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CBD And Autism In Adults - Snake Oil or Salvation? w/Planthaya
161 Plays4 years ago
What are the benefits of CBD for autistic people? Can CBD replace alcohol at social events? How do you know if a CBD product is safe and trustworthy? What are the side effects of CBD? Can CBD interact with medication?
In this episode of the Thoughty Auti Podcast, Thomas Henley talks to Stacey - The founder of the start-up CBD company Planthaya and previous social worker at FUSION - a service that helps incorporate autistic adolescents into mainstream provisions
In a bid to understand the mainstream confusion around CBD, Thomas and Stacey get things started by talking about the many CBD products available in the UK market. With products ranging from (but not limited to): CBD pillowcases, CBD vape pens, CBD energy drinks, CBD capsules, CBD skin cream and CBD oil drops... understanding what products will benefit you can be exceptionally tricky for newcomers!
Kicking off the CBD discussion, they discuss the difference between CBD (Cannabidiol) and THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol). Stacey highlights that whilst THC produces the 'high' feeling associated with marijuana, CBD creates an absence of feeling - for example, THC can produce euphoria and relaxation, but CBD can reduce feelings of stress/anxiety.
Although they don't dismiss the medical benefits of THC, it has been implicated in exacerbating tendencies towards paranoia and schizophrenia, as well as creating dependency among susceptible individuals. CBD on the other hand, has numerous studies that demonstrates its safety in treating many anxiety, sleep, pain and inflammatory disorders - although not without downsides.
The endocannabinoid system is a very real part of human biology; with CBD1 receptors in the central nervous system (brain/spinal cord) and CBD2 receptors in the periphery (skin, immune system and organs), it's hard not to see promise in the medical use of cannabinoids. CBD is a food supplement, but don't dismiss its strong effects on the body.
Getting down into the meat of the podcast, the benefits and drawbacks of CBD for autistic people was a hot topic of conversation. Thomas hails CBD as an effective replacement to benzodiazepines and alcohol for his anxiety, and Stacey dives into the many ways CBD can help social anxiety, sleep quality and GI tract disorders - things common too many autistic people.
How do read a Certificate of Analysis, what's the difference between isolate, broad-spectrum and full-spectrum, what dose of CBD is right for you, and can CBD be used to manage mental health disorders?
In March 2021 the UK will give CBD the 'Novel Food License' to help with its regulation, so although the UK is decades behind many US states in terms of policies, there is a lot of promise in the future of CBD!
If you have an exciting or interesting story and want to appear on the next podcast, please contact me at: aspergersgrowth@gmail.com
Staceys Links:-
Website - https://planthaya.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/planthaya/
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Support via Patreon! - https://www.patreon.com/aspergersgrowth
Social Media ♥
☼ Facebook - Aspergers Growth
☼ Twitter/Instagram - @aspergersgrowth
♫ Track: [Chill Music] Ikson - Reverie [No Copyright Music]
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsor
00:00:07
Speaker
Good day, my lovely listeners. You are listening to The 40 Auti Podcast. Tune in every week to explore inspiring stories and insightful information that dive headfirst into the world of autism and mental health. With all those tantalizing tongue twisters out of the way, let's get into the show.
00:00:42
Speaker
Today's podcast episode is proudly sponsored by Teemo, the award-winning app designed to support neurodivergent people just like yourself with routine and scheduling. Head to your app store and type T-I-M-O to learn more.
00:01:00
Speaker
Welcome back loyal listeners. You are listening to the Forti Audi podcast. Today, it is a very strange day. It's been a combination of sunny and rainy and muggy outside.
CBD Discussion and Personal Stories
00:01:16
Speaker
Today we're going to be talking about something that actually I have a lot of experience in in terms of my own research and my own experience. We're going to be talking about CBD. We'll look at how it benefits people, some of the possible drawbacks to it, and a few ways that you can use CBD and buy CBD for your own personal use.
00:01:43
Speaker
Of course, I and my guest are not registered medical doctors. So if you have any questions or queries or concerns about using CBD, make sure that you check with your GP.
Introducing Stacey, Autism Parent and CBD Expert
00:01:58
Speaker
Today, I am joined by the founder of the CBD company,
00:02:03
Speaker
plant fire, she's working towards a diploma in CBD and medical cannabis, she's an autism parent and also an advocate for mental health. She's previously worked at the social group Fusion where she supported children and teens with additional needs and autism. She's also worked within many local youth groups to help them access mainstream provisions.
00:02:30
Speaker
I'm joined by Stacey. Stacey, how are you doing? I'm good, thank you. How are you, Thomas? Not too bad. Had a bit of a strange day today. During lockdown, I've picked up an old game that I used to play when I was a teenager. It's called RuneScape. Have you heard of it? No. I mean, how old are you, Thomas? Because when you were a teenager, I was probably much older. So it's probably way after my time of still playing video games.
00:02:58
Speaker
I'm 23 years old. Yeah, I was gonna say my video game days were like Sega Mega Drive, the very first Nintendo. Yeah, so the time you were playing video games, I was probably way too old for doing that. Well, I would say that I'm pretty too old to be playing RuneScape again.
00:03:18
Speaker
And today I had a plan. I was going to do this quest that was supposed to take me like an hour. And it ended up taking me about three hours and a half. So I've missed out on at least two hours of editing time. So I need to slap the back of my hand and make sure that I get it done today. Yeah, you'll have to work late now. Yes. Anyway, how are you doing?
Isolation and Mental Health during Lockdown
00:03:47
Speaker
I'm good. We've just finished some isolation, so enjoying the freedom of being out again, eating out at a restaurant. But we're in a local lockdown here, so even though I'm allowed outside again, there's still a lot of restrictions because we're in Liverpool, so we're on the highest tier at the minute. But it's just nice to be outside, so yeah, I'm grateful today that I got to be outside the house.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yes, I can imagine. Why did you go into isolation? Was it someone in your family that contracted it or yourself? No, it was school. So actually I didn't have to isolate, but there's only me and my son at home. So because he had to isolate, obviously by proxy, that meant that I couldn't go anywhere because I can't leave him home alone.
00:04:25
Speaker
Obviously, so yeah, he was sent home from school because a child had tested positive and then we were home for about four or five days and we got another text to say another child had tested positive and they added another four days to our sentence. So we did a bit of a sentence. It felt like a sentence. Goodness me.
00:04:44
Speaker
it was tough it was it was it was tough on me this time around but i think it was more tough on on kart and my son this time around he he struggled he really affected towards the end his mental health and it concerns me that if we did have to do another stint of isolation which is possible with him being in school and around kids that he just wouldn't cope with another one so we are fingers crossed we're going to be extra careful as much as we can so that we're not
00:05:10
Speaker
We couldn't do that again. It was not fun in the slightest. Yeah. Cause I think that in sort of the grand scheme of things, I could cope quite well with sort of the full scale lockdowns and going into it and coming out of it. But I imagine that those routine changes on a constant basis, or at least just, you know, small routine changes could destabilize. This time around with everyone else just carrying on with life, like in our immediate family and stuff.
00:05:40
Speaker
it was quite difficult to be the only ones at home so he was missing out on things like people's birthdays and little things like that so that he really just and he's only just got used to going back to school so I think getting that taken away again you know just into a new normal back at school and then literally being back home again.
00:05:58
Speaker
And that was the second time he started to isolate since he went back to school in September. So even though it was the shortest time probably we've had to stay at home since the pandemic, we really struggled, both of us, with the being at home. So fingers crossed, no stricter things are enforced. I can imagine it
Stacey's Career and Advocacy Work
00:06:16
Speaker
is probably quite tough. Definitely. I think it's not just autistic people that struggle with that stuff. Having to isolate and be on your own is... Yeah, definitely.
00:06:29
Speaker
It's quite contrary to the advice that people give for depression and mental health and stuff like that. It's hard, but you get yourself out to socialise and feel better. And then to have that confinement. Yeah. You've got to think about the elderly people as well who aren't to grips with the many forms of calls and video calls that you do over the internet.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, no, it's completely true. But their contact with people must be very, very, very limited. There's a lot of worries around it. But I guess I've also seen some positives, like people picking up things that they
00:07:15
Speaker
hadn't done before, the hobbies, they've developed a lot of independent coping strategies and ways to entertain yourself. It's kind of like being a kid again, isn't it? You're not allowed to go outside, you're not allowed to do things that you're not allowed to do. Yeah, even for business to be fair, from a business point of view, we were sort of forced to
00:07:37
Speaker
think outside the box and you know really reassess what we were doing and you know stuff like that and I think a lot of companies have been in the same position where they've sort of been forced to make changes or directions that they probably wouldn't have even thought about previously but now they have realised that they're quite beneficial to what they're doing. So yeah there's some positives in there as well. So just to give everybody like a little bit of a background I know I did an intro and sort of displayed out some information but
00:08:06
Speaker
Could you give us a background to who you are, what you do for work, and some of the things that you did before when you were working in youth groups? Yes, of course. So, a single mum to one gorgeous little boy, he's nine, and he was only recently diagnosed with autism, actually during lockdown.
