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Is CBD oil good for blood pressure? If so, what is the best CBD oil for blood pressure you can buy online? This guide explores what CBD is, why it might be good for blood pressure, and how to find the best CBD oil to help keep your blood pressure healthy. Read on to get up to date with all the latest CBD and blood pressure research as we compare the 5 best CBD oils you can buy online for this particular medical condition.
How CBD Oil May Lower Blood Pressure
CBD is a non-intoxicating cannabinoid naturally found in cannabis and hemp. Unlike THC, which produces an intoxicating high by stimulating your brain’s CB1 receptors, CBD does not stimulate the traditional cannabinoid receptors. Instead, this cannabinoid appears to primarily act on your serotonergic (5-HT) and vanilloid (TRP) receptors, non-intoxicating neuroreceptor sites that regulate bodily processes as varied as inflammation, pain, and mood.
We don’t know enough about CBD yet to be sure exactly how this cannabinoid might reduce blood pressure. A few studies have looked into the potential of CBD to lower blood pressure, and initial results are promising. This research indicates any reduction in blood pressure associated with CBD use is most likely a result of decreased stress, which is relieved by elevated mood.
It’s nothing more than a guess at this point, but it’s possible CBD’s observed activity at the 5-HT serotonin receptors might reduce stress by improving mood, thereby also perhaps reducing hypertension. Future research may reveal more about CBD and how it relates to blood pressure specifically.
Does CBD Oil Lower Blood Pressure?
To be clear from the start, the science is inconclusive regarding how CBD affects your blood pressure. If this cannabinoid ends up being proven to affect blood pressure in any way, however, it will most likely be indicated to lower your blood pressure, not raise it.
Thousands of people with hypertension have shared stories online regarding how CBD helped them get their high blood pressure in check. CBD generally provides a body-wide relaxing feeling, and anyone who has experienced this cannabinoid can immediately understand why people would say CBD lowers your blood pressure.
Is CBD Safe to Use for High Blood Pressure?
Combined with prescription hypertension medications, CBD could make your blood pressure dangerously low. CBD can also interact negatively with any drugs that come with a “grapefruit warning,” which means they compete for access to the CYP3A4 enzymes CBD needs to metabolize. Because of this, it’s always important to talk to your doctor before adding CBD to your regimen.
Other than that, though, CBD is widely regarded to have a remarkably mild side effect profile. The most commonly reported side effects of CBD include sleepiness, nausea, and dry mouth, but many users do not experience any side effects whatsoever. CBD’s mild side effects have incentivized researchers to take a close look at the potential benefits of this non-intoxicating hemp cannabinoid for a variety of different conditions: hypertension included.
What Research Says About CBD and Blood Pressure
Blood pressure is gaining popularity as a target of CBD research. Scientists have suspected that CBD might be useful for hypertension for years, but recent studies show just how far inquiries into the subject have recently advanced.
One of the first inquiries into the potential usefulness of CBD for blood pressure and other cardiovascular conditions came in 2012 when a review of the available evidence took a look at CBD’s potential as an overall treatment for heart health. This study didn’t involve acquiring any actual evidence, but it started the conversation on CBD and heart health within the arena of medical science.
In 2017, the world received its first hard evidence of the usefulness of CBD for blood pressure when a small, placebo-controlled study found this cannabinoid to maintain low blood pressure even when participants were exposed to stressful stimuli. Only nine participants were used, so this single study doesn’t tell us very much on its own.
Researchers haven’t given up on learning the secrets of CBD for blood pressure, though. In 2020, researchers performed exhaustive experiments on animal and human tissues to further determine the vasodilatory properties of CBD. Research into CBD and blood pressure may remain in its infancy, but helping people reduce their blood pressure naturally remains a major target of CBD research.
What Type of CBD Is Best for Blood Pressure?
If you’re trying to use CBD to manage high blood pressure, what are the best types of CBD products you can use? It can be challenging to find the right product with so many different types of CBD formulations available. Still, we’ll simplify things by comparing CBD oil, gummies, softgels, and topicals in terms of their usefulness for lowering blood pressure.
CBD Oil
CBD oils, also referred to as CBD tinctures, are among the most popular types of CBD products offered online. Tinctures have been a favorite since the beginning of the CBD movement. Their enduring popularity is a testament to the unique usefulness and convenience of taking CBD orally in a liquid form. Providing potent, body-wide effects that kick in faster than capsules, CBD users reach for tinctures whenever they experience any number of common maladies and conditions.
Aside from offering increased potency and absorption time, there’s nothing indicating CBD tinctures are any better for blood pressure than any other type of orally ingested CBD product. This may come as a relief to some prospective hemp users who suspected they might have to try an obscure type of CBD product to improve their blood pressure.
CBD Gummies
While they don’t offer the enhanced effects and improved activation times of tinctures, CBD gummies are more convenient while also tasting considerably better. Gummies don’t provide the benefits of sublingual administration like tinctures, but they’re often easier to take on the go.
