Vaping CBD 101: The Ultimate Guide

Before cannabis hit the market by storm, there really weren’t a lot of ways to consume. Now, you have edibles, smoking, dabbing, capsules, tinctures, and vaping.
Because we know how terrible smoking is, many people have switched to vaping not only nicotine, but CBD as well.
All these new products of cannabis and ways to consume them can get confusing. Especially if you don’t do your research.
In Vaping CBD 101: The Ultimate Guide, you will learn all there is to know about vaping CBD including the following information:
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What is CBD?
- Is CBD oil the Same as CBD vape juice?
- Is Vaping CBD superior to smoking?
- Therapeutic Benefits to Vaping CBD
- Health Risks of Vaping CBD
- Knowing your Equipment
- How Much CBD Should I vape?
- Is Vaping CBD right for me?
What is CBD?
CBD is an acronym for Cannabidiol. It is one of over 100 different chemical compound called a phytocannabinoid. CBD is derived from both hemp and marijuana plants.
Many people get confused between marijuana and CBD. However, CBD is not marijuana, and it will not get you “high” like marijuana.
CBD works on the endocannabinoid system found in our bodies. This system is responsible for keeping the body in homeostasis.
The body actually creates its own cannabinoids that are called endocannabinoids. Cannabinoids work with receptors found throughout our endocannabinoid system.
What we have found about CBD and other cannabinoids found in hemp and marijuana plants is that they work similarly to our own endocannabinoids.
Therefore, CBD is providing many benefits to people who are using it which is why it has taken the market by storm.
Is CBD oil the Same as CBD Vape Juice?
Many people get confused about CBD oil and CBD vape oil. They are technically two different things. You can’t vape CBD oil (used orally like tinctures).
It is actually a misnomer to interchange CBD oil with CBD vape juice. However, many consumers and businesses use the terms interchangeably.
In fact, most people are use to the term CBD oil and will get confused if you use CBD vape liquid when discussing vaping. For this article, we will use the proper names when talking about vape oil.
Do not vape CBD oil tinctures! Many tinctures include natural ingredients such as MCT oil that cannot be inhaled into the lungs.
Is Vaping Superior to Smoking?
While there are pros and cons to vaping CBD, the pros of vaping compared to smoking cigarettes is really a no brainier.
Cigarette smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals in one cigarette. 70 of those chemicals cause cancer. Smoking causes 5 million deaths worldwide per year.
With that being said, here are some reasons vaping is superior to smoking:
- The vapor produced by vaping is 95% free of smoke and carcinogens.
- Vaping CBD preserves the compound whereas smoking you actually lose 30%.
- Because less gets wasted, it is more cost effective.
- You absorb 95% of the CBD through vaping so it gets in your bloodstream faster.
- Vaping tastes better.
- Vaping is more discreet.
- It is better for your respiratory health. Smoking anything irritates your lungs, but vaping doesn’t.
- Vaping has not been found to lead to long term respiratory issues such as bronchitis or COPD.
Therapeutic Benefits to Vaping CBD
Because CBD works on our endocannabinoid system, research has suggested that CBD can have various therapeutic benefits depending on our physiological makeup.
We have an overwhelming amount of studies around CBD and epilepsy. Most studies for CBD are done primarily from animal studies, but here are some of the therapeutic benefits we have found:
- CBD helps with pain. By lessening inflammation, heat, swelling and redness, CBD lessons pain. However, medical marijuana may be better at alleviating pain.
- It is anti-inflammatory at its core. CBD reduces and prevents inflammation by blocking enzymes that produce inflammation called COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes.
- CBD is neuroprotective. CBD protects nerves against degeneration, damage, and impairment.
- CBD could have anticancer properties. Although further research needs to be done, studies have found that CBD disrupts cells from invading, metastasizing, and spreading. It does this by putting cells back in homeostasis and making them go through the programmed death cycle of a cell.
- It helps anxiety and depression. Because CBD acts on the brain’s receptors for serotonin, studies have shown that CBD can help with treatment of anxiety and depression.
- May slow Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. These diseases happen when oxidative stress is released. Oxidative stress is generated when inflammation happens. Because of the anti inflammatory properties of CBD, it can slow them.