00:08:27
Speaker
So we did it all over video, which was fun, I'll call it. But yeah, so we've only had a recent diagnosis. But obviously, as most people will know, these things are quite apparent from quite a young age. So it's something we've
00:08:40
Speaker
we've lived with for quite some time. I was made redundant last year from my job, so I was in my previous role for quite a while, but I've always wanted to work for myself and with everything going on with my son and we were looking at assessments and ADHD assessments and stuff, this was sort of the perfect opportunity for me to go, right, I've always wanted to work for myself, let's
00:09:01
Speaker
Let's do it. Let's try now. I gave myself till November last year. I was like, right, we finished. Give yourself to November, see how things get on. If you've managed to make some headway with a business, then great. If not, I can start looking for a role. I knew I had payment from redundancy to keep me going, so I knew that was good.
00:09:20
Speaker
And yeah we just sort of flew with the cbd business it started out as a retailer so we used to sell over a hundred different cbd products a hundred and yeah i think it was actually more than a hundred different lines i got very excited with that you see it was cbd for migraines and i use the v
00:09:39
Speaker
Didn't really sit well with me it worked really well, but I've never baked before so yeah, I thought I wanted to look at different options and then it came across the drops and When I used to go to the wholesalers, I've been a kid in a sweet shop, you know I was just totally in love with CBD loved the benefits and that you could get it in anything you name anything at all and you could put CBD in energy during shower gel
00:10:02
Speaker
I've seen mattresses, pillowcases. I'm still a bit confused about those actually, because I'm not really sure how that would work. And whether you have to redo your CBD in it as it were now, but that's a whole other topic. But yeah, so we just used to stock loads of different products.
00:10:17
Speaker
And it was through being in the industry that we sort of came across the fact that one it's so difficult to navigate even as it as someone who knew quite a lot about cbd it was still quite confusing. Like sometimes i have to read the package in about four times and i'm still not quite understand what was in it or how much it should take or you know it was very very confusing.
00:10:38
Speaker
Well, it's kind of weird because a lot of products that I've looked at, they use different labels. They'll do like per millilitre and then the millilitres will be a bit off and it's just like, I don't want to have to do maths. Yeah, no one does. Like, this is what I was... So we were just looking at stuff like that. It was like, hang on a minute. It says on the front one thing, but when you read the back, it says another thing. There was no sort of structure. You couldn't just go, okay,
00:11:04
Speaker
Every brand has the same information on the label like you said everyone was different so it made it super confusing.
00:11:10
Speaker
Then it was like, do I need a bath bomb? Do I need a face cream? Do I need a muscle rub? Do I need drops? Do I need a drink? There were so many options that it was overwhelming. We gained some very loyal customers who bought from us. They could buy them products in lots of different places, but they bought from us because they liked us as a company and how we operated and the advice and the information we shared and how honest we were. If someone messages me about CBD and asking for advice, I'm always hugely honest with them.
00:11:40
Speaker
I think if you're honest enough with people and share honest advice, then you will gain customers anyway. I don't believe in the hard sell or pushing things. We gained quite a lot of following in that way. I just decided one day, I was just like, right, we need to make our own. We need to make a product that's easy so people can just buy it without having to ask a million questions. Not that we mind the questions, but not everyone has the time to do research online just to buy a product. It's meant to be helping your life.
00:12:09
Speaker
it was becoming a bit of a hindrance. And that's also where our product stems from. And we worked on them for a very, very long time. We work with a company who has their own farm. So they have a farm in Scandinavia, all the hemp is grown outside. So it's slow grown in the sunshine, no greenhouses, no chemicals. And then it's manufactured in very small batches. We don't have to produce a huge amount of CBD at one time. Meaning if we don't like something, we can change it very quickly.
00:12:38
Speaker
And if we want to improve something, we can change it very quickly because we haven't got that mass production going on. And we just fell in love with this company because they've got the same ethos as us. But yeah, going back, I've done lots of different roles over my life that have contributed to helping me be able to run Planfire the way I do. I've been a teaching assistant, I've studied law, I've worked at Solicitas, I've done so many different roles, you know, I've worked at Beauty, I've worked in business development.
00:13:04
Speaker
Could you tell us about your experience with social groups and working within youth groups? I began my work in Korea, as you would put it, with social services in Liverpool.
00:13:17
Speaker
And they decided to bring an initiative called Fusion, which was about young people and adults with additional needs accessing mainstream social activities. What they found was that there was lots of things in place for these specific groups. So there were specific sessions. If you wanted to go to a youth group, you could do between six and nine on a Tuesday. There was a special group and it was all children with additional needs.
00:13:42
Speaker
they could all go there at once. This is great. I'm all for that. I'm a really bad advocate for that. I think it's amazing. But a lot of these children maybe had... I mean, we don't like to use high function anymore, do we? But they were capable to go along to a mainstream session. They just needed a little support to do so, a little bit more understanding, a little bit of training, maybe just someone there
00:14:05
Speaker
on hands if they needed them. So that's what we started to do. We started with children and young adults to get them into mainstream provisions and make sure that they could access it and they were with other children or young adults their age of all different abilities.
00:14:20
Speaker
That's quite an important thing to do because people either go for the black and white approach. We need to go in for all of the special needs divisions and provisions and stuff, or we need to just stick them in mainstream. But what you were doing was kind of supporting them. Like the middle ground, yeah. So it was making sure that they were able to access it.
00:14:47
Speaker
And we would meet with their families and we would ask them about what things they would need to be able to access it. What can we do to get them into a provision? What do they like to do? Let's find them something that works. And from that, send friendship groups. These were for young adults and teens who could go out and do what young adults and teens wanted to do.
00:15:08
Speaker
going to the movies, going to Pizza Hut, you know, going shopping. So we just, and it was just, they had control of it. We were there to support them. This wasn't like, this is what we're going to do. They would decide, we'd sit down every six weeks and we go, right, what do we want to do in the next six weeks? They decide some stuff they wanted to do, whether it was going over to Cheshire Oaks, whether it was just going out for dinner, going to McDonald's, you know, going to the pot, anything that they wanted to do. And we just supported them to be able to do that.
00:15:34
Speaker
And that was it. And it was, I've got such good memories of those times. I met some really amazing, amazing people. And I grew up with, my brother was terminally ill. So we had a lot of additional needs and a lot of medical needs. And from being around him and at the hospital a lot, I was around children with additional needs and a lot of physical needs then. So this to me was just normal, Jeremy. And that was just like, it didn't phase me at all. Even at quite a young age, I was only like,
00:16:05
Speaker
my late teens, early twenties. Now when I think about that, that's pretty madness that I would be in charge of so many other people. It's quite a grown up job when I think of it, but I think I was a very, from how I'd grew up, I was sort of
00:16:19
Speaker
forced to grow up a little bit quicker than other children. I like to help out my mum and my dad and offer them support. This was just really natural to me, but now when I think about it, it's a little bit crazy to think that I was in such a huge
00:16:36
Speaker
It's very managerial and I can imagine that in a lot of cases, people around that age would shy away from those kind of roles because you've got to be in charge of people. A lot of the workers, a lot of the staff that worked in Fusion and took part in the groups were only around my age, but they all came from backgrounds where they lived, they'd lived it themselves. They worked at schools maybe, or they
00:17:02
Speaker
they had family members with autism or other physical or medical needs. So they were used to it, Jeremy. But what was nice then was that the people and the young adults in the group were being traipsed around town with a 40-year-old guy, like, go and come on, let's get over the road. Who wants to do that on their teenager? We don't. We were closer in age. So it made it acceptable to them. And that's what it was all about. It was well-being fully accepted and fully treated as an
00:17:31
Speaker
I hate to say the word average, I'm doing air quality, but you know, just like an average adult, like anyone else would be able to do, you know, they wanted to do the same things. They just wanted to go and spend two hours in HMV when it existed, listening to CDs and, you know, all that type of stuff. That's all they wanted to do. They didn't want no special like key worker to take them out on a trip. They just wanted to hang out with the mate. When was your son diagnosed and did it have much of an effect
Autism Diagnosis and Family Impact
00:17:58
Speaker
on your life? Did you have to change a lot?
