My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015.
Luckily it was caught before it spread and this is not a sob story. Instead it’s the story of how I was introduced to CBD and why our CBD products perform the way they do.
When it all went down with my mom - Win is her name - I knew she had excellent doctors and all the latest advancements in western medicine behind her. When I asked her though about how she was planning on changing her diet and what sort of alternative health practices she was using or considering all I got was a blank look. It was then that I took it upon myself to do a deep dive into this world and make sure my mom had the best of both conventional and alternative health care.
When I brought it home that night to my mom who was staying with me, she was apprehensive
Living in Boulder, Colorado, where nutrition is religion and everyone is just begging for the opportunity to proclaim their stance on a favorite superfood/adaptogen/shamanic journey/tree frog poison/etc, it wasn’t hard to find advice. One thing that kept coming up from people I trusted most was CBD.
Since I couldn’t picture my mom becoming a regular at the local weed dispensary, I was relieved to learn hemp-derived CBD could be purchased at our local health food store. I cruised over there and picked up two bottles – one for my mom and one for me – of what the saleswoman, Jahna, recommended. Jahna explained it would not only help with my mom’s issues, but also with the pain and inflammation I was experiencing as an endurance athlete. I’d promised my mom that whatever I advised her to do to be healthier would be thoroughly researched and I’d do right alongside her.
When I brought it home that night to my mom who was staying with me, she was apprehensive.
“I’ve never gotten high before,” she admitted. “Is it legal?”
I told her she was about to get stoned beyond belief and that the cops would be at the door any minute. Then I told her the truth – that CBD will not get you high, that I had bought it at the grocery store, and that it is most famous for helping kids with seizures.
We made a toast to good health and the pursuit thereof and swallowed it down.
my mom made the difficult decision to forego chemotherapy
The next morning, my mom reported feeling much better. Her pain had dissipated, she felt a sense of calm, and she had slept well for the first time in a while. I had not told her what the specific effects of CBD were likely to be and yet there she was describing each of them to me. She took to it immediately and began using it morning and night.
With CBD as one pillar, movement and exercise as another (walking and running as many as ten miles per day), and an extremely healthy plant-based nutrition plan in place, my mom made the difficult decision to forego chemotherapy. It seemed counterintuitive to her to purposely subject herself to such sickness. Instead, her plan was to double down on the very best foods, vitamins, minerals, adaptogens, movement, and thought patterns she could come up with.
My sisters and I were concerned. We were all for anything that could even slightly reduce the chances of her cancer returning, and chemo was what the doctors were recommending. That said, we’ve always been pretty hip to the powers of a healthy lifestyle, partly because of our mom, and so we got behind her for better or worse.
In the years since, she’s kept that healthy lifestyle up, refining and improving it along the way, and I’m thrilled to report she is cancer-free. Not only that, but she’s super healthy and kicking butt! She founded a running club in the U.A.E. where she’s a professor and ran the Ras Al Khaima Half Marathon a few months ago. I spoke with her recently on her 65th birthday and she told me she feels twenty years younger. Her doctors have come around, advising her to keep doing whatever it is she’s been doing to maintain her health.
This is how my my quest to find the best natural remedies started, as many good things do, out of necessity and love. I see my mom’s face and feel her energy in everything we are attempting at Ned. She is every one of our customers, and every one of them is her. This is why we hold ourselves and our products to such high standards. It’s why we refuse to cut corners, and in fact go to extreme extra lengths to create the very best, mom-worthy products.
In the end, the same promise I made to her, I make to my business and each of its customers: the best of everything and nothing I wouldn’t use myself. Although this can make things more difficult, as long as we continue to lead with love and accept nothing but the best, the healthier I know our business and customers will be.
