BELMONT — For Clearly Balanced Days, a 5-year-old startup that has blossomed online and spread to stores throughout New England, boosting calm, blunting pain and bettering sleep is serious business. Its entire product line consists of three letters: CBD.
The company, which began in a home basement and is now headquartered on Loudon Road, mixes, manufactures and packages products that deliver cannabidiol, or CBD, a complex of therapeutic ingredients harvested from hemp, minus THC, the psychoactive component in marijuana, which comes from the same plant.
“It’s about keeping things as clean, simple and natural as possible,” said Carrie James, the company’s chief formulator. Clearly Balanced Days makes CBD tincture, oils, ointments and gummies for people and pets.
“Potency is only part of the equation. The other important part is safety,” said owner Tina White. Its products are also tested to be free of heavy metals, pesticides, microbials, mycotoxins (from fungi) and water, which can promote mold growth. “Every ingredient is there mindfully.” The formulas use CBD from hemp plants grown in Colorado. “Wherever you’re growing your hemp, what’s in the soil is going to be in the product,” White said.
This small, privately-owned company with a pint-size crew has another mission: to improve awareness of mental illness and prioritize mental and emotional health. White’s 16-year-old son, Alec, lost his battle with depression. Clearly Balanced Days donates a portion of its profits to NAMI-NH, the state chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. On Saturday, Oct. 8, the company’s team, Alec’s Aunties, will participate in NAMI’s annual walk in Concord to encourage public awareness of mental health and mental illness, which surged for young and old people during the pandemic.
To honor Alec’s life, the company funds scholarships for two students at Merrimack Valley High School or Concord Regional Technical School who are pursuing careers in mental health or the trades (Alec’s chosen path), and because workers in those fields are desperately needed, said James, a manufacturing team member.
With widespread and persistent confusion in the public and medical communities when it comes to hemp-based remedies and what’s safe and legal to use, education has become a priority, White said. In her view, it’s important to assure consumers that CBD is safe and natural alternative to prescription medications for sleep and pain, as well as a booster for mood and focus.
CBD works by balancing the body’s endocannabinoid system, which regulates sleep, pain, immune response and inflammation, digestion and mood, as well as heart and lung function, and keeps these activities in balance and responsive to changing needs. CBD also helps with reproductive, joint and eye health, and the protection of nerve cells and neural messaging, according to research to date.
Researchers first discovered the endocannabinoid system over 50 years ago. But CBD only entered consumer markets after 2018, when the federal Farm Bill removed hemp products with little or no THC from the government’s list of narcotics and controlled substances. Since then, CBD capsules, salves, gummies, tinctures, vapes and beauty products have flooded online vendors and in health food stores, smoke and vape shops and gas station convenience stores, including throughout the Lakes Region.
CBD products currently are not certified or regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Federal law limits their THC amount to 0.3% or less, which means they’re technically free or close to free of the psychoactive substance in marijuana. But since no FDA testing occurs, it’s important to confirm what’s listed on the label, manufacturers advise.
Clearly Balanced Days has an advantage, White said, because its products are routinely tested by a third-party lab and made only from parts of the hemp plant after THC has been purged.
“We wanted to set ourselves apart in that industry,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong with THC,” especially in trace amounts. “But in our market, there was a stigma around it.” The company wanted to create CBD products that would not compromise buyers or employees who need to be drug tested for their jobs, or cause dependency problems for people in recovery, she said.
“We do it for peace of mind,” James said. “We have a lot of law enforcement who use our products” for pain relief and everyday wellness.
Recently, the company added products specific to day and nighttime use. Formulas that combine CBD and CBG — a related compound — energize, revitalize and encourage harmony and focus, while those with CBD plus the co-ingredient CBN facilitate rest, recovery and relief, and act as overnight resets, said Alicia Grimaldi, who heads consumer relations.
Although CBD customers cross most age and income groups, the majority of buyers are “hardworking, middle-aged women who need that boost and don’t want to feel altered during the day,” Grimaldi said. When the endocannabinoid system becomes deficient, inflammatory responses such as arthritis kick into overdrive, and CBD becomes an important therapeutic tool.
Topical products work because the skin has built-in endocannabinoid receptors, Grimaldi said.
“When you take it internally, it will go anywhere the system needs more balance. People come to us and tell us a lot of what’s going on with them,” she said. “The beauty of CBD is getting the body to do what it needs at the moment. Many times people take CBD for one thing, to find out it helps with a whole range of things.”
For more information, visit clearlybalanceddays.com.
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