Why does Water-Soluble Matter?

When people are trying to sell you their fancy CBD products, they may commonly bring up water-solubility. No, this isn’t just a sales-tactic: water-solubility of CBD products is actually highly important. So, what does it mean, and why does it matter?

We are made of water; although it varies from person to person, the average percent of water by body mass is around 60%. Your blood is mostly water, and the linings of your internal organs contains layers of water. Suffice to say, for things to interact well with the human body, they need to be water-soluble. A neat little experiment at home can help demonstrate the alternative.

Grab a cup, fill it with some water, and then get some kind of oil product. Vegetable oil, coconut oil, canola oil – anything will do, with liquids being best. Now, simply mix the oil in with the water. Odds are you have seen this before: the oil tends to just sit on the top of the water. You can try mixing it, but it won’t budge. Now, imagine filling a water balloon with some oil. That oil will stay separate from the water, no matter how much you try to shake the balloon. This is akin to the inside of the human body – the digestive tract or the bloodstream.

Assuming any oil products you ingest actually do reach the blood, then what? When it comes down to foods, the body knows what to do, and has specific enzymes designed to break the oil clumps apart. But what about non-food substances? What about CBD oil? Sadly, a CBD Oil that lacks water solubility is going to remain clumped inside the human body. Don’t worry, the clump isn’t big enough to harm you or anything. You just won’t get much use out of it. At the end of the day, the CBD ends up in the toilet, one way or the other. You just contributed some expensive sewage to the city, and little else.