In the Ministry of Hemp podcast, we answered your questions about CBD and health, including how doctors handle hemp and cannabis.
That’s right, our host Matt and Ministry of Hemp Editor in Chief Kit O’Connell are back to answer listener submitted hemp questions. This time there are questions about everything from how to find out what’s actually in your CBD tincture to feeding hemp to dogs. Other topics include CBD and children, and potential health risks of vaping during the coronavirus crisis.
Here are a few other links from our website about CBD and health:
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Matt and Kit answered CBD health questions on the Ministry of Hemp podcast, including questions about talking to doctors about CBD.
Below you’ll find the complete transcript of episode 39 of the Ministry of Hemp Podcast, “CBD Health Questions With Matt & Kit”:
Matt Baum:
I’m Matt Baum, and this is the Ministry of Hemp Podcast brought to you by ministryofhemp.com, America’s leading advocate for hemp and hemp education. Welcome back to the Ministry of Hemp Podcast. Today, I know I’ve been promising it for months now, we’re actually going to do a Q&A show. These shows are where I sit down with Kit O’Connell, the Editor in Chief of ministryofhemp.com, and a buddy of mine. We take your questions, your hemp, your CBD-related, questions, and we answer them right here on the show.
Matt Baum:
If you have questions, you can call the Ministry of Hemp Question Line. Notice I say Question Line. If you want to talk about ministryofhemp.com, then you’ve got to email them. Don’t call me. Okay? But if you have questions, (402) 819-6417 is the number to call. You can email me, [email protected] with your questions. You could shoot me an MP3, if you don’t feel like calling. There’s all kinds of ways to get in touch with us, and we love to answer your questions right here on the show. Like I said, let’s get to it. Here is our hemp Q&A.
Matt Baum:
Kit, welcome to the Ministry of Hemp Podcast. Always good to have you back with one of our Q&As. Are you ready for this?
Kit O’Connell:
Yeah, let’s do it. It’s fun to be back.
Matt Baum:
All right. Let’s get right into it. Here we go with our first one.
Speaker 3:
Yes. I’m taking the Clean Remedies, 3000 mg, full-spectrum hemp extract. When I get my blood work done it shows THC in it. I want to know if this is a safe alternative? It helps me quite a bit. But then my doctor is really kicking it and wants me off of it. What she says is it’s not been lab tested and we really don’t know what’s in it. That would be my question. How do we find out…
Speaker 4:
Exactly what it contains.
Speaker 3:
What it contains so that I would really know what I am taking. It does help quite a bit. It is very good for back pain. I have some vertebrae bad in my back. It works quite well and helps me rest at night also. It is a back strength, 3000 mg. I’ve been on a while, but my doctor definitely wants me off of it. It’s Clean Remedies, 3000 mg, full-spectrum hemp extract, natural flavor. Thank you, Sir. Bye-bye.
Matt Baum:
It sounds like our friend is taking a Clean Remedies. He’s saying 3000 milligrams, which sounds kind of high to me, but could it be a big bottle I suppose. He’s worried because there is some THC that pops up in his blood work, and his doctor is telling him, “You don’t know what’s in that, and it’s not lab tested.” What can we say to our friend to help him out here? Give him a little info maybe. Whenever you’re ready.
Kit O’Connell:
Let’s just start there. Yeah. First of all, just to mention we’re not doctors.
Matt Baum:
We are not doctors.
Kit O’Connell:
We’re not experts on your health. Believe it or not.
Matt Baum:
Definitely.
Kit O’Connell:
The other thing to mention is that CBD is currently completely unregulated, which means there’s nobody behind the wheel from a government perspective that’s making sure that this is exactly what’s advertised. I also want to emphasize there’s hundreds of CBD brands out there. We haven’t actually evaluated Clean Remedies. I did take a peek at their website before coming on the show. I saw that they say that they offer lab tests for their products. Theoretically, you could look up their lab tests and see what’s in it. We do our own lab tests most of the time, whenever we can, on products we review. That’s because we’ve sometimes found products that don’t match what’s advertised. That’s not directed at Clean Remedies or anyone in particular. It’s just a general statement that sometimes things don’t match up.
Matt Baum:
Right. We’re not going to speak to anything we don’t know about.
Kit O’Connell:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Mm-hmm (affirmative). You mentioned it was 3000 milligrams. That is strong, but it is possible to get that strength in a tincture. That is what we consider a high potency tincture, which just means it’s a strong dose of CBD, which is fine. I take a lot of CBD every day, myself. I use high potency tinctures.
Matt Baum:
So do I.
