If you’ve been wondering about the health consequences of mixing CBD and alcohol, and whether CBD can be used to reduce cravings for alcohol, you’ve come to the right place.
Although CBD is only beginning to be explored, it appears to play well with alcohol for the very most part.
In this post, we’re going cover CBD and alcohol, how it works with addiction, how it helps protect you when drinking and more.
Let’s dive in…
How Do CBD Oil and Alcohol Interact?
Alcohol works more like an anesthetic, tranquilizer, or sleeping pill. It slows down your brain functions by inhibiting the central nervous system.
While this may increase your social skills, it can lead to neurodegeneration and impaired cognitive function over time.
That’s where CBD oil comes in…
Studies show that mixing alcohol and CBD can reduce the amount of alcohol in the blood which may reduce damages to organs and brain cells. However, it does not reduce the effects of alcohol.
While CBD does not contribute to delayed motor skills and cognitive impairment on its own, it appears to enhance the drinking experience.
The reasons for this may be partly due to the fact that CBD mimics the depressant effects of alcohol when the two are combined. Of course, there may be other chemical processes that are going on which require further research.
More studies need to be done on exactly how it reduces the amount of alcohol in the blood as well. One theory is that it reduces liver inflammation which helps your body metabolize the alcohol faster.
Can CBD Help Alcoholism?
When people drink alcohol, they are more than just relaxing after a long day. Alcohol, like other drugs, stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain.
These are dopamine and serotonin receptor sites that help us to feel a natural sense of well-being.
But when we use drugs or alcohol, we can overstimulate these pleasure centers. This causes our bodies to reduce the supply of natural neurotransmitters that signal the release of these euphoric feelings.
Why does our body do this?
Our bodies are seeking to return to their natural state of homeostasis and, therefore, do this as a defense mechanism.
If we always felt high and happy, we may neglect our health and responsibilities. We may not have a sense of danger or restraint.
Because, no matter what the consequences were, we’d still feel great and have little to worry about.
This is why drug addicts may be content living in a cardboard box. They become so apathetic from the overstimulation of their brains that they don’t take offense to social stigmas, the health risks, or legal problems that would make anyone else seek help immediately.
CBD may also be helpful for smoking cessation since tobacco essentially stimulates the same pleasure centers while reducing our natural dopamine supplies and making us dependent upon a product to feed those feelings.
CBD and Addiction
Supplemental CBD may play an important role in the addiction recovery process.
This is because CBD signals the overactive nerves to simply calm down instead of upsetting the dopamine and serotonin production. It does this by increasing Anandamide which is responsible for regulating your serotonin and dopamine levels.
This may allow users to mitigate the effects of withdrawal and to start getting back to normal more quickly. CBD also reduces any inflammation in the brain or organs that can follow withdrawal.
Our bodies work like this even when we don’t take CBD but can become overwhelmed by powerful narcotics unless we supplement our CBD levels.
Taking these appropriate countermeasures can reduce the long-term cravings for drugs stimulation because it helps us to obtain a natural neurological synergy.
People who smoke cannabis notice that they have a long-term feeling of contention even after the drugs wear off.
This is likely due to the regulation effect of CBD. In fact, people who are heavy users of marijuana eventually build a tolerance and only notice the calming effects and content feelings that the CBD creates.
The fact that people can build up
In fact, people who take Marinol® (dronabinol) synthetic THC capsules run the risk of developing paranoia, anxiety, and psychosis problems without the CBD to balance it out.
Can You Mix CBD with Alcohol?
Yes.
Bars are now mixing CBD in with alcohol to produce “healthier” drinks.
Because CBD reduces inflammation, it has a profound effect on protecting the liver and neurons from damage and overload caused by alcohol.
The antioxidant properties also help protect cells from the free radicals that cause cancer. Alcohol use is associated with the increased risk of breast cancer and other types. Taking CBD may, therefore, help lower the risks.
Of course, since CBD is not psychoactive, you have to experiment for yourself to determine how it affects your alcohol use and mood.
Summary
There are no medications out there that truly interact with our endocannabinoid system like CBD.
It helps reduce inflammation, neurodegeneration, and even helps protect the liver from damage caused by alcohol.
For these reasons, we should confidently embrace the increased use of CBD to limit the damage of alcohol. Of
