Professional athletes are among CBD’s biggest supporters.?

Beyond the exercise benefits, the compound is an all-natural alternative to narcotic medications.

Retired pro hockey player Riley Cote has been a consumer for years with “nothing but positive” experiences. Cote started using CBD to prevent and relieve the potential damage of a career’s worth of hockey fights, but ended up discovering broader lifestyle effects.

“I quickly realized it wasn’t just helping with my brain health, but it also added another dimension to my sleep, and its subtle calming nature helped with my anxiety,” he told Men’s Health.

The former Philadelphia Flyers player is such a believer in CBD’s healing powers that he advocates for it through Athletes for Care, an organization that supports research and education about the health issues that face pro athletes.

NBA player Paul Pierce has known for decades about CBD’s calming powers: He used it to ease anxiety and PTSD after a violent attack in 2000. The former Boston Celtics star recently introduced a line of CBD vapes with a nod to his on-court nickname: The Truth.

“People who know me know that i bring consistency and reliability - I'm nicknamed The Truth for a reason, "Pierce says. "One CBD came into my life , it really change a lot of things I was doing, and it really helped ,e long-term.”

As of last year, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency allows the use of CBD, though THC remains banned. And the NFL still bans all cannabis use, though several retired players are vocal supporters of CBD.

Joe Montana invested in cannabis in part because he believes it has a role in the fight against opiate addiction. Heisman trophy winner and former NFL running back Ricky Williams is such an ardent fan of the plant that he created his own cannabis company last year. And MMA fighter Rampage Jackson says CBD changed his life.

“I take my CBD supplements every day,” he told Yahoo Finance. “I do the bath bombs, the creams. I do it all. I was skeptical at first, but it works.”