your own creative concoctions.
Ambassadors in the food and beverage industry like to promote CBD and alcohol for multiple reasons. First of all, as noted above, CBD can help control some of the intoxicating effects of alcohol on the body and the mind, reducing the chances of having an embarrassing drunk moment.
Second of all, CBD helps relieve joint and other physical pain experienced throughout the day. CBD can help treat conditions like chronic back pain and other physical ailments by influencing the body’s endocannabinoid system, which helps regulate the neurotransmitters that connect your nerves to the brain. A healthy endocannabinoid system decreases nerve sensitivity and controls conditions like inflammation, allowing you to function with less pain throughout the day.
Mixing CBD and alcohol
If you were to combine CBD and alcohol, what are the possible effects of that combination? Whenever alcohol is involved, moderation is the best remedy to avoid any embarrassing moments or any threats to your overall health and wellbeing.
However, physicians who have studied the relationship between CBD and alcohol believe that a combination of the two can actually help control the effects on your body. Scientists conducted studies testing whether CBD could slow or minimize the effects of alcohol on brain damage. Alcohol is known to cause addictive behavior in many people, triggered partly by alcohol-induced neurodegeneration that damages how the brain functions.
In the CBD and alcohol study, scientists used CBD samples that contained 1%, 2.5%, and 5% CBD oil. The results showed that the 5% CBD oil sample resulted in a 48.8% reduction in neurodegeneration in a portion of the brain’s temporal lobe. The results of the study indicate there is a feasible benefit in using CBD to minimize the effects of alcohol on the brain.
Is CBD safe for recovering alcoholics?
People who are in recovery are prone to addictive behavior. Alcohol is very dangerous for addicts and one drink, even one sip of a drink can be enough to damage a person’s recovery.
The question is: is CBD safe for recovering alcoholics? Experts at the Hazeldon Betty Ford Foundation say there is a key distinction that determines whether CBD is safe for people in recovery. It all depends on whether the CBD products contain traces of THC, which is CBD’s psychoactive cousin and the other primary compound derived from marijuana plants.
THC is what causes the typical high associated with marijuana use. CBD does not have the same psychoactive effects on the brain as it’s primarily used to stimulate the body and help treat nerve sensitivity and physical pain. Many CBD products do contain traces of THC, but there are just as many products that have no traces of THC.
According to the Hazeldon Betty Ford Foundation, CBD can be a safe remedy for recovering alcoholics so long as it contains zero traces of THC. That’s why it’s so important to purchase CBD products from a trusted vendor where you can stipulate in your orders what types of products you want, the percentage of CBD within the products, and whether or not they contain any trace of THC.
CBD oil for hangover relief
After a heavy night of drinking, a hangover is one of the harshest aftereffects that can make it difficult to simply get through the day. Telltale signs of a hangover are blurry memories, nauseous stomachs, and pounding headaches that all equate to too much alcohol the night before.
While there’s no definitive proof that shows CBD oil does help provide hangover relief, that’s not to say it can’t hurt. Many people use CBD to treat migraines and headaches, which are some of the most common symptoms of a brutal hangover.
Another side effect of heavy drinking is the risk of greater inflammation in the event your body is suffering from nerve damage or other injuries. CBD can help control the effects of inflammation, which prevents your body from becoming overly sensitive to the point of causing severe physical pain.
