Healthspan has recently expanded its extensive range of health supplements to include a small selection of CBD products. For the last ten days, I’ve been trying their 6.4mg CBD capsules. I used a pack of thirty, which contains a total of 192mg of CBD, but you can also get a box of sixty with 384mg.
The capsules are tiny, measuring only 9mm, which is ideal if you usually struggle to swallow large pills or tablets. The shell is made from gelatin and glycerin, so they’re not suitable for vegans or vegetarians. Inside you get a blend of hemp oil, terpenes and olive oil. Healthspan doesn’t say this is an isolate product, but it could be because they don’t mention any other cannabinoids or say that the extract is broad or full-spectrum.
What particularly surprises me about the entire Healthspan CBD range is their use of phrases like ‘high-strength’ and ‘super-strength’ (as they do on their 5% CBD oil). These 6.4mg capsules are labelled as ‘high-strength’. In the UK you can purchase CBD capsules in a broad range of concentrations ranging from 3mg to 50mg CBD. Consequently, this makes a 6.4mg capsule better described as low strength. Calling it anything else comes across as misinformation.
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Contents
Who is Healthspan?
Healthspan is one of the largest online health supplement stores serving the UK. It was founded in 1996 by Derek Coates and began as a small mail-order supplier of vitamins and supplements. Since then their product range has expanded and now includes nutritional supplements, herbal products, skincare, cosmetics and even veterinary supplements.
Their range of CBD products is made in Guernsey with hemp farmed in the EU. The hemp is extracted using CO2 to reduce the risk of contamination. After extraction, the cannabinoids are fully decarboxylated to convert CBDa into its active form of CBD.
The packaging of all the Healthspan CBD products includes lots of useful details including ‘what is CBD?’ and ‘recommended intake’; however, it would be helpful to see more specific information. Such as, where exactly is the hemp farmed, what other cannabinoids are present in the extract and what terpenes are contained in the oil.
3rd Party Lab Tests
Some of the third-party lab results for Healthspan CBD products are available on the product page, but they’ve chosen to publish them in the form of a ‘statement of results’ and not the original certificates.
This means that we only get to see their interpretation of the results and not the actual analysis. For example, the only information given is that the levels of CBD and THC fall within acceptable ranges:
CBD = 6.1 to 7.4 mg per capsule (Complies)
THC < 1 mg per container (Complies)
No doubt, this is vital detail, but there is nothing to say what the exact measure of each cannabinoid is or if any others were tested for or detected.
Each box of capsules has a batch number that can be matched with the number your product came from. At the moment there is only one batch, but it looks like they will add each new one as it’s released.
Ease of Use
Capsules are probably the most straightforward way to take a precise amount of CBD, particularly if you need to take them with you and use them when you’re on the go. Because these soft gels are so small, they’re even more manageable than most. They come in a useful blister pack, so you don’t even need to pack the entire box.
Usually, you need to sip water to help swallow a capsule, but I found that the most convenient method with these was to bite them open, let the oil sit under my tongue for 60 seconds and then swallow the remaining soft gel.
Healthspan CBD Capsules Taste
The capsules are as close to flavourless as you’re going to get so if you don’t like the taste of hemp, they’re ideal. However, if you don’t mind the flavour, you can bite them open to increase the absorption by holding the oil under your tongue. The taste of the oil is grassy and slightly bitter but not overpowering or unpleasant.
Potency/ Effectiveness
I chose to take the maximum recommended amount of three capsules per day, which gave me a daily measure of 19.2mg of CBD each day. This is quite a small amount for which is another reason I chose to enhance the effects by biting them open and holding the oil under my tongue.
They weren’t particularly potent, but I did notice an improvement in my headaches and I also slept reasonably well throughout the ten days. In the future, I’d pair them with another CBD product to make them more effective.
Value for Money
A pack of thirty 6.4mg capsules is £15.95 and sixty is £29.95. If you choose to join the Healthspan subscribe and save scheme, you can save £3 of each order after your first full-price purchase. At the original price, it works out as 53p per capsule or 50p per capsule. That’s also the equivalent of 10p per mg and 8p per mg, respectively.
These tiny soft gel capsules aren’t as well priced as some, but they’ve still got a lot to offer. Love CBD Entourage Capsules provide 1mg of CBD for only 6p. However, with Healthspan, you get tiny capsules that you can easily chew open and hold under your tongue. They’re not particularly potent in their own right, but they’ll make an excellent addition to your routine if you take them alongside some other CBD products. Unfortunately, what lets them down is the lack of concrete details about the hemp and cannabinoids found in the capsule. ‘Statements of analysis’ are not adequate substitutes for allowing customers to view the actual third-party lab results.
Would I Buy Again?
No, I wouldn’t buy Healthspan CBD capsules again. Transparency is important in all the products we recommend here and Healthspan capsules do not come close to the levels we expect. If you want to know which capsules we recommend, check out our best CBD capsules review article and see which have performed best in our testing.
Healthspan CBD Capsules Final Scores
Healthspan 6.4mg CBD Capsules Review
Overall
Healthspan’s 6.4mg capsules come in packs of 30 or 60 and are only 9mm long. They’re not suitable for vegetarians or vegans because the soft gel shell contains gelatin. Inside is CO2 extracted hemp oil, terpenes and olive oil. They’re made with EU hemp which may contain traces of THC. A third-party lab conducts tests, but Healthspan chooses not to share them; instead, they report some key information in their own statement documents. They were small enough for me to swallow them without water and they're easy to bite open depending on how you prefer to take them. They weren’t particularly potent, so would work better alongside other products such as oils or pastes to boost your overall cannabinoid intake.
Third-party lab results
4
Ease of use
10
Potency/effectiveness
7.5
Value for money
7
Pros
Detailed information on the box and website
Made with an olive oil carrier
CO2 extracted
Only 9mm long
Can be bitten open to allow the oil to sit under your tongue for faster absorption.
Cons
The third-party lab results are paraphrased and presented as a simple statement.
They contain gelatin so aren’t suitable for vegans or vegetarians.
Label indicates they are "high strength" when they are not.
