For Westchester resident Jayni Chase, wife of actor Chevy Chase, life with a progressive disease began in May 2015, with innocuous symptoms: trouble sitting down and getting up off the floor, and a slightly swollen left knee. After what she calls “some confusing doctor’s appointments,” Jayni was diagnosed with seronegative rheumatoid arthritis, one of the two main types of RA.

               “My blood doesn’t have certain antibodies that can serve as helpful markers for seropositive RA patients,” she says. “Normally, doctors can use blood tests to detect the patient’s RA levels and determine whether certain drugs are lowering the antibodies. But because I have seronegative RA, the only way to judge where I am is through my symptoms—and I can tell you, this makes an already complicated disease even more complicated.”

               RA affects the joints, causing inflammation, swelling, pain and loss of mobility. The symptoms get worse over time, and the pain can be severe. In Jayni’s case, it often woke her up once or twice a night, although she’d always been a good sleeper.

               By early 2017, she had to have surgery on both her hands, which had essentially frozen stiff, making daily activities like brushing her teeth, dressing and cooking extremely difficult. The Chases’ youngest daughter, Emily, came home to help her mom recover from surgery.

               Emily had been living in Aspen, Colorado, where cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) were legal. She’d heard first-hand from friends in the industry how CBD was helping people with symptoms like Jayni’s—pain, inflammation, sleeplessness, and anxiety that was both causing flare-ups and keeping her awake at night.

               “Emily ordered CBD capsules for me, and I was actually shocked by how much they helped me,” Jayni recalls. “I did some research and discovered that I could take more, and the more I took, the more manageable my symptoms were.”

 

The Pharm Stand

It says a lot about Jayni’s experience with CBD that she was willing to invest in it both for her health and for her career.

               In October 2018, she met Jay Provost, the CEO of HATH, which produces a line of high-quality CBD products. Provost introduced her to Chris Singleton, an experienced businessman and competitive athlete who, like Jayni, had been pleasantly surprised by how much CBD had helped him. The three of them decided to open The Pharm Stand, in Armonk, selling hemp-derived CBD products, such as tinctures, gel caps, muscle rubs, creams, teas, chocolates and honey, as well as products for dogs, cats and horses.

                    The shop has been so successful that they’re planning to open a second one in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Jayni credits the quality of their products as well as the combined expertise of her partners.

     “Jay is very knowledgeable about all aspects of the hemp/CBD industry. He knows how to plan and build businesses,” she says. “Chris is skilled at retail design, employee training, product testing and ordering, getting a retail business up and running smoothly—you name it, Chris can do it. I feel so very lucky to have met these two wonderful men. They’re both smart, hardworking, honest, caring and just all-around really good guys.”

               The three of them opened The Pharm Stand because they consider their products life changing, and they wanted to make them as accessible as possible to people who need them, Jayni says.

               “I know CBD has changed my life for the better in many ways, and the chance that I can, along with Chris and Jay, help others live with less pain and anxiety, sleep better and have an all-around better quality of life makes me feel great,” she says. “All of us benefit from helping one another. I’m a team player, and when I can help others feel better in any way, the way I see it, my life is enriched tenfold.”

 

A Natural Solution

For Jayni, finding a natural way to manage her RA symptoms was a relief after a complicated journey through the world of pharmacology. Of the four prescription drugs she initially tried, only one significantly helped her.

               “Two of the others, known as biologics, come with a host of horrifying side effects,” she says. “RA is an autoimmune disease, so doctors prescribe these drugs to suppress the immune system. I experienced nausea, weakness and headaches. Congestive heart failure, blood clots, lung disease, gastrointestinal perforation and contracting infectious diseases—because these drugs suppress the immune system—are side effects I’m not willing to risk at this time, especially since the two biologics I tried didn’t help me at all.”

               Instead, she’s found that staying active, exercising regularly, eating well and taking CBD is keeping her RA at bay—and she thinks she might be getting better. 

               “I’ve found several CBD products that are helping me,” she says. “I love the HATH 24-hour time release transdermal patches. I have three favorite tinctures, two favorite rubs, three favorite gel caps, two favorite teas, and I even found some face creams I love. These are all products we carry at The Pharm Stand.”

Locations: The Pharm Stand, 15 Maple Ave., Armonk, NY, and (coming soon) 470 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT. For more info, call 914.219.4360, email [email protected] or visit The Pharm Stand - Armonk, NY.