Coffee and CBD Oil: The Ultimate Morning Routine?

CBD and coffee sounds like a match made in heaven or opposites sides of a magnet, the planet earth, or the political sides of our government. Well, frankly we were unsure what to make of it at first, but now it’s time to share the findings.

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Caffeine and CBD?

If you’re a regular user of either of these substances—the ultra-buzzy caffeine-laden coffee, or non-psychoactive cannabis compound that’s credited with all sorts of health benefits. One is the most popular beverages in the world, next to tea and beer. The other is a rising star in today's economy. If they both make it into your daily routine, you might already know of this holy alchemy:

Coffee, while it gives you a jolt of energy, can induce a jitter or nervous reaction. Cannabidiol on the other hand, seems to mostly make users calm.

Wouldn’t the combination of both just cancel each other out? Mixing CBD into a cup of coffee might actually slightly mitigates the negative side effects.

If you’re treating chronic pain, brought on by inflammation, coffee may not be your first choice.

However, CBD might offset those negative effects and allow you to enjoy one of the oldest most commonly used drinks in human history.

Let’s dive in and see.

The Science Of CBD and Caffeine

It sounds like paradise, the negative effects being cancelled out by simply ingesting two great compounds. Is this only possible with a lucky few?

Testing doesn’t say whether this is true or not, but a common culprit in the human body points towards the paradise hypothesis.  

Adenosine is a hormone produced in the body that we think could be problematic for both CBD and caffeine in users. Both caffeine and CBD inhibit adenosine signaling.

Adenosine acts as a central nervous system sedative and is paramount in our circadian rhythm.

When you have a cup of coffee in the morning, it makes you feel awake and more alert. The mechanism has to do with adenosine being blocked.

CBD is also believed to interact with adenosine and its receptors, but it seems to have a different effect. What happens in the brain is that CBD delays neurons’ ability to ‘re-uptake’ adenosine. Because the pathways and connections in the brain are still very mysterious and difficult to describe, let alone understand, we have a confusing set of results when the two are combined.

Thus, since both CBD and caffeine inhibit adenosine, then why do CBD and caffeine have seemingly opposite effects?

Well we’ve reached a bit of uncharted territory here. No peer-reviewed clinical testing has really put this into scope. Scientists don’t know for sure what happens when caffeine and CBD are consumed together.

There are some preliminary studies at work right now to shed a little more light on the potential relationship between the two, and for god reason. These are two very helpful and industrious tools in our society.

While visiting a bar/coffee shop/CBD distributor in Austin last year, I found that a popular drink there combined CBD oil and coffee. Prepped right there for customers to take on the go. Pretty progressive, and very convenient. This study points to something different though!!

The findings there show that CBD’s anti-inflammatory powers were weakened when an adenosine antagonist was combined. As we mentioned before, caffeine is itself an adenosine antagonist. It hasn’t been verified either way whether caffeine diminishes the potency of the CBD or not though.

CBD and THC are powerful because of our endocannabinoid system, but previous studies seem to insert that coffee will diminish the effects of the cannabinoid system.

Full Steam Ahead

Despite these recent findings, it hasn’t stopped tons of people from jumping on the CBD coffee train.

If you’re one of them, the one thing that experts say is clear is that dose matters. This makes sense since both coffee and CBD are very dose dependent. "For best results", says doctor of pharmacology Craig Leivent, you should start under ten milligrams of CBD per cup of coffee. “CBD has been found to be dose dependent: Too low and you aren’t going to get a response, and too high you aren’t going to get a response,” says Dr. Leivent, also a cofounder of CBD-infused coffee brand Flower Power Coffee Co.

Even within that spectrum, your experience may differ depending on dose. CBD in a microdose [of two to ten milligrams] tends to have a lifting and focusing effect on the system. But for most people, ten milligrams is probably on the cusp of being more sedating and calming. You can take different doses for different things.

Like most PHDs, Dr. Leivent also recommends staying below five cups of coffee per day, even if the CBD is making you feel like you can handle more.

By now, we all know that too much caffeine is not that good for anyone, in general. You’ll [still] feel the jitters with all that coffee.”

What kind of CBD is best for mixing with Coffee?

As for the type of CBD you use, it’s really up to you. CBD coffee brands take out the guesswork by pre-mixing the dosages together, to a proprietary blend that they believe to be best.

For the DIY user, make sure to find and buy water-soluble CBD products that will dissolve in your coffee. Different products will also give you different results, so a good rule of thumb is to start small and see how various doses and delivery methods make you feel.

Make sure you consult your physician though, especially if you’re on any kind of heart medication or if coffee doesn’t agree with you.

This might not be the trend to jump on. The Effects Of Coffee And CBD While many substances work on lots of other, independent pathways in the body are also being effected.

We have to look at the whole picture though, and when little work has been done on those smaller aspects, it makes it hard to get a big picture. Since these drugs act independently, the overall outcome for the patient that consumes both drugs is very difficult to predict, researchers say.  

There are many factors that play into how effective any substance is within the body:

The patient’s state of mind

Physical fitness

Overall [CBD and caffeine] habit and dosage

CBD and caffeine sensitivity

The bottom line is that this is a new area of research. CBD has only really entered the United States market in the last couple of years.

The current research basically shows that as of right now, it’s not thought that CBD and coffee is a potentially harmful combination. It’s also not likely to be super-effective either. However, if you like having a cup or two of coffee in the morning it’s a good delivery system for your CBD and Caffeine.

If you’ve got any life-hacks for your blend, hit us with the details in the comments.  

Thanks for reading the blog!