Medicine Box: CBD and Performance Anxiety

Might be hard to remember this, but once upon a time, people did congregate together in large groups, and getting up in front of them to speak could terrify people, even more than death. But there’s plenty of new anxieties that have taken their place in the meantime. So today, we’re talking about Mr. CBD, and how he just may be able to do the trick with a little help from his/her/their friends.

About a decade ago, a test was conducted amongst 24 sufferers of Generalized Social Anxiety Disorder, which found that about 600 mg of CBD helped a group perform better within a simulated public speaking environment compared to a placebo. This got a lot of people to thinking about yet another application of the wellness industry’s favorite molecule. Wasn’t enough to put it in hummus and fast food burgers, but it now could potentially aid dramatically mentally troubled people associate better in society. We at Medicine Box believe that’s a lot to heap on any entity’s non-existent shoulders, so if you’re here wondering how this molecule is going to help you weather the duststorm that has settled into all of our lives, I’m gonna give you a good reason why there’s a lot more than CBD that you will need. There’s a massive Medicine Box in your body and spirit that needs to be replenished, you see. And Nature provides.

REPLACING YOUR MEDICINE

 Not to boast, but things like public speaking don’t intimidate me so much. Maybe it was the years I spent in my very own jamrock group (wait, you didn’t know I was in a group called Homegrown? Considering my life trajectory, I reckon the band name was apt.) or the public speaking course I took in college, but I got over the issues most struggled with early on. Hell, I’ve served as the best man at three weddings and even conducted a fourth. Unfortunately, half of them were fueled by “liquid courage,” as they say. Back in those days, alcohol gave me as much confidence as I needed. 

Looking back on it now, I can’t help but feel that having that overreliance on one thing was something I not only shared with other alcoholics, but even whole communities that seize upon the one molecule or person that’s going to solve everything, that’s going to make the difference. Whole industries are built on such fallacies. When I started to conceptualize the Medicine Box, I saw myself filling up the void alcohol left in my life with the Seven Pillars: Food, Music, Nature, Mindfulness, Community, Collaboration and Recovery. That’s a lot of things, and you can’t jam it all into a pill. But you can combine it all into a medicinal lifestyle that can not only up your intended game, but refocus you on the game you were actually trying to master all along, without even recognizing it. Such is the alchemy of plant medicine.

THE MICROBIOTA AND DIGESTION

 That’s usually where food digestion ends for most people but recent studies have zeroed in on the gut microbiota. Apparently, we’re not just eating for ourselves, but for trillions of living organisms that have colonized our bodies since the day we left our mother’s womb. Through our mother’s milk and later through our environments, this phyla continues to develop over time, and it is also sensitive to age, diet, lifestyle and exercise as well. 

 Although scientists are still working to ascertain its mechanics, there does seem to be a correlation between certain kinds of microbiota and specific mood disorders. For instance, in one study where certain types of microbiota are swapped between calmer and placid mice personalities, their personalities also changed as well. This sort of transplant has already seen one success story in the treatment of the intestinal disease Clostridium Difficile, where studies have shown a transfer of a healthy microbiota can resolve its painful symptoms. And of course, bacteria within the gut microbiota give powerful assists in lipid digestion and absorption as well. 

 What this all says is that if we’re doing right by our bodies, we’re going to have to introduce ourselves to our underappreciated pals inside of ourselves and nurture them as best as we can with the proper diet (particularly a low-fat/high-fiber diet — shifting from one to the other can create major changes within 24 hours in our gut microbiota) and a more mindful engagement with its mechanics. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the endocannabinoid system is also heavily distributed throughout the body, including the small intestine, and like many systems within the body, communicates with the microbiota. In particular, we find the ECS within the epithelial layer of the gut, which amongst other things wards off diseases, and its expression (alongside the greater endocannabinoideme) is according to one study associated closely with microbiota in mice. 

 So remember the next time you eat that you’re always eating not just for yourself, but for lots of helpful organisms that maintain your health. It has given rise to probiotics (bacterial cultures which can buttress or augment the microbiome) prebiotics (fungi, herbs and carbohydrates which help this microbiome to flourish) and the Human Microbiome Project which aims to characterize the terrain just as the Human Genome Project did for human genes. This project will be joined by all of those who have a microbiome and have something to gain. And that’s why people are using tinctures — there’s no better time to start on it than now.

THE WIDE SPECTRUM

 We’ve been doing a lot of rumination on the concept of the Wide Spectrum – moving from the atomized point of view common it Western Civilization towards thee Unified Field Freedom that comes from embracing mind, body and spirit. CBD and other plant compounds can amplify this, but it does take a serious recalibration of our psyches with the cycles and forces of nature, and our role in this ecosystem. 

 Think of trees. We exhale what they inhale. When we are not in sync with our environments, then anxiety breeds. We can take in a little bit of nature, but it is best to take in the totality. You find the changes happening in areas of your life that you didn’t even know needed changing. But that’s what it means to embrace holistic health – to make brand new connections within and without yourself.

 1CAB AND PERFORMANCE

 Vital Recovery may be the one tincture that most explicitly tackles performance, and in case you were wondering, yes, it does have CBD in it. But it also has red reishi mushrooms, shiitake, maitake, turmeric and other cannabinoids such as CBG and CBN. Again, it’s not just about the one thing. There’s more than CBD out there, and it’s in those combinations that we find synergy and finally, the peace and calm where our best performance emerges from.

Since we started selling 1CaB nationally, we’ve began noticing how those who use them are already developing their own unique regimens with them. Most take on Vital Recovery to start their moment on life’s stage in the morning, Happy Belly for their meals and then finally Equanimity for bed. Ultimately, it’s all about listening to the plants, and they’ll all have something different to say to you as an individual. So pay attention. We have a lot to learn from them.