Five Benefits of CBD for Athletes
According to Forbes, in 2019, the cost of NFL teams injuries were over $500 million. In the search for better pain and injury recovery, many athletes have shifted towards more natural methods such as CBD.
CBD (Cannabidiol) is one of the naturally occurring phytochemicals extracted from the Cannabis Sativa plant. Earlier, CBD was banned by WADA authorities. But in 2018, they removed all CBD products from the banned substances list.
Below are five benefits of CBD for athletes.
1. Help to Reduce Pain
Inflammatory pain is the most common reason that impacts athlete performance. Inflammatory pain caused when you injure yourself in the workout session or, your muscles work beyond its capacity. Traditionally to counter this pain, athletes use NSAIDs.
Unfortunately, many studies conclude that long term use of these drugs may cause kidney damage, heart attacks, gastrointestinal bleeding, and more. Researchers start focusing on CBD potential for inflammatory pain. Many studies on animals conclude that CBD is a safer option for inflammatory pain and could be proven a better substitute for NSAIDs.
2. Fight Fatigue and Promote Speedy Recovery
During the workout, you tear your muscles. This micro-injury in muscles causes oxidative damage to your body. This oxidative stress causes mental and physical damage to your body. Also, fatigue slows down your recovery rate.
CBD helps in reducing oxidative damage, also it helps in boosting performance and promotes a speedy recovery.
3. Help You to Lose Weight
Some studies on animals conclude that CBD helps you to lose weight. According to some studies, CBD interests with CB1 and CB2 receptors in lymphoid tissue. And these receptors play a vital role in boosting food intake and metabolism.
Humans have two types of fat cells: white and brown cells. The white cells are considered as bad fat which causes weight gain. Fortunately, you can convert your white cells to brown cells which helps you to lose weight.
Preliminary studies show that CBD can help you to convert white cells to brown cells. The more the brown fat, the less is BMI likely to be.
4. CBD Helps to Promote Good Sleep
Good sleep is the most important factor in athlete performance. Without deep sleep, there will be no recovery and this directly impacts on an athlete’s performance.
If your sleep trouble comes with anxiety, pain or any other physical or mental condition, then CBD can help you to get good sleep. However, in some studies, researchers found that CBD promotes wakefulness. Test on yourself first, maybe this will help you to sleep better.
5. CBD Promotes Good Mood
Depression, stress and anxiety are common in athlete life. Workout makes your physique stronger, but what about your mental health? Well CBD stores can help you in this condition.
The research concludes that CBD can help you to fight these mental disorders. Some small studies found that CBD helps to fight the various mental disorders including anxiety. If you are one whose workout session impacts due to these mental disorders, then I will recommend you to use CBD.
Shopping for CBD in the UK
Here are a few of the most important factors to consider when shopping for CBD oil in the UK.
1. Lab Reports – Ensure the retailer can provide a 3rd party lab report confirming the product contains the advertised dosages of cannabinoids and meets the legal limit of less than 1mg of THC per finished product. THC is the cannabinoid responsible for getting you ‘high’, so you’d want to ensure there are safe and legal amounts of this cannabinoid in your CBD product.
2. Customer Reviews – Check for reviews from ‘verified buyers’ to get an unbiased opinion. You can find these by browsing 3rd party review sites like Trustpilot, Reviews.io, Google & Facebook to check what customers have to say about the CBD products you are interested in.
3. Type of CBD product – The most popular type of CBD product on the market are CBD oil drops, which you ingest sublingually under your tongue, but for those averse to the strong herbal taste of CBD may opt for a product like CBD capsules or CBD gummies which come in fixed dosages, making it easier to know exactly how much CBD you are consuming.
Final Thoughts
Your CBD dosage will depend on how your body reacts to the substance, the best rule to follow is “start low, go slow”. Take into consideration that the FSA recommends you do not consume more than 70mg of CBD per day.