00:18:00
Speaker
Well, to be honest, we kind of already knew. So it didn't change our life at all because he was only diagnosed during lockdown. So at the minute we're struggling because we have gone through the diagnosis process. We've had this diagnosis, but we haven't had any follow-up appointments. We haven't been seen by the ASD nurse. So we've got no support at this moment in time. We're sort of just like in a limbo at the minute, but it hasn't changed because of the background I came from. Like I said,
00:18:28
Speaker
When Carter was struggling with things, I implemented things anyway that I'd learnt. So it hasn't changed our life too much, the diagnosis at all, really. But it was tough to learn because I expected when we got a diagnosis to suppose most people will be familiar with this. It's not an easy process. You fight for a long time to get these things. It's constant, constant.
00:18:51
Speaker
And I kind of felt like once I got that diagnosis that I'd be relieved. I thought it's like you focus for so long, like getting them once we've got a diagnosis, once we've got a diagnosis and we got a diagnosis.
00:19:04
Speaker
I'm nothing changed and I was absolutely devastated. I felt so grieved. That's the point of it, isn't it? Yeah, I was grieving. You're supposed to get a diagnosis so you can get the support for it. I remember it and I just couldn't stop crying and I was thinking, this is ridiculous. Why am I upset? I knew this was coming. We already kind of knew this. We knew what the outcome was going to be.
00:19:26
Speaker
We actually wanted them to get the diagnosis so we can get the support and we fought this for years and now I'm upset about it. It seemed really bizarre and it took, I'd say, about a good week for me to just get my head around it and go, right, what now? Like, what do we do now? And then it was the what now? Well, actually, there's not really much we can do because there's no one to speak to at the moment. We are still waiting to see the pediatrician.
00:19:50
Speaker
I didn't even know to call. I was like, who do I even ask for help? Because I literally have that little clue because of everything going on. And I do understand that there's some people in a much, much worse position than us. So I am grateful that we are able to manage, but it sort of
00:20:06
Speaker
COVID has taken its toll on us. It's a very weird one at a post-nac diagnosis. I suppose we are very fresh out of the diagnosis process and we probably haven't processed that very much right now. Yeah. I talked on the podcast recently to a lady called Michelle Brogas. No, Brogas, not Brogas, B. Rogers.
00:20:30
Speaker
She sort of makes living off supporting parents who were going for a diagnosis or have just got a diagnosis and she says that there is kind of that stage of where it's kind of like a reality check and you sort of go through the stages of grief and it's very strange to hear it from like being an autistic adult myself but I can kind of understand because I mean
00:20:55
Speaker
Even if you are looking for it and you're trying to get it, it must be very strange to sort of see it written down in paper, grounded in reality. Yeah. Was he diagnosed with ASD1? He hasn't actually said that. He said they don't give a grade anymore. So they've just literally, she said it's just actually autistic spectrum disorder or not kind of thing. They don't use like...
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah. How are you supposed to know what level of ability they're going to have to be independent and to have a work and stuff? I mean, these are questions, yeah, that I probably wanted to be asked, but obviously at the time when she'd initially said it, I couldn't quite get my head around everything to ask. And now that it's been so long, I don't know who to ask. You know, so we'd have that point where like, oh, so we've been ringing like the community people, like maybe they'll be able to help, but can't get into it with them. And, you know,
00:21:50
Speaker
We had an incident with self-harmon recently, which was quite scary. And again, who do you reach out to? Do you know what I mean? It's always just this like, we're stuck in limbo at the minute.
00:22:01
Speaker
That's a tough reality of being autistic. There's very high rates of mental health and addiction. I mean, I don't think that autism is necessarily a bad thing as a standalone thing, but the autism diagnosis, I guess, brings those extra possible elements up to a high rate. It's got to be a bit nervy as a parent.
00:22:29
Speaker
Yeah, because like you said, I suppose I was a glutton for my own knowledge because I already knew so much. So I already kind of knew a lot about the struggles that I've seen young adults had on the spectrum. So I could sort of see how this would affect them long-term, which was quite scary.
00:22:50
Speaker
on a positive note, I've also know a lot of young adults and adults who will be, oh God, they'll be actually grown ups now because you know, they'll be really old. Now I think of it, who were amazing and you know, out there and they were, I hate to use normal again, but you know, living in a normal, like they're able to look after themselves, you know, it's not, I think if I didn't have that experience, I could have catastrophized it a lot, Jeremy, and being like, oh my God, what's he gonna be able to do? But he's great and you know,
00:23:20
Speaker
he's going to take over the world. He's got a good little business mind on him. You know, he's just like, Oh God, if you took over the world, it'd just be everyone could play Fortnite and be paid the V-books. Oh, that sounds all right, actually. Yeah. He loves it. You can't wait to take over the business. He's like, I was trying to get him to do his maths homework when he was off and I was like, he was going to put mum, I'm going to take over your business. I don't need to go to school. And I was like, no, you do. Cause you still need to be able to know how to run a business and you need to know
00:23:46
Speaker
No matter what you do not know every month and i gave up i was like okay i just had an order of a hundred bottles and this many bottles of being damaged in transit this many and given like a storm and he was like yeah i know the answer and just gave me the answer and just like totally ruined the point i was trying to make and i was like so i don't need to do my homework and i was like no you still need to do my homework and he was like but i've just told you i couldn't do it i was like
00:24:09
Speaker
just made this situation 10 times worse, but yeah, trying to get him to focus on school work is hard because he just wants to be involved in like, he just wants to make money basically. He's like, yeah, let's make, he wants to be rich, Jeremy, like Scrooge McDuckrich swimming in money. That's his life goal basically. So yeah, I think that'll keep some of his motivations.
00:24:29
Speaker
Motivation, I suppose. It's good. Definitely. And he's going to spend it all on Fortnite, apparently, so, you know. He's going to be the richest player on Fortnite. Yeah. He asks me for it. It drives me insane. He's like, mum, can I have some money to buy a skin? And I'm like, mate, I haven't even got money to buy myself clothes. Like, I'm not buying a character online. A hat. When I can't even buy a hat for myself, like, that's ridiculous.
00:24:54
Speaker
what they call those micropayments, microtransactions. Shall we get into the meat of the podcast? Because I know we've been chatting for at least 40 minutes. We obviously like to talk.
00:25:13
Speaker
I know you've talked a little bit about your CBD company and your stuff at the start.
CBD: Benefits, Applications, and Legal Considerations
00:25:19
Speaker
So what I really want to ask is, just sort of set the scene on CBD. What is the difference between recreational marijuana, the illegal thing that people are not allowed to do in the UK, and CBD products?
00:25:38
Speaker
So basically it's quite simple. CBD is mainly made from the hemp plant, although it can be made from the cannabis plant as well. And it has to have a level below 0.2% THC. So you will find your CBD products are your products without THC. Your cannabis products are usually very high in THC. THC is the component that make you feel high basically. So that's the,
00:26:06
Speaker
it gives the psychoactive effect to it, whereas CBD does not have that. So here in the UK, CBD is classed as a food supplement only, but it has to have below the 0.2% THC levels. Anything higher than that is then classed as either medical grade or as an illegal drug, basically.
00:26:26
Speaker
The main difference, as you said, is THC. But can you sort of compare THC to CBD? There's a lot of stigma around hemp and cannabis and stuff like that. But what's the difference between the two? So your hemp plant has got hundreds of cannabinoids in it. And CBD is one kind of a deal. And then you've got your THC is another one. CBD is not going to give you a high feeling.
00:26:53
Speaker
So it will interact with your endocannabinoid system in your body and it will help to regulate various things. Whereas cannabis, and we draw your sort of THC in here, it still does the same as CBD but it has the THC in which then gives you that high feeling. So it's not noticeable. So you're not going to take CBD and go, oh my god, I feel so chilled. It's sort of an absence of feeling. Probably take it and you'll notice like in an hour you'll go, oh god, I actually don't feel
00:27:22
Speaker
stressed or i don't feel anxious right now or that pain isn't as prominent as it was before it's a bit of a lack of a feeling so you're losing some feeling where is the THC is sort of
00:27:37
Speaker
giving you a feeling of being high and you know you will definitely know you've had THC if you have a high level of THC you will know. The problem with that is if you take a lot of THC you can become very confused which can become very dangerous if you're all sort of driving or if you're out walking alone and you know it can it can cause a lot of confusion and stuff like that. It's definitely more of a lack of something rather than it initiates a feeling if that makes sense.
