Andrea came to my clinic looking for a natural therapy to treat her anxiety. She’d been plagued with symptoms — irritability, agitation, stress, insomnia and panic attacks — for months.

Andrea isn’t alone in how she’s feeling. It turns out the country is in the middle of an anxiety epidemic.

In fact, a brand-new survey found that Americans’ anxiety levels have increased dramatically in the last year — with 40% of people saying they feel more stressed today than they did a year ago.¹

And that increase follows on the heels of a 36% spike from the year before.²

Now, Andrea knew she needed help getting her anxiety under control. But one thing she was adamant about was not taking Big Pharma’s prescription drugs.

I get it. These anti-anxiety pills are marketed as safe and effective. But they’re not… They cause negative side effects that range from mild to downright dangerous. Some of these effects include:

•Drowsiness	•Nausea	•Confusion	•Decreased sex drive
•Dizziness	•Headache	•Depression	•Hallucinations
•Blurred vision	•Memory loss	•Slurred speech	•Increased anxiety

And in some cases, it’s even worse…

In one study, researchers followed almost 35,000 people who filled prescriptions for these pills for three years. After excluding factors like smoking, age and alcohol, researchers were left with a horrifying fact:

People who took these drugs had more than double the risk of death than those who didn’t.³

And for many people, the risk is even higher. Those who took 90 doses or more during the first year — that’s the equivalent of only three months of any prescription — had their risk of unnatural death skyrocket by 451%.

That’s why I always suggest natural remedies that have been proven safe and effective for hundreds of years. I’ve recently started recommending a natural oil that dates back more than 6,000 years.

It comes from the Cannabis sativa plant — or CBD.

And until the early 20^th century, it was widely used in American medical practice.

In fact, it made up half of all medicines prescribed and sold.

But then the federal government got involved and for political reasons they declared this life-saving herb illegal. But here’s what the politicians got wrong from the get-go…

CBD has virtually no THC. That’s the psychoactive compound in marijuana that can alter your state of mind.

But CBD has less than 0.3% and it cannot get you “high.”

Luckily, the government recently reversed course and passed a bipartisan Farm Bill a few months ago. For the first time in 80 years, hemp products are once again legal in every state.

For Andrea and patients like her who don’t want to take Big Pharma’s pills, that’s a relief… Because this age-old oil has been shown to relieve anxiety and stress.

In one study, researchers asked 24 people who suffered from Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) to speak in front of a large audience. At different times during the speech, they measured participants’ blood pressure, heart rate and skin conductance. Then they compared the anxiety levels of those who took CBD to those who received a placebo or nothing at all.⁴

They found that those who “took the hemp reported significantly less anxiety.”

Today the oil is being studied as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. That’s a severe form of anxiety triggered by a terrifying event. It’s often associated with veterans returning home from war.

In a recent study published in Frontiers in Pharmacology, researchers gave CBD to rats that had been exposed to traumatic conditions. But after consuming the CBD, they exhibited a lower level of fear.⁵

Although research is still in the early stages, scientists think they’ve figured out how CBD works to relieve stress — by targeting and boosting the signal of 5-HT1A serotonin receptors on brain cells. Serotonin helps regulate mood and is associated with feelings of well-being.

CBD also increases gamma-aminobutyric acid, or GABA. That’s a brain neurotransmitter that produces a calming effect when amplified.

Relieve Anxiety with CBD-Infused Coffee

I love to start my day with hot buttered coffee. But it makes sense to end a stressful day with CBD-infused decaf coffee. Here’s one of my favorite recipes:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of hot brewed organic coffee
• 1 Tbsp. grass-fed butter
• 1 Tbsp. coconut oil
• 15 mg CBD oil

Directions:

1. Pour your coffee into a blender with butter and coconut oil.
2. Blend on high speed for about 10 to 20 seconds until light and creamy.
3. Sprinkle some cinnamon or cacao powder on top.
4. If you don’t have a blender sitting out on your counter, don’t worry. Just grab a fork and whip the ingredients together until it’s frothy. Enjoy!

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD, CNS

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1. Dockrill P. “America really is in the midst of a rising anxiety epidemic.” Science Alert. May 9, 2018.
2. American Psychiatric Association. Public Opinion Poll – Annual Meeting 2017. https://www.psychiatry.org/newsroom/apa-public-opinion-poll-annual-meeting-2017. Accessed on October 10, 2018
3. Welch S, et. al. “Effect of anxiolytic and hypnotic drug prescriptions on mortality hazards: Retrospective cohort study.” BMJ 2014;348:g1996.
4. Bergamaschi MM, et al. “Cannabidiol reduces the anxiety induced by simulated public speaking in treatment-naïve social phobia patients.” Neuropsychopharmacology. 2011;36(6):1219-1226.
5. Shallcross J, et al. “The divergent effects of CDPPB and cannabidiol on fear extinction and anxiety in a predator scent stress model of PTSD in rats.” Front Behav Neurosci. 2019;13:91.

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