CBD Isolate Oil: What It Is, Why People Use It

When you finally decide to try CBD oil, you may be faced with an unexpected decision: full-spectrum CBD, broad-spectrum CBD, or CBD isolate?

Which is best? It’s impossible to say because the “right choice” depends on the individual user.

CBD isolate oil contains pure CBD, which you might think would be the preferable option. It’s often less expensive than full- or broad-spectrum oil as well, seemingly another good reason to go with the CBD isolate product.

There’s more to the story, though.

• CBD isolate is less effective than the other types of CBD. Full- and broad-spectrum CBD products contain other plant compounds that maximize the products’ effectiveness.
• One of those compounds is psychoactive THC. Full-spectrum oil contains a small amount of it, although not enough to make users high, and broad-spectrum oil may contain traces of the compound.

That explains what CBD isolate oil is: it’s a less-effective oil that’s been infused with 100% CBD that contains no other plant compounds. It also hints at why you might choose an isolate product: your body may not tolerate THC, or you may be afraid that the small amount of THC in broad-spectrum or full-spectrum oil might trigger a drug test for cannabis use.

Still confused? No worries; here’s the full breakdown, step-by-step.

What Is CBD?

Many people assume that THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol) are the same. They’re very similar, but there’s one key difference between them.

THC and CBD are two of more than 100 compounds known as cannabinoids that are found in hemp and cannabis plants. They have almost identical chemical structures, but the slight alteration in the way their atoms are arranged makes them act very differently in the body. THC makes users high, but CBD is non-intoxicating.

Hemp contains high levels of CBD and very small amounts of THC, so the cannabidiol in CBD products is sourced from hemp because it contains bountiful amounts of CBD. Cannabis contains lots of THC, of course, but its low CBD levels would require an enormous number of hemp plants just to collect a usable amount of cannabidiol.

The way the extraction process works is a second consideration. It pulls out some of the plants’ other compounds in addition to cannabidiol, so CBD sourced from cannabis would contain enough THC to make the final product intoxicating. By contrast, the small amount of THC that comes along with CBD extracted from hemp won’t make anyone high.

Once CBD has been consumed (or used in some other way, like vaping), it’s able to interact with receptors in the body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS) to deliver its apparent medical benefits. That’s because cannabidiol is very similar in its chemical structure to the ECS messengers (known as endocannabinoids) that help control many of the body’s key functions.

Why Use CBD?

It’s important to preface this discussion by emphasizing that the apparent benefits of cannabidiol haven’t been accepted by the government agencies that regulate drugs or by the medical profession as a whole. Their official stance is that there’s not enough evidence to allow the prescription of CBD as a medical treatment, except for some rare types of childhood epilepsy.

However, preliminary research appears to demonstrate CBD’s effectiveness for the treatment of an enormous range of diseases, disorders, and conditions. This is just a partial list.

Mental Health

CBD appears to ease many mental health conditions, with stress, anxiety, and depression topping the list. There are also studies (some with animals, others with humans) showing that cannabidiol may be able to ease more serious mental health disorders including OCD, PTSD, schizophrenia, and psychosis.

Pain

While there’s no evidence that CBD could be effective against all forms of pain, it appears to help relieve the pain caused by many anti-inflammatory and immune conditions. That’s not surprising, since the ECS receptors that cannabidiol interacts with are primarily responsible for regulating the body’s immunity and inflammatory responses.

Among the issues that may respond to CBD are pain due to arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, endometriosis, gout, and asthma. It might also benefit some dealing with chronic muscle and joint pain.

Neurodegenerative Diseases

Some of the most promising CBD research involves Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and similar serious and debilitating conditions. Cannabidiol may be able to slow or even temporarily stop their progression. Perhaps just as encouraging: there are some signs that CBD may provide health and wellness benefits by protecting users’ nervous systems.

Insomnia

There have been studies showing that the use of CBD may help ease insomnia and other sleep disorders, or simply allow people to enjoy more restful sleep.

Epilepsy

As mentioned above, a prescription form of cannabidiol (Epidiolex) has already been approved for the treatment of rare types of childhood epilepsy. Research into the use of CBD for patients suffering from other forms of epilepsy shows that it may also have the potential to reduce the frequency of their seizures.

