Note to readers: This is part of our CBD For All series, where we share moving and inspiring stories of how real customers use our products. We sat down with a handful of customers who shared how Lazarus Naturals helps them feel healthier and more present in their daily lives. These are real stories from actual customers (not actors), but they did receive store credit in exchange for sharing their honest stories and experiences with CBD.
For Todd, fitness is more than a hobby or a healthy habit. It’s his passion – and his livelihood.
“I’m a rower,” he said. “I coach rowing, I row, and that's about it. When you're feeling good, and the boat is moving well, you feel like you're flying along the river.”
He discovered the sport as a college freshman, back in 1992.
“I saw a flier outside my college dorm and it said, ‘make friends, get fit.’” he recalled. “I went to the informational meeting, and they showed a video of these boats racing side by side. They crossed the finish line and everybody slumped over their oars and I thought to myself, ‘I can do that to myself. I can push myself physically hard. I can endure pain, you know.’ The team environment of the sport also drew me in.”
Though he stayed in shape and kept up with the grueling sport after graduation, it would be nearly 20 years before he took his rowing to the next level.
“I don't think I was good enough or committed enough when I was in my early 20s to really fulfill my rowing dreams or fantasies,” he said. “If you had told me 10 years ago that I'd be doing this now, it would be pretty shocking.”
But as his fitness was peaking, Todd noticed something was off – and it wasn’t normal aging or post-workout aches. His rowing stroke, which he had spent years perfecting, didn’t feel right. A small tremor in his left hand led to a shocking diagnosis of Young-Onset Parkinson's Disease in the summer of 2018.
Immediately his mind started racing. What would this mean for his relationship with his wife, Heather? His job as a coach? His future as a competitive rower?
“I couldn't imagine being a competitive athlete anymore, having Parkinson's,” he said. “I remember thinking to myself, like, maybe I can get back involved in the sport at a different level.”
But rowing is notorious for being a mental sport as much as a physical one – and Todd wasn’t ready to give up just yet.
Within a year, he had officially made the national team, and made his debut at the world championships in Linz, Austria. His boat came in sixth – “dead last,” he said. “That was like a little bit of a bummer.”
The race left him with a touch of imposter syndrome, which he leveraged as motivation to train harder. It paid off – he was named as an alternate for Tokyo, and he’ll compete in Paris in 2024.
To help him perform and recover, while coping with the symptoms of Parkinson’s, Todd uses Lazarus Naturals CBD.
After experimenting with “a bunch of different companies,” he chose Lazarus Naturals because the products were the only ones he found that made an impact.
On a daily basis, he turns to the CBD Softgels. He takes between 100 to 200 milligrams, “depending on how beat up I feel,” he said. “That'll take away some of my joint pain and muscle pain, and that actually helps with the tremor, too.”
Todd is dealing with both golfer's elbow and forearm tendonitis, so his bedtime routine includes CBD melatonin capsules as well as our CBD Balm Stick. The capsules help him fall asleep and stay asleep, which is important for both his overall health and his workout recovery.
Most importantly, all those CBD products are safe and legal for elite athletes like Todd, who are subject to drug testing.
“CBD in and of itself is not considered a performance-enhancing drug,” he said. “CBD by itself is great. The softgel capsules, I can take as much as I want.”
For Todd, recovery is as important to his regimen as the work he does out on the water. He’ll be 50 when he competes in Paris, which he said will be his last global competition.
“I'm by far the oldest person there,” he said. “If I do a crazy hard workout, it's going to take me a day or two to recover, as opposed to say, you know, just 12 hours when I was 25.”
But with age comes experience and wisdom, so Todd knows exactly how to help his body recover, even if it takes a bit longer. On the good days as well as the bad, he tries to focus on what’s around him.”
Parkinson's, he said, “makes you sort of live in the moment a little bit,” he said. “It gives you the sense of trying to appreciate the present moment a little more.”