00:28:03
Speaker
Yeah, through my research, the main problems that have come up with THC is the paranoia. If someone has a tendency towards any sort of paranoia type diagnosis or schizophrenia,
00:28:20
Speaker
it can sometimes exacerbate that. And I know that also it's not like it's not being shown to be sort of chemically, sort of biologically addictive, but I know that just from my experience at university that some people can get quite
00:28:39
Speaker
heavily dependent on THC. I know it does have a lot of beneficial effects. Yeah, like you said, it's not addictive in itself, but people can become very dependent on the way it makes them feel. Also prolonged use of THC from using cannabis and stuff like that can sort of numb your receptors a little bit. So what happens is then the next time you use it, you need more to get the same feeling. Like a tolerance.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yeah, so you sort of become very tolerant to it and then you will need, next time you'll need more to be able to get them feeling. And in terms of CBD, could you sort of explain, because I know that we have this very recently discovered but not very known about system that's only really been come to light recently due to CBD, the endocannabinoid system. Yeah.
00:29:32
Speaker
I know that from my research there are like some endogenous anokannabinoids. So like anandamide is, you know, if you go for a long run, people usually say that you get a run as high. That's like, that's the anandamide in your body accumulating and it does activate that system. And there's a lot of different ways that it is activated, you know, like in
00:29:59
Speaker
in pain and some other areas that I probably shouldn't mention on this podcast. It is quite an old and important system and it links into different areas of your body like your digestive system, your brain, literally everywhere. It's linking up to so much. You've got two types of receptors, you've got CBD1 receptors and CBDX.
00:30:24
Speaker
CBD, CB1 and CB2 receptors. CB1 are in your central nervous systems, and then your CB2 are going to be in your skin, your vital organs, your immune system. It's just crazy. This is why CBD works so well is because the endocrine system is so vast and your body does already produce its own kind of
00:30:47
Speaker
you release that when you're working out and stuff like that. So if you take CBD while you're working out, it's going to be more powerful at that time. A lot of people ask me about dosage and stuff, and this is the one of the reasons why it's a little bit difficult to give someone and say, this is specifically the dose you take and this is the effect you'll get from it because your body's already producing these already, so it depends
00:31:12
Speaker
what you're doing at the time that you take it because your body will react in different ways depending on how much is already in your system and then you're going to add to it with your CBD as well.
00:31:20
Speaker
It's a lot to do with your metabolism of CBD and your height and your weight. Yeah, there's loads of research at the minute that's been happening to think that some people could actually have a cannabinoid deficiency. They found that a lot of people with fibromyalgia, obviously I'm not a doctor, these are just studies that I've read, people with fibromyalgia, migraines, their body seems to produce less
00:31:46
Speaker
less cannabinoids than it needed to work. So by adding in your CBD, you were helping to balance that a little bit. And that's why probably people were getting such good results in easing the symptoms of migraine and fibromyalgia and stuff. So these still, like you said, it's a very new system that we've come across. I mean, not new like last year, but in the last... It's recently been added to the human body.
00:32:12
Speaker
Exactly. Yeah, we just put it in one day. But yeah, so there's still so much that we can learn from that, that we're learning at the minute where there's so many studies going on and it's so super interesting to know all these different things that we could be doing. You will just add into something that's already in your body and helping it to work a little bit more efficiently. And the reason it can do so many different things is because these receptors are in so many parts of your body. So depending on where needs it,
00:32:41
Speaker
That's where the CBD is going to go and do its job. So it's very different for different people. If you're suffering with pain, then that's what's going to help it combat. If you're suffering with stress or anxiety, that's what it's going to help you to ease in that sense as well.
00:32:56
Speaker
And I suppose that that sort of overarching range and variety of benefits give it a little bit of a kind of a snake oil. Exactly. Stigma around it. And I was the same, to be honest. Like when I first started using it, my nan used it before me for pain.
00:33:13
Speaker
And then I used it for migraines and, you know, I was amazed with it. And then I went to noted research. I was like, how can it do so much? It confused me. Cause I was like, hmm, that can't make sense. Cause why can it just do so much? But now that I'm, you know, studying and really looking into that, I can see why it works so effectively and it makes perfect sense. Really this week, we've been talking loads about skincare, you know, eczema, psoriasis, acne, you know, general anti-agent.
00:33:41
Speaker
and how CBD interacts with the CB2 receptors in your skin. It's helping with inflammation. Inflammation is one of the biggest causes of so many chronic illnesses and skin conditions. There's a massive list of them. Yeah, so by combat and the inflammation, we can really help to ease stuff. Trying to really put that information out there, not just
00:34:04
Speaker
give someone a list of benefits and say, there you go, that's why it's so great. We're giving them the reason why that it's great for that benefit. It definitely is. Could you give us some benefits, the main benefits that people see from taking CBD? We have just actually completed a survey of our customers just from our new products.
00:34:26
Speaker
It completely aligned with every other survey and study ever done on the benefits of CBD and the top three things that came on top that people were using it for were stress and anxiety, pain and sleep, and they were the greatest benefits. And even people who weren't looking for those as a benefit, so they may have bought it.
00:34:47
Speaker
for helping with some inflammation in the knee or something like that. They've been like, oh, now I'm sleeping great as well. My sleep's improved, but they are probably your top three benefits. I'm just going to put this there. This is in no way saying you can treat stress and anxiety, or you can treat fibromyalgia, or you can treat or cure migraines, et cetera. It's only to help ease the symptoms. It's going to help ease the symptoms. If you stop taking CBD,
00:35:16
Speaker
That is still going to be there. It's not like you take it for a course of six months and you're going to be magically better. That's not what the benefit is. It's management. Yeah, if you take it better than treatment. A lot of people use it for a skin, so it's amazing for your skin. I use it twice a day every single day. I suffer with psoriasis, so especially if I get stressed, I will start to get psoriasis on my hairline. Just by popping that on, it can sort of reduce the inflammation, reduce the redness.
00:35:46
Speaker
just had a lady yesterday tag was in a post, she's been using it with her mask. So where her mask is sitting on her face, a lot of people will know they've started to get maybe spots or breakouts and stuff because of just having something we're not used to on our skin all the time. And she's put it on and literally it works so quickly because within like a day, she could see the redness had gone, the inflammation had gone, you know, wasn't as prominent. The list of benefits is
00:36:10
Speaker
is endless. It's endless, but we have found that sleep, stress, anxiety, and your pain relief are the top ones there. But it's also great for things like as a pre-workout or a post-workout, it gives you that extra boost and helps with muscle recovery. I can imagine that if you find the task of going to the gym quite an anxious thing with all the people around and stuff,
00:36:38
Speaker
that CBD would probably help with that sort of social anxiety. Definitely. There's been loads of studies done with athletes for the same reason, because obviously becoming up to an event or something, it can be quite a stressful situation. So not only does CBD help with energy levels and muscle recovery and all that, but it helps bring them calm and stay focused on what they're meant to be doing, rather than being distracted, behead all over the place.
00:37:04
Speaker
So it's time for a quick mention from our sponsors, Teemo. If you love visual support in your scheduling, Teemo is for you. The app was designed for people with ADHD and autism and helps empower users to schedule visual routines that work.
00:37:26
Speaker
Users say that Teemo can help reduce stress and support executive function, which are both two things that I struggle with myself. Learn more at www.teemoapp.com or just type in T-I-I-M-O into your search bar. Thank you so much to my Patreon supporters. Your support means the world. Anyway, let's get back into the show.
00:37:56
Speaker
The first time that I ever heard of CBD was, I saw it advertised in a vape shop and I was like, hey, watch the TED Talk or something on it and it seemed to be quite big in America. It was about the time that I came back from Thailand.
00:38:13
Speaker
I went in and I attracted this dude and he said that vaping CBD has been like the main thing that's helped him with social anxiety and that he would have struggled to maintain a conversation with his customers and stuff like that. And I do think that because CBD is classified as a food supplement, I definitely think it is something that does supplement your life and
00:38:41
Speaker
Definitely. Help that little bit to try and get you down to a baseline. Yeah, exactly. I also think that people should view it with a little bit more respect. Although it is a food supplement, it is quite an active thing. Yeah, definitely. There's companies and stuff in America who have made medication for epilepsy and
00:39:03
Speaker
anxiety and stuff and they use aspects of the cannabis plants to treat people and those are considered to be like medications and stuff so it's a little bit of a weird area like classification. Yeah, it comes a bit confusing for people and I've seen people selling CBD and giving advice on using it for cancer treatments and you know
00:39:28
Speaker
I just don't think that as someone on Facebook, you should be given medical advice unless you're a medical professional. You have got to have a bit of respect for it, like you said, and do your research. I'm here as part of an industry, I'm here as part of the CBD industry, and I really want this industry to do well, and I want this industry to be a high standard. To do that, we have to work together and we have to
00:39:52
Speaker
sort of without those companies that are not being responsible and we've all got a sort of way together on that. And I'm always sharing sorts of information on how to read a certificate of analysis, how to know if you're buying from a reputable company, just little things that people can use to then go, okay, I know what I'm doing.
