CBD is rapidly climbing the ranks of the preferred medicinal supplement for Americans. With this surge in demand and consumer interest, CBD has been refined with several mediums to introduce it into your system. All these new ways to bring CBD into your system make picking the right one something of a challenge.
There are all sorts of benefits that CBD has to offer the human body and all kinds of officially licensed supplements in various forms. However, the three most popular options for consuming CBD include edibles, vape cartridges, and oil tinctures.
However, the big question is, which of these three options are best suited to your specific needs?
We hope to provide some guidance on which form of CBD supplement is ideal for your situation with this article.
Let’s get started!
CBD Edibles
Cannabis and edibles are a pair that have often been paired together since the use of cannabis became popularized. However, such confections were often illicitly made and were designed to provide the high that most marijuana smokers sought. However, when it comes to taking advantage of CBD’s health benefits, the edibles are legal, safe, and will not leave you intoxicated.
Combine this with the fact that edibles are CBD-infused snacks, and you have yourself an enjoyable little treat packed with medicinal traits. Of course, as with any CBD delivery method, edibles come with an array of pros and cons that either make or break the supplement’s efficacy for your specific needs.
CBD Edible Benefits
- To start, we will discuss the more prominent advantages that CBD edibles offer. The first, and perhaps most appealing, is the sheer adaptability edibles have to offer when it comes to flavor. CBD on its own is not necessarily the tastiest thing in the world. Edibles combat this by cooking the CBD into treats, snacks, and even full meals that allow you to experience both flavor and general benefits compared to other methods. This style means that you can enjoy a wide variety of edible treats to get the CBD into your system. Everything from sweet to savory, quick snacks to a full dinner, and beverages to solid food. There are endless possibilities.
- In addition, edibles allow you to avoid one of the most significant risks associated with vaping or smoking CBD. Some people have damaged lungs due to exposure to harmful pollutants, making the inhalation of smoke or vapor a poor decision. For this reason, smoking or vaping is not always the best choice for those looking to introduce CBD into their system.
- Even those with healthy lungs might be at risk of causing deterioration of their lungs when using vapes extensively. But more on that later. The basic principle is that edibles circumvent this potential hazard since there are few risks when eating something unless you have an allergy or choke.
- The final major benefit edibles offer is that their effects are longer lasting than those of other CBD introduction methods. This benefit is because consuming CBD-infused edibles triggers a body-centered reaction that will distribute the compounds throughout the entirety of your body as your metabolism processes it. This reaction results in edible CBD effects lasting between 3 to 7 hours compared to the shorter periods seen in other methods.
CBD Edible Drawbacks
Edible CBD is far from perfect and has drawbacks as well:
- The biggest flaw with edible CBD is that the effects do not kick in anywhere near as fast as other CBD implements. The digestive system must process edible supplements before the effects kick in. Since the digestive process can take well over an hour, it could be well over an hour before the edible kicks in, and you enjoy the effects. This delay is not necessarily an issue depending on the particular benefit you aim to cultivate. Still, edibles might be a poor choice for acute pain that requires immediate results.
- It is also much harder to regulate CBD dosage in your edibles since you have to mix it with several other ingredients, making edibles an inexact science.
While edibles are preferred for some, they are not the sole method we discuss. But, like edibles, they all have some pros and cons.
CBD Vaping
Vaping is a trend that arose in 2003 but only really gained traction in 2011 as an alternative to cigarettes. While initially created to help people get their nicotine fix, it has been co-opted to provide a medium for CBD due to the modularity of the devices’ cartridges. Nowadays, more people vape than smoke, which is valid for those using CBD over nicotine.
Most CBD dispensaries sell cartridges that are compatible with common e-cigarette brands or specific to the dispensary brand. Either way, CBD has officially made its way to the vape scene. However, the question remains about how helpful vaping CBD is over-consuming it.
CBD Vaping Benefits
- Perhaps the most significant benefit CBD vaping has to offer is compensation for the biggest drawback of CBD edibles. Vaping CBD produces acute results rather than the potentially hour-long delay of eating an edible.
- The difference in absorption speed is because oxygen travels through the bloodstream regularly, so vaping any substance allows it to travel in the same manner. The CBD you would be vaping would be inhaled into your lungs and converted into smaller particles that can easily travel past the membranes leading from the lungs to the bloodstream. As a result, those who default to CBD vapes tend to feel the effects within 30 seconds. This rapid absorption of CBD has made vaping one of the more popular methods. However, it is not just the speed at which CBD is absorbed that makes vaping CBD a popular choice.
