The following blog post is sponsored by Lacuna Botanicals.
Q&A with Chris Diaz, CEO and cofounder, Lacuna Botanicals
How did Lacuna get its start? Lacuna took an early pioneering step in 2015 with the first purpose-built luxury spa product line to use CBD. Lacuna is a botanical term that means “gap” or “void” in Latin. The gap we set out to fill was between the everyday pain and ailments that keep people from living life to its fullest. We wanted to design products that were not only more effective than drugstore synthetic pills but were also based on nature’s best botanicals. We were “born at altitude” in Colorado, where we love all kinds of outdoor activities like skiing, climbing, hiking, etc. These all cause pain and inflammation. We wanted to design practical, everyday life tools based on nature that let us do all the things we love.
What sets Lacuna apart from other suppliers? Our Deep Tissue Massage Cream was designed from the ground up specifically for full-body massage. It is not just a simple lotion with CBD in it. We use a broad spectrum of the world’s most effective essential oils, plant terpenes, and botanicals in our formulations, not just CBD. Every essential oil and component was chosen for its excellent pain/inflammation-relieving properties. We also designed our formulations with transdermal properties to get the CBD down through skin layers to the muscles and joints to make them more effective.
Are there any myths about CBD that need clarification? One common myth is that CBD doesn’t work without also having THC. This is completely not true. It is a misrepresentation of the idea behind the entourage effect, which says that full-spectrum hemp extract performs better than CBD isolate. Other cannabinoids, as well as terpenes and flavonoids, work together synergistically for better performance. Lacuna believes in the entourage effect completely but feels that terpenes are an especially important part of that equation. Some people focus only on other cannabinoids helping, and because the most commonly known other cannabinoid is THC, people misconstrue the entourage effect to mean that CBD only works if THC is also present. We’re not at all against THC, but in the current legal landscape across the country it represents considerable risk for spas and massage therapists to use it. We’ve had remarkable results with our spas and therapists without using THC, and for the time being, the risks to massage therapists, spas, and clients that come with using THC outweigh the benefits of using it for massage.
What are the benefits of CBD? Relief of pain and inflammation are the most common benefits. Massage is physically demanding for the bodyworker. It takes a toll on hands, feet, and back for many therapists or limits the number of sessions they can do each day. Aside from just helping the client feel relief, our therapists and spas routinely report experiencing a great deal of relief themselves.
How does a therapist know when they’re working with a quality supplier and quality products? A good supplier should be very transparent about their formulations and they should make sense. Massage therapists and spas should look for suppliers who are easy to work with and use top-notch ingredients. We meticulously source the best ingredients from around the globe, including growing our own hemp here in Colorado.
For more information on Lacuna Botanicals' farm to massage table CBD products, visit www.lacunabotanicals.com/abmp.