How Natural Remedies for Dog Allergies Like Mushrooms Can Help Your Pet
CBD Benefits for Dogs & Medicinal Mushroom Benefits for Pets
When their pet gets sick, most pet parents want to do everything they can to get the treatment that their pet needs. But what are the best ways we can do this naturally in conjunction with our veterinarians advice?
These days, many pet parents are turning to holistic alternatives like CBD oil or a whole-food diet because more and more evidence suggests that natural remedies function more effectively than traditional western methods.
But when there’s a significant amount of research on pharmaceutical medicine and not nearly enough research on holistic or alternative medicine, it leaves a pet parent unsure of which options are actually trustworthy.
Earth Buddy co-founder Sean Zyer joins Carrie Hyde and Brittney Whiteford in the Spawdcast to explain how holistic alternatives, such as CBD oil and functional mushrooms, can boost or benefit your pet’s health. The Spawdcast is a podcast for pet owners and pet industry professionals, created by Carrie and Brittney, both certified pet nutritionists, who share a mission to help pet owners care for pets in a “whole and natural” way.
CBD Benefits for Dogs and What is CBD?
CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of the 100+ cannabinoid compounds found in cannabis. It is sometimes mistaken for THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the “high” causing compound found in cannabis. Another notable difference between the two compounds is that there is significantly more research and knowledge on THC than there is on CBD, especially because of the legalization of marijuana.
Although CBD Benefits for Dogs is also gaining popularity these days, its rapid rise has been accompanied by many myths and misconceptions.
One common misconception is that CBD is completely non-psychoactive. CBD is, in-fact, psychoactive, but it’s non-intoxicating. CBD crosses the blood-brain barrier and acts on serotonin pathways, resulting in changes of mood and perception. It is due to CBD’s psychoactive nature that it is considered to be a health benefit.
Health Benefits of CBD For Pets
- Strengthens Immune System
- Promotes Homeostasis
- Promotes Healthy Inflammatory Response
- Great for Skin and Coat
- Supports Digestive Health
- Supports Calming and Focus
Hemp VS Marijuana
Although both the hemp plant and marijuana plant come from the same cannabis sativa family, the two are distinctly different.
The Hemp grown here in Colorado is producing high amounts of CBD and other minor cannabinoids and terpenes.
Another difference is the level of THC found in both plants. To put it simply, marijuana has more than 0.3% levels of THC, while hemp has less than 0.3%.
Hemp and the Entourage Effect
Earth Buddy uses hemp as a botanical extract, or as plant medicine, for pets. We use the full plant to help pets gain the most health benefits out of it.
We use hemp, not marijuana, in our pet products to ensure pet parents that our products will not get your pet high. Our expertise is used to grow cannabis plants with high CBD genetics, so we can extract the full plant, rather than just the CBD alone. When you use the whole plant, you are creating a full-spectrum product.
From a safety standpoint, it’s better to go full-spectrum because there are less negative side effects, and it’s more effective when used that way. This is called the entourage effect.
The entourage effect suggests that there is a synergy to using all the different components of cannabis, such as cannabinoids, terpenes, flavonoids, and more.
Terpenes, the aromatic compounds found in plants, work in synergy with CBD and other cannabinoids and allow for a minimum effective dose. By extracting the whole plant, we can maximize CBD’s therapeutic effects.
Because you are maximizing CBD’s effects when using the whole plant, this means you can take a lower dosage of the product while still benefiting from its effects. When taking a CBD isolate, a higher dose may be required to achieve the same desired effect and may lead to negative side effects.
The Less Refined, The Better
When looking at CBD products for your pet, it’s important to know what you’re looking for. As pet parents, it’s our responsibility to give our pets the healthiest options available. Although we have the ability to choose what enters into our body, our pets don’t. We make that decision for them, which is why we need to do our part to ensure they get whole and natural foods in their diet.
You may be wondering how you can tell if a CBD product is all-natural or if it’s full-spectrum or not. One thing a pet parent should look for is if a company shares their lab tests. When you walk inside a store that sells CBD products for your pet, don’t be afraid to ask them for lab tests on the products (you can view our lab tests here).
What you are looking for is the potency. The percentage of the CBD delivered will indicate whether or not a product is full-spectrum or not. You’ll also want to look for more than just CBD. You want to see multiple cannabinoids and multiple terpenoids. The less refinement, the more natural it is.
Natural products are safer and our bodies respond to it with more efficiency. What we put in our bodies (and our pet’s bodies) is of utmost importance, which is why Earth Buddy chooses to deliver high-quality, full-spectrum products every time.
Medicinal Mushrooms for Immune Health
Like cannabis, medicinal mushrooms have been used for plant-based therapy for thousands of years. Every medicinal mushroom has unique healing properties, but nearly all share the ability to boost our immune systems. This is mostly attributable to their high level of polysaccharides, specifically beta-glucans.
Beta-glucans serve as a catalyst in boosting our immune system by activating macrophages, neutrophils, basophils, and every other immune-system-cell in the body. They are also reported to lower cholesterol levels, improve blood-sugar levels, and inhibit the spread of compromised immune cells.
