Most Australians turn to cannabidiol (CBD) to help with existing issues, such as anxiety, pain, arthritis, and insomnia.
However, this non-psychoactive cannabis compound also holds potential as preventative medicine. After all, CBD supports the healthy functioning of the whole body through its interaction with the endocannabinoid system.
There’s also a growing number of studies demonstrating that CBD can help prevent a variety of chronic health disorders. Here’s how CBD can support your general health and help prevent disease.
CBD’s Holistic Health Benefits
The key to CBD’s general health benefits is its interaction with the endocannabinoid system.
Discovered in the early 1990s, this system is composed of endocannabinoids (cannabinoids made by the human body), enzymes that build and break down these compounds, and the cannabinoid receptors they function through.
The endocannabinoid system regulates essential processes such as immunity, inflammation, mood, pain, stress, metabolism, appetite, and sleep to maintain an internal state of balance called homeostasis. In other words, it helps keep these processes functioning at just the right level: not too much and not too little.
This helps explain why unlike most pharmaceutical medicines, which have very specific health effects, CBD has the potential to benefit virtually every aspect of our health.
For example, whereas a prescription sleep medication might only help you with insomnia, CBD taken for sleep can also improve anxiety, pain, inflammation, headaches, nausea, and many other issues.
More importantly, CBD is something you can take regularly to maintain overall well-being without worrying about side effects.
The bottom line is that CBD can bring the whole body into balance and help maintain general health because the endocannabinoid system regulates every essential biological process.
CBD and Disease Prevention
Given CBD’s wide-ranging effects, it’s not surprising that researchers are finding that it can work as preventative medicine for a wide variety of conditions.
Cardiovascular Disorders
CBD has been shown to protect against many of the risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease. More specifically, there’s evidence that CBD can:
- Reduce elevated blood pressure, heart rate, and stress
- Protect against atherosclerosis: the buildup of plaque in blood vessels
- Reduce the risk of heart attack by protecting against myocardial ischemia (insufficient heart blood supply)
Neurodegenerative Disorders
As we age, the brain is increasingly susceptible to neurodegenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease.
CBD has neuroprotective, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties that can safeguard the brain against this neurodegeneration. As concluded by researchers in 2017, “CBD may constitute a promising therapeutic agent for the prevention/treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.”
There’s even evidence that CBD can boost adult neurogenesis: the creation of new neurons (brain cells) in the adult brain.
Bone Disorders
Furthermore, CBD and other cannabinoids can boost bone metabolism: the ongoing cycle through which old bone is replaced by new, stronger bone material. In doing so, CBD can help prevent osteoporosis and other age-related bone disorders.
For example, a 2010 review paper of multiple studies found that cannabinoids can both promote new bone growth and reduce bone resorption: the process through which bones are broken down. More specifically, a 2009 study found that CBD decreases bone resorption.
Diabetes
CBD may also help prevent diabetes. One 2006 animal study looked at the effects of CBD in preventing type 1 diabetes in mice susceptible to the disease. Only 30% of the mice treated with CBD developed diabetes, compared to 86% for their untreated counterparts. Similarly, a 2007 cell study found that CBD can protect against the various complications of diabetes.
Cancer
There’s even evidence that CBD can help prevent cancer. For example, a 2012 study in mice found that CBD protected them against colon cancer. Furthermore, a 2006 study demonstrated that out of five tested cannabinoids, CBD was the best at preventing breast cancer cell growth.
Conditions Linked to Inflammation
Chronic inflammation is arguably the number one driver of disease, implicated in all of the conditions we discussed above. Since CBD has potent anti-inflammatory effects, it can help prevent and slow down the development of many different conditions.
Full Spectrum CBD Oil for Maintaining General Health
In short, CBD can help prevent disease and maintain overall health and wellness by supporting the endocannabinoid system.
There’s evidence that CBD can work as preventative medicine for a wide range of inflammatory, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative conditions, including cancer and diabetes.
If you’re interested in using CBD to support your general health, full-spectrum CBD oil is the ideal option.
Full-spectrum CBD products contain all of the cannabinoids, terpenes, and other beneficial phytochemicals present in hemp. These compounds work in synergy with CBD and each other, producing greater effects than CBD alone.