00:40:13
Speaker
There's a lot of aspects to it. I know that there are different types of CBD products. You've got full spectrum, broad spectrum, isolate. Could you give us a little bit of clarification on what the difference is? Because to when you come at that, a lot of information sometimes can be a bit overbearing.
00:40:34
Speaker
Yeah, you've not only got to choose a product, then you're challenged with what milligram, what type of spectrum. It is confusing. So you've got your full spectrum and basically that's just, it's got all of the different cannabinoids in. So you've got THC in there, but obviously the THC is very low, so it's got to be under the 0.2%. A lot of people really love a full spectrum because they get sort of an entourage effect because the other cannabinoids in there are
00:41:00
Speaker
you know, they still have really good qualities themselves. Yeah. So they all do like different things themselves and have different properties themselves. So, you know, you get a sort of an entourage effect from that. And then you've got broad spectrum, which is very similar to full spectrum. Only it's been purified a little bit more. It's a little bit more processed. And by processed, I don't mean that a negative way, just mean it's had the THC completely taken out of it.
00:41:25
Speaker
There should be no detectable THC within a broad spectrum, but you still will get a lot of the other cannabinoids in there. You don't get as many as you would in a full spectrum because, you know, it's been processed a little more. We stock both full spectrum and some broad spectrum products. And when you look at the certificate of analysis, there's very, very little difference between them. As a beginner, I wouldn't worry about that too much. What about isolates?
00:41:51
Speaker
isolated. So basically, they've literally isolated down the CBD. So you're just getting your CBD content in there. And there shouldn't be very much of anything else really. And some people like that because they just want really focused CBD benefits.
00:42:06
Speaker
It's personal preference, really, on what you like. But as I said, as a beginner, even as not a beginner, even as me, if I take a full spectrum and a broad spectrum from the same milligram, from the same company, it's very rare that you will you will significantly feel the difference. Jeremy, wow, that's so much different, Jeremy.
00:42:23
Speaker
I suppose another question that I kind of want to pitch, which I have done quite a bit of extensive research and look into this, because I know that these things called terpenes, in America they have different strains of CBD plants that they have and each of them have different smells.
00:42:47
Speaker
Yeah, and I know that these compounds, they're found in different fruits and vegetables and they're basically like volatile.
00:42:56
Speaker
substances so that they sort of dissipate into the air so you can smell them. But they also, they've been shown to, as you said, have sort of a, I guess, maybe not an entourage effect, but they change the effects of it. Got their own, I don't like to call it healing qualities, I'm trying to think of the word for them, but you know, some of them are like, can never pronounce the lemonae.
00:43:20
Speaker
Which is limonene. There you go. That works really well with the CBD because it enhances the inflammatory, the qualities, the properties of CBD, so that works really well with it. There's lots of different ones, like so many, and everyone has a slightly different profile of properties that it can help with. Again, I think as a beginner, it's not something I would be thinking you need to take
00:43:47
Speaker
huge amount of notice of in the very, very beginning, but it is certainly one to a comfortable CBD to do your research. It's super interesting. If there's something you're using CBD for, there will definitely be at every end that compliments what you're looking for in that and help to accentuate the properties of the CBD.
00:44:10
Speaker
I've tried a lot of different CBD strains. I think it's something called Remedy or Shines. Oh yes, yes, I know Remedy. Webble or something like that. It's supposed to have a lot of typings that had to do with quelling anxiety and being more relaxing. I can sort of tell the difference, I think. It's very hard. It's kind of like having wine connoisseurs or
00:44:38
Speaker
People who can taste the minute differences in that stuff.
00:44:42
Speaker
It's super interesting and they do, you know, there is things there, but that's why I'm saying if you're a beginner, I wouldn't concern yourself too much. Yeah. But as you become more used to it, it's definitely something to look into. It's definitely something to be of interest. But you also do have to be careful because, you know, a lot of companies don't even really know that much about them. Do you know what I mean? They're just like, oh, yeah, we should have some of these in it. Let's put it in and tell people that it's going to help, well, anxiety. And it does.
00:45:09
Speaker
Or maybe if you read the certificate of analysis, the levels might be so minute that they're not actually going to make any difference. You know what I mean? But because it's in there, they can tell you it's in there and they're going to tell you all about the benefits of being there. You know, it's like when, yeah, it's like if they put on a really bad quality CBD out there with, with virtually no CBD in it, they just put, but they can write about all the benefits of CBD, but that doesn't mean the product's going to do that because it's got such low levels in.
00:45:37
Speaker
I guess another one that people would find a bit difficult to understand is the milligrams, the actual amount of CBD or anything like that that's in a bottle or a vape or a tea. It is hard, yeah. Where would you start with someone who has never used CBD before? You don't know about the tolerance to it, how they're going to react to it.
00:46:05
Speaker
We have a rule called start low, go slow. You only need to start really low. So we only stock one strength of CBD, which is a thousand milligram. Now, the reason for that is you can take 0.25 mil of this and get X amount of CBD in it. You can up that dose, you can lower that dose.
00:46:26
Speaker
When we used to have like a five hundred or one thousand two thousand three thousand five thousand you know it confused people cuz again they didn't know where to start and people's minds automatically thought. The more cbd the better and that's not always the case at all the safer pain so say for instance pain if we say that you need no point two five milligram of cbd a day or two.
00:46:49
Speaker
25 milligram a day, depending on your tolerance. So you would start at 0.25 milligram, which is so small, like 0.25 milligram. In one dose of RCBD, you get 16.6 milligram of CBD. So you can see if you only needed to take 0.25, you're only going to take a couple of drops of that. You only need a small amount, but people automatically think they need a lot.
00:47:12
Speaker
that is definitely not the case. Always start with the lowest but what you've just got to be careful of a little bit, I want to be careful but just so you know in your mind what you're buying because it can be very confusing. Check the milligram on the front but also check the ingredients and make sure that's the actual amount in there. At one point companies would write on the front say thousands milligram but when you turned it round it was actually only 600 milligram in the bottle because it started out as a thousand milligram but
00:47:39
Speaker
then they put it in smaller bottles. So now in that bottle, there's only X amount. Does that make sense? It doesn't make sense. It takes me back to my chemistry days. It's so confusing.
00:47:50
Speaker
it needs to have a thousand milligram in the bottle. That's it. Like that's the only way to do it. Otherwise it doesn't make any sense. It was very, very common for that to happen when you'd buy a 10 mil bottle that said a thousand milligram, but actually wouldn't have a whole thousand milligram in there. It was very confusing. So always just check the front, check the back to make sure you get in the same amount of CBD and check the certificate of analysis and it will tell you exactly on there how many milligram is in there. And that's all you want to know. Brilliant.
00:48:19
Speaker
So the next topic that I wanted to talk about is more specific as opposed to this podcast.
CBD for Autistic Individuals
00:48:27
Speaker
It's about CBD and autism. I've seen a lot of videos on it on YouTube. I think Dan from the Aspie World made a
00:48:36
Speaker
video on it. I've made a video on CBD just to kind of give a background to my use of it. I've tried many different products. I've tried the tablets. I've tried these different tablets that have little balls in that are supposed to increase the surface area. They didn't work.
00:48:53
Speaker
I've tried the drops, I've tried the vapes. I'm taking it for anxiety. I've got quite severe anxiety. I get very overwhelmed very quickly and it destabilises my day.
00:49:10
Speaker
I've also had quite frequent panic attacks during night. My anxiety seems to ramp up as it's getting towards about 10 o'clock and then it sort of dips down, which is not good. Like if you're a working person and you need to get a lot of sleep. Yes, exactly. So the thing that helped the most was these CBD teas that I tried.
00:49:35
Speaker
I quickly found, as I was going through his rabbit hole of CBD research, that I am extremely intolerant to it. It has such a good effect for me if I get the right amount.