Kit O’Connell:
Yeah, exactly. As you mentioned, it’s a full-spectrum. What full-spectrum means is it has tiny trace amounts of THC in it. Legally it can only have…
Matt Baum:
It’s like 0.3%, right? A tiny amount.
Kit O’Connell:
Tiny, tiny, tiny, amount of THC. It’s true, though, that if you’re taking a high potency tincture regularly, full-spectrum, you are consuming these tiny amounts of THC. You’re never going to feel high most likely. Almost no one on the planet would feel high. It’s possible that it’s going to…
Matt Baum:
It’s also true that, if the THC is not in there, then it’s not full-spectrum.
Kit O’Connell:
Right. Exactly. It’s only what we consider broad-spectrum or an isolate. You’re taking something that’s advertised as having tiny amounts of THC. What that means is that if you’re taking that high potency especially, it is possible to show up on a drug test when you take full-spectrum.
Matt Baum:
Sure.
Kit O’Connell:
You’re not feeling high, but you are taking enough THC that it’s going to trigger this drug test that you got from your doctor. With that said, you can consider switching to a broad-spectrum product to see. If that’s a concern of yours, if you want to make sure you’re getting no THC at all. On the other hand, something you could also just talk to your doctor and find out what their concerns are and try to address them, and say here’s a lab test for my product, or I’ve switched to these products that have been lab tested.
Matt Baum:
Right.
Kit O’Connell:
That’s an option but, at the end of the day, you and your doctor are going to have to make a decision about what’s best for your health. CBD is considered extremely safe on the whole. Obviously, there are exceptions. There’s even rare cases where it can interact with certain prescription medicine. It’s just something you need to talk to your doctor, do your research, make sure you’re choosing a brand that is good. We have some guides on our site to picking a quality CBD brand. Of course, we’ve picked some CBD brands on our site that we think are great. Even then, you still want to talk to your doctor and make sure it’s okay with them.
Matt Baum:
Also, like we said, we didn’t necessarily know Clean Remedies. That doesn’t mean that they’re not legit. Contact them. Ask for those lab results. If they are upfront about it and they give them to you, chances are they are legit. If they’re weird about it and they don’t, you might want to look into somebody else who will just so you do know what.
Kit O’Connell:
Matt, when I went to their website I saw that they have QR codes apparently on their bottles.
Matt Baum:
That’s great.
Kit O’Connell:
You may just be able to scan it with your smartphone, that QR code, and get right to the lab test for your product. You could try that, and that might give you some education right there.
Matt Baum:
Yeah.
Kit O’Connell:
Yeah. Feel free to reach out by email if you have other questions about what you’re finding out. I’m happy to try to talk a little bit more. Hopefully, you and your doctor can come to a good agreement.
Matt Baum:
Thanks a lot for the call. That was a good one. We have another doctor related one back-to-back here. This one is really interesting too.
Speaker 5:
Yeah. I have a quick question for you guys. My wife has an autoimmune disease. She sees a specialist for it, but she also was recommended to a pain doctor. We went to the pain doctor. In his initial visit, he asked if my wife had used THC to self-medicate. My wife, being the honest human that she is, she said yes. He said the only way that he would continue to take care of her, or have her as a patient, is if she agreed to do a drug test with every visit. He, threatened is a heavy word, but said if there was any THC on the test, he would instantly stop all of her pain medication and her prescriptions and would no longer keep her as a patient.
Speaker 5:
I guess my wonder is, is that legal? Is he allowed to threaten that? We’re in Nebraska. I don’t know if that makes a difference, but just super curious to see if that is even legal? Fear not, we have since moved on to a better pain doctor who, on the first visit said, “Hey, have you tried THC?? She said, yes. He said, “Hell yeah. Keep doing that. Let’s see if we can work with that.” I guess, just for my peace of mind, is that other doctor allowed to do that? Thanks, man.
Matt Baum:
This is a fantastic question. Honestly, I don’t know. I mean, in my opinion, it probably comes down to the doctor’s decision. Is that legal to make a decision like that and say, “I will ditch you as a patient if you are doing this.”?
Kit O’Connell:
Unfortunately, it absolutely is legal. It is legal. The thing to talk about here are first off, at Ministry of Hemp, we talk a lot about the hemp side of things, but we support the whole plant. We believe all forms of cannabis should be legal and accessible for people coast-to-coast. It’s important to remember that, though hemp has been legalized, that cannabis is not yet. The kind that has THC that makes you feel high is still not legal at the federal level. I’m also not a lawyer here, but I took a quick look at Nebraska’s law. It’s not legal there either. Something important to keep in mind there is that if you possess misdemeanor amounts of cannabis there, there’s some fairly low penalties on your first offense. If you’re caught with like vape oil or dabs, it’s a felony, a really serious felony in Nebraska, which is still against the law there.
