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The Good Oil: Edition 2

Written By Adrian Crawford Nov 10th 2022

Tags:

CBD EDUCATION

CBDISTILLERY

Table Of Contents

Expert’s Corner

Last month I introduced you to our Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, expert botanist Andy Papilion. As soon as I had that conversation with Andy, I knew my next guest absolutely had to be Dr. Kevin Frey, a Mayo Clinic-trained physician and CBDistillery®‘s Medical Advisor.

Adrian Crawford: First thing’s first. Can you give me, an absolute medical layman, an idea of what being an internal medicine specialist entails?

Dr. Kevin Frey: I would be delighted to! Actually, this is a very common question. Internal medicine is a medical specialty primarily focused on patients 18 years of age and older. During training, internists are exposed to and rotate through all the major internal medicine subspecialties (e.g. cardiology, gastroenterology, etc). These broad training experiences allow me and other internal medicine physicians to have a detailed understanding of human physiology and associated pathology. In many ways, internal medicine is similar to being a detective. When I see patients, their ultimate diagnosis is not always clear and you really need to listen to and observe all of the clinical clues your patients provide you.

AC: Next up, the origin story. What made you want to pursue medicine and, in particular, the discipline you ended up in?

KF: My inspiration to pursue medicine was my father. He was diagnosed with type I diabetes as a child and unfortunately suffered many complications of the disease as he got older. He ultimately developed kidney failure and underwent a kidney and pancreas transplant when I was in high school. Due to the excellent care that he received, he was able to go back to a normal life and was able to work and care for our family for another 20 years. Without modern medicine, this simply would not have been possible.

I decided to pursue medicine for multiple reasons. First, it gives me an incredible opportunity to help other people in need, just like the team of physicians that helped my father. Second, learning the multiple disciplines of science that makes medicine possible (anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, etc) is just incredibly interesting to me.

I chose internal medicine as a specialty because I love how broad the specialty is. On a typical day, I could be managing common diseases (heart attacks, strokes, various infectious diseases, etc) or even more rare diseases that have more subtle presentations that require more thorough evaluations.

AC: How did you come to learn about CBD as a potential wellness benefit?

KF: I first took notice of CBD in 2017. At this time, almost every patient I saw in the hospital was struggling with heroin use disorder and complications related to it (i.e. endocarditis, etc). I ended up working part time at an addiction treatment center to try and help my community deal with the raging opioid epidemic. I met with one patient who said that CBD had helped him tremendously with his recovery, claiming that it helped control his opioid cravings and helped to stabilize and improve his mental state. I became very interested in learning more about CBD and spent a lot of time reading all of the relevant research available at the time. After I completed my assessment, I felt that my patient was on to something potentially game-changing in the field of addiction medicine.

Our conversation continues here.

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Four Terrific Turkey Trots

What better way to work up an appetite on the last Thursday of November than to lace up your shoes and hit the course for a casual turkey trot? This fun tradition, for those of you who unaware, involves a foot race of varying distances (often 5K, but occasionally as long as a full marathon) held on or around Thanksgiving Day.

Since they’re a great opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, get the heart rate up and, like I said, make yourself a little hungrier for a plate of bird and fixings, I thought we’d take a gander at four fun ones around the country.

Dana Point Turkey Trot (Dana Point, CA)

This year marks the 45th edition of the Dana Point Turkey Trot, which lets participants burn some pre-turkey calories with a range of distances including a 5K, 10K, 15K and a "1-Mile Gobble" for the kiddos. The Thanksgiving Day event features runners, visitors and vendors from 200 California cities and draws more than 10,000 people every year. It also includes a food and toy drive to benefit the race's nonprofit partners, so you can feel good about running for a cause as well as working up an appetite.

Manchester Road Race (Manchester, CT)

The Manchester Road Race, established in 1927, is recognized as the largest road race in Connecticut and one of the top 25 in the country. While the 4.748-mile race attracts serious runners, it's also an opportunity for participants to dress up in costume (and many do!) and there's a contest for the best outfit. One annual participant, "Safety Man," reminds folks that staying safe at the morning race means they'll be able to enjoy their Thanksgiving afternoon.

Buffalo Turkey Trot (Buffalo, NY)

You thought the Manchester race was old? Meet the Buffalo Turkey Trot, clocking in at 126 years old and purporting to be the oldest continually running public footrace in North America. Folks even ran it during World War 1, the 1918 flu pandemic, World War 2 and 2020 (no further explanation for that needed)! The 5-miler, run on Thanksgiving morning, is a fundraiser for the local YMCA and attracted 12,000 participants in 2021. The event also features a costume contest and a post-race celebration featuring an awards ceremony, music and even an adult beverage or two for those of-age runners.