00:49:52
Speaker
It's literally the case where I can take it for like a couple of weeks and then I've got to kind of take like a break so that my tolerance can drop back down. But it's had a lot of noticeable effects. It's made it easier to socialize. It's quite often replaced the other unhealthy things that people do to relax like alcohol.
00:50:15
Speaker
It's helped a lot with that. I've had quite a long experience with CBD and it's more or less been quite beneficial to me. Not beneficial to my wallet.
00:50:29
Speaker
definitely makes life a little bit more tolerable for myself and my ability to function. So really what I wanted to ask you off that was, do you think that any aspect of CBD could be beneficial to someone on the autistic spectrum, a diagnosed autistic adult or a teen? Yeah, exactly. As I said before, there's a lot of things that CBD is really well known for helping with,
00:50:58
Speaker
stress, anxiety, sleep. I know with my son, he finds it really hard to regulate his emotions, so his emotions can seem very extreme at times.
00:51:11
Speaker
just come out of nowhere. It kind of loses that grip on them and to have something that can sort of take the edge off that and bring a bit of calm, I can imagine is very, very beneficial in that state. I use it personally for my son. We don't sell to under 18s and you know, we don't advocate using it for children, but I personally, as a parent, it's something that we do really rely on to help bring him down and help him gain a little bit of control.
00:51:38
Speaker
We use it for sleep, obviously. It doesn't sleep too well. So if you're not sleeping very well, like you said, stress and anxiety, then it has a knock on effect the next day. You're less capable of dealing with stress and anxiety. So you've got your inability to regulate your emotions, coupled with having no sleep and being sort of
00:51:57
Speaker
extra, I don't like to call it grouchy, but that end of your tether already before you've even woke up out of bed. Do you know what I mean? That's all going to contribute to the rest of the day and how he's able to handle all the things that get thrown at him through life. So that means that the slightest little thing then the next day is going to seem
00:52:18
Speaker
Like a huge thing and we could end up with a huge meltdown from the simplest of thing because he's just unable to cope. So if we can get things like a good night's sleep, help him to reduce stress, help him to regain a little bit of control when his emotions are up in the air.
00:52:36
Speaker
I think that's definitely a positive for people on the spectrum. As you said before, I don't think autism, I wouldn't want to cure his autism. That's who my son is, and I don't know if you feel the same. That's who you are. It's a personality. It's just part of who you are. However, there are things that I would like to change for him and for a lot of other adults that struggle, young adults and teens with
00:53:04
Speaker
the increase in stress and anxiety. People on the spectrum have a shorter lifespan and the reason mostly is from lack of support with mental health and things like that. These can really escalate and
00:53:19
Speaker
you know, things like self harm and stress and yeah, like all of these things have a really adverse effect on health. So to be able to take those things away and not so much away, but help reduce those. So if we can help someone get a better night's sleep and we can help someone feel a little bit calmer and a little bit less, you know, a little bit less stressed,
00:53:44
Speaker
if social situations can be engaged in. Because a lot of people are under the impression if they've never been around people with autism, they think people with autism don't like to socialize and they don't want to make friends. And that's definitely not the case. Very common misconception. Yeah, it's not that they don't want to, it's just a very difficult thing to do. My son, myself, he's always wanted friends and he does want to play, but what we used to find when he was little is he didn't know how to
00:54:10
Speaker
make those interactions. He didn't know how to initiate play with another child when he was like three and four. He didn't know what to do and he wasn't at the same sort of capability as they was to join in the games that they were playing and he found that very difficult.
00:54:24
Speaker
He also found it very difficult that they didn't follow rules and they didn't do things in the way in a game that should be done. So all of these things added to the fact that he would then pull back from socializing because he found it such a stressful thing to try and initiate. Do you think that CBD would help a lot of people who struggle with social anxiety? I'm sort of imagining my time at university, you know,
00:54:50
Speaker
alcohol was quite a big help for me, for me going out and meeting people and making friends and going out on dates and stuff. Do you think that maybe just using CBD could help? Yeah, because people would use alcohol like yourself, you probably did, and it just lowers your inhibitions a little bit. You don't overthink things as much and you can be a little bit calmer and relaxed
00:55:15
Speaker
you're not so self-conscious about the situation. So if you could do that with CBD, if you could feel calm enough and a little bit more in control and not so self-conscious and self-aware that you could enter a situation and speak to your friends, then I think that's a massive plus, do you know what I mean? That's a huge thing.
00:55:37
Speaker
You know, we would never make statements like, you can treat ASD because I don't think ASD needs treating or curing or anything like that. Anxiety, just the other stuff that comes along with it. Exactly. And these things aren't just like common to people on the spectrum. Everyone deals with this, but obviously,
00:55:56
Speaker
what is the least all these things are heightened and you know these things a little bit more extreme and a little bit harder to control. You know they have a lot more stressors and don't don't maybe an average person would sell i think it's more.
00:56:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's definitely, you know, my child sells CBD to the teachers in school. He's definitely not. I think you might mention that last year before we had a chat. The teacher asked me for the name of the company. She was like, of course I've been telling the husband. I was like, oh my God, he's absolutely mortified. He's trying to get that money so he can take over the world. Yeah, he's like all over it. Even with one the other night, she had a headache and she took some CBD and he went, hey Nan, do you know if you didn't know my mum, you would still have a headache now.
00:56:38
Speaker
It's the same like there was a situation where my mum got her dog ran into her knee and she sort of went over and she hurt her knee quite badly. She was in a lot of pain. I was like, no, just putting this out there. Would you like to try some of my CBD tea? It will definitely help. Like literally about an hour after she'd had it, she was like, probably not good. I was like, Mum, you need to stay in bed. But she got up and it felt completely fine.
00:57:09
Speaker
It was a weird sort of, oh, it's a miracle kind of thing. It's like, yeah, well, I told you it would help. It literally shocks me every time. Like people are so shocked because they expect it to take a while to work. So they expect to be used in it for weeks or months or to start feeling some effects. So they're very, very shocked.
00:57:28
Speaker
when they use it one time and they feel the effect one time. But that is also the thing that you do need to keep on top of it. Like you can't just take it. If you stop using it, it will just stop having the effect. Like the effect only happens when you were taking it. I think it peaks around an hour and a half, doesn't it? So depending on how you take it, I suppose. How you've taken it. So the things like sublingual, so under your tongue, the drops and vaping, they work really quick. So they're really rapid. So you should feel them in sort of like,
00:57:57
Speaker
I'd say 15 minutes to half an hour tops, people usually feel the effects and then they sort of peek and then peter out a little bit, you know, which is great for like stress and anxiety, because usually by that point, you've calmed enough then to be okay. If that makes sense. I mean, you've calmed down enough, you've, you've regained a little bit of control. If you take it in orally, so we have the capsules, they take a little bit longer because obviously they've got to digest and get into your bloodstream via, you know, your own stuff. But the good thing about this is that is a little bit,
00:58:27
Speaker
known is that it will actually stay in your system for a little bit longer so then compounds work for a little bit longer so although you're taking a little longer to get them you're gonna feel the effects longer so that's why the CBD capsules are great for regular use so you know you could pop one of them or two every morning and that's gonna you know
00:58:46
Speaker
you're gonna feel the effects for a lot longer throughout the day so yeah it just depends what you're looking for. I always say that drops and capsules work so well together because you got your capsules which give you that sort of baseline and sort of a preventative type of thing where it can help keep you calm before you've got overly anxious or you know.
00:59:03
Speaker
just your general wellbeing before anything occurs. And then you've got your drops that you can add in for all your vape, if you vape, we don't sell those, but you know, they are really common and really, you know, we really like them. You know, you can use that if you are having a sudden
00:59:19
Speaker
episodes of stress or anxiety or a sudden episode of a migraine or you feel some pain initially, you can take that then. And it'll be the same with the tea. When you're taking the tea, you might not feel the effects. Super quick, but you will feel them for probably a little bit longer than you would. Yeah. A CBD sleep is a wonderful sleep, I've got to say.
00:59:38
Speaker
that in combination with chamomile and valerian. That just works. We've got some of the process at the minute, which is chamomile and cvz and it's delicious. And yeah, it just calms you enough for bed. You know, I'm a single parent
00:59:57
Speaker
I've got a child, I've got a house to run, I'm running a business, which is a startup. So I'm doing predominantly the bulk of the work myself, which is a big job. So the time I get in bed overnight, my brain hasn't quite got the memo that it's time to go to sleep. So I'll often get in bed and be like, does it get that ready for school tomorrow? You know, did I put that meeting in the diary? And I find once I've had my CBD overnight, it's that I can sort of
01:00:22
Speaker
relax enough to switch off and get a good night's sleep. And I always surprise myself in the morning when I wake up and I'm like, oh, I've slept all night. From my own sort of research into autism and CBD, things like meltdowns can cause a lot of information in the brain.
