This year alone 1 in 5 Canadians will experience a mental health problem or illness and out of all those Canadians approx 8% will develop major depression at some point in their lives.

Mental illness is more common than we might actually think it is. If you have never experienced mental illness of any type before in your own life you might not really know how far spread it is.

You are certainly not alone and this is probably why your researching this topic and looking for more answers and hopefully some potential solutions to combat whatever you are going through.

What is depression?
The Canadian government describes depression as a mood disorder. Everyone has up’s and down’s in life and when you are feeling depressed or down for an extended period of time then this may be depression. Depression is a very real illness that not only effects your body but can affect your whole body which include physical symptoms such as stomach cramps, joint pain and muscle pain.

Some other symptoms of depression include the following:

• Bad concentration or you maybe having hard time making decisions
• Suicidal thoughts
• Feeling very tired without having done much
• Having issues falling asleep or staying asleep
• Your weight goes up or down
• Lack of interests in things you enjoyed (hobbies, family)
• Feelings of helplessness or guilt
• Overall depressed

Seek Help before trying CBD for Depression.
Your first step should always be to consult your family prescription, they are the professionals and they know your medical history better than anyone.

Does CBD help with depression?
CBD is in its infancy as far as research goes and because we are not doctors ourself we cannot give any type of health claims by saying it does work. We can try to give you as much knowledge and research material for you to make your own decision on this and again consult your doctor if this is a possible option for you.

CBD is being used by people with mental health and it is working for them but the studies typically done are few and far in between. They are there and you just have to look for them. Many of the studies done from our research have been done on mice and human trials are still lacking the credible evidence to allow anyone to give health claims. Usually these type of clinical trials are done by big pharma labs but because cannabis is so profoundly available there is simply no reason for them to spend the time and money on these type of studies without a end product to sell.

This is why private labs and scientists lobby the government for funding which up to this point has been non existent. You must remember that up until the last 10 years cannabis has been federally illegal in most countries and it’s not until recently more and more countries are turning to legalization. Hopefully in year to come the proper studies will come out showing what everything believes is the case.

A 2008 study said that typical medication for antidepressants have significant time lag in terms of response and often inefficient or with great side effects. The aim of the study was to see if CBD could give quicker results of that of antidepressants. Their subjects were male rodents which were bred to develop depression like symptoms.

After the first dose acute relief effects were observed in just half a hour. Also occurring was an increase in BDNF which is a protein that plays a role in mood disorders. They concluded that CBD may offer promising results in the future as a potentially quick acting antidepressant.

Another 2018 study said that when they did the tests on mice they concluded that they found CBD likely improves symptoms of depression through the action of serotonin.

You can find more studies here done on various subjects related to CBD and depression.

The studies we are giving you reference to is by no way giving proof that CBD can help with depression because again if we are looking at the data, there is hardly any. We can certainly give the information we have to show the reason why people are turning to CBD to battle mood disorders and mental health issues such as depression and anxiety to name a few.

I came across the following video posted by a doctor in Australia going in depth on many of the subjects we just spoke about. It’s a good listen, especially from a medical practitioner regarding cannabis including THC and CBD.

Why would someone use CBD over approved antidepressant medication?

It’s a great question and if you have never taken antidepressant medication before you may have not experienced the type of side effects many users go on having. Some users of antidepressants feel the side effects are worse then the ailment they are finding relief from. We would never tell you not to choose the path of anti-depressents as again they do work for a majority of people who are using them and this is certainly a conversation for you and your doctor to have.

Saying that i believe people are turning to more natural products such as CBD maybe because they simply are against RX prescriptions or they have been on them before and had side effects and are looking for a more natural options.

One thing to remember is that CBD is a single component of Cannabis. CBD on it’s own does not have any intoxicating effects you might think of when you think of Cannabis. THC on the other hand is the cannabinoid that gives the intoxicating (high) feeling but CBD on it’s own or even in a high concentration ratio of 15:1 or 20:1 CBD/THC should not give intoxicating effects.

The Endocannabinoid system:

The endocannabinoid system is a large biological system in your body discovered back in 1992. Relatively speaking it’s really not that long ago we discovered this system. Experts are still trying to understand the in’s and out’s of it but a few things they do know is that it plays a major role in regulating a range of functions in our body which include:

• Reproduction and Fertility
• Your Memory
• Your appetite
• Mood
• Sleep

This Endocannabinoid system exists in your body regardless if you use cannabis of not. Endocannabinoids  which are also referred to as endogenous cannabinoids are molecules made right inside your body. They’re similar to cannabinoids such as CBD and THC but they are produced naturally by your body.

Throughout your body you have receptors called CB1 and CB2 and possibly there is a CB3. You can find those receptors all over your body (organs, brain, skin, stomach, etc) and different parts of the body can contain more concentrations of different receptors (CB1 and CB2).

The endocannabinoids (made by your body or supplemented such as CBD) bind to these receptors. If you have inflammation problems your body might send cannabinoids to that certain part of the body to help with the inflammation. In the case of depression it maybe doing the same thing.

The overall goal is to create homeostasis, which refers to the stability of your internal environment. A good example is that if you break your arm and you experience pain and swelling, this will throw your homeostasis into wack and your endocannabinoid system kicks in to help return to normal levels.

There is another article which you can find here that reviewed 10 years of research on something called Endocannabinoid deficiency. Someone who is deficient or has low endocannabinoid levels can contribute to health ailments such as fibo, headaches, IBS.

I want to try CBD, where do i start?

If you have spent any significant time on our store looking through all the products you might feel a little overwhelmed. This might be because of all the various type of options there are for using CBD such as Vaping, Tincture, Capsules, Topicals, Gummies and so on.

A tincture is probably the best method of using CBD as a beginner. A tincture is the method of dosing CBD using a bottle of liquid with a dropper. You would take the dropper and take the desired amount of liquid and put it under your tongue. This is how the CBD is absorbed into your bloodstream. The bottle of liquid usually contains your CBD (cbd isolate, broad spectrum or full spectrum) alongside a carrier liquid which is fatty by nature such as MCT oil or hemp seed oil. CBD on it’s own does not absorb well into the blood stream so a fatty substance such as MCT oil is needed for best absorption.

You can find all the tinctures we carry in our TINCTURE section.

One of my personal favorite companies and the brand I used when i first started (which of course we carry) Is CBDfx. I find they have really high quality products, provide lab reports, use top quality ingredients and they have been around for many years.