As we grow older, we become less active, cognitive, and healthy which can bring problems of malnutrition. 16% of community-dwelling seniors in America are eating under 1,000 calories a day. Having an unhealthy diet not only picks away at your weight, but it also can make physical and mental illnesses more severe. Many seniors are turning to CBD to help.
Cannabidiol (CBD) might acts as a regulator, giving it an opportunity to be a very effective medication. Your endocannabinoid system is in charge of your body’s homeostasis, and CBD interacts with this system. For individuals who have issues with eating, CBD may help regulate the appetite by elevating an endocannabinoid called anandamide.
Why Are Seniors Malnourished?
Pain
If someone has a difficult time walking into the kitchen without hurting, preparing a meal becomes a painful chore. Going to the store is also thought of as something that is exhausting, and seniors can begin to put this off until there is absolutely no food in the house. Even then, they may still wait. Pain can also cause people to stop being active, which makes their metabolism slow down causing malnutrition.
Mental Illness
Dementia, anxiety, and depression are common in seniors, and they also can make an individual's appetite almost nonexistent. It’s not that they don’t have food or can’t prepare it, it’s just that nothing is appetizing enough to drive them to eat.
How Can CBD Oil Help?
Pain
CBD may help with many physical ailments that are common among seniors like arthritis, bone loss, muscle pains, and old injuries. It may help reduce inflammation that might be causing pain by elevating an endocannabinoid called 2-AG which primarily binds to the CB2 receptor. How it works is the endocannabinoid travels backward through the synapse and tells the receptor to stop sending out so many attack cells which reduce the inflammation.
If inflammation isn’t the cause of the pain, CBD oil has shown it may be able to help alter the brain's perception of pain. Cannabidiol also elevates an endocannabinoid called anandamide, which mainly binds to the CB1 receptor which is in charge of mediating the neurological functions, which includes pain sensitivity. Anandamide travels backward toward the CB1 receptor and helps to calm down the activity in the brain that is causing an individual to feel pain.
Mental Illness
The endocannabinoid anandamide has shown it may do more than just help with pain; it might also be a mood stabilizer. In a clinical study involving schizophrenic patients, they report that the use of CBD helped with psychotic effects in part by mood regulation.
Cannabidiol has also shown promising effects toward combatting anxiety. Through anandamide's interactions with receptors involved with the fear response like serotonin and TRP, research suggests that it can help alleviate anxiety.
Anandamide and the CB1 cannabinoid receptor also help to regulate the appetite because it is a part of the neurological system. Hemp oil won't cause the munchies like THC does, but it can make eating easier to do more subtly. In a study with rodent models, subjects induced with anandamide were eating up to 44% more food.
How To Take CBD To Boost Your Appetite
CBD tinctures work quickly, which means that if someone needs their appetite to kick in now, taking a few drops from the tincture may help them achieve that goal. Taking CBD pills or edibles might also help because it lasts for longer than the tincture does, making it to where dosing throughout the day isn’t as necessary. Stop by our shop to check out the variety of options we have that can fit into almost anyone's comfort level, today!