Acne

CBD appears to help ease or even eliminate acne outbreaks by lowering the production of the oily substance known as sebum, which moisturizes the skin in small amounts but can cause acne and other painful skin conditions when too much is released.

Other Conditions

There’s also evidence that CBD may be useful in the treatment of patients with substance use disorders, help reduce heart health risks like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and even help fight some types of cancer.

What’s In CBD Oil?

Whether you’re using CBD isolate, broad-spectrum, or full-spectrum CBD oil, the bottle will contain more than cannabidiol.

You can always expect the CBD to be mixed with a carrier oil, usually MCT or coconut oil, but sometimes hempseed or olive oil. The body doesn’t absorb cannabidiol well, but the carrier oils used in CBD oil are quickly broken down and absorbed, increasing the CBD’s bioavailability. (CBD also doesn’t taste good on its own, so the carrier oil makes it more palatable.)

Some producers make their CBD oil taste even better by adding flavorings, while others may add other health and wellness ingredients like vitamins or supplements. The best choice, though, is usually an oil with no ingredients other than cannabidiol and carrier oil.

Why Use CBD Oil?

CBD products come in many forms, and all are available with CBD isolate, broad-spectrum, and full-spectrum CBD. (Not all of them are sold by all vendors, though.) Users can choose from CBD oil, CBD capsules, CBD gummies and other edibles, CBD vapes, and CBD topical products.

The most popular option, however, is CBD oil — and there are several reasons why.

• Speed: The best way to use CBD oil is to drop the oil under the tongue, a method called sublingual administration. When used that way, the cannabidiol is quickly absorbed by the membranes under the tongue and quickly moved into the bloodstream. That allows the CBD to start working in just minutes.
  By comparison, when the oil is mixed with food or beverages, or when CBD oil is consumed in capsules or added to edibles, digestion is required before the cannabidiol is freed. That process can take as long as two hours.
• Effectiveness: Whenever digestion is required, some of the CBD contained in the oil, capsule, or edible will be lost in the process. That means the CBD product you’re using will be less effective. Dropping CBD oil under the tongue, however, will deliver the maximum possible amount of cannabidiol into the bloodstream without any being lost in the gastrointestinal tract — which is particularly important when you’re using a less-effective type of CBD such as isolate.
• Exact dosing: Administering CBD by the drop allows users to slightly increase or decrease the amount of cannabidiol they’re consuming. Capsules only come in predetermined doses, and it’s impossible to know exactly how much CBD you’re taking when eating some of an edible product.

CBD vapes are the only administration method that’s comparable to CBD oil in terms of speed of action and effectiveness. They have drawbacks, though, including the difficulty of knowing how much cannabidiol you’re inhaling in the vapor, and many people’s reluctance to vape.

This doesn’t mean CBD oil is a perfect product. There are several drawbacks to using it.

• Administering the desired dose can be hard: Very few CBD oils come with labels telling you how much cannabidiol you’ll be consuming per drop. Some may describe their content as milligrams per milliliter, or mg/mL, but unless you have a dropper marked in milliliters, administration can still be a problem.
  Even more problematic, many products only tell you how much CBD is in the entire container, which means you have to find out how many milliliters are in the bottle and then do the math to come up with the correct mg/mL calculation. For the majority of people who are math-challenged, that can be an issue.
  It gets easier once you get the hang of it and settle on a CBD oil brand, but dosing can be a big hurdle for new users to clear.
• It’s an indiscreet method: There’s no way to use CBD oil in public without being noticed. Capsules and edibles (particularly small edibles like CBD gummies) are easier to carry and much more discreet to use.

The same drawbacks apply to all forms of CBD oil, including isolate oil. Even so, the relatively short time it takes for the cannabidiol to take effect, and the fact that dropping oil under the tongue avoids loss of potency in the digestive system, have made CBD oil the best-selling cannabidiol product currently available.

(We haven’t included CBD topicals in the comparison of these products because they’re used differently. CBD creams, lotions, and similar products only rarely penetrate all of the skin’s layers to deliver any of their apparent benefits internally; instead, they interact with ECS receptors under the skin to deliver the topical effects they’re designed to provide.)

The best-in-class effectiveness of CBD oil becomes particularly important when the cannabidiol’s performance isn’t being enhanced by the entourage effect — so anyone who wants to be sure they’re not consuming any THC would be best served by using CBD isolate oil instead of capsules or edibles.

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