- Another primary reason for CBD vaping being a popular medium is convenience. It would help if you sat down somewhere that spillage is less of an issue with edibles or oil. However, vaping allows you to get your fix on the go and discreetly carry your device of choice.
- Convenience is one of Americans’ most common concerns regarding their products, and their vape tools are no exception. So, if you are using your vape devices to get your CBD dose, you will enjoy the same convenience. However, vapes are no more perfect than edibles.
CBD Vaping Drawbacks
- One of the most significant flaws with vaping CBD is tied into the most important benefit it offers. The CBD is absorbed through the lungs results in rapid effects. However, the loss of those effects also happens rather quickly. Your bloodstream is regularly refreshing and cleansing itself to keep your body healthy. While it purges toxins of all kinds, it also purifies the CBD particles, meaning that you will be coming down from the CBD effects within a few hours compared to other CBD intake methods.
- This delivery system may require that you take multiple hits of CBD in a day to keep the effects up, which causes you to burn through cartridges much faster. This requirement makes both duration and cost of the CBD major flaws when using vapes as the intake method.
- However, these issues are not quite as urgent as the potential health risks associated with vaping CBD. Like cigarettes, there is reason to believe that vapes can damage the lungs or cause certain cancers to manifest in your system. Though these effects are less likely with a vape than with a traditional cigarette, it is still worth noting since you will be hitting the vape more often than other CBD intake methods. Additionally, research has tied the use of e-cigarettes and exposure to heavy metals. While, on its own, this exposure is not necessarily a threat, long-term use could eventually lead to a buildup of these heavy metals and cause poisoning. Fortunately, we have one last medium for CBD intake to review before hitting the ultimate question.
CBD Oil
CBD oil is the final CBD intake option we will be discussing and is just as common as the other two. The oil created from CBD is at the core of most CBD products and is sold by itself. Generally, it is applied by placing a drop under your tongue or spraying it into your cheek. However, how effective it is when compared to other intake methods is the question we need to ask. Because, like edibles and vaping, CBD oil will not hit the system in the same way as the other methods.
CBD Oil Benefits
- When it comes to the pros of CBD oil over the other two methods, the benefit it has to offer is that it is the second-fastest medium available. The CBD can take effect within 30 minutes instead of the hour-long edibles and slower than the 30-second effect of vaping. However, what allows it to rise above vapes is that the results are much longer-lasting in comparison. Specifically, CBD oil will last for 8 to 12 hours instead of the 3-to-5-hour effect vapes have to offer. In essence, CBD oil hits faster than edibles and lasts longer than vapes, making it the perfect median between the two methods.
CBD Oil Drawbacks
- As far as the disadvantages go, CBD oil’s only real drawback is that it tends to rack up a hefty bill over time. However, you can overcome this by finding deals and websites that offer CBD oil at discounted rates compared to more prominent dispensaries. So, if you want to take advantage of the effects without beggaring yourself, you should plan for your CBD oil in your budget.
Armed with this knowledge, we now have a firmer grasp of the differences between these three mediums. So, now we need only decide which to use and ask ourselves the ultimate question.
Which is Right For You?
Now we come to the question that led you to this article. Are CBD edibles, vapes, or oils best for you? The answer? It depends.
The simple reality is that your particular lifestyle directly impacts how effective any of these CBD intake methods will be for you, and you will need to make that call yourself. However, we can recommend that CBD oil might be in your best interest given the lower health risks and high absorption rate. Additionally, you can use CBD oil to make homemade edibles if you want to give them a try. However, we cannot recommend using vapes solely due to the potential health risks that can accumulate over time with their continued use.
However, if you are the sort of person looking to take advantage of the long-term health benefits of CBD over acute pain management, edibles might be right for you. There is some prep time involved, and their slow absorption rate is only an issue if you need immediate results. However, if you genuinely want to use the vape cartridges, you will be able to enjoy a faster rate of absorption and discreetly carry your implements.
Oil is generally more versatile and safer when compared to the other two mediums. So, the only real challenge is finding the CBD oil you need.
X-perience CBD
Finding quality CBD oil does not necessarily mandate a trip to your local dispensary. We at Neuro XPF offer an assortment of CBD oil tinctures and supplements that you can use to get your daily dose of CBD quickly.
We even provide edible gummies for those that prefer the slow-burn effect or are solely interested in long-term benefits. So, check out our website and our range of CBD supplements and see if they are right for you. After all, we offer the best CBD in the game so that you can be the best in any game.