By Amy Box Fellhoelter
“I’m a CBD believer! I haven’t taken any prescription pain medication since using CBD oil. It allowed me to walk again,” said Maryville resident Bob Parker. After being hospitalized last year for more than 70 days because of stage four kidney failure, pain left Parker unable to walk for three months. “I started taking it about four months ago, and after using the 500mg strength broad band spectrum oil once a day for four days, I could walk again with no issues,” he explained.
Reduced or eliminated pain and anxiety through the use of Cannabidiol oil, or CBD oil, for various medical conditions are the testimonials that can also be heard loudly from the family members, friends, and friends of friends of Tony and Kathy Thomas. As owners of WalkUp Too Wellness – a full spectrum CBD shop off of Asheville Highway – they offer merchandise derived only from locally grown, all natural, high-quality hemp that is locally processed using CO2 extraction for the purest products available.
As a veteran who suffered from back pain, Tony Thomas was informed by the Veterans Affairs that opioids would no longer be issued to him to help alleviate his pain. After carrying out lots of research into finding an alternative without side effects, Thomas tried CBD oils which relieved 90 percent of his pain and gave him a renewed quality of life he hadn’t experienced in years.
“He’s always showing everybody that he can bend … he will get down on the floor and get back up,” shared Kathy Thomas.
“We bought $5,000 worth of products. We wanted to do our own testing to get actual responses of the amount of relief that was achieved,” stated Thomas after buying a large supply of CBD oils from a local parent company in various strengths and giving away the products to 1,000 people who suffered from varied ailments. “I wanted to find something that we could help others. We got rave reviews. The response was overwhelming and extremely positive. So, we decided that we would open a small business to try and help as many people as we could, and make it affordable to all so everyone could afford it and gain the quality of life they needed,” he added.
WalkUp Too Wellness opened its doors on April 1, 2019, in East Knoxville. The Thomas family has heard personal experiences from customers who have taken their CBD oil and are no longer battling a brain tumor, back pain, gout, brain fog, anxiety, carpal tunnel, and migraine headaches.
“It’s taking the pains away. I’ve known kids who were having 18 to 20 seizures a month, first month on it and they’re only have two seizures a month, and next may only have one or none,” Thomas told The Focus.
The state of Tennessee considers CBD oil made from industrial hemp, not marijuana plants, to be legal. It is a unique chemical compound found only in the hemp or cannabis plant that is antipsychotic, unlike THC or tetrahydrocannabinol. In fact, according to research published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, CBD counteracts the negative effects of THC. When CBD is activated, it turns on specific receptors that influence bodily functions which can cause positive effects. Such effects are: reduced nausea, suppressed seizures, lessened swelling and inflammation, reduced size of tumor and cancer cells, ability to combat depression, mediate psychotic disorders, and temper neurodegenerative disorders.
“It’s a God given plant. What I like about it is zero side effects. You don’t feel any different. Because it has 0.0% THC, you don’t get high,” said Thomas. He added that the oil doesn’t produce any long-term side effects and people don’t build up a tolerance when it is ingested.
Thomas listens to the needs of his customers to help them find the right product with the correct CBD dose depending on their weight, ailment, and severity of pain or anxiety. Of the more than 1,000 people who have tried their products, “between 1 and 1.5 percent have told me it doesn’t work for them,” clarified Thomas.
If you’re skeptical and haven’t researched CBD oil, you are welcome to peruse through Thomas’ notebook of paperwork from third-party research labs proving all of their products, except for their flower, contain 0.0 percent THC. Their products are also vegan and cruelty free, and handmade in small batches to assure the best quality possible.
The Thomas family is offering first-time customers a special pricing of any 500mg strength full spectrum CBD Oil, which comes in nine flavors, for $29.95. “We are trying to give people a good product that I know will help them at a fair price,” said Thomas.
Besides the more popular CBD oils, WalkUp Too Wellness provides an array of other CBD products from sticks, flowers, and rollers, to vapes, hand sanitizers, bath bombs and body crèmes. Customers can choose from varying strengths and sizes of CBD for each of these products. For more information, call Tony Thomas at (865)249-8504, visit www.walkuptoowellness.com or search for their Walk Up Too Wellness Facebook page to read a few testimonials yourself.