Matt Baum:
It’s ridiculous.
Kit O’Connell:
It’s offensive. It’s true in Texas, too. If you’re caught with certain kinds of cannabis with flower, it’s usually relatively low penalties. But the dabs, they can go after you for felonies here too. That’s a common thing. It’s ridiculous. It’s offensive. It ruins people’s lives needlessly. As far as your doctor goes … This is something I know about because I have chronic pain issues myself. I have fibromyalgia. I’ve researched this quite a bit. This is what’s called a pain contract. Certain pain doctors… This is when you have serious pain and you go to a specialist who’s job is to help you with pain. Some of them, like you said, you found one that does not. I’m really glad to hear that, really glad. Some of them do require this pain contract. I think the idea behind it maybe is benevolent and that it’s meant to curb abuse. They don’t want to take on patients who are dealing with unchecked addiction.
Matt Baum:
Sure. It makes sense with opioids. I get that. If you’re going to say, look, you have a pain issue and I’m going to give you opioid pain pills. I understand. But what does that have to do with THC? This doctor has to know… Even like CBD with trace amounts of THC, this doctor has to know it’s not habit forming. It’s not addictive. It just blows my mind that there’s doctors out there that would treat it the same way they would treat an Oxycontin. It seems nuts.
Kit O’Connell:
I mean, unfortunately, reefer madness is not fully gone, especially in the medical profession. I don’t want to make any excuses for this doctor, but it’s important to remember that it is still theoretically possible for doctors to get in trouble for recommending cannabis use for their patients.
Matt Baum:
Right.
Kit O’Connell:
I don’t know of cases where it’s happened, but it’s still theoretically possible, again, because cannabis is still federally illegal. That doesn’t mean the doctor has to go this far. It really is up to them. This is fully legal and not just legal, but unfortunately it’s still relatively commonplace. There are a lot of people out there who need access to opioids because of their chronic pain issues. They may not be able to find a doctor who is as understanding as the current doctor that your wife is seeing. Some of them are having to make a choice between THC and opioids, even though they know that both could help. They’re making the choice, a lot of them, to keep that pain contract and not use THC or maybe even avoid CBD just because there’s a threat of having their prescriptions cut off. I hope that that changes and more people, more doctors, become educated about this because it’s 2020 for goodness sake.
Matt Baum:
No doubt. Fellow Nebraska boy, thank you for your call. I’m sorry about our red state and what we have going on with our government and medical system, unfortunately. I’m glad you found a cool doctor, and I’m glad your wife is not suffering. That’s good news. Okay. Let’s move on here. You got a question about vaping and COVID-19 here.
Speaker 6:
Hey, Matt, love your podcast. I just have a question about COVID-19 and vaping. I read in the news that smokers are more susceptible to getting COVID-19. Is that true for vaping CBD? Does that still apply to people who vape as well? Let me know. Looking forward to hearing. Bye.
Matt Baum:
That’s an excellent question. Very poignant right now, I think. Do you know anything on this one, kit?
Kit O’Connell:
I don’t think we know the answer from a scientific perspective. There’ve been a lot of studies showing that tobacco and nicotine separately and cannabis, they all seem to have sort of different effects on the lungs, even though all of them do contain… I mean, any type of smoke is always to have some bad health effects, inhale any kind of smoke. In theory, vaping is easier on your lungs, but that’s one of those things where the science is still being determined.
Matt Baum:
Right.
Kit O’Connell:
It seems like vaping, as long as you’re using it from a legal and reputable brand, is relatively safe. We just really don’t know, as far as COVID-19 is concerned, what affects the lungs. They’re learning so much so fast. Every day they’re finding some new thing about this novel coronavirus, a new way it affects our body. I don’t think we can even speculate about a lot of those things yet. I would say moderate your use. If you’re worried about it, it’s not a bad idea to switch to a CBD oil or a topical or something else that maybe helps you out. If there’s other forms that can help, see if those are good ones to experiment with while we’re dealing with this crisis, and until we’re totally sure about the answers to those questions.
Matt Baum:
Again, we’re not doctors, of course. It does seem like, right now, when you’re dealing with a virus that affects your lungs, anything that stresses your lungs in any way is probably a bad idea. Just play it safe.
