The cannabis plant is a well-known agricultural product that has seen remarkable use for a long time. While many people recognize cannabis as the source of marijuana, an intoxicant, it is also home to many other compounds. These compounds have several pharmaceutical properties that can improve your overall health and allow you to manage chronic conditions better.
However, these different compounds can change the very basis of a cannabis-infused product, especially when considering products that use either cannabidiol or hemp. Each one has different properties that might impact how your body processes them.
Deciding on purchasing a cannabis-based product can be very difficult when you do not fully understand the difference between these compounds. This article hopes to provide some guidance into the differences between cannabidiol-based oil versus hemp-based oil.
What is Cannabidiol?
Cannabidiol, otherwise known as CBD, is one of the principal cannabinoids found in cannabis plants. In recent years, it has seen a rise as a health supplement due to its many benefits. CBD was discovered in 1940 and is one of 113 known cannabinoids found in cannabis plants. What makes CBD a predominant cannabinoid is that it constitutes 40% of the plant’s extract. However, CBD’s claim to fame arrived when it became known that it offers a wide range of benefits.
The revelation of CBD’s benefits has led to several intake methods to introduce it to the human body. There are traditional methods like edibles or inhalation that have become very popular. Downing a gummy or taking a hit from your vape device is an effortless and effective way to enjoy the benefits CBD has to offer. However, there is also the ability to take advantage of CBD oil.
CBD oil offers all of the benefits of CBD with a few advantages and disadvantages that inhalation lack. However, we will focus on that a little later. For now, we can safely say we have a grasp of what cannabidiol is. This, of course, begs the question of what hemp is.
What is Hemp?
While CBD is a compound found in cannabis plants, hemp is a form of the cannabis plant. Hemp is a specially grown class of Cannabis sativa that is specifically meant to serve as medicinal tools. So, while CBD is a product of cannabis plants, hemp is one of the plants itself. In fact, hemp is superior for health supplements due to its chemical composition while having a lower CBD concentration. Hemp has faced a great deal of controversy due to its checkered past. However, a lot of that controversy was based on misinformation at the time.
Hemp comes from a specific cultivar; a plant specifically bred to maximize certain characteristics, designed for medicinal use. Though, it also could be spun into fiber, as evidenced by its history as one of the first plants used for that purpose 50,000 years ago. Unfortunately, this capability led to a bit of a smear campaign due to these fibers being useable as a tool for manufacturing paper.
William Randolph Hearst collaborated with Harry J. Anslinger, the leader of the anti-drug campaign in the mid-20th century, to defame hemp. The reason was that Hearst was heavily invested in the paper milling industry and wanted to prevent financial competition. Ultimately, what you need to understand about hemp is that it is a viable form of cannabis packed with health-based effects. However, how does the CBD oil from hemp stack up with more traditional variants of cannabis?
The Use of CBD Oil
CBD oil from more common variants of cannabis plants is likely going to be the most immediate product available to you and will impact your experience. However, even this generic form of CBD oil can come in multiple forms with their specific traits. The two most common forms of generic CBD oil are full-spectrum and broad-spectrum. The key differences between these variants of CBD oil are predicated on a specific cannabinoid that is the source of cannabis’ most significant controversy.
The cannabinoid that is the most significant source of concern for anyone considering CBD oil is tetrahydrocannabinol or THC. THC is the psychoactive compound within cannabis and is responsible for the intoxication effect that is often attributed to cannabis plants. While it is not possible to completely remove THC from CBD products, federal mandates control precisely how much is permitted to exist in a product. This is where the variants of CBD oil come into effect.
Full-spectrum CBD oil will contain THC but will never have a concentration above 0.3% due to the federal restrictions, meaning there is no risk of experiencing any psychoactive effects. Meanwhile, broad-spectrum CBD oil will contain only trace amounts of THC. However, any fears you might have about a CBD product being the exception due to quality issues can be alleviated. The more reputable vendors of CBD supplements will offer certificates of analysis that offer an in-depth report of the exact composition of their products.
These COAs, combined with the knowledge of how full-spectrum CBD differs from broad-spectrum, open up the use of CBD oil for your needs. However, you probably wonder what you can use CBD oil for. CBD has become such a popular tool for health management that more and more applications have been discovered since it was popularized.
In recent history, CBD oil has seen use in treating conditions and issues such as:
- Epilepsy
- Pain and inflammation
- Anxiety and depression
How CBD oil can affect these conditions is not entirely understood yet. However, research suggests that it does so by inhibiting our endocannabinoid system. Specifically, it binds to the CB1 and CB2 receptors in the system to cause its effects to take hold.
