CBD oil could be the perfect addition to your natural lifestyle with the Paleo Diet.

What is the Paleo Diet?

The Paleo diet is essentially focused around what a caveman would eat – it sounds pretty simple, but that’s basically it.

Followers of Paleo state that when mankind was first gaining sentience, living as cavemen in smaller tribes, we lived a healthier and more robust life. People of that time lived off of what they could gather, essentially using no agriculture whatsoever.

This means that genetically altered, GMO crops are a no-go. Instead, Paleo followers eat red meat, vegetables and fruits found naturally, and plenty of seafood and nuts. They avoid any kind of overly processed foods and try to stick to what can be found naturally in the wild.

This kind of diet is pretty limiting, but followers insist that it’s the natural way of living.

It isn’t just about nutrition, though – as long as they’re meeting their requirements of both macro and micronutrients, people can eat whatever they like. Paleo followers argue that this is a return to the natural state, a diet and lifestyle more suited to how we evolved. Some even take it that one step further and try to only eat what they themselves hunt or grow, keeping entirely within the limits of what a Paleolithic man would be able to find.

With this mentality in mind, it makes a lot of sense that those who follow it are also interested in CBD oil.

Why Does Paleo Work Well with CBD Oil?

It turns out that Paleo works extremely well with CBD, and indeed all cannabinoids, because hemp was available in the wild.

Before widespread cultivation of the hemp plant for textiles and psychedelics, cavemen consumed hemp for centuries. It isn’t called “weed” for nothing!

According to Mary Barna Bridgeman and Daniel T Abazia in a report for the Journal of Pharmacy and Therapeutics, evidence exists that people have been using hemp plants as a nutritional supplement, a textile, and a medicine for over 5000 years.

The reason for this (though the cavemen likely didn’t know it) is that CBD has a number of remarkably useful effects on the human body that hunter gatherers would be extremely interested in. Here are a few of them…

Improved fitness

Fitness in general is a trait very important to those following Paleo life – though they may no longer be hunting in the wilderness and building cave homes, Paleo dieters still want to keep their body in good shape while following their chosen lifestyle.

CBD is an excellent supplement to consider for those trying to improve their fitness, as it has a number of useful effects on the body regarding the muscles and general fitness.

For starters, one of the principle annoyances for anyone trying to improve their fitness or quality of muscle mass is muscle fatigue.

This simple condition is nothing more than your muscles becoming overworked and tired, causing inflammation and soreness – it can sometimes get so bad that you might feel you can’t lift your arms over your head!

Despite what feels like your body’s punishment on you for daring to exercise too hard, there is actually a way to deal with it.

The pain and irritation is due to the body’s inflammation response, which exists as a way to both protect the injured area and to warn you to not over-exert yourself again – think of it like a tentative slap on the wrist for trying to touch a hot stove.

CBD is able to help counteract this by controlling the inflammatory response through the CB2 receptor, an interaction covered by Carrier et al. in their study for the Journal of Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.

By interacting with the CB2 receptor, the inflammatory response can be encouraged to, in a sense, turn off, shutting down the pain and discomfort.

The mechanisms of this are extremely interesting, as it is similar to how CBD interacts with the ECS in the first place. Instead of directly turning off the inflammation response like some painkillers do to the sensation of pain, CBD instead acts as a direct antagonist of the Adenosine Receptor, which is known as A2A.

It essentially turns off the body’s signals to activate the receptor, acting as a sort of shield and gently encouraging the body to not activate its regular inflammation response.

There is a slight risk in doing this too much, as your body is trying to inflame an injury for a reason – it’s damaged! Even if you reduce the inflammation and shut off the warning system, you still need to take care of your injured joint or ligament.

However, if you’re at all concerned with your body’s fatigue and want to push yourself just that little bit further, CBD oil can absolutely help make you that much closer to a Paleolithic man.

Reducing your recovery time

For those interested in leading a Paleo life, recovery time is something you are eminently concerned with.

Recovery time simply refers to length of a rest period you need to take between periods of exercise.

When you’re concerned with running, hunting and gathering your food, this is of significant importance – shorter recovery time means more opportunities for gathering food.

Though modern Paleo followers aren’t likely to be running down their meals anytime soon, they are still concerned with their bodies with regard to keeping them as close to how they would be thousands of years ago.

Thanks to a study published by Ethan Russo for the Therapeutic Clinic of Risk Management, we know that CBD is able to lower the amount of pain and irritation you feel as a result of over exercise.

By administering CBD, you are able to both reduce this pain and the damage to your muscle tissue, allowing you to keep going longer and, most importantly, not have to take such a long break before exercising again.

Organic CBD is the Best CBD

Another reason why CBD oil works so perfectly with the Paleo diet is because the Paleo diet is extremely focused on consuming only organic goods and produce.

Anything made with modern agriculture like we have today, with artificial fertilizers, gene therapy and other manmade treatments, are completely against the core principles of Paleo.

Due to the nature of CBD oil being made by those concerned with the consumption of cannabis, the vast majority of CBD oil available is made using entirely organic agricultural and extraction methods.

For those that are concerned with only consuming purely organic products that are similar to what Paleolithic man would have been eating, CBD oil is absolutely suitable.

Final Thoughts on CBD and Paleo

The Paleolithic diet is a way of life focused on healthy, natural eating.

Whether it is about eating only organically grown produce and red meat, or even only eating what you hunt and gather yourself, Paleo dieters are concerned for both their own wellbeing and their connection to their cavemen ancestors.

CBD oil is not only a viable option for them thanks to its standard organic growing practises, but can actually be a helpful, and indeed useful, tool to help keep their bodies in a state most similar to Paleolithic life.

Some might scorn their lifestyle, but at least they can still use CBD oil to help improve their quality of life and stay fit.