If you’re using CBD to manage blood pressure, just remember that eating excessive sweets could make your condition worse. That’s why it’s important only to choose gummies that contain natural ingredients and minimal sweeteners.
CBD Softgels
Even more convenient than gummies, CBD softgels are just as easy to take orally as any other pill you might swallow throughout the day. With a CBD capsule, you simply swallow it and forget about it—thus the appeal.
While capsules are the height of simplicity, they’re like gummies in that they are somewhat less potent than CBD oil tinctures. Unlike CBD gummies, though, capsules don’t contain any sweeteners or added ingredients, potentially making them more desirable for blood pressure patients.
CBD Topicals and Creams
Topically applied CBD creams, lotions, and balms won’t be very useful for reducing high blood pressure. Hypertension is a cardiovascular condition with a central origin, so treating the peripheral areas of your body won’t reduce hypertension symptoms. To adequately unlock the potential usefulness of CBD for hypertension, you’ll need to use this cannabinoid in a way that affects your entire body at once.
Best CBD Oil for Blood Pressure
If you’ve decided to use CBD to reduce your blood pressure, the time has now come to select the best CBD oil product for your needs. We searched through product descriptions, lab tests, and customer reviews to find out which hemp brands offer the best tinctures when you want to use CBD to lower your blood pressure. Below, we’ll compare and contrast the companies we examined:
#1. Colorado Botanicals – Best CBD Oil for Blood Pressure
Despite a continuing lack of federal regulation, the Centennial State’s own Colorado Botanicals has taken upon itself the task of offering the most compliant, high-tech, and terpene-rich CBD hemp extracts available anywhere in the world. Colorado Botanicals uses pharmaceutical-grade extraction equipment to produce hemp flower concentrates free of heavy metals, pesticides, and other contaminants.
The result is an organic, non-GMO CBD tincture that fully captures the entourage effect, a theorized form of synergy that appears to make cannabinoids and terpenes more potent when used together. Colorado Botanicals makes third-party, batch-specific lab reports easy to find for each of its products, and this online CBD brand offers a 60-day hassle-free return window. Coming highly recommended by reviewers, Colorado Botanicals CBD oil is ideal for hypertension patients who are being very careful about what they’re allowing into their bodies.
#2. Penguin CBD – Runner Up
Hailing from Oregon, Penguin CBD has recently received the accolades of multiple prominent publications, and it would be safe to say this brand is trending. Penguin CBD doesn’t pay as much attention to terpenes as Colorado Botanicals, and they aren’t quite as transparent. As a runner-up, however, Penguin CBD does an excellent job of offering a high-quality tincture for a reasonable price that users can try for their blood pressure.
Available in a variety of flavors (Strawberry, Mint, etc.) and potencies (250 mg through 5000 mg per bottle), Penguin CBD products contain 0% THC and are accompanied by third-party lab reports. Penguin could focus a little bit more on the natural side of things, though, by retaining the terpenes found in hemp during extraction instead of reintroducing terpenes into CBD isolate after the fact.
#3. R+R Medicinals
R+R Medicinals takes the “all-natural” approach farther than practically any other company we’ve seen. Their labeling looks like something out of the 1850s, and for the most part, the tincture inside is just as simple. There aren’t any ingredients in an R+R Medicinals CBD tincture aside from full-spectrum CBD extract, and that’s exactly how people who are watching their blood pressure tend to like it.
Just like our number-one brand Colorado Botanicals, R+R Medicinals uses supercritical CO2 extraction to produce its CBD tinctures, and this company provides batch-specific, third-party lab tests for all its products. Notably absent are reviews for specific R+R Medicinals products, which is the solitary red flag we noticed. Instead, reviews available for this brand online are for the brand itself, not the products it makes.
#4. CBDfx
CBDfx is the closest thing to a mainstream consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand you can find right now in the CBD hemp industry. Offering a massively wide array of different product types for low prices, some CBDfx products look like they’d be right at home locked up behind the counter at your local Walmart.
What you won’t get with CBDfx is the intensive focus on natural ingredients we’ve found in both Colorado Botanicals and R+R Medicinals. Some CBDfx products contain added terpenes, but everything this brand produces—from vapes to gummies to tinctures—is highly processed and often contains artificial ingredients or sweeteners.
#5. Royal CBD
Royal CBD claims to offer higher quality than the competition when it comes to CBD for blood pressure, and this brand’s products certainly cost more. Underneath Royal CBD’s over-the-top first impression is a high-quality hemp tincture available in 500 mg, 1000 mg, and 2000 mg options.
Quite a lot of investment was clearly put into the Royal CBD product line. We think this brand has some room for improvement, however, in transparency. Lab tests and ingredient information are hard to find, and some of the hard information we were able to dig up on Royal CBD could have been a bit more impressive.
