CBC vs CBD: a Full Comparison

You most likely are aware of the two most popular cannabinoids out there: CBD and THC. But do you know that apart from these two, more than a hundred other cannabinoids exist and have their own properties? For now, let’s stick to comparing CBC vs CBD. What are they like and how do they compare to CBD oil?

The effects of CBD are covered in a lot of articles, but many of them fail to mention how exactly CBD works and how you get the effect. Let’s figure all of it out, and also cover all the information that’s necessary to know about CBC, comparing CBC vs CBD. 

What is CBC?

To compare CBC vs CBD, we must first cover what CBC is. CBC, that stands for cannabichromene, is one of the many cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant. CBC produces various effects on your body by interacting with your endocannabinoid system. 

The endocannabinoid system is full of cannabinoid receptors, with the most important ones being CB1 and CB2 receptors. CB1 receptors can be found in your brain, and CB2 - in your immune cells. However, CBC doesn’t bind to these receptors. 

Despite that, CBC binds with other receptors in the body. These receptors are the vanilloid receptor 1 (TRPV1) and transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1). Both of which are linked to pain perception. When CBC activates these receptors, increased levels of endocannabinoids in the body are released.

There is a myriad of benefits that CBC can provide. However, it’s known that CBC works best in combination with other cannabinoids. That creates the entourage effect, which happens when all the cannabinoids work together to provide the best results possible. 

It might be a bit harder to find CBC oil when it comes to CBC oil vs CBD oil. While finding pure CBC might be quite a task, coming across CBD oil isn’t that hard at all. The point is that full- or broad-spectrum CBD oils contain CBC.

So, it would be a lot easier to find some good CBD oil, that would contain CBC as one of the ingredients, instead of trying to find pure CBC oil. 

What is CBD?

Now that we talked about what CBC is, it’s time to talk about what CBD is, to make a CBC vs CBD comparison. CBD is one of the two main cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant. CBD is slightly psychoactive but that doesn't mean that it will produce the feeling of getting high after consuming CBD.

The cannabinoid that’s responsible for getting you high is THC, and CBD is often confused with it. However, these two are completely different cannabinoids. So, if your CBD product s THC-free or has very low traces of it, you definitely won’t get high. 

Despite that, CBD still affects you and your endocannabinoid system. It might not bind to the CB1, nor the CB2 receptors, but it stimulates them. This factor is what makes the CBD effective. By targeting the system it’s able to produce various effects.

Some of the reasons why people take it are for managing pain, inflammation, stress, anxiety, insomnia, nausea, and many others. CBD appears to be one of the most multi-purposeful health supplements out there.

If you, like many others, would like to try out CBD for the various health benefits it’s said to provide, you should check out our best CBD oils guide to find the oil that appeals to you the most.

Similarities of CBC vs CBD

Now that we talked about both CBC and CBD, it’s time for a CBC vs CBD comparison. These two cannabinoids share a lot of similarities. So, let’s cover what makes these two cannabinoids alike.

Pain and Inflammation

Both of these cannabinoids have an effect on pain and inflammation. When it comes to CBD, it’s a well-known theory that CBD can reduce pain with many different CBD topicals that are made for easing pain. But what about CBC vs CBD when it comes to pain and inflammation?

CBC is known to reduce pain too. Studies show that CBC is effective in reducing pain.^[1]  The study was conducted on collagen-induced osteoarthritis. CBC was proven to be effective in alleviating the pain of this condition. 

The results are quite promising, as drugs often prescribed for this illness are NSAIDs. These drugs can come with various side effects as well as damage to the liver. Many people prefer to avoid it, so they swear by different cannabinoids to help them ease the pain.

 

CBD is also good for pain and inflammation. Many people claim that it works wonders for tackling pain of various injuries or illnesses. And, actually, one of the reasons that CBD is mainly used for is pain. 

There are studies proving the effectiveness of CBD for pain.^[2] This study is promising since there are various different illnesses that cause pain and can’t be treated without interference from drugs.

Using this natural method to deal with pain might come off as extremely beneficial to those who try to avoid the probable negative side effects of these medications. 

If you experience any kind of chronic pain, you could benefit from trying out CBD oil to ease it. Check out our best CBD oils for pain to choose the best one. 

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Depression

One more similarity worth mentioning in this CBC vs CBD guide is how both of these cannabinoids affect depression. It is said that CBC, as well as CBD, can help with easing some symptoms of depression. 

Depression is a serious and rather common mental illness. An interesting fact is that only around 40% of those who suffer from depression seek help.

While there’s still some stigma concerning mental illnesses, people are becoming more open when it comes to talking about it so it makes us hopeful that more and more people will seek help for this illness in the future.

Depressions symptoms include a feeling of helplessness, loss of interest, loss of energy, concentration problems, various aches, changes in sleep and weight and a few more rather negative symptoms. 

Studies suggest that working together, and producing the entourage effect, THC, CBD, CBC can produce antidepressant-like qualities. This is incredible news as the usual treatment for depression most often includes harsh drugs that come with various side effects. 

