HempHealth in St. Charles providing natural remedy

ST. CHARLES – John Sabatino has had to have a couple of reconstructive foot surgeries because he was born with clubfoot.

"I've always struggled with chronic pain," he said. "But I don't like to take any kind of prescription drugs to help with pain because they affect me negatively."

Sabatino has turned to CBD to help with the pain. His store, HempHealth, which opened recently at 615 Randall Road, Unit 115, St. Charles, wants to educate people on the health benefits of CBD.

Together with the St. Charles Chamber of Commerce, HempHealth will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening celebration at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Along with high dosage oils, HempHealth has a health and beauty line, edibles, pet products and an organic flower selection

Sabatino and Joey Sanfilippo are two of the four owners involved in the operation. They try to educate their customers about CBD and its health benefits.

"There's really not enough education about the product right now," Sanfilippo said. 'We want to create an environment where we can teach and educate and start a conversation about the benefits of CBD."

He noted they cannot make medical claims about the benefits of CBD because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved CBD products in general for the treatment of any disease or condition. FDA has approved Epidiolex, which contains a purified form of the drug substance CBD for the treatment of seizures.

"If we have people talking about it and explaining their experiences with CBD and how CBD is helping them, we feel that is probably the best approach right now," Sanfilippo said.

Like the store's name, they hope that the products sold at HempHealth will improve the health of those who walk into the store.

"The majority of our clients are people anywhere from 30 and older that just have aches and pains or anxiety or depression," Sabatino said. "They just want to be able to cope with that."

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is one of the more than 100 cannabinoids discovered so far in the cannabis plant. CBD does not contain THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana that gives the high sensation.

HempHealth manufactures the majority of its products.

"The HempHealth brand is focused on quality," Sabatino said.

All of the store's products have a QR code on them that says "CBD compliant."

"Anyone can pull up the test results on that product and see what's exactly in that product," Sanfilippo said. "If there are any inconsistencies with the product, we toss it out. All of our products test to the highest quality around."

Sabatino attributed the high interest in CBD these days to more and more people seeking out natural remedies.

"People don't like to take medication," he said. "Do you want to take Zoloft for the rest of your life because you've been suffering from depression or anxiety? I would rather just take something natural. Natural remedies are really what consumers want."

HempHealth is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays. More information is available at HempHealth's website, hemphealthnow.net.