Knowing the benefits is all well and good, but we imagine some of you are concerned about the potential risk. Fortunately, the research has found that CBD is a generally safe product for consumption. For example, one study found that subjects who took 300mg of CBD a day for six months exhibited no side effects. The same applied to those taking 1,500mg a day for one month.
Only in very rare cases has anyone exhibited side effects like fatigue or a reduced appetite. Otherwise, CBD oil is a very safe addition to your health regimen.
The Use of Hemp Oil
Hemp oil is exclusively created from hemp plants, as you might have gathered. However, you might not know that, unlike CBD oil, the leaves and stem of the plant do not play a role in its creation. Instead, the seeds are taken and refined into the oil. This results in a product with little to no CBD or THC. As a result, any attempt to use hemp oil recreationally is an exercise in futility. Furthermore, the trace amounts of THC are inadequate to produce substantial psychoactive effects regardless of how much is consumed.
We have already reviewed the non-medicinal uses of hemp oil; however, the medicinal effects the product has to offer cannot be overlooked. To start, unlike CBD, there are no notable variants like full-spectrum CBD and broad-spectrum CBD. Instead, hemp oil comes as an “as is” supplement. The hemp itself, independent of its small CBD concentration, can offer its own range of health benefits that can make it a worthy addition to any supplement regimen.
Currently, the known benefits hemp oil has to offer include:
- Constipation relief
- Cardiovascular health benefits
- Immune system enhancement
- Gastrointestinal benefits
- Anti-cancer effects
- Antioxidant effects
In addition to the benefits hemp oil can provide on its own, the CBD content can sometimes be enough to offer some of the same useful effects that CBD oil is known for. However, this is dependent on the exact concentration of CBD in the hemp oil you have purchased. Like with CBD oil, some vendors will list COAs alongside their products to give you a better insight into what exactly is in the product you are taking.
Now, let us discuss the potential side effects and risks of hemp oil. Like CBD oil, there are no known risks or side effects associated with the product. The only real risk you could incur is that you happen to be one of the few people unaffected by it. However, we cannot recommend excessive consumption of any product. Though you will be safe, you should always account for potential exceptions like allergies or other underlying issues unique to you.
Other Differences of Note
Now that we have an in-depth understanding of the differences between CBD and hemp oil when it comes to effects and manufacture, there are some other details to be aware of. When considering either CBD oil or hemp oil, certain factors will differ regarding the actual purchasing process. Specifically, one will inevitably be more expensive than the other due to their differences. However, it is essential to note that a greater price tag does not necessarily mean that one will be superior to the other.
CBD oil is more expensive than hemp oil because the CBD refinement process is more complicated and requires more resources. As a result, CBD vendors need to recoup the cost of manufacture in their asking price. When considering CBD oil, making sure the product is not ridiculously cheap can be a solid indicator that it is legitimate. Simultaneously, while hemp products are a little less expensive comparatively, you need to be on the lookout for counterfeit products.
Another important thing to note is that CBD and hemp oils will be marked with different labels more often than not. Pure hemp products versus hybrid products will be marked differently to ensure that you can tell them apart at a glance. While this is a little less critical than the other details we have discussed, this can be critical to ensuring you are purchasing the product you are actually after rather than something that happens to have one included.
Being aware of these differences is a key component of the purchasing process. Especially since no one wants to spend money on the wrong product mistakenly. So, keep your eye open, and you will not have anything to worry about.
X-perience CBD
Both CBD and hemp are highly beneficial products, with CBD oil based on hemp being a worthy addition to any supplement regimen. While they are fundamentally different, they both offer a safe way to introduce a wide array of health benefits to your system. Furthermore, oil is not the only way to introduce them to your system, so you can genuinely enjoy them in any way you please.
Understanding how these two products differ from one another is critical to making sure you do not suffer from buyer’s remorse when you are looking for a specific benefit. However, once you have this knowledge, the only remaining question is where you can reliably purchase your product.
To that end, we at Neuro XPF are here to help. We sell hemp-based CBD products for any intake method you care to try. Want to stick to oil? We have CBD oil. Want an edible? Try our tasty CBD gummies. Prefer vaping? Order some of our CBD vape fluid. Each and every one of our products comes with a COA on a batch-by-batch basis so you can safely purchase with confidence that you are getting what you want. We want to help you be at your best, so check out our store today and x-perience the best CBD in the game.
Do you have any potential questions about CBD oil, hemp oil, or the differences between the two? Was there anything that we mentioned in today’s article that you would like a little more clarification on? Are you perhaps having some struggles deciding what the best form of CBD would be for your personal situation? If you answered yes to any of these questions, please feel free to drop us a line at any time, and we will gladly assist you however we possibly can! You can find our contact information right over here; it will be available whenever you may need it! We greatly look forward to getting you started on your CBD journey!