Kit O’Connell:
Be safe. If you are showing symptoms, if you do have it, obviously, you shouldn’t be smoking or vaping or anything.
Matt Baum:
Absolutely.
Kit O’Connell:
While you’re actively sick. As to whether it increases your risk, I think we just don’t know the answers right now.
Matt Baum:
Yeah. I mean, it just can’t hurt to play it safe. Get your CBD from a tincture, get it from a gummies. We have all kinds of wonderful products that you can find on Ministry of Hemp right now that are fully vetted and are awesome. That is not to say that vaping is dangerous, but maybe it’s better not to take that chance right now. You know?
Kit O’Connell:
Yeah. We’ve just all got to make those choices and wear our risks. I agree.
Matt Baum:
All right. Moving right along here.
Speaker 7:
Hi. Thanks for your awesome podcast first of all.
Matt Baum:
Lot of love today. This is great.
Speaker 7:
I love it so much. I was just calling… When I was a kid, my parents, right or wrong, used to rub booze or whiskey or whatever it was on my gums. I now realize, as an adult, that’s not probably why, but I have a one-year-old that is killing us overnight teething. I’m trying to find any solution I can. Wondering if CBD, is it safe? Can I can do that? It feels like it would be a wise move, but I’d love to get the facts before I accidentally damage my child for the rest of his life. Yeah, thanks so much again. I’m looking forward to hearing your response. Cheers.
Matt Baum:
This comes from the Irish book of parenting that I grew up with. My Irish mother definitely did that when I was teething. Is it safe to rub CBD on your teething child’s gums to ease pain?
Kit O’Connell:
I would say we really don’t know. I would say, don’t do it. CBD is believed to be very safe, but the way CBD works, to get nerdy for a second, of course, is to interact with this specialized part of our nervous system called the endocannabinoid system. We know that that taps into just about every part of our body. The current wisdom is it’s not a good idea to give any kind of cannabinoid to developing bodies in general. We just don’t know enough about how it affects young brains or nervous systems or bodies because of how pervasive cannabinoids travel through the whole body. We just don’t know what that would do. You’re applying it to the gums, but some of that is going to absorb into the bloodstream and, especially with such a small child, I wouldn’t even know how to guess at dosage.
Matt Baum:
Yeah. I agree. I think it’s another situation where, just like we said with the last thing, there just isn’t enough information yet. There’s a very solid chance it’s fine, but we don’t know. When we don’t know, it’s probably better to play it safe, lose a little sleep. He’s going to get through it. The teeth are going to come in whether you like it or not. It sucks right now. I’m sorry that you’re losing sleep over it, but we just don’t know. It’s probably better not to.
Kit O’Connell:
Exactly. Yeah. I would just say, in general, we’ve all kind of heard the stories about CBD being given to kids with epilepsy, for example like Charlotte.
Matt Baum:
Right.
Kit O’Connell:
Who, of course, we sadly lost a few weeks ago. When that’s done, that’s an emergency situation where nothing else is working for these kids who have severe epilepsy. Working with doctors that are open-minded about cannabis and hemp, they’re treating their kids, or because they just have no other option. They’re treating these very severe conditions with CBD. Just in general with kids, we have to look at CBD as a last resort kind of thing like that where nothing else is working and it’s not part of the normal development process like teething is sadly for your sleep deprivation.
Matt Baum:
Absolutely. It’s a great question though. I like where his head is at, but play it safe. There’s children’s Tylenol and things like that.
Kit O’Connell:
Thank you so much. Thanks for the love.
Matt Baum:
Yeah, that was great.
Kit O’Connell:
Yeah, exactly.
Matt Baum:
All right. This next one is a question about dogs and hemp. Not necessarily CBD, but hemp.
Speaker 8:
Hi. I have an older dog who I have given CBD to to help with her pain in the past. I was just wondering, do you think it’s safe to give my dog hemp incorporated into her diet? Thanks.
Matt Baum:
This is a person who has an older dog, had some pain, and has given them the CBD. I have an older dog that I’ve given CBD. They want to know about incorporating hemp into the dog’s diet. I’m not a veterinarian. We have to say we’re not doctors a lot. Let’s also state that we’re not veterinarians. [crosstalk 00:22:12]. I do make my own dog’s food. I have worked with my own veterinarian and looked at some stuff online to create a recipe. I used to be a chef. I mention that a lot I know. I figured I could figure out how to make raw dog food, which is good for dogs. One of the things about making raw dog food is that there is no grain involved because dogs can have a sensitivity to grain. Dogs typically don’t eat grains.
