The emergence of CBD has taken the health sector by storm. The currently available information suggests that it may have positive effects on different types of health, it helps with physical health, and social health as it is a mood booster.
There are effective CBD products for anxiety and depression in the market to improve users’ mental health. Owing to this versatility, information available on popular sites portrays CBD as a better alternative for almost every disease than traditional medicine. But how can one compound help in the management of so many conditions? Let’s explore this further.
The Endocannabinoid System
The Endocannabinoid System (ECS) is a relatively newly discovered organ system. Its purpose is to maintain homeostatic balance, and it is the most widespread organ system in the body. It is found in the brain and virtually all other organs, which is why CBD and other cannabinoids affect many parts of the body in different ways.
The ECS is made up of 3 different parts: cannabinoid receptors, cannabinoids, and metabolizing hormones. The body generates cannabinoids internally when there is a need to restore balance, e.g., when a person has a fever, inflammation, or pain, and they connect with cannabinoid receptors.
Metabolizing hormones destroy cannabinoids once they achieve the purpose they were generated for. CBD and other cannabinoids found in plants are referred to as phytocannabinoids. Plant cannabinoids connect with receptors just like endocannabinoids. This is how CBD gets to have its effect on the body.
What Research Says
There is a lot of ongoing research concerning the effectiveness of CBD in the management of various conditions. Some of the areas where findings have shown the most promise are diseases where patients have to take medicines with side effects for chronic conditions. One such situation is when a patient is dealing with anxiety or chronic pain.
Another area where research has proven CBD to be effective is in managing intractable cases of epilepsy, especially in children. Dravet Syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome are forms of epilepsy that don’t respond to traditional medicines, but they respond to CBD. CBD’s effectiveness has been well proven enough for the FDA to approve the use of Epidiolex, a CBD-based drug for seizures.
Conclusion
Most of the CBD studies are still being conducted on animals, so there is no real knowledge of how humans would react under the same conditions. It is, however, clear its effects reach many parts of the body, and it is mild with minimal side effects.
CBD’s high lethal dose is virtually impossible to attain which means the user is unlikely to overdose on it. There have been suggestions that being a stabilizer of homeostasis, CBD often reduces the subjective symptoms of a condition but does not treat the underlying causes.
We still need traditional medicine to cure the underlying causes of sicknesses, and CBD cannot do that. Currently, CBD should be taken as a supplement alongside prescription medicine at the advice of a doctor.
