Back to School

Not to distract you from the awesomeness of summer or anything, but you should probably know: Back to School Day is coming up.

And that means it’s almost time to start searching for school supplies, shopping for new clothes...and dealing with lots of stress.

Thankfully, CBD and other natural plant ‘essences’ could help. Keep reading to learn how.

CBD for sleep
CBD for school?
Essential oils & focus
How to boost immunity the natural way

Back to School Day ABC’s

National Back to School Day comes around each August 1st. Actually, it’s more like Back to School Month, since students, parents, and teachers gear up to get ready to school all throughout August.

Preparing your kids for the school years means different things to different people. While pretty much all students need many of the same supplies — backpacks, notebooks, binders, pencils, clothes, etc — Back to School Day also leaves plenty of room for family traditions.

New relationships get formed, too. Children make new friends and quickly develop new favorite (and least favorite) teachers. Summer is winding down...and it’s time to begin something entirely new!

But even something that seems as bright and cheery as Back to School Day isn’t without its potential hardships. Many children are anxious about beginning a new school year. This anxiety can be especially pronounced for kids who’ve just moved to the area or don’t feel like they fit in.

The good news? CBD could help. The way it interacts with your body’s built-in balancing system could mean good things for both you and your children’s stress levels. We’ll get into the specifics below.

CBD for sleep

CBD is the hemp plant’s primary active ingredient.

Fittingly enough, one of its primary effects is helping you sleep better! New research says it all:

High doses of CBD may increase sleep duration [1]
CBD intake may lower stress hormone levels, causing a “sedative” effect [2]
High doses of CBD are more sedative than low doses [3]

Experiencing CBD’s sleep-centric benefits in time for the new school year is simple. Just take a few more drops of your favorite CBD product than normal, a few hours before bed.

On a related note, essential oils and adaptogenic mushrooms may also help optimize your sleep cycles.

CBD for school?

CBD may also help the hardworking mind adapt to new environments and new information — you know, like school.

According to cannabinoid expert Bob Melamede, CBD helps foster flexibility within the brain. While Melamede and other experts have “hypothesized that people with an endocannabinoid deficiency in critical areas of the brain will tend to look backward in time because that view minimizes the need for re-learning,” the opposite is true of those with endocannabinoid-sufficient health.

“A robust endocannabinoid system equips an individual to adjust to the future by controlling the reformulation of old memories and patterns of behavior as new learning dictates.” [4]

If you’re wondering how to achieve this level of cognitive health, you wouldn’t be alone.

The answer is simple: just take CBD! Dr. Melamede concludes by saying that the impact of cannabinoids on the brain’s endocannabinoid levels directly promotes open-mindedness and learning. Quite the antithesis of that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” mantra of year’s past!

There’s one more potential way CBD could increase cognitive health: by increasing blood flow to the brain’s frontal lobe. There’s a word for this creativity-boosting effect: neuroplasticity. [5]

Essential oils & focus

School isn’t all creativity and roses, of course. It also requires a hefty dose of focus. While initial research hints that CBD just might be able to help with that, we’ll focus on essential oils in this section.

Two of the best focus-enhancing essential oils are peppermint oil and rosemary oil.

Both of these oils contain powerful triterpenes that can enhance your focus.

Peppermint oil

A 2013 study found that peppermint oil could boost focus — and endurance — in elite athletes. [6] In 2016, an animal study found that minty EO’s could protect the brain from oxidation, improving brain function in the process. [7]

Rosemary oil

A 2012 study was among the first to conclusively show that rosemary oil stimulates the brain, changes brain waves, and protects the autonomic nervous system. [8]

A 2018 study of schoolchildren found something similar: rosemary oil boosted the children’s memory and their performance in school. [9]

If you’re interested in using essential oils for focus, you might be interested in our custom rollerball blend. We can formulate an EO mix specifically to meet your needs!

How to boost immunity the natural way

Last, but definitely not least, getting back to school requires a healthy immune system. After all, who wants to get sick in their first week back?

CBD’s activation of the endocannabinoid system allows it to impact the immune system in several ways. While initial research appeared to show that CBD is immunosuppressive, the truth is not nearly that simple.

How does CBD impact the immune system?

Cannabinoids of all sorts (including CBD) play an integral role in forming the endocannabinoid system’s feedback loops. And when these feedback loops are strong, the immune system can sense where increased resistance against viruses and bacteria is needed. By ‘absorbing’ endocannabinoids, the immune system can stay nourished and strong. [10]

Scientific research indicates that cannabinoids like CBD have some impact on the immune system. In fact, a lot of the existing research on cannabinoids has involved patients with severely compromised immune systems, including those with HIV, hepatitis, or even ebola, for example. [11]

And through this research some important trends have emerged. Cannabinoids like CBD definitely don’t make viral infections worse, though they don’t always boost one’s immune response either. “In addition to its immunomodulatory effects, states one study, “CBD's neuroprotective properties in the EAE model also indicate its therapeutic potential [...].” [12]

The endocannabinoid system may also help B cells migrate to areas they’re needed most! Could CBD’s impact on the ECS heighten these effects? Additional research is needed to be sure.

Summing things up

All in all, CBD products could make your back to school transition (and/or your children’s back to school transition) that much easier. Research and anecdotal reports alike hint that it could: