Starting CBD

• The first and most common and desired benefit is feeling better. 

- More specifically reduction in severity of symptoms, illness, stress, better focus, and clarity of thought. This can also include mood stabilizations and reduction in depression and anxiety. 

- Cannabinoids in general are an enormously powerful anti-inflammatory and can help the body recover from injuries and illness.

- Increased energy and metabolism change (possible reduction in cravings and slight weight loss), feeling stronger with more endurance and stability or agility.

- Less procrastination from typically avoided tasks.

• The less expected results that can seem like a setback at first.

- With long term or unresolved conditions, you may temporarily feel worse before you feel much better. This has to do with the brain and how it processes pain long term and that it is hard for the brain to adjust as a person starts to feel better. The brain must re-calibrate a bit. Occasionally, when a person feels more able and may do more than their body is currently conditioned to. This may result in a few bad days after feeling better and “overdoing it”. It is also acceptable if this does occur to temporarily increase CBD use and dosage until recovered.

Two important notes:

• Consistency is key! Taking at least one CBD dose for maintenance per day can be important to keeping on top of most pain or conditions! 
• You may just need to give it time! I know some people who have such server long term pain that it simply is going to take time for the body to fully utilize this introduction of therapeutic levels of cannabinoids. For some it is 3 to 5 days for some it is a full 2 weeks. Some may even have consumed an entire bottle of sublingual oil and feel like it really did not do anything. However, by 3 to 5 days after running out of CBD, that person is starting to realize how much it was helping.  

Why do so many people have such different experiences with CBD products?

I have spent more time than I can quantify talking with people who have used a variety of different CBD products and brands. There are many people who may try to tell a person to take what they take, because it worked for them. This can be a complicated issue. I would never tell someone to take exactly what I am taking. How many times have you heard about (or experience for yourself) being prescribed something by the doctor to only be disappointed or worse have crazy side effects! This is because, though for some people that medication worked, you have different body chemistry. It is extremely difficult to know how your personal body chemistry will influence your response to different things including CBD. 

The good news is there are many different "types".

What this means, based on some factors, is that we can get an idea where to start with CBD dosage. But it may take some trial and error to really determine your dosage. There is also the fact that your need may change day to day. Some people are affected by the weather and need to adjust based on a low-pressure system moving through. Other people might find that activity level determines the need for more or less CBD. Some people even find that different issues need a different "type" of CBD. The word "type" could mean internal or sublingual vs. topical, isolate vs. broad/full spectrum, and could even mean CBG vs. CBD. 

I have seen dramatic differences in how people respond from one "type" to another. There are many studies that have been done and are continuing to be done to attempt to understand how and why these differences are experienced. 

This is not meant to discourage use of CBD. My writing this is intended to help a person have reasonable expectations when starting to use CBD products. So many people get the idea that it is a miracle "drug" or a "cure all". Those concepts can be dangerous and misleading. I wish in some ways that was true, to some degree, it could be.  

Where to start.

My apologies this is a long read.

First there is an especially important concept I want to stress. Consistency is key! Taking at least one CBD dose for maintenance per day can be important to keeping on top of most pain or conditions!

Let’s start with the most common way I would advise introducing CBD use into a routine. For an average person with some aches and pains and uses some over the counter pain relievers but the pain is rarely over a "5" on the typical 1-10 pain scale concept (this scale is flawed but that is a different issue), I would recommend starting with a 600 mg Isolate Wavellite CBD sublingual oil at the 0.25 ml dosage minimum once a day. I would typically recommend taking those first doses about an hour or so before bedtime, as it can in some cases cause "drowsiness" or a level of relaxation that may aid a person in falling asleep. This for some may also be a benefit rather than a negative "side effect". 

If a person has more serious conditions or pain that requires prescribed pain meds and is commonly above a "5" on the 1-10 pain scale, I would recommend starting with a 1200 or 1800 mg Isolate Wavellite CBD sublingual oil at the 0.25 ml dosage minimum once a day. Be aware for serious conditions CBD is probably not going to get you to a "1" on that pain scale. We can realistically aim to get under that "5" more than 75% of the time. 

Hopefully, this may reduce the need for the prescription pain medications. Most doctors are now open to the use of CBD products. We do recommend if attempting to reduce the use of prescription medications that you communicate and work with your prescriber. We do not recommend stopping use of prescribed medications without consent of your medical care provider. 

As a person starts to get a feel for how much CBD is needed to achieve desired relief, keeping a notebook or journal of how much and how often CBD is being taken and the results achieved can aid in determining if switching to a stronger oil like the 2400 or even the 3000 would be needed or if trying a broad or full spectrum would be a good move.

If a person has worked up to multiple 0.75 or 1.0 ml doses of oil in a day and is still only getting minimal relief, this may indicate that their body chemistry is such that they would benefit from additional cannabinoids. There are over one hundred different chemicals found in the hemp plant. Some of the now more commonly talked about cannabinoids are: CBN. CBC, CBG, CBD, and THC Delta-9 and Delta-8. A broad spectrum product with some CBG and trace amounts of other cannabinoids, but no THC may be what someone would try next. A broad spectrum product is especially useful for people that need to be able to pass drug tests. Most Full spectrum products have enough THC that a person would likely fail a typical drug test. 

If a person is still not finding enough results with a Broad spectrum, and doesn't need to pass drug tests, they can safely try a Full spectrum product. (all Wavellite CBD products contain less than 0.3% THC in compliance with state law) The current limit of 0.3% THC (Delta-9) means that there is no "high" with the use of these products. For some it also means it is not strong enough to achieve full relief from many seizure or tremor conditions. However, without other alternatives it can provide some relief and in some cases it is enough. 

Then there are some products you will find that focus not on CBD or THC but on CBC, CBN, or CBG and for some people these can be greatly beneficial. Again, this is a body chemistry thing. Some people find CBG with CBD of varying ratios more effective. CBG has evidence for being helpful in recovering from injury more than a typical CBD product alone. There is other evidence to suggest CBN is helpful with sleep. CBC appears helpful at better pain relief especially when using a Full spectrum CBD product. Again, these are generalization. I am not comfortable guaranteeing that those trends would hold true for all! I personally have seen people have completely opposite responses than what is generally expected. 

Just some of the odd results I have seen, a person feeling "jittery" on CBG. Another person tried a blend of CBG, CBD, CBN and CBC was kept awake at night. I have also seen a few people that have absolutely no relief for CBD products at all. This is possible. There are people that are generically resistant to Cannabinoids. The percentage of people who have odd results or no results are rare, but I have encountered enough to take note.