Mile High United Way Turkey Trot (Denver, CO)

If, like me, you're in Denver, we have a long-running Thanksgiving race of our own! Mile High United Way is hosting its 49th annual Turkey Trot this year with a four-mile workout around Washington Park. Proceeds from runner registration go towards supporting the local community, which is hard not to love. And the weather's always pretty forgiving in Denver around Turkey Day, so it's great to get out for a trip around the park at your preferred pace!

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Trivia of the Month

Did you know that, during the production process, the CBD that makes up our isolate products forms crystals? After refining the product to remove THC and other non-CBD compounds, all that remains is pure CBD in the form of these fascinating crystalline structures. They even used to feature in the original CBDistillery® logo back in our earliest, earthiest days.

Obviously rocks are hard to ship though, so we grind ‘em up into convenient powders. The more you know!

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Worthy Consumables

When my boss first floated the idea of me writing a regular newsletter, it was pitched through the frame of "a CBD rookie's journey as a newcomer to the wellness space." The idea evolved a lot before the first edition hit inboxes, and I think it's a better read so far. But the idea of my own "CBD origin story" has remained in the back of my mind, so I thought I'd explore that here. I'm putting it under the Worthy Consumables heading predominantly because it's a product review in a roundabout way, but bear with me!

And for further context, we want this to be a newsletter that doesn't just slam you with "buy our stuff" or jam product down your throat. But I also wanted to show folks that we believe in and actively use the plant-powered offerings we sell, and how useful they can be in everyday applications. Anyway, on with the story!

Before I joined CBDistillery® in August, I had precisely one prior experience non-intoxicating cannabinoids. I had tried some gummies from a small company during the early stages of parenthood and the pandemic in my search for some stress relief that wouldn't leave me hungover. I never noticed any real reduction in my anxiety levels, and the price point wasn't amenable to me continuing. I found that having a few drinks of a night would leave me feeling less than 100 percent the next morning, which wasn't a great combination with "parenting an infant."

As the pandemic rolled on, vaccines rolled out and life became something a little closer to our memories of "normal," parenting felt like it was becoming a little more manageable. I had found some nighttime relaxation in the form of THC edibles, thanks to living in Colorado, but that replaced a potential morning hangover with (thus-far unfounded!) concerns about needing to rush the kid to hospital in the middle of the night and still being high.

A few months before I arrived at CBDistillery®, the company launched Unwind Synergy+ THC & CBD gummies. I was intrigued by the combination, which I hadn't tried before, but found I couldn't have them shipped to my Denver address. I managed to have some shipped to my out-of-state hotel during a weekend away and I was able to bring them home with me.

Having had a fair bit of experience with edibles with a higher THC content, I wasn't sure whether I'd notice any effects at all. The first time I tried them, I popped one right after putting my daughter to bed and, knowing I probably had an hour-long window before I felt it working, I set about picking up after Hurricane Toddler. Once the playroom was tidy and the dishes were done, I slumped into my recliner to watch a little TV before bed. With picture-perfect timing, I suddenly felt incredibly relaxed. I would call it a "body high" but I also had not a care in the world. Any form of "high" was really mild and, a couple hours later, I slept like a baby.

I mentioned to my coworkers the next day that I'd got to try the Unwind gummies and we started to think about bringing it to live on video, so I made a little reel for Instagram that depicted the experience (with a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek).

Now I may be a little less than objective, but I felt like I'd stumbled on a goldmine. The gummies aren't as potent as recreational marijuana edibles (and as such don't render me useless for hours), they don't leave me with a hangover the next morning, and the CBD and THC combination gets me a great night of sleep more often than not. I've recommended them to many of my friends who are parents as a great alternative to a few drinks before bed.

I couldn't recommend Unwind Synergy+ THC & CBD Gummies more highly. Stay tuned for next month when I give you the perfect shows and movies to stream while you unwind. It's like "Netflix and chill," but powered by plants.

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The Last Drops

Thanks again for joining me for another serving of The Good Oil. I hope you and your loved ones have a great Thanksgiving and even find a cannabinoid bargain or two during our Black Friday sale. And remember, stretch those hamstrings before hitting the Turkey Trot!

See you in December ✌