Now that you have become a little more familiar with the many benefits CBD oil can offer, you may find yourself wondering “How does CBD oil help relieve anxiety”?
Stress and anxiety affect practically everyone in this modern day and age, including many young children and adolescents. The following article will discuss how the human body responds to chronic stress and how relieving anxiety with CBD oil is possible.
Who Is Affected By Chronic Stress?
According to the American Psychological Association, overall rates of stress in the American population have rapidly increased in recent years. Whether it is related to financial worries, poor health, the stress of raising a family, or fear of the future, the fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of people, both young and old, are experiencing high stress levels.
This chronic state of prolonged stress is causing an equally high incidence of stress related health issues, including high blood pressure, frequent viral illnesses from a run down immune system, and a predisposition to diabetes from stress induced irregular blood sugar levels.
Among those affected are very young children, who often report school related stress, as well as stress that stems from various conditions within the home that affect the child’s emotional state.
At least half of adults polled report that they don’t feel they are doing enough to manage their stress levels, and they subsequently worry that this stress could negatively impact their health down the line. What causes our body to react the way it does to stressors and how is anxiety relief with CBD oil possible?
The Fight or Flight Response Gone Wrong
We are biologically wired to respond to an immediate threat in a very specific way. For example, if we get chased by an animal attempting to attack us, we will get a sudden shot of adrenaline flowing through our body that will cause us to spring into action and either attempt to fight this animal or flee from it.
Back when humans needed to hunt for our own food and survive in the wild, this fight or flight response served as a huge protection to the human race. It is still a protection to us today when the situation truly warrants it. The problem is that immediate threats to our life such as the one just described don’t occur all that often anymore in our industrialized civilization, but our body still responds to other ordinary stresses as if we are under literal attack.
When our bodies sense an immediate threat, many physiological changes begin to occur within it. Our heart usually begins to beat rapidly, we begin to sweat, our pulse quickens, our blood pressure rises, and our blood sugar levels begin to dip. The thing is, in ideal circumstances, this sort of physiological response to stress should only occur occasionally when real danger is imminent.
In our modern day and age, where job and family stressors are at an all time high for most of us, our bodies can become stuck in fight or flight mode even when no immediate danger to our lives is present. This chronic state of stress is damaging to our cardiovascular system, lowers our immune function, and ultimately causes all of our bodily systems to get out of whack. An increase in fatal heart attacks, strokes, and even cancer is thought to be a direct cause of prolonged states of stress and how it impacts various bodily systems.
Related resource: How Does CBD Oil Reduce Pain?
The Effects of CBD Oil On The Fight or Flight Response
To fully understand how CBD oil and anxiety relate and how this oil can reduce stress and its negative effects on the body, we first have to understand how cannabis and its derivatives interact with our bodies.
Scientists have known for at least two decades that our bodies produce their own cannabinoids that attach to specific cannabinoid receptors within the brain. There are a variety of these receptors throughout the body and brain, specifically in areas related to the control of our emotional state, including such feelings as fear, stress, and irritability.
According to echoconnection.org, Scientific studies have demonstrated that the successful activation of cannabinoid receptors within the brain can help control the body’s natural fight or flight response. When these receptors get activated, physiological responses occur in the body. These responses include a lowering of the blood pressure, a slowing of the heart rate and breathing pattern, and a stabilizing effect on blood sugar levels.
In a state of homeostasis, the body is able to maintain a balanced blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar level, all of which promote good health. CBD oil has naturally existing anti-anxiety compounds. When these cannabinoids attach to the appropriate cannabinoid receptors within our brain, it leads to an at-ease, relaxed feeling that ultimately results in a reduction of the physiological demonstrations of stress that are so damaging to our bodies over time.
With regular usage, CBD oil can help the body maintain this level of homeostasis, leading to a reduction of the long term health risks involved in chronic stress. Perhaps best of all, CBD oil provides all of these benefits without the damaging side effects often associated with the many prescription drugs aimed at reducing anxiety that flood the market.
The topic of CBD oil and the multitude of benefits it can offer to people of all ages is a fairly new area of study. Much more research is needed to delve deeper into understanding more about how CBD oil accomplishes all of this in such an effective manner.
In the meantime, there is much information that be found in reputable online sources as a starting point in educating yourself about the benefits this oil has to offer and how it can help you and your loved ones. It is our hope that this brief overview has answered the question “How does CBD oil help relieve anxiety”?
