Natural Health, The GreenBox Way

The global pause

We noticed a strange thing has happened during lockdown. Our own health and wellness improved markedly. What happened? Sleep. More of it, and better quality. Exercise. No fancy gym classes, just body-weight exercises between conference calls. Eating. No restaurant meals, no Pret chocolate croissants, mostly home cooked food, and CBD drops! All natural health solutions. All ways to make the body and mind feel better. Sometimes simple really is the best.

This got us thinking about natural health in general and how it fits into the ethos of everything we do at GreenBox.  What really is the most important thing to natural health? As it turns out, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting reducing inflammation is crucial. There are many natural ways this can be accomplished, and we will talk about them in this blog post.

What is chronic inflammation?

There are two forms of inflammation: acute and chronic. You will be quite familiar with acute, which comes on within a few minutes and is generally short term in nature. For example, think about when a bee stings you or you stub a toe. It gets inflamed, but it dissipates within a few hours or days.

On the other hand, chronic inflammation often starts off with the same bodily response. However, over time it morphs into a lingering state persisting for months or years. This is because the immune system response fails to eliminate the problem. If left unchecked, the immune system prompts white blood cells to attack nearby healthy tissues and organs. It’s a chronic inflammatory process and it is this that plays a central role in some of the most challenging diseases of our time. Examples include rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, asthma and even Alzheimer’s. All have chronic inflammation at its core.

According to the Harvard Medical Journal “Chronic inflammation also might be exacerbated (or even caused) by lifestyle factors, including a diet laden with unhealthy fats and process foods, lack of exercise and poor dental hygiene”. Chronic inflammation can also alter blood flow in the brain, leading to tissue damage resulting in disability and sometimes loss of cognitive abilities.

What are the natural healthy ways to prevent chronic inflammation?

1. Healthy Food Choices

The foods linked to reduction in inflammation and chronic disease are fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds, beverages such as coffee and cocoa, and olive and flaxseed oils. Studies support all these natural foods can act as good inflammation fighters. Additionally, evidence shows that fish oil supplements with Omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory properties. Studies in people with rheumatoid arthritis who took fish oil supplements found fish oil may help ease joint tenderness and stiffness and may reduce the need to take harsher medications.

2. Exercise

Regular physical activity helps protect against several chronic diseases. Not only is exercise important in maintaining a healthy body weight, but also it appears to have anti-inflammatory benefits as well. Exercise appears to reduce the proliferation of inflammation-promoting macrophages in fat tissue.

3. Get Enough Sleep

Millions of people suffer from a chronic lack of sleep. We are all guilty of cutting sleep hours short because of a busy schedule. However, the lockdown has finally taught some us the importance of getting enough sleep each evening.  Even a single night of insufficient sleep can disturb your system. An irregular sleep pattern outside the normal seven to nine hours has been linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, and coronary artery diseases. Short sleep – less than six hours per night – appears to be especially hazardous to your heart health.

How does CBD fit into the picture?

Let us start with an analogy that we think explains how CBD could help. Bear with us! Imagine you have decided to roast a chicken in your small kitchen. As the hours pass, the kitchen gets so hot as to become unbearable. You walk over to the kitchen window and slide it open to let in a nice breeze. The air helps cool down the kitchen but after a short period of time the window slides shut. While the kitchen is no longer unbearably hot, the lingering heat continues to make it uncomfortable. And furthermore, the window refuses to stay in the open position.

The heat in this analogy is the chronic inflammation caused by some bodily activity or external factor. The activity here is the roasting of the chicken. The chronic inflammation (the heat) sticks around in your system even after the body’s protective response has kicked in. This is because the body produces enzymes to break down the body’s natural response to inflammation, but the source of the heat is still present.

But, what if you had a stick and could prop the window open? It would cool the kitchen down to an appropriate level permanently. The temperature would fall back into balance. The theory goes that the stick in this analogy is CBD, and by consuming this plant based cannabinoid, you can stop the enzyme from degrading the body’s naturally occurring response to inflammation. Hence, adding CBD products and supplements to a daily health regime could help combat chronic inflammation. In turn, we consider that improves overall natural health. The research around this is ongoing, however, but this is the theoretical model.

A good CBD product to try

We recommend those new to CBD start off with a CBD tincture. Dosing is different for every person and this allows you to adjust to your individual needs. We recommend new users start off with a 50 milligram daily dose and adjust from there. Here are a few recommends from the GreenBox family:

Ayucana CBD Oil

Ayucana is one of the premium brands on GreenBox. This is because all Ayucana’s products are produced to pharmaceutical grade standards. It’s a broad spectrum oil too, so alongside the CBD there are all the other cannabinoids, terpenes, and flavonoids which contribute to the effects of CBD. It’s quickly become a bestseller on GreenBox.

Vitality CBD 600mg Spray

This is also a popular option and at a lower price point. Vitality products are good tasting, simple to administer and offer pure, reliable CBD.

Love Hemp 300mg CBD Capsules

Proudly the #1 CBD brand in the UK, this wellness leading brand is sure to help you find your calm. If you already have a supplement routine, these low strength CBD capsules will fit right in. With prices starting at just £14.99, it’s an affordable way to try CBD if it’s your first time, too.

We hope these all-natural solutions help you to reduce chronic inflammation and promote your natural health. We think CBD supports this wellness mission and you can find out more about this incredible plant extract in our Ultimate CBD Guide.