Jack Studebaker of Saving Grace CBD talks about the cannabis entourage effect and why it’s so important to the efficacy of CBD products.
The Entourage Effect in cannabis refers to the compounds found in the cannabis plant that work together synergistically to produce a more significant therapeutic effect than any single compound could on its own. This concept suggests that the whole plant’s diverse range of cannabinoids (like THC, CBD, CBN, CBG, CBC, etc.), terpenes (the aromatic compounds), and flavonoids (compounds that give plants their color) interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system in a coordinated manner that enhances the overall benefits and effects of cannabis.
Using the whole plant or full-spectrum extracts, which contain a wide variety of cannabinoids and other compounds, can be more effective for medical and therapeutic purposes than using isolated compounds, like CBD isolate. The Entourage Effect is believed to contribute to the therapeutic efficacy of cannabis by improving its ability to treat conditions such as pain, anxiety, inflammation, epilepsy, and cancer-related symptoms, among others.
These compounds can modulate or enhance each other’s effects, potentially leading to better relief of symptoms. For example, CBD will mitigate some of the psychoactive effects of THC while enhancing its pain-relief properties.
Similarly, terpenes not only contribute to the plant’s scent and flavor but may also influence how cannabinoids interact with the body, enhancing their therapeutic potential.
Transcript:
We talked earlier about all these different types of cannabinoids that are found in hemp. There are some companies out there that will say, you know, pure CBD, 99.99% pure CBD, and that is what’s called an isolate. So what they’ve done is they’ve isolated that single molecule, the CBD molecule. The issue with isolates is that the body doesn’t know how to metabolize that single molecule as well. So we talk about the Entourage Effect. The Entourage Effect is when you have all those different cannabinoids—THC, CBN, CBD, CBG, CBC, so on and so forth—so it’s having products that contain all those different molecules in one formula. That Entourage Effect is the body’s responding best to having all those molecules because that’s what the body is used to metabolizing.
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