01:00:44
Speaker
It's like how epilepsy, probably not as much as epilepsy, but you still do have those sort of inflammatory mediators that can cause some damage up there. And obviously, because CBD is an anti-inflammatory compound, that can help a lot with those kind of things.
01:01:07
Speaker
Yeah. But also GI tract disorders, which are also very highly common for autistic people. I know that can help a lot with the inflammation and the gut and things like sleep. A lot of kids are put on different tablets. I'm on metazapine, which is quite a heavy sedative and that used to get me to sleep and I used to be on melatonin. Yeah.
01:01:37
Speaker
I think the difference between, you know, you could, you know, in theory, use a benzodiazepine to chill you out, but you don't really want to because it's addictive and it has a lot of consequences. And, you know, there's a lot of horror stories around those kind of things. Yeah, I know. But they just don't really happen with CBD or as far as as far as we know in our research. Yeah. Well, that's it. That is the thing as well. You know, we are
01:02:07
Speaker
the extent it's being used. Obviously, this has been going back. It's one of the oldest medicines cannabis. We've been using it as a medication unofficially for so many ridiculous amount of years, but recently, there's been a big boom in CBD.
01:02:24
Speaker
We are still getting a lot of studies done. There's still a lot of research and stuff to be done and going to, but the initial outcomes are very, very positive. And like you said, with it being an anti-inflammatory, it's, it works for so many things to help ease because inflammation in your body is just not good. Basically Jeremy, like he said, it can cause so many issues.
01:02:46
Speaker
you're having like an immune response to something sometimes that will be helpful but yeah like it's chronic isn't it so like as well we were talking about in a few weeks back stress and anxiety can cause inflammation and you know so chronic stress
01:03:04
Speaker
can cause chronic illness and can cause lots of other issues. Like you said, my son himself, he has always got pains in his stomach and it usually becomes after a very stressful day, he will have pains in his stomach, he becomes very, very pale and it's having the stress and the anxiety and
01:03:22
Speaker
everything on top of each other, it then manifests itself physically. You're bringing me back to my days at secondary school. Like, no, don't take me back there. I don't want to go. No, I don't want to go back. It's so cruel. I look at his little face and he's drained of life. Like we've been told on towers for the day and it's been so stressful for him. It's meant to be an enjoyable day out, but it ends up so stressful that he was
01:03:48
Speaker
He looked so ill and that was like his body's response to that stress of the day. I used to get sick a lot. I'd go home a lot with headaches and stomachaches because of all the stress of school life, all the bullies.
01:04:06
Speaker
the difficulty or all the sensory stuff. There's so many different factors that cause us stress on a constant basis. The only things that work for me is CBD or alcohol or benzodiazepines. And I don't want to take benzodiazepines and I don't want to drink alcohol all the time.
01:04:29
Speaker
So it's kind of like a no-brainer for me personally. Not saying that everybody should, you know, jump on board that if you don't need it, but personally, it's just been so ridiculously impactful in my life. It's hard not to.
01:04:46
Speaker
It's hard not to jump at the opportunities to make a podcast on it, basically. Yeah, because it is and people will always be shocked. Obviously, I'm a lover of CBD. I came from using CBD myself to become
01:05:00
Speaker
an absolute advocate and using it for my son. My mum, you should get my mum on here, it's so-called CBD. She's like CBD's number one fan. I don't think there's anything she doesn't use it for. I think if someone came in with like a missing arm, she'd just put some CBD on it. She's just like... She just thinks it's like a... Are you rid of the information? Yeah, she's just like totally on board with it all.
01:05:24
Speaker
There's a lot of social stigmas around it. Like if you say, I'm using CBD, you know, some people may think, Oh God, are you a drug user? Totally associated with that. We've had people asking me, like, what does the package come like? Can you tell from the outside? I'm like, it's me. It's legal. It's just a food supplement. Like, yeah, it's like, it's completely fine. I promise you. But like, people do still have that, like, I think she had family staying where they're like in laws and she was a little bit nervous about them knowing.
01:05:54
Speaker
It's because of its association with cannabis. And I did it myself when I first heard about CBC. It didn't even cross my mind to use it, because I just associated it with getting high, with people using it as a legal high, basically. That was just mine. I never really gave it too much thought, but that's what I thought it was, until I tried it myself. At least of a snake oil kind of thing. Just one of those health kicks that the media latches on. Another one's jumped on. Yeah.
01:06:21
Speaker
I do think that there are a lot of benefits for people. It's not going to help everybody. One of the funny things about it is that if you don't have a lot of stress and anxiety and you take it, you're not going to feel more relaxed in a lot of cases unless you take an extreme amount of it.
01:06:41
Speaker
I guess the last question that I'd want to ask is around the downsides of CBD.
Research and Safety Considerations for CBD
01:06:49
Speaker
The main downsides that I could think about is the research. Although we do have research into it, long-term studies have not had the time to be fully created. We need to do more research into it. And that is partially down to the government.
01:07:09
Speaker
and the restrictions around marijuana and any sort of research around anything to do with marijuana. Yeah, it was like in the States, they were doing a lot of research into cannabis as a medical product but the legislation
01:07:27
Speaker
at the time restricted them from using cannabis even for research purposes. So it was a very gray area then because then how are you meant to know how things work if you're not actually allowed to use it? So in that case, they had to create a synthetic cannabis and THC and CBD and everything to use for what then... That's a whole bag of... Then what happened was they would...
01:07:48
Speaker
Yeah, because they had to do that just to get around the legislation. But then they found there was a lot of side effects that came with synthetic cannabinoids that you didn't get from the natural plant. I suppose that the main sort of synthetic cannabinoid that people would know about is spice, you know, that... Yes.
01:08:09
Speaker
It runs rampant, especially in Manchester. Those packets of synthetic cannabis that people buy, it's legal because they keep coming out with different ones, but some of them can destroy people. They can be a thousand times more potent than any normal marijuana. Yeah, that's the problem, is that people will then associate
01:08:33
Speaker
they will take enough of spice or the synthetic as they would if they were taking normal cannabis because they don't know how it's going to interact with their body or what the strength is on that and can end up getting themselves in very dangerous situations and making themselves very, very ill from it.
01:08:53
Speaker
But yeah, that's where most of that sort of came from was sort of being used for research, basically, because we couldn't use a natural plant to complete that research. It was a bit of a, you know, the legislation was there to protect people. But then in the end, it just ended up creating something which was, you know,
01:09:12
Speaker
10 times worse, basically. It is a tough one, but talking about the drawbacks of CBD, I think that is probably one of the biggest things that we haven't had. There's been enough research for it to be able to be a food supplement, so we know it's safe and stuff, but there's so much more we need to know about it and so much more we need to know how to take it and dose it. There's so much information that we will be able to find out in the future.
01:09:41
Speaker
Even that, most things that you will take, they'll say to you, right, these are common side effects. We have no real recorded set of side effects because there hasn't been enough reported side effects to warrant anything, basically, which is a good thing, but also a negative because people get very nervous about the fact that they can't find what the side effects are, but the fact is at the minute, we don't have a list of side effects because there isn't enough
01:10:10
Speaker
recorded cases of any side effects. I suppose one of the side effects which is known about it would be things like drowsiness and if you take a high amount of it, it might be quite dangerous for you to drive or operate a heavy machinery or that kind of stuff. Yeah, so you would have to
01:10:32
Speaker
you would have to have taken quite a significant amount for that to warrant being, but it would also probably contribute to the fact that if you're taking a full spectrum product that maybe doesn't have lab tests on and has a higher than usual THC level and you were to take a lot of that, then you are going to get that very high
01:10:54
Speaker
and drowsy feeling, so it's the accumulation of the THC building up then in your system that's going to sort of give that effect, do you know what I mean?
01:11:05
Speaker
I guess one of the other things that I've known about is interactions with medication. I guess that is also an area that needs to be researched, but do you think that normal regular GPs would know about what interactions CBD has?