- CBD helps those with PTSD. Because CBD affects different states of aversive memory processing, this compound makes a great therapy for PTSD. More studies are needed.
There is also growing evidence that shows CBD is helping people struggling with addiction including those with opioid addiction and alcohol addiction.
Additionally, vaping CBD is reported to help with the addiction of smoking. Instead of feeling stressed and lighting up a cigarette, you can vape CBD.
Many people are turning to vaping CBD as an alternative to smoking and finding it to alleviate various other ailments.
In fact, many people are deciding to take CBD instead of pharmaceutical medication with worse side effects. This natural remedy has more therapeutic benefits that still need studied.
Health Risks of Vaping CBD
Like anything you do in life, there are benefits and risks. The risks of vaping CBD primarily comes down to the poor regulation of the vaping market and not so much the CBD.
If you are thinking about vaping CBD, it is important to discuss the risks and benefits of it with your doctor. You can find a cannabis doctor through an online search, here!
Here are some of the risks you need to be aware of before trying vaping on your own:
- In theory CBD is virtually harmless. However when heated and inhaled, it gets into your system much faster. This means you can inhale too much.
- Because vaping is 4 times more potent, it could lead to increased risk of side effects and negative drug interactions.
- You may inhale chromium and nickel. The coils are made with these metals and particles will get into your oil as you vape. This means you will inhale them.
- Many CBD products misrepresent the dosage of CBD found in the product. Some of them even have more THC then is legal.
- Thinning agents used to thin the CBD can be toxic. Thinning agents such as polyethylene glycol and propylene glycol can break down into carcinogenic compounds at high temps.
- A small percentage of people who use vapes are allergic to or develop allergies to the chemicals found in vapes.
- If you are allergic to the e-liquid, you will notice sinus irritation, nausea, or headache.
- If you have a serious allergic reaction to the e-liquid, you could break out in hives, develop swelling, or have difficulty breathing.
If you are interested in vaping CBD, be a conscious consumer. Read the product labels, check how a product is made, look up all ingredients, consult with a doctor, and be questionable of brands.
Some legitimate retailers may sell bad products. So, always be cautious.
Knowing Your Equipment
Vaping CBD is different than vaping other vape juices. It is important to know your equipment and what will be the best method for taking your CBD.
Not every vape is the same; however, they all have 4 major components: a heating element (atomizer), a battery, a mouthpiece, and a chamber to hold the CBD vape oil.
There are two distinct kinds of vapes: the vape pen and the tank.
The Pen Style
The pen-style vape consists of a chamber with a metal heating coil in the bottom. It vaporizes concentrated CBD isolate that is placed directly on the coils.
The coils must be replaced often when it burns out. So, with vape pens you are looking at about $20 each time you need to change the coils.
One of the concerns with the vape pens is that the more the heating coil is used, the more it breaks down and oxidizes. Metal nano particles can potentially become aerosolized in the vapor.
If you want to extend the use of your coils, you will need to use only pure CBD isolates in the pen. Any flavor additives or impure CBD leaves will speed up the oxidation process.
The Tank Style
The tank style vape is the most common, and it is the one that produces the infamous billowing clouds of vape smoke.
A tank style requires you to use an e-liquid. This means you will have a mixture of propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, flavorings, and CBD.
The heating coil in the tank style is inside and is filled or wrapped with cotton, nylon, or silica wick to help absorb the e-liquids into the coils.
When it comes to the tank style vapes, there are actually two styles: disposable and refillable.
Disposable tanks
These vapes are known as atomizers because they use prefilled, disposable cartridges. They are made with cheaper materials and quality could be questionable.
If these disposable tanks are used improperly, the coil and the wick can burn up making the entire vape useless.
Refillable tanks
Refillable vapes allow you to use your own e-liquid. The heating coils are usually replaceable as well. The refillable tank is most common among smokers.
This allows the user a little more flexibility in what materials are used in the vape and what chemicals you are consuming.
What is the Best for CBD
When it comes to which vape you use for CBD, it is important to weigh the odds with each one. Using a vape pen allows you to use pure CBD isolate, but e-liquid is not pure.
The main concern with use CBD e-liquid over the pure concentrates is that you are putting other unnecessary chemicals into your body.
