Leave anxieties behind as you set your soul light and head right

If you’ve been feeling anxious lately, you’re so not alone.

Feelings of anxiety are simply part of the human condition, part of our existence. Which is to say, don’t worry about your worries. Instead, choose to inhale the aromatherapy and relaxing effect of your Dad Grass CBD flower and pre rolled joints. An increasing amount of study and research indicates CBD can relieve anxiety. How? It attaches in the body to serotonin, a hormone known as the happiness chemical, which is one great way to  keep your soul light and your head right.

Sure, sometimes things go beyond normal levels of everyday fretting. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. Roughly 20 percent of the population suffers from an anxiety disorder at any given moment, says the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Also, as a global pandemic continues to impact our daily grind, it’s pretty unsurprising that many of us are feeling fretful, restless yet fatigued, irritable, tense and less than our best social selves.

So as normal a part of life as anxiety is, so too can be the plant-based healing available in our CBD joints and tins of smokable hemp flower.

Healing may be as simple as enjoying the sun on your face as you inhale the Earthy scents of the fresh cut grass in your CBD pre roll. It may be the ensuing deep breaths. It could be the olfactory goodness of experiencing a scent that suddenly evokes a memory of your dear ’ol Dad. Or it could be the CBD (cannabidiol, if you are being scientific) producing an anti-inflammatory response in your body.

Hopefully it’s all of the above. In the meantime, let’s break down why and how CBD itself might be the panacea to help you cope with whatever’s gettin’ you down.

Breathe Easy: What is CBD?

So first let’s crack open the textbooks. Just for a sec. What does CBD stand for, again?

It’s cannabidiol, a five-syllable botany vocab word for one of the two most frequently occurring cannabinoids found in cannabis sativa plants. The other frequently occurring cannabinoid found in cannabis plants is THC, which is the cannabinoid responsible for a trippy marijuana high sensation felt by those who consume it in large amounts.

Both THC and CBD can be found naturally growing in cannabis plants. But only cannabis plants with less than .3% THC may be considered hemp according to the US Federal Government; these are the plants from which Dad Grass harvests the hemp flower for its CBD pre rolls and tins of CBD flower.

There are about 114 known cannabinoids; on a super nerdy level they’re just 21-carbon molecules that block or stimulate the body’s cannabinoid receptors.

Gratefully Receiving CBD

This brings us to what cannabinoids like CBD do in the body. They bind to our cannabinoid receptors, known as our CB1 and CB2 receptors. These receptors are found throughout the body and are an important part of our endocannabinoid system (So. Much. Vocab.).

The receptors can be thought of as keyholes into which cannabinoid molecules – like THC – fit once they enter our body. Together with the body’s own naturally produced cannabinoids, called anandamide and AG2, the receptors make up our endocannabinoid system.

Side note: anandamide is our body’s own THC; it’s thought of as the bliss molecule.

Only discovered in the past 30 years, scientists have realized the endocannabinoid system, or ECS, plays a big role in keeping the body in homeostasis. In balance, regulating the immune system.

“It’s the largest neurotransmitter system in the human body. The ECS modulates the speed of neurotransmission.” explains  Dr. David Bearman. He’s written two books about cannabinoids and is the vice president of the American Association of Cannabinoid Medicine. Basically, he’s an expert on Grass. 

Serotonin and CBD: C’mon Get Happy (Or At Least Get Rid of Your Anxiety)

The CB1 receptors, located largely in the brain, directly receive THC and anandamide. Think about it as two puzzle pieces fitting together. CB1 receptors influence functions like appetite, memory, mood and other functions.

The CB2 receptors are found throughout the body, seemingly in the peripheral nervous system and in tissues related to influencing pain and inflammation.

CBD plays a more indirect role on these receptors, attaching and acting in peripheral ways still very much being studied. What’s clear is that CBD does modulate the effect of THC; it blunts the euphoric high large amounts of THC can produce.

“Unlike THC that binds directly to CB1 and CB2 receptors, CBD is a negative allosteric modulator of CB1,” said Dr. Ethan Russo, a neurologist and psychopharmacology researcher.

“That means that it binds to a different site that alters the binding of THC slightly, so as to reduce its side effect profile.”

This is why CBD is associated with cannabis products like Dad Grass that don’t produce disorienting paranoia, a negative effect associated with high doses of THC.

“CBD goes everywhere in the body,” Russo added, “And has some 30 mechanisms of action.” Among these is attachment to other receptors. According to 2005 research from the University of Montana, CBD binds to the serotonin receptor. Serotonin - known colloquially as the happy chemical - is a neurotransmitter believed to be partly responsible for, among other things, our moods.

Research from Brazil and London published in 2014 also found that CBD hooks up with serotonin receptors to create a decrease in anxiety.

“CBD’s anti-anxiety effects are mediated through the serontonin-1A receptor. Its anti-inflammatory effects are mediated by tumor necrosis factor-alpha and numerous other pathways.”

CBD does a lot.

Hemp Flower as Aromatherapy Wafts Away Your Anxieties

Let’s close the medical textbooks, though, and talk about more tangible reasons why smoking CBD pre rolls is a good way to calm your nerves and chill you out.

For one, there are its terpenes. Terpenes are the molecules in each plant’s essential oils responsible for the way that particular plant smells. Every plant – be it a flower, fruit or tree – has terpenes.

Cannabis and hemp plants are no different. Some of the most commonly occurring terpenes are responsible for the plant’s soothing, Earthy scent. They’re what makes grass smell like grass. As it wafts out of our packaging, we think this peppery, damp clove smell will bring you a lot of happy, relaxing memories. That, or it’ll form the basis for new ones!

That’s kind of the cool thing about Dad Grass: it’s a form of aromatherapy. As defined by the fine folks at Cancer.gov, aromatherapy is simply “the use of essential oils from plants to improve the mind, body, and spirit.”

We’re so here for it.

The terpenes, or plant oils, common in the hemp plants whose flowers we harvest to make our products are rich in Earthy scents like pinene, the terpene you’d smell in a cool conifer forest.

There’s also notes of uplifting limonene, a citrus scent. And don’t miss the eucalyptus, another calming aroma.

Embrace CBD and Bid Farewell to Anxiety and All That

There’s also something ritualistic about smoking, right? And rituals are helpful for reducing anxiety.

Smokable hemp can be a reason to switch off the cell phone, or at least lay it facedown. To turn on some tunes and busy your hands as you grind up some choice nugs and roll ‘em into a groovy little jay.  It’s a way to reconnect. To shut off from stress and breathe deep the grounding scent of organic plant material responsibly grown right here in the USA. To think in complete sentences.

It’s about being here, now.

Like Dad said: “Whatever it is, it can wait.”