What to Look for When Buying CBD Oil
We’ve done some of the research for you, but in the end, it will be up to you to decide which CBD product you want to take home from among the multitude vying for your attention. Somewhere out there, you’ll find a CBD tincture that’s a perfect match for your blood pressure needs, and considering the following criteria might provide a helping hand along the way:
Full Spectrum vs. Broad Spectrum CBD Oil
Some of the brands we chose use broad-spectrum CBD, but others use full-spectrum CBD. What’s the difference? Full-spectrum CBD contains up to 0.3% THC, while the trace amounts of THC in broad-spectrum CBD are so small they’re undetectable.
The only issue with broad-spectrum CBD is that delicate hemp compounds like terpenes are usually damaged during the extraction process. In fact, that’s one of the reasons we chose Colorado Botanicals for our number-one spot: Their extraction process manages to include terpenes along with cannabinoids without any significant breakdown.
Third-Party Lab-Verified
Testing isn’t yet mandated in the CBD industry, but brands that have taken the extra step of getting their products tested by an independent lab are easier to trust. In the absence of any meaningful regulatory oversight, CBD brands are on their own to prove the quality and authenticity of their products. As a CBD manufacturer, having your products tested by an independent lab is one of the best ways to project a trustworthy aura of reliability to customers.
FDA Warning Letters and Lawsuits
It’s advisable to steer clear of any CBD hemp manufacturers that have been specifically singled out by the FDA for wrongdoing. FDA warning letters addressed to CBD manufacturers are rare, but they are certainly issued from time to time. An up-to-date database of all the letters this federal agency has issued to CBD manufacturers can be found on the FDA website.
Transparency
For a CBD manufacturer, transparency isn’t just something a government agency tells you to do. It’s an overall attitude of putting it all on the table for your potential customers and genuinely arguing the benefits of your products. The cannabis plant has nothing to hide—the only reason you’d shy away from transparency is if you’ve produced your CBD products improperly.
Customer Reviews
At this point, CBD is no longer a new thing. While more and more CBD brands are founded all the time, most of the reliable players have had plenty of time to accumulate customer reviews.
It’s not a problem if a CBD oil manufacturer doesn’t have the most reviews of any brand on the internet. If a brand only has a few dozen overall reviews or less, though, you might want to try another option.
Is CBD Oil Safe to Use with Blood Pressure Medications?
CBD is already known to interact with certain common prescription drugs that utilize the CYP3A4 metabolic enzyme. A 2017 review of the available evidence concluded that ingesting CBD alters concentrations of blood pressure medication in your blood, potentially revealing a contraindication.
Since CBD is generally considered to be relatively mild, elevated levels of this cannabinoid in your system aren’t what you should be worried about happening when there aren’t enough metabolic enzymes to go around. On the contrary, it’s the elevated levels of prescription drugs in your blood that can no longer properly leave your system. Proceed with extreme caution if, with your doctor’s consent, you plan to use CBD oil in conjunction with prescription blood pressure medication.
When to Contact a Doctor
Whenever you’re in the business of lowering blood pressure, you should be in close contact with your doctor at all times. Ask your doctor before trying CBD, and stay in touch with your physician as you begin using CBD for the first time. Your doctor might be just as excited as you are by the potential of CBD to help with cardiovascular disorders, but that’s all the more reason to proceed with caution.
CBD’s apparent ability to reduce blood pressure can become more of a side effect than the desired effect in some individuals. The cardiovascular system is remarkably delicate, after all, and you’ll need to know how to do more than just take a blood pressure reading if you want to make sure reducing blood pressure using CBD is the right approach in your particular case.
Just like you wouldn’t wait for severe hypertension symptoms to manifest before you called your doctor, don’t wait to reach out for help if you’re concerned CBD has made your blood pressure too low. As you treat high blood pressure with CBD, safety is the top priority, and staying in touch with your doctor is the best way to proceed safely.
Final Thoughts: CBD for Blood Pressure
Whether or not it ends up proven that cannabidiol reduces blood pressure, CBD treatment is not known to cause any serious side effects, and the potential health benefits of CBD are clearly worthy of further study. The safety and side effects of CBD are well-understood at this point, and countless thousands of people have reported success using CBD for high blood pressure and other types of heart disease.
Hemp-derived CBD products do not contain enough THC to get you high, and it’s possible to use CBD without ingesting any artificial ingredients that might negatively impact your blood pressure. The body’s endocannabinoid system is designed to keep your system delicately balanced, and high-quality CBD oil acts as a natural balancer of this delicate regulatory network.
Does CBD lower blood pressure? We’ll leave that to the scientists of the future to determine definitively. It’s a fact, though, that CBD is a major therapeutic target when it comes to international blood pressure research, and there are also many other ways this non-intoxicating cannabinoid could prove promising for cardiovascular disease in general.
For now, feel free to experiment with CBD as an alternative approach to lowering blood pressure — as long as you observe the guidance of a trained medical professional. There’s so much CBD might be able to offer people with cardiovascular conditions, and we’re convinced the five brands we reviewed above to offer the best CBD products to try if you’re on the hunt for something new to help keep your blood pressure stable.
