For millennia, humans have been using the medicinal properties of the cannabis plant to improve their health and wellness. Now that regulations on cannabis have relaxed across the country, you can once again take advantage of the outstanding power of hemp to look, feel and function better in mind, body and spirit.
Fortunately, using hemp today is much easier and safer than smoking a marijuana cigarette. Here are five of the most common ways to bring the non-psychoactive compounds of hemp into your body:
Tinctures
A tincture is any extract made by infusing an herb in some type of alcohol solution. You can make your own tinctures at home using herbs from your garden and potable alcohols from your liquor cabinet; in fact, there are plenty of recipe books designed to help you craft tinctures to address a variety of health concerns. Tinctures can be taken directly, administered in the cheek or under the tongue, or you can mix drops of tincture into prepared food and drink.
When it comes to hemp tinctures, you should invest in high-quality products from reputable brands. The quality of hemp used in hemp products matters; some hemp crops have less of the valuable compounds that produce health and wellness effects, and those compounds can disappear with improper hemp processing. Before you experiment with crafting your own hemp tinctures, you should use professionally made, trustworthy hemp tinctures to determine their effect on your health and wellness.
Capsules
Not everyone who recognizes the value of hemp likes to experiment with unconventional methods of application. Hemp capsules look and feel like other supplements or medications that you might use to improve or maintain your health, which might be advantageous if you hope to conceal your reliance on hemp from those around you. Some hemp capsules might be mixed with other useful herbs and compounds to improve effectiveness for treating certain conditions. As with tinctures, you might experiment with different brands and doses to find the capsules that work best to promote health and wellness in your mind and body.
Edibles
One of the most fun ways to take in the healthy compounds of hemp is through edibles, or food products that have been infused with hemp compounds. There are infinite ways to transform hemp into edibles; candies like gummies and chocolates are some of the most common, but you can also find savory snacks like popcorn or chips as well as full meals like pasta sauces and salad dressings. Even better, you can make your own hemp edibles by infusing hemp or hemp extracts into cooking oils or seasonings that can be used in your everyday kitchen creations.
However, it is worth mentioning that ingesting hemp through edibles is not as reliable as other methods of administration. The digestive system is less reliable at absorbing hemp compounds, and it might take several hours and higher doses for you to feel any positive effects. As you experiment with edibles, you should slowly increase your dosage and document your experience to ensure that you are receiving the boost to health and wellness that you need.
Vapor
One of the fastest and most famous ways to use cannabis is to inhale its smoke. Though burning and inhaling hemp is not nearly as common, vaporization tools have risen in popularity lately to help those using hemp for health achieve desired effects with greater speed and effectiveness. Unlike other methods of taking hemp, which usually require the body to process hemp compounds through the digestive system, inhaling hemp-infused vapor allows the body to absorb desired compounds through the respiratory system. This way, valuable hemp compounds enter the blood stream instantly, which means the mind and body can experience the intended effects with much greater speed.
It is even more critical that you evaluate the quality of inhalable hemp products before you use them, as cannabis-related vape pens have been known to have negative health effects on users. Low-quality ingredients can cause inhaled vapor to damage the delicate tissues inside the lungs, so you should only purchase hemp vape resources from reputable vendors.
Topicals
Finally, many hemp users want to target the effects of hemp to specific areas of their body, like aching muscles, swollen joints or dry patches of skin. Ingesting or inhaling hemp provides all-over effects to the entire mind and body; to target the effects of hemp, you need to apply a topical, which absorbs through the skin and affects only the surrounding superficial area. Topicals come in many varieties, from lotions and balms to soaps and bath bombs, but all are intended for external use only, and all will have limited effects.
If you are looking to take advantage of the health and wellness offered by cannabis, but you don’t want to bother with the psychoactive effects, you can try hemp. All of the above methods are relatively safe and can provide the noticeable effects you need to feel healthy and strong.