Matt Baum:
While it may not hurt your dog, I don’t really see any reason to do it. You know what I mean? I can see CBD, I get, but incorporating just hemp into your dog’s food, I don’t know if there’s a good reason to do that. I would say… I mean, talk to your vet, of course. There are a lot of dogs that are very sensitive to grain and have allergies because of it. When you take them off dog foods that have grain in them, all of a sudden they stop scratching, they stop farting and whatnot. They just will lose weight. They’ll lose bloat and stuff like that. I would say introducing a grain into your dog’s diet that’s not already there doesn’t really have any benefits. Kit, do you have any thoughts on this?
Kit O’Connell:
I mean, there is a movement to make hemp a part of animal feed, but I haven’t heard it in reference to dogs necessarily.
Matt Baum:
Right.
Kit O’Connell:
It’s about horses and other animals that are more omnivorous. Dogs are more omnivorous than cats, but… The one benefit that is in hemp, of courses, is you have the high level of Omega 3 and stuff. But I think that a lot of carnivores are going to get that in better sources from things like fish or other meats that they’re going to get those amino acids from. Talk to your doctor. I don’t think it would hurt them, but I haven’t heard a lot of talk about it being hugely beneficial for dogs. If you are a veterinarian or an animal nutritionist, please write in. If we’re wrong about this, I’d love to know.
Matt Baum:
I would love to hear about it too. I know that the dog that I had, my previous dog, had some weight issues and also had like flatulence issues and stuff like that. When we moved him to raw dog food and removed all grain from his diet, those things disappeared, all but disappeared. My vet said to us, well, let’s take them off of a grain diet and move him on an all protein diet. I don’t know. I’m basically it off of my own dog. Again, not a veterinarian. It doesn’t seem like there’s ever a time where it’s a good idea to introduce more grain into a dog’s diet. I love the idea of feeding hemp to horses, to pigs, to cows, to chickens. That makes sense because those animals benefit from that. I just don’t know that a dog or a cat would see that same benefit. If we’re wrong, let us know, please. Again, not veterinarians. This was great.
Kit O’Connell:
Yeah.
Matt Baum:
You guys had some fantastic questions today. These were really good. These are some of the best we’ve had actually. I really liked this one.
Kit O’Connell:
Yeah. This was fun. Some great, really interesting, questions. Thanks. Thanks for calling in with them. Please keep calling.
Matt Baum:
Definitely. Kit, thank you for joining me. Walking through this again, the Ministry of Hemp will not be held accountable for any legal or medical opinions you heard here today. We are not lawyers. We are not doctors, but we do love to answer your questions. Please keep them coming. This is why we do these shows.
Kit O’Connell:
Yeah, for sure. This is really fun. Thanks again.
Matt Baum:
Yeah. Thanks for joining me, Kit. You can find our previous Q&A shows over at ministryofhemp.com/podcasts or anywhere you download your favorite podcasts. You can also find a really cool video called Meet the Editor that stars our very own Kit O’Connell there too.
Matt Baum:
Thank you, again, to everybody that called in today. We had some really cool questions. I really appreciate the animal stuff. I’d like to talk more about animals and hemp on the show definitely. Look for more of that to come soon. Like I said at the beginning of the show, if you’ve got questions, call me (402) 819-6417. That is the Ministry of Hemp Question Line, or shoot me your question in an email to [email protected], Matt with two Ts. I’m not cool enough to only have one. I also want to thank all of our Ministry of Hemp insiders that have been helping us out and spread the message. If you go to patreon.com/ministryofhemp, you can become an insider as well by donating any amount. You’ll get podcast extras. You’ll get early access to articles. You’ll get stuff that’s not even on the site. It’s really cool, and you can’t believe how much it helps us. Seriously.
Matt Baum:
If you believe in hemp and you believe in our message, please head over to Patreon and check us out there. You can follow us on all of our social medias backslash ministryofhemp, at Ministry of Hemp. We are all over the place, and we’re constantly putting out hemp content. Speaking of hemp content, over at ministryofhemp.com, we’ve got a really good article about five things to look for when buying smokeable hemp flower. I just spoke to a few different people about hemp flower recently on the show. You can find those episodes in the podcast section of ministryofhemp.com. Here at Ministry of Hemp, we believe that an accessible world is a better world for everybody, so you can also find a complete written transcript of this show in the notes at ministryofhemp.com. All right, I’m done talking about the website. Thanks for listening. Thanks for subscribing. I like to end every show by saying, remember to take care of yourself, take care of others, and make good decisions. This is Matt Baum with the Ministry of Hemp Podcast signing off.
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