Pono Blog

The cannabis plant has over 400 chemicals and at least 60 different cannabinoids. Your body has natural cannabinoid receptors, indicating you make these compounds naturally.

Cannabinoids, integral to supporting your optimal health, interact with receptors found in the human body – but with sometimes dramatically different effects. These compounds are touted for their many therapeutic effects and are responsible for the wide range of medicinal effects of hemp.

Each has unique properties and benefits. And each person responds to cannabinoids differently. In simple words, the endocannabinoid system helps our bodies maintain a stable and healthy internal environment, including essential body processes like memory, appetite, pain, mood, immune function, and cognitive processes.

Let’s take a look at the 4 cannabinoids used in Pono’s Formula 19 Cellular Support product:

CBD:
CBD is an abbreviation for cannabidiol. Unlike THC, CBD doesn’t produce intoxicating effects. CBD is the best-researched cannabinoid to date, and the list of applications is continuously expanding. Studies show that CBD can help in the management of:
Daily discomfort, chronic pain, inflammation, anxiety/stress, seizures, skin conditions

You might be familiar with some of these health benefits, but did you know that there’s hardly and CBD is living hemp plants? Before it gets activated, CBD occurs in the form of its precursor – CBDA.

CBDA:
CBDA or cannabidiolic acid, is secreted in the stems, leaves and flowers of hemp plants. While there is much research to still be done, studies indicate that CBDA is the primary inhibitor of the COX-2 enzyme within the endocannabinoid system. This in turn has led to research of CBDA as a treatment for inflammation.

CBG:
CBG, short for cannabigerol, is an non-psychoactive cannabinoid. Through its interaction with both CB1 and CB2 endocannabionoid receptors, it has been shown to naturally increase dopamine levels, slow down nerve cell degeneration, reduce inflammation, support sleep, mood, and appetite. CBG studies have also shown it to modulate GABA uptake in the brain and inhibit serotonin receptors – both of which can lead to reduced anxiety and depression.

CBGA:
CBGA (cannabigerol acid) studies show that it has an antioxidant impact similar to that of Vitamin E.

Additionally, research performed by Oregon State University shows that CBGA and CBDA have the ability to bind together with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and block a critical step in the process the virus issues to infect people.

Can You Use CBD, CBDA, CBG, and CBGA Together?

Consuming CBD, CBDA, CBG, and CBGA at the same time could enhance the effects of each compound since the work differently. CBD works indirectly in the body, while CBG directly stimulates receptors. The blend of 4 cannabinoids in Pono’s Formula 19 Cellular Support could be the perfect mix of what your body needs for health and healing.

“There are two ways to live; you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

It’s surprising to think that the practice of Western medicine as we know it began less than two hundred years ago, when the American Medical Association was founded in 1847. The first pharmaceutical companies were formed around the same time. The pharmaceutical era have rise to an increasingly systematic and formulaic approach to healing — on that is focused on treating individual, superficial symptoms instead of addressing the true, underlying root cause of disease, and has forgotten that each human being is a complex, synergistic blend of body, mind, and spirit.  In doing so, “modern” medicine turned its back on thousands of years of medical knowledge about how the body works holistically–and how best to create and support health and healing.

Ancient cultures around the world created sophisticated medical systems. And now, the interest in ancient remedies is surging. Why? Through years of trial and error, early healers crafted gentle but powerful holistic therapies that relied on diet, herbs, essential oils, acupuncture, movement, rest, hydration, and emotional strategies, like meditation, prayer, and spending time in nature. These treatments were designed to heal the body on a deep level, curing disease from the inside out and elevating the mind and spirit to make you truly well–energetic, happy, passionate, and resilient.

But in many societies, these techniques have gone by the wayside. Instead, pills are doled out. Have a fever? Take an antibiotic. High cholesterol? Use a statin.  In pain? Pop an opioid. Feeling blue? Try an antidepressant. There are of course instances where modern medicine has its place, but Western medicine has disregarded, ignored, maligned, and sometimes intentionally buried information about safer alternatives.

Take CBD, an non-euphoric substance in the ancient hemp plant (a variety of cannabis).  It has been used for healing for thousands of years, but the US government outlawed its use for any purpose in 1970 – putting in in a category with deadly drugs like heroin and, later methamphetamines. In 2003 the government took out a patent on CBD and other cannabinoids. And in 2018, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first cannabis-based drug, Epidiolex, to treat seizures in children. That same year, the government finally legalized hemp.

Healing is a partnership and human health is a complex system of physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

If it takes you a long time to recover from viral and bacterial infections, it’s most likely a sign your immune system is weak. The truth is however, that healing doesn’t come from a miracle drug, but from within your own body.  If your immune system is strong and functioning optimally, you can fight off viruses and bacteria with relative ease. You might not even develop symptoms at all. If you build your immune system, which is designed to fight off all manner of foreign pathogens, you will not only protect yourself from dangerous bugs, but also reduce your risk of cancer, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. In other words, you’ll improve your health overall.

Health is a continuum that takes us from birth to death, and in that, there are a lot of spirals, ups and downs, patterns of regeneration and repair, patterns of deconstructions and decomposition of your body, elements within it, organ systems, shifts in the microbiome, shifts in your self-identity, and shifts in your sense of who you are and what you’re here to do.

You are health. You deserve to feel good. And your health is an investment in you.  Pono remedies and lifestyle strategies help keep your immune system robust, and, as a result, give you the protection you need to fight viruses and bacterial.