01:11:25
Speaker
So whenever anyone asks us, because they do, it's probably a daily basis I get asked, they'll say, I'll take an XYZ, this is going to interact. And even if I have had someone on the same medication and they've not had any interactions, I still would not advise that person to take it. I would always still say, please speak to your GP. And we found that most people's GP's are quite quick in getting back to them, like they've been able to just
01:11:51
Speaker
call them and say, hey, can I take CBD with this? And they've got an answer fairly quickly. But yeah, we do have to be careful. There is full of very specific types of medication that have had an interaction with CBD. So we do have to be careful and you do have to contact your GP to check them. What kind of medications do interact?
01:12:14
Speaker
I don't know specifically, there was just a couple of cases within the US, and I think it was something to do with maybe the liver. Something like that. Something like that, there's nothing really... Yeah, so it's always best to check if you're getting any sort of treatment, even if it's not medication, but we've had people who are getting IVF, who are waiting for operations for certain things, or dialysis, or there's no harm in just checking with your GP first and going, am I okay to think this is not going to affect
01:12:44
Speaker
my treatment plan at all. As I said, we've never really had anyone. We've had no one come back and not be able to, but on the other hand as well, CBD being used so widely is only a fairly recent thing, so more interactions might come to light as time goes on. We just don't know right now.
01:13:04
Speaker
I guess that that's what makes it so difficult to get into CBD because there is just so much to it. Yeah, you know, flying with CBD, some countries CBD is still illegal so you need to check where you're going and make sure you're not taking your CBD product to a place that you shouldn't be taking it basically. So we have information like this on the website, we don't get information on
01:13:33
Speaker
what places if legal and illegal, even though we have a full list, because that can change in minutes, do you know what I mean? They can change overnight and I would never ever want to put someone at risk. The same with drug tests. People ask me a lot of the time, is this going to show up in a drug test?
01:13:47
Speaker
the drug test will pick up on THC levels. So if you're taking something that has got THC in, even in minuscule amounts, I'm not going to stand here and put my hands on my heart and say to you, you'll be fine. Don't worry. Like you'll be totally cool if your work is going to do a drug test. Like I think that's something that you probably should just be open and honest with your work place. If I also say, you know, I'm going to be using this product, is that going to be an issue? Like Jeremy, I'm just being completely honest about that.
01:14:17
Speaker
We do have new regulations coming in in March next year, which is a novel food license, which all CBD products need to have to stay on shelf after that, which I am wholly welcome.
01:14:30
Speaker
It will come with standards. It will mean that the products that you find on the shelf have been thoroughly checked and they meet the standards of the FSA. Although just to throw a span in the way, the European Food Standards Agency who initially was bringing about this sort of legislation have done a bit of a U-turn and they are thinking of keeping and putting CBD as a narcotic within Europe. However,
01:14:55
Speaker
In the UK, the Food Standards Agency has sort of said, no, we're not going to follow suit on that, and we're going to carry on with the plan for March next year for novel food applications. There's a lot of possibilities in it, and there's a lot of way to come with it. Yes. I'm just excited to be a part of it, really. Yeah.
01:15:14
Speaker
If you've sat through talking about CBD and you think that it will help and you're willing to go and ask your doctor and try it out, then I can't stop you from making your own mind up. I think you've got to wait up, see whether it's something that you want to do, see whether you can afford doing it, whether it works for you, whether there's areas in your life that could leave an improvement, maybe you've got an addiction or
01:15:42
Speaker
a problem with alcohol, maybe CBD could help with that. I think as we've mentioned many times in this podcast, it's always good to check with your GP. It's good to learn about it and it's good to sort of hear people's experiences, but make sure that you know, although it is a food supplement, it does have a lot of active compounds in it and it can be used in sort of a medical setting. So just make sure that you understand that.
01:16:11
Speaker
So that's all the questions that I wanted to ask, and it's been a long podcast, so we'll have to cut and chop a little bit. I do apologise. No, it's fine. Don't worry about it. It's been lovely. Lovely to chat about CBD. I always jump at the opportunity to talk about it as my girlfriend and family will know. Oh, me too. Everyone wants to listen. I'm happy at all. Yes, I'm the same. Always chatting to someone about it.
01:16:36
Speaker
So we're at the time of the podcast where we're going to sort of round it up. And I know we've talked about quite a few things, but for you personally, which three main things do you think are the most useful pieces of the device or information to take away from this podcast? I would say do your research. You know, we ourselves are trying to make CBD easy to use, but just make sure you know the company that you're going to buy from, you know that the reputable
01:17:06
Speaker
you've seen reviews, you've checked the certificate of analysis, do your research into what you're buying. The second thing would definitely be start low and go slow. So we need to get out of that mindset of the biggest number is the best. You need to start really small and gradually increase it till you find that sweet spot as we like to say. The third would probably be, don't be afraid, it's not as scary as it sounds. There's a lot of information as we've talked about,
01:17:35
Speaker
I'd say just go into it with an open mind to know that if a company is out there selling it within the regulations and within the legislation that they need to, that it's safe for them to do so. So yeah, don't be scared of it.
Stacey's Perspectives on Autism
01:17:49
Speaker
Brilliant. Thank you very much for those. Now it comes to the open question, the one that everybody loves. And this, I'm asking you this as a mum to an autistic child. Yeah. What does autism mean to you?
01:18:05
Speaker
I think it's pretty awesome. I think as a mum, it was probably something I dreaded to hear so much, but it's made me such an amazing little boy. Just wouldn't be who he was without his autism. I don't think it's an illness or, you know, something like that. I just think it's something really, really cool about someone. Yeah, I think it's pretty awesome. That's what we like to call it. It's something pretty special in here. And I think he'll go far because of his
01:18:35
Speaker
autistic traits and what they mean to them. Brilliant. Thank you very much for that. I probably don't need to keep reiterating this for the people who listen to all of the podcasts, but everyone has their own opinion and experience. It's always nice to hear people's takes on it. Thank you very much for that.
01:19:01
Speaker
So would you like to give out some links to your stuff, anything that you want people to either follow you on or check up?
Connecting with Stacey and Podcast Information
01:19:13
Speaker
Yeah. So you can find us on all social media. So we have loads of information over on Facebook, Instagram, and we'll soon be on Twitter. I was a bit too old for that. So someone needs to come on board to take over that. And we're even on TikTok and you can find us all under the exact same handle, which is plant fire, which is plant and then H-A-Y-A. And that is also the name of the website, which has got loads of education and stuff like they're over. So
01:19:41
Speaker
If you've listened to this today and you come and follow us on any of our socials, drop me a little message and say hi and let me know what you thought of this episode. I would love to chat with you. Brilliant.
01:19:53
Speaker
So if you want to check out the 4080 podcast on any of the sites, it's available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, along with a whole host of different podcasting websites, all under the 4080 podcast. And if you want to check out my YouTube channel, maybe view the podcast over on there if you don't have any other apps.
01:20:18
Speaker
It's Asperger's Growth and you can also view my documentary that I made which is called Asperger's and Society and it basically goes into the link between autism and mental health. It's something that I did in my student years. My time at university it was a final year project so it's not the best quality but I put a lot of work into it and
01:20:41
Speaker
If you are a loyal podcast listener I would definitely encourage you to go over to there. If you want to stay up to date with my life, my advocacy work, all the other types of things, working with charities, working with the media, you can find all of those updates on my social medias, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, all at us Burgess Grove. Very easy to find of course. So we have just hit the
01:21:10
Speaker
We've just hit the two hour mark. It's officially the longest podcast that I've done in a long time.
01:21:18
Speaker
But it's been lovely to chat to you. Thank you so much for coming on, Stacey. Thank you for having me. I'm sorry for chewing your ear off. You've got a lot of editing to do now. It's okay. It's better to have more content than no content. That's what I always say. Yeah, I always really appreciate anyone coming on to talk about their experiences, the knowledge, the topics. It's all very nice stuff to hear about. And overall,
01:21:45
Speaker
just increasing our knowledge of the world and the ways that we can manage our mental health and the way that we can manage the more negative sides to being autistic. I really hope everybody has got something from this
Listener Engagement and Farewell
01:22:01
Speaker
episode. It's something that, as I've said, I wanted to talk about for a long time, and it's finally here, so very pleased. Yay! Anyway, I will let you go.
01:22:13
Speaker
Don't know what you're going to be doing, but if you want to let me know what you're doing listening to this podcast, please email me. If you are on social media yourself, please send me a story, tag me in a story or a post. Tell me what you're doing listening to this podcast episode. I want to know what you're doing. God.
01:22:40
Speaker
Right, I'm gonna leave you now. See you later, folks. Stay fresh, stay keen, stay motivated. Make sure you get yourself hydrated and get some good sleep. And I'll see you in the next episode of the 40 orty podcast. See you later.