For example, one of the commonly prescribed drug’s, SSRI’s, side effects include suicidal tendencies, fatigue, lowered libido, drowsiness, nausea, and a few others. These side effects can cause a lot of distress. 

So, people who want to try to alleviate depression often end up searching for more natural ways to treat it. Many choose to try out CBD oil alongside their treatment. Oftentimes they claim that they got good results by doing that. So, it’s definitely worth mentioning in this CBC vs CBD guide. 

Acne 

One more illness that’s worth mentioning in this CBC vs CBD guide is acne. Both of these cannabinoids have been proven to be useful when it came to treating acne. CBD has been known to ease acne for some time now.

CBD is incorporated into cosmetics and various creams and lotions for the purpose of easing acne. But is there a need for CBD vs CBC comparison, or does CBC also offer these benefits?

In fact, studies show that including CBC in acne treatment is proven to be an effective way to ease the symptoms^[3]. Acne is a skin disease that’s categorized by excessive sebum production, and sebaceous gland inflammation. 

As you already know, both CBD and CBC are known for their anti-inflammatory qualities, so it isn’t that surprising that they eased the inflammation of the sebaceous gland. However, it has also been noted that CBC helped tremendously with excessive lipid production in the sebaceous glands. 

All these results mean a lot for people who struggle with acne. Sure, there are various drugs and ointments used for treating acne, but people go years before finding one that’s effective for them. There’s no need for CBC vs CBD as they both might just be the ones that actually work. 

Differences of CBC vs CBD

We’ve talked about the similarities of CBC vs CBD, but are there any differences when it comes to CBC oil vs CBD oil? Well, there are. After all, these two are quite different cannabinoids. 

Difficulty to Find

The main difference when it comes to CBC oil vs CBD oil is that one is very easy to find while looking for another one you might come across some troubles. I’m sure you can guess which one is which. However, the good news is that most of the CBD oils are also CBC oils. So, let's talk about how to get CBC from CBD oil in this comparison between CBD vs CBC.

There are three types of CBD oil. One of them is pure CBD isolates. Some people prefer this type of CBD for the fact that it contains only CBD. It might be most suitable for kids, or those who fear that they might not tolerate other cannabinoids or terpenes. 

There’s also broad-spectrum CBD oil. That means that it not only contains CBD but also other cannabinoids and terpenes. There are various claims that this type of CBD oil is more effective than pure isolates, as it offers other cannabinoids too, instead of having CBD only. 

Furthermore, there’s full-spectrum CBD oil. This CBD oil contains all the cannabinoids and terpenes found in the cannabis plant. A downside to some is that you can find THC in this CBD oil. However, it provides the entourage effect many people try to achieve.

The entourage effect is said to work better when treating illnesses or ailments than consuming pure CBD or any other cannabinoid only. Entourage effect occurs when all the cannabinoids work together synergetically, providing all the health benefits that the plant is able to provide. 

Which One Is Better?

Looking up a CBC vs CBD comparison, you probably want to know which one is better. You’ve learned that both of these cannabinoids provide their own health benefits. But how to choose between CBD vs CBC? 

The answer is that both of these cannabinoids would probably be beneficial to you. Having learned about the entourage effect, you should know that this is what you might want to achieve to get the most out of the oil you buy. 

However, when it comes to making research-based statements about CBC vs CBD, we can make way more positive claims about CBD rather than CBC. The reason for that is that CBD is way more well-researched than CBC due to its popularity. 

Sure, there are some studies proving that CBC is just as effective, but to some, it might not be enough. So, if you’re looking for a well-researched cannabinoid, make sure to check out CBD oil, to start getting the health benefits everyone seems to be praising CBD for.

However, if you’re keen on trying out CBC effects on you, you might want to invest in full-spectrum CBD oil. This way you’ll know that it will contain CBD  as well as all the other cannabinoids present in the plant. 

Conclusions 

With CBD oil becoming more and more popular people become eager to learn about all the other cannabinoids in the plant. One of them is CBC. But what is there to say when it comes to CBC vs CBD comparison. These two cannabinoids might be different but they share quite a few similar properties. 

However, they’re definitely not the same. The main difference would be their popularity. CBC is quite an underdog when compared to CBD. Despite that, it doesn’t mean that CBC can’t be as beneficial as CBD is. For the best results, you should seek the entourage effect.

If you’d like to try out some CBD oil, you should make sure you buy a high-quality product. To get that, you should check out our best CBD oils guide. 

Scientific References

Contributed by Diana Rangaves, PharmD

1. Maione S., Piscitelli F., Gatta L., et al. 'Non-psychoactive cannabinoids modulate the descending pathway of antinociception in anaesthetized rats through several mechanisms of action.'

2. Bruni N.,Pepa C., Dosio F. et al. 'Cannabinoid Delivery Systems for Pain and Inflammation Treatment'

3. Oláh O., Markovics A., Szabó-Papp J. Differential effectiveness of selected non-psychotropic phytocannabinoids on human sebocyte functions implicates their introduction in dry/seborrhoeic skin and acne treatment.'