A Buyer’s Guide for Topical CBD Products
If you’re looking to give a CBD salve, cream, patch or other topical product a try, here are a few tips to make sure you get a reliable, quality product.
1. Be wary of outrageous claims. Just like makers of other health products not regulated by the FDA, CBD product makers are not allowed to say that their product will treat or cure a health problem.
2. Ask for a certificate of authenticity. One way to identify a reliable CBD product is by looking online or asking the company for its certificate of authenticity.
3. Know what you want to buy in advance. If you make an impulse purchase of a CBD cream or other topical product, you may not get what you hoped.
4. Talk to your doctor in advance. It’s always a good idea to let your doctor know if you plan to try a CBD product, but it’s especially important if you have an underlying condition that requires you to take medicine daily. This is because CBD can affect other medications you use, although this is a bigger concern for ingested CBD rather than a product just used on the skin.
5. Read the label carefully. First, you’ll want to make sure that you aren’t allergic to the other ingredients that are part of the topical product. Second, there may be other ingredient considerations that are important to you, including cruelty- and paraben-free, American-made and no GMOs.
6. Isolate or full spectrum? Another label note: You can find out if the CBD contained in the product is what’s called an isolate or full spectrum. “This is important because isolates typically need to be administered in significantly higher doses to be effective,”
“On the other hand, full-spectrum CBD is generally more beneficial and more effective at much lower doses.”
7. How often? The label also can tell you how often to use the topical product, customers typically use its topical products in four- to six-hour intervals.
8. Watch for side effects (not necessarily from CBD). Topical CBD products are not associated with any particular side effects. However, you could experience irritation from another ingredient in the product. “The rare side effects of CBD typically come from ingestibles, not topicals,”. No side effects have been found of topical products.