The pen style allows you to use a more pure isolate; however you must be careful of the coils to ensure you are not vaping in metals.
With disposable vapes, you will have little to no control over the metal used in the coil, flavors used in the e-liquid, the base chemicals, or the quality of the CBD.
You can also find more complex vapes where you can rebuild just about any part of the vape hardware. However they require a lot of skill and knowledge.
When it comes to the best vape, there are drawbacks to each one. It comes down to which drawbacks work for your lifestyle.
How Much CBD Should I Vape?
When it comes to knowing how much CBD vape you should use, there is no exact answer. Because every person is different, every person will require a different amount of CBD.
However, it is important to know that when you vape CBD, it enters your lungs and reaches your bloodstream much quicker when it is inhaled.
Not only does it hit your bloodstream quicker, but you also get 4 times as much CBD from inhaling than you do ingesting it. This is because it bypasses your digestive system.
So in essence, you should need to vape CBD far less than you would if you were ingesting it. However, you should always discuss dosing with a doctor.
Dosing Yourself
When starting out vaping CBD, it is important to start out with smaller doses and work your way up if it is not effective for what you need it for. With vaping this will take a little bit of math.
Here are a few guidelines to follow:
- If you get a cartridge of CBD vape juice that has 200 milligrams of CBD, an average puff will give you about 2 milligrams of CBD.
- A low dose would be less than 3 milligrams. This means that one or two puffs of CBD should be sufficient to start out with.
- It is also recommended that you do not take more than 10 milligrams per day until you feel your body has acclimated to the CBD.
With these guidelines, you will not want to take more than 5 puffs of CBD vape per day to begin with.
If you feel the low dose of 5 puffs of CBD vape per day is not working after a couple of weeks, slowly increase the number of puffs per day until you reach your desired effects.
Is Vaping CBD Right for Me?
Although CBD is available in many forms, more and more people are choosing to vape CBD. This is because vaping allows for fast absorption.
Not only is vaping a quicker way of feeling the effects of CBD, but it does give you more CBD per dose. This gives you more benefits.
When you ingest CBD oil, you limit the amount of bioavailable CBD in your body. This means that the amount of CBD that makes it to your bloodstream is decreased.
In fact, sending CBD oil to your digestive system can limit the power and benefits of the CBD. Vaping allows you to create more bioavailable CBD and sends it to the bloodstream quicker.
Sadly, when you ingest CBD, you don’t get all of it. This means not all of it will circulate your body and give you the effects of CBD vape oil.
When you vape CBD, you give your body the best chance to keep the most amount of potency, benefits, and power available in the CBD.
However, vaping isn’t for everyone. In fact, there are some risks as stated above to vaping CBD. Here are few reasons you would not want to vape:
- You have a lung condition
- You are allergic to cannabis
- You are allergic to ingredients in the oil
- You have cancer
- If you are concerned about the risks
- If you have COPD
- If you have heart disease
- If you have emphysema
The best way to determine if CBD vaping is right for you is to talk to a doctor. If your doctor does not know much about CBD, you may want to consider a medical marijuana doctor.
Though medical marijuana doctors deal mostly with medicinal marijuana, they will be able to give you updated information on CBD and the risks and benefits of vaping it.
To find a doctor who is knowledgeable about CBD, visit Leafly and put in your location to find a doctor near you.
What do you think about vaping CBD? Is it for you? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
References
- The Pros and Cons of Vaping CBD Oil. (2018, November 08). Retrieved from https://www.cbdschool.com/vape-cbd-oil-pros-and-cons/.
- Hay, M. (2018, August 27). Here's What You Need to Know Before You Vape CBD. Retrieved from https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/zmk55a/everything-we-know-about-the-health-risks-of-vaping-cbd.
- Vaping CBD 101: A Simple Introduction To Vaping With CBD. (2018, August 19). Retrieved from https://ministryofhemp.com/blog/vaping-cbd-101/.
- The Essential Guide: Learn How to Vape CBD Oil (And Much More!). (2018, November 07). Retrieved from https://haveaheartcc.com/how-to-vape-cbd-oil/.
- Smoking & Tobacco Facts and Statistics | The CIGNAL. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.standaz.com/tobacco-facts/.
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