31 million adults over the age of 50 don’t exercise regularly in America. Which is unfortunate because this is the time you need it most. Physical activity can help with many of the conditions that keep people from exercising and help prolong your life. Many seniors are turning to CBD oil to help them get past their barriers. Cannabidiol (CBD) can help with the pain and mental health that may be turning seniors away from a healthy routine.
What Is CBD?
Cannabidiol is a chemical from the cannabis sativa plant that has healing benefits without the high. By interacting with our endocannabinoid system, CBD has access to our immune system, skeletal system, cardiovascular system, neurological system, and more. CBD seems like a miracle drug because of how much ground it covers, though we know it is just incredibly efficient.
What Is The Endocannabinoid System
When you have a fever, or you get angry but cool down, that is your endocannabinoid system at work. Through a process called homeostasis, the endocannabinoid system helps regulate your body to keep you running normally.
Parts Of The Endocannabinoid System
Endocannabinoids
Did you know that our brain makes chemicals that are similar to the ones found in cannabis? While the chemicals from the plant are called cannabinoids, the ones our brains make are called endocannabinoids. These chemicals are what help mediate conversation through the cells in your body through a process called retrograde signaling.
When you have a stimulated neuron from something like pain or anxiety, it can start to fire off that message too much and overstimulate the receiving neuron. The endocannabinoids travel backward from the receiving cell to the sending cell and control what the sending neurons are pushing out. This is why when you cut yourself really bad, you don’t feel it right away. Your body is flushing your system with feel-good neurotransmitters, endorphins, and endocannabinoids so that you don’t feel that pain right away. Once it wears off, you notice that it hurts much more after the fact.
Metabolic Enzymes
Where to the endocannabinoids come from? They are synthesized by metabolic enzymes of course! These proteins make the endocannabinoids that we need on demand to send them out to do their job. This isn’t their only function, though. Metabolic enzymes also clean up all the debris left lying around in your brain from used chemicals, and also helps promote a healthy life cycle with your cells.
Cannabinoid Receptors
Without these, your endocannabinoids would be useless. For those chemicals to work, they have to bind to something. Each endocannabinoid is like a key and can’t fit into just any receptor, but they fit perfectly with cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2.
The two endocannabinoids we know of today are anandamide and 2-AG. Anandamide binds to the CB1 receptor which helps to regulate your mood, sleep cycle, appetite, and sensitivity to pain. What’s interesting about anandamide is that it is so similar to THC, that THC can act as the key to the receptors lock. This is why when you smoke THC cannabis, you can feel euphoric, drowsy, hungry, and pain isn’t as severe. 2-AG binds to the CB2 receptor which is in charge of making sure our immune system is functional.
How Does CBD Work?
Cannabidiol doesn’t get you high because it doesn’t directly bind to the cannabinoid receptors like THC does. Instead, it stimulates these receptors by elevating the levels of endocannabinoids. It also opens up ion channels and pathways making your brain work at a higher capacity and inhibits chemicals that aren’t needed. In short, cannabidiol is a regulator for your body’s regulator.
Why Aren’t Seniors Exercising?
If it is so essential for your health, why are people who experience more health issues not exercising? Well, that’s the answer right there. Seniors aren’t coming out to play because they are in pain, exhausted, and stressed out like the rest of us but on a higher volume. But if they only knew about CBD and what it could do, they would be doing laps around you at the gym.
Seniors Are Tired
It’s not easy being a part of the elderly community. Your body isn’t as strong as it once was and it takes more energy to move. This can make seniors feel like working out is just going to make them worse, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
When you take CBD orally like with our Flavored CBD Oral Spray before a workout, you can feel like your body has more energy. What it can do is help your body use the power you already have more efficiently through a process called fat browning.
When you eat food, your body turns that food into energy that can be stored or burned. The stored fat, which is the most common, is the white fat that many people feel the need to get rid of. White fat is necessary for your health, but too much of it can cause health problems. When your body requires energy, it will brown that fat so that it can be burned. CBD helps that process along, giving you a natural boost of energy.
They Are In Pain
Getting old hurts! You don’t have to be a senior to know that one. One main reason seniors aren’t getting out and exercising is that it hurts too much. That problem can be helped by taking CBD.
When you are in pain, your brain is making that sensation happen. The reason opiates are so effective is because they block pain receptors which make the pain nonexistent. The only problem with opioids is that they are addictive and after long-term use they can begin to destroy your body, which is why people are choosing CBD instead.
The anandamide chemical that binds to your CB1 receptors helps reduce your sensitivity to pain. By taking CBD, you are elevating that chemical making it more efficient. If you have pain in targeted areas, products like the CBD Icy Hot Gel Relief can help treat the pain on contact. If your pain is all over, products like the CBD Pain Relieving Oral Spray can give your relief all over.
Seniors Are Depressed
Many people can go their whole lives not knowing what depression feels like; then it hits them like a ton of sad bricks once they’ve gotten older. Depression isn't just feeling sad; it's not able to feel happy because your brain won't let you. This makes people unmotivated, exhausted, and not too concerned with self-care.
It’s up for debate what really causes depression, though there are two very sound theories. The first, which most people know, is a chemical imbalance in the brain. Which would make sense, right? But researchers wanted to dig even further and have come across evidence that suggests depression may be a product of inflammation in the brain.
If it’s inflammation, CBD has got that covered. Because of CBD’s relationship with the CB2 receptors, it can help with swelling and healing. If the cause is a chemical imbalance, well you guessed it, CBD can also help with that, too. By regulating your brain chemistry, CBD can help you get out there and exercise even when depression says to stay in bed.
They’re Anxious
When you are riddled with anxiety, everything is essential to do. Which becomes overwhelming, and you may end up doing none of it. Many seniors suffer from anxiety, and it keeps them from focusing on caring for themselves. By taking CBD, they can relax and start to love themselves.
Because CBD elevates anandamide, it regulates our mood. When our neurons are pushing out chemicals to send anxious signals to the receiving cells, the endocannabinoids come in and tell them that there is just no way that’s going to fly. CBD helps with the anxious jitters, paranoia, and that pit in your heart that never seems to go away. For extreme anxiety that makes it almost impossible to function, using products like CBD Vape Juice can help you feel relaxed quickly so you can go on about your exercise routine.
Why Is It So Important That Seniors Exercise?
Many illnesses that don’t spring up until old age can be combatted with exercise. For instance, you can make your arthritis less severe from exercising. Regular physical activity helps lubricate the joints which help relieve you from the pain and stiffness that is so common with the disease.
Other diseases that are related to obesity such as heart disease, hypertension, and metabolic dysfunction can also be affected by a regular exercise routine. By keeping active, you can lower your blood pressure, lose unhealthy fat, and regulate your metabolism.
Which CBD Product Is Best For You?
The best product really depends on what you are trying to get out of it. If you need relief quickly, sublingual methods like tinctures and inhalation methods like concentrates and e-cigarettes get the CBD into your bloodstream quickly. If you need help functioning throughout the day, taking CBD orally through pills or edibles will give you that long-lasting relief. Be sure to stop by our shop and get yours today!
