The cannabis industry continues to move in ways that most of us would never expect. And the newest product to hit the market is cannabidiol-infused water. On the face of it, it all sounds like a little bit of marketing fun by the cannabis industry.
But a closer look will reveal that some of the finest nanotechnology has gone into the creation of cannabidiol-infused water. In fact, using such technology maximizes the bio-availability of cannabidiol-infused, making it more powerful than ever.
Cannabidiol-infused water is simply that: bottled water infused with a few milligrams of cannabidiol. At the very least, it’s the most discreet way to consume cannabidiol. As well as being a form of hydration, it’s one of the most potent forms of cannabidiol. That doesn’t mean it isn’t without its risks, as with any new technological advancement. However, as it stands, cannabidiol water offers a whole new way to approach the consumption of cannabidiol, especially for professional athletes.
Manufacturers use nano technology to convert isolated cannabidiol into a water-soluble product that easily dissolves in water. The result is a CBD-infused water with high bioavailability.
So what’s the point of CBD water?
CBD is trending heavily when it comes to health and wellbeing in the USA, and many will mistake this product as a way to perpetuate the “fad”. But anyone who has any interest in technology, physics and biology might find this product particularly interesting. At the root of it, CBD water is an experiment and a meeting place between quantum physics and human biology. It is a way to bypass some of the barriers in the human body, who creates to foreign substances and make CBD infinitely more powerful.
To make CBD water, the CBD itself must first be made water soluble. Naturally, CBD is hydrophobic and is only soluble in fats, alcohols and other organic solvents. This process is a chemical revolution on its own. The second step is to shrink CBD particles down to nanoparticles. For those who don’t know what that is, nanoparticles are measured in billionths of a meter called nanometers. We are talking about some extremely small particles.
Once we have water-soluble nanoparticles of CBD, only then can it be infused into water and sold as CBD water. The whole point is to make CBD more bioavailable to the human body. Given that the body is almost entirely made up of water, this isn’t a bad concept for the cannabis industry to be playing around with. If the cannabinoids can be dissolved in water, and if they are much smaller than their original size, then they should be able to travel around the body much more efficiently.
Why is bioavailability so important?
Let’s start off by looking at the example of CBD edibles. For a lot of people, this is a preferred method of consumption because it’s easy, it has already been dosed and you don’t have to brave the taste of cannabis. However, in order for CBD to reach the blood, it must first bypass the liver, the stomach and the intestines. A lot of the ingested CBD is lost to these metabolic processes, meaning that a person may only receive the benefit of up to 20% of the ingested dose.
Now let’s have a look at smoking or vaporizing. These two methods of consumption deliver cannabinoids directly to the lungs, where they can then diffuse into the blood. The effects are felt by the user almost immediately, and thanks to the absence of many metabolic processes, over 30% of the cannabinoids are bioavailable. It still doesn’t sound like much, but it’s an improvement from edibles.
Just for argument’s sake, let’s have a look at rectal ingestion of cannabis. It doesn’t sound pretty, but this is one of the most bioavailable forms of CBD and other cannabinoids. We still don’t understand exactly why that is, but scientists know that rectal administration delivers approximately twice the volume of cannabinoids compared to oral ingestion.
One of the problems with the ingestion of cannabinoids is that so much of it is lost to physiological processes. Although a person may think they are taking 50mg of CBD, in fact, only about half of that (if they’re lucky) actually goes where it needs to. Even pharmaceutical companies are always looking for ways that different compounds can be more available to the body so that less is passed as waste.
When it comes to CBD water, we might be looking at bioavailability rates closer to 60 or 70 or even 80 percent. It could even be more than that. We don’t know because nobody has been out there researching it yet. But the idea of breaking down CBD into nanoparticles and then making it water soluble was spawned from the desire to make cannabinoids more bioavailable. Essentially, CBD water sends cannabinoids exactly where they are meant to go, instead of into the toilet!
How does CBD water benefit athletes?
Perhaps the most pertinent target audience of CBD water is athletes and those who engage in strenuous physical activity. After all, this is no regular bottle of water. It is nutrient, mineral and cannabinoid rich to degrees we have never seen any other CBD product reach. And with the amount of athletes out there praising CBD, it’s likely that they will really appreciate CBD water.
The most obvious way that CBD water will benefit athletes is in pre and post workout. Many athletes already use CBD before and after working out, claiming that it helps them tolerate pain and recover much faster from hardcore workouts. With the added bioavailability in CBD water, these effects should be extremely exaggerated.
As well as this, CBD water is a nutritional powerhouse, so much so it is almost a supplement. It contains B Vitamins as well as Vitamins C and E. It is rich in magnesium, calcium, iron and zinc. It even contains beneficial fatty acids such as Omega-3 and Omega-6. Actually, there’s almost nothing in a pharmacy that has that kind of nutrient profile.
The risks of new technology
As we reach for new heights, we never know what we’re going to touch. That basically sums up the risks that are involved with using CBD water. In general, there is no associated risk with using CBD, and definitely none with drinking water. On a side note, most of us probably don’t drink enough water, and infusing CBD into it might inspire us to drink more.
On a more relevant note, we don’t necessarily know about the risks involved with higher bioavailability. In a sense, CBD water bypasses some of the barriers that the human body puts in place against intoxication. Even though CBD itself is not dangerous, there might be such a thing as “too much of a good thing”. We don’t know where the “limit” is for exposure to CBD or at what point it becomes dangerous.
The problem with this nanotechnology is that most of ingested CBD can actually arrive where it’s meant to – and we don’t know the consequences of that. We’ve never tested the ingestion of nanoparticles of CBD, so at the very least, we don’t know the risks involved. And that’s kind of what makes this all a little bit risky.
It misses out on the full-spectrum
The only other criticism that anyone might have of CBD water is the fact that it lacks the full-spectrum aspect. It is made entirely with CBD isolate, meaning the water itself lacks the terpenes, flavonoids and other cannabinoids present in sublingual oils.
The combined effect of all of the compounds in cannabis is called the “entourage effect”, where the sum is greater than its parts. In this abstract concept lies the naturopathic idea that when the plant is consumed whole, the effects are greater and wider reaching.
Those of us already using CBD isolate or distillate are already enjoying CBD without the help of its teammates. However, for others, the entourage effect is extremely important. It is a phenomenon of herbal medicine that you just can’t get from isolated cannabinoids.
Overall, cannabidiol-infused water is an innovation in cannabis that none of us were expecting. It opens the door for rates of bioavailability that we didn’t even know were humanly possible. So it’s much more than just a marketing gimmick. Through the manufacture of this product, we may be breaking through many of the unknown territories of cannabinoids and how they interact with the human body. For athletes, this could be a dream, and for everybody else, it could be the newest and greatest way to consume cannabidiol.