Without a doubt, Cannabidiol (CBD), the cannabis-derived compound that’s sweeping the nation, is one of the hottest topics of the health and wellness world. While the power of word of mouth has certainly gone a long way, the movement CBD has stimulated would not be possible without breakthroughs discovered by scientific researchers.
In this article, we’re going to discuss 5 groundbreaking CBD studies everyone and anyone who uses CBD must know about.
1. The Discovery of the Endocannabinoid System (1992)
Raphael Mechoulam is often credited as the Father of Cannabis. Through the whole 20th century, he and his team isolated tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD, and uncovered endogenous cannabinoids, the body’s built-in receptors for cannabinoid compounds. In 1992, Mechoulam could determine that the endocannabinoids were part of a far more substantial system in the torso that is associated with other systems and plays an important role in regulating neural functions. Known as the Endocannabinoid System, this study got easy for other scientists to examine cannabinoids in relation to immune functions and medical disorders.
Source: Cannabinoid Pharmacology: The First 66 Years
2. The Discovery of How CBD Can Effectively Deter Nerve Damage (1998)
In the first to mid-1900s, cannabis use was pegged as a counterculture, “stoner” activity and even thought to damage the body’s cells. From the century’s last decade, and with the valuable discovery of the endocannabinoid system, it became clear that cannabinoids had the opposite, preservative effect. Scientist A.J. Hampson and his team studied the consequences of CBD in rat nerve cells and revealed that CBD could reverse glutamate toxicity (the over-excitation of nerve cells that can result in cell death). This study predicted that CBD would become valuable for treating psychosis over its psychoactive counterparts-which scientists are able to confirm now, predicated on more complex clinical trials.
Source: Cannabidiol and Delta-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol are Neuroprotective Agents
3. The Discovery of CBD as a Potential Treatment for Cancer (2011 and 2012)
By 2011, researchers believed CBD could become a cure for cancer, but as we’ve mentioned, they didn’t understand the molecular mechanisms that allowed the body to accomplish this. A team of scientists from Boston could actually pinpoint that CBD actually signals apoptosis (cell death) and autophagy (the recycling of cellular components) to kill or diminish cancerous cells. Research on cancer and CBD reaches its first stages still, compared to other fields, however, the foundational understanding from the scholarly study better helps scientists design future studies.
Source(s): Cannabidiol as a Potential Anti-Cancer Drug; Pathways Mediating the Effects of Breast Cancer Cell Proliferation, Invasion, and Metastasis
4. The Discovery of CBD as an Effective Treatment for Mental Disorders (2012)
Mental illnesses have been misunderstood long, but cannabinoids have played an intrinsic role in assisting scientists to grasp how to look after them. This scholarly study, published in Translational Psychiatry, hypothesized that they could leverage CBD’s ability to signal anandamide-a neurotransmitter known as the “bliss molecule” that influences happiness, memory, motivation, pain, and more in order to look after severe schizophrenia. The experiment largely was successful, after scientists compared the full total results of those getting cannabidiol to the control group. Before this scholarly study, scientists knew CBD may potentially alleviate mental symptoms but didn’t necessarily understand how.
Source: Cannabidiol Enhances Anandamide Signaling and Alleviates Psychotic Symptoms of Schizophrenia
5. The Discovery of CBD as an Effectivement Treatment for Epilepsy (2017)
In 2018, the FDA approved a CBD-based pharmaceutical for the first time, as an entire consequence of the clinical trial outcome. Known as Epidiolex It’s, and it showed significant leads to clinical trials funded by GW Pharmaceuticals and led by NY University researchers. The trials viewed children with Dravet syndrome, an advanced form of childhood epilepsy with seizures that resist most types of medication. By the finish of the 14-week period, the majority of children saw reduced intensity and frequency of seizures. This example shows promise for those with seemingly incurable conditions.
Source: Cannabinoids in the Treatment of Epilepsy: Hard Evidence at Last?
These are just five of the many scientific studies that have been done on CBD, with more and more being performed each year. As more and more researchers continue to evaluate not only CBD but the many other cannabinoids and terpenes found in cannabis, we can truly unlock the full potential that the cannabis plant has to offer.
