Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Sixty thousand people die of cardiovascular complications in the US annually. But is there anything natural like CBD that might help the heart’s overall health? Let’s find out.
The best way to keep your heart healthy is to exercise regularly and to have a balanced diet. This is what healthcare providers recommend.
However, CBD may be used as an alternative treatment to improve cardiovascular health and prevent heart disease.
While CBD may not directly target the vast range of cardiovascular conditions, from atherosclerosis to pericardial disease, studies indicate that the compound might treat blood pressure and inflammation — symptoms at the heart of most cardiovascular conditions.
What Is Heart Disease?
Heart disease has many names. The most common is atherosclerosis, characterized by the hardening of arteries around the coronary walls.
In this condition, arteries lose their fibrous quality, becoming less elastic and consequently pressuring the heart. This leads to the buildup of harmful cholesterol in the arterial walls, which clogs vital cardiovascular channels, contributing to hypertension and high blood pressure in individuals.
When the heart’s blood flow is compromised, it cannot receive enough oxygen to sustain its function. In such a situation, heart cells die off. This stops the supply of oxygenated blood to vital parts of the body, leading to widespread organ damage.
These complications especially pose a life-threatening danger to anemic patients who already have a dwindling red blood cell count and need a constant supply of oxygenated blood to stay healthy.
When the heart’s blood circulation is compromised, a person’s ability to clot blood is also affected. As a result, the blood thickens, leading to the formation of stroke-causing clots. This is why stroke and heart disease often share a common link and why so many healthcare providers prescribe blood thinners to heart and stroke patients.
Once heart disease progresses to an advanced stage, it’s impossible to overturn. That’s why early diagnosis and prevention are the best courses of action.
CBD Oil for Heart Disease
Treating High Blood Pressure
Mental relaxation is one of the most reported effects of cannabis. This helps lower stress and reduce pressure on the heart.
However, it is only CBD that has this therapeutic influence on the heart. Not THC, which is another cannabis-based compound known for inducing a high, causing negative psychoactive effects and altering consciousness. If you have an underlying mental condition, such as schizophrenia, THC may also exacerbate it and cause you to have psychoactive episodes involving hallucinations and delirium.
Many studies suggest CBD may play a role in lowering blood pressure.
In one study, researchers administered 600 mg of CBD oil and placebo to male participants. They kept a close look at their blood pressure and cold stress during the study. The patients who were given CBD blood pressure dropped by five percent, whereas the placebo group experienced little to no change. Although this research isn’t conclusive enough to peddle CBD as a replacement for conventional medications like metoprolol, it’s a good start.
Reducing Inflammation
CBD’s anti-inflammatory properties are because of the way it interacts with the Endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system is a vast network of cell receptors that stretch throughout the human body and regulate important physiological functions, including inflammation.
CBD’s ability to tap into this system and influence its activity may help heart patients address inflammatory concerns exacerbating their cardiovascular conditions. An overactive inflammation is one of the most predominant reasons behind artery damage and thickening. That’s why scientific investigations are trying to understand how CBD may affect vital inflammatory pathways.
One study conducted on mice explored how CBD affected oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is also one of the prime culprits behind heart disease and inflammation. The study yielded promising results, with the rats experiencing a reduction in overall stress and less cell death with CBD use in controlled doses.
Fighting Arrhythmia
Aside from the benefits mentioned above, CBD may also help treat arrhythmia. Arrhythmia is the irregular beating of one’s heart, and it’s often an early indicator of debilitating heart health. There’s hope that doctors will prescribe CBD pills to curb the onslaught of this insidious and terrible disease in the not-so-distant future. Rodent-based CBD studies to treat arrhythmia have painted a promising picture of the compound’s cardiovascular benefits.
All of this scientific investigation on CBD for heart disease is promising. However, before you reach out to your cardiologist and request approval for a CBD-based alternative for your heart condition, you should keep some things in mind.
Most doctors will not recommend these products because the research on them is inconclusive. CBD science is still in its infancy. Hence, most of the evidence we have to validate CBD’s cardiovascular effects is a result of animal-based studies. Unfortunately, animal models don’t equate to extensive human clinical trials. Therefore can’t be used as a frame of reference to authenticate CBD’s medical value.
While CBD has an excellent safety profile, you should still practice caution. There are some side effects you should know of, such as dry mouth and diarrhea. Also, if you’re on prescription drugs, CBD may interact with them and cause adverse reactions. According to one study, CBD may inhibit or stimulate the efficacy of 60% of the pharmaceutical drugs available in the market.
Final Thoughts on CBD for Heart Disease
As more and more scientific investigations shed light on CBD’s ability to combat heart disease, the notion that the compound may be used as a viable treatment for different cardiovascular conditions will catch pace.
Besides heart disease, CBD has also shown an impressive potential to treat various other related illnesses, such as social anxiety disorder and epilepsy. In 2018, the FDA approved the first CBD-based oral solution to treat two severe forms of pediatric epilepsy called Epidiolex.
Before using CBD in any form, whether oils, tinctures, or edibles, you should make sure to verify the extraction method and source. Your CBD oil should come from hemp and not marijuana. Furthermore, the vendor must’ve used supercritical C02 extraction to purify your products. Both these considerations are necessary; otherwise, your CBD product may contain dangerous levels of psychoactive THC.
The best way to keep your heart healthy is to exercise regularly and to have a balanced diet. This is what healthcare providers recommend.
However, CBD may work as a treatment to improve cardiovascular health and prevent heart disease.
While CBD may not directly target the vast range of cardiovascular conditions, from atherosclerosis to pericardial disease, studies indicate that the compound might treat blood pressure and inflammation — symptoms at the heart of most cardiovascular conditions.
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