CBD is a natural substance that can be extracted from the cannabis plant. CBD vaporization has become an increasingly popular method of consumption due to its many benefits, including quick onset time and bioavailability. This article will discuss CBD, how it works in the body and why vaping maybe your best option for consuming this cannabinoid.
What Exactly Is CBD Bioavailability?
CBD is one of many cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant. CBD has been known to provide a wide range of therapeutic benefits and is safe and well-tolerated by humans and animals.
When we consume CBD, it must go through some conversion processes before it can reach its final destination (the cannabinoid receptors throughout the body). This process isn’t entirely efficient, so you won’t always feel the effects of CBD right away, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t working! Let us explain:
Your endocannabinoid system, more commonly referred to as ECS, is primarily responsible for regulating homeostasis throughout your entire body, which includes helping your body maintain balance with pain and inflammation responses. The ECS consists of endogenous cannabinoids that bind to cannabinoid receptors, TRPV1 and 2, GPR55, 13, and a few others. This is where CBD plays a significant role: by activating these receptors throughout your body.
How does it work?
For CBD to reach its final destination, it must pass through several conversion processes, which can make up as much as 40% of the total bioavailability of CBD oil, according to one study (Russo et al., 2007). In other words, if you were taking 50mg of CBD from an oil (let’s say) with 80% bioavailability, only approximately 20mg (or 25%) finally reaches its target cannabinoid receptor location in your body. That means you may not be feeling the therapeutic benefits of CBD to its fullest potential.
To bypass these inefficiencies, one can try to avoid taking CBD orally and instead vape it using a CBD e-liquid or concentrate. Inhalation is a fast, effective way to deliver cannabinoids into your bloodstream through the lungs without going through the additional conversion processes from ingestion methods [Russo et al., 2007]. When you inhale the vapor from an e-cigarette, for instance, it only takes approximately five seconds before the substance enters your bloodstream (in contrast to orally ingesting, which can take up to thirty minutes), leading to near-immediate effects of CBD use. This is known as “the WOW factor” or the instant gratification effect.
List of CBD Products and Their Bioavailability
We have provided a list below of some popular CBD products, along with their respective bioavailability.
CBD Flower/Leaf
Bioavailability: 10-35% (whole plant)
CBD Oil
Bioavailability: 3-20% (suspended in oil or glycol)
CBD Wax Batter Concentrates
Bioavailability: 6.5-22% (Lab tested with 93% total cannabinoids)
CBD Vape Additive
Bioavailability: 50-75% (1:1, CBD:THC blend)
CBD Isolate
Bioavailability: 98.9% (crystalline and powdered forms)
CBD in Cigarettes
Bioavailability: 60-80% (lung absorption)
As you can see, not all CBD products are created equal. Each product has its own unique cannabinoid concentrations, which can often affect bioavailability rates.
Why Is Vaping The Perfect Way Of Consuming CBD?
Vaping CBD is a very quick and effective way of producing almost immediate effects. Even with low bioavailability in some products, vaping enables efficient and fast delivery to the human body, which is exactly what you need for managing acute and chronic pain, anxiety, stress, or sleep disorder.
Another great benefit of using CBD vaporizers is the ability to adjust your dosage depending on how you feel. If you’ve been vaping and don’t notice any effects for a while, take a break and then continue vaping a few minutes or hours later. It’s all about finding the right dose that works for your body and understanding what best suits your needs.
Vaping is not only efficient and convenient, but it’s also a low-risk business: compared to smoking cigarettes or other methods of ingesting CBD, such as oral ingestion (edibles), which can produce inconsistent results because of the low bioavailability of cannabinoids when taken orally.
Read more: Can You Use CBD Oil Topically?
How To Get The Most Out Of CBD Vaping?
To get the most out of CBD vaping, it’s important to understand what limits bioavailability. For example, using a high-quality vape pen with a ceramic coil is going to produce better results than an e-cigarette or a prefilled cartridge. A good practice would be to start low and go slow: regardless of whether you’re vaping CBD oil or CBD e-liquid, it is always better to start with a low dosage and move up until you find the ideal amount that works for your body.
It’s also important to remember that if vaping an e-juice rich in propylene glycol (PG), you will need higher wattage, which can produce higher temperatures. When using e-liquids with a higher concentration of PG, it’s important to start low and go slow because PG is better absorbed by the body than VG, so you would need less CBD oil or e-liquid.
Can Vaping Be Bad For My Health?
For many years, there has been a debate over whether smoking e-cigarettes (vaping) is safer than traditional cigarettes. These discussions caused a lot of confusion among the general public about whether or not vaping was safe.
Vaping is a popular method of CBD and THC ingestion because it is much less harmful than traditional smoking. The scientific community has not yet reached a consensus about the relative safety of vaping vs. traditional cigarettes. Still, research studies have shown that vaping does not induce carcinogenic effects and isn’t associated with adverse lung function [Drexfacts, 2017]. What we do know for sure is that regular cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals, including 70 known carcinogens. In contrast, e-cigarette vapor contains only pure liquid nicotine or pure cannabis extract in addition to flavorings and glycerin/propylene glycol, which produces the vapor [Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), 2016].
However, just like everything else in life, you must be cautious when vaping CBD products with low bioavailability. When the product has lower bioavailability, it will produce smaller effects and require higher amounts of vaping throughout the day to reach desired levels of relief. If you are interested in using CBD oil for health purposes (recommended), then make sure to purchase a product with higher bioavailability that can provide a fuller spectrum of therapeutic benefits.
Read more: CBD Oil for Asthma: Does It Work?
The Takeaway
Bioavailability is a complicated process that shouldn’t be overlooked when it comes to CBD consumption. The method of consumption will also play a big role in how much bioavailability your body actually experiences from the cannabinoids. However, vaping or using CBD vape additives could provide far more quick-acting relief versus ingesting orally, as these methods lead to near-immediate absorption rates into your bloodstream. For CBD to efficiently reach its final destination throughout your body, it must first pass through various conversion processes, which can have an impact on the overall bioavailability of CBD products. By understanding these processes and their associated bioavailabilities, you can better maximize each dose of CBD that you take.
We hope these insights provide helpful guidance for those who vape! Let us know in the comments below if there are any other questions or concerns we could help clarify about vaping CBDs.