Can CBD protect against Coronavirus?

What is CBD?

Cannabidiol is one of 113 cannabinoids found in Cannabis sativa. CBD appears to moderate the euphoric effect of THC, which is an isomer of cannabidiol. It has also been scientifically and clinically proven to help treat conditions such as epilepsy, Parkinson's, psoriasis, social anxiety and even insomnia. Thanks to our endocannabinoid system.

CBD and COVID-19

Smoking marijuana will not protect you from the dreaded coronavirus, no matter what anyone says and no matter how much some people want it to be true, this is something that has no solidity in the medical and scientific world. And getting vaccinated is vitally important to stop this pandemic and save lives.

However, it has been scientifically proven that if CBD or Cannabidiol is taken in the right way and in the right amount, it could effectively lessen the severity of COVID-19 infection and even prevent, YES you heard right, PREVENT, the spread of the virus, according to new research published just a few weeks ago.

Scientific evidence

What's more, new anecdotal evidence suggests that people - not lab mice or isolated human cells, but humans, men and women - who were prescribed regular, high-potency doses of pharmaceutical-grade CBD were less likely to contract the virus, according to research published in one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals: Science Advances.

Researchers say early research suggesting that a popular non-psychoactive compound derived from marijuana may help prevent or treat COVID-19 warrants further investigation in rigorous clinical trials.

However, many other potential treatments for COVID that showed promise in test tubes, from hydroxychloroquine to various drugs used to treat cancer and other diseases, ultimately failed to show benefit for COVID-19 patients once studied in clinical trials.

Marsha Rosner, a researcher at the University of Chicago, led a team that found that CBD appeared to help curb SARS-CoV-2 in infected cells in laboratory experiments. "Our findings do not say that this will work in patients. Our findings make a strong case for a clinical trial," he said. "Using small doses of highly purified CBD that approximate those patients receive in an oral drug already approved for severe epilepsy, Rosner and his colleagues found that CBD prevented the coronavirus from infecting cells in test tubes.

Other recent research by scientists at the Medical College of Georgia, USA, showed earlier this year (2021) that CBD has the ability to improve oxygen levels and reduce inflammation and physical lung damage associated with adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This new study has now shown the mechanisms behind these results, demonstrating that CBD normalises levels of a peptide called apelin, known to reduce inflammation. Levels of this peptide are low during a COVID-19 infection.

How does Cannabidiol Oil achieve this?

"The cannabinoid appears to activate a cellular stress response that is normally triggered in the presence of "viruses or other pathogens", as the researcher put it in an interview. This stress defence produces a series of proteins called interferons. And "CBD induces the production of interferons, and these are the antivirals that will fight the virus," Rosner said."

But cells are cells, not living things. To test the results in living beings - something last week's study did not do - female mice were given two doses of CBD: 20 or 80mg per kilogram of body weight.

CBD and the effect of Terpenes

Recently, very encouraging results have been published from studies at the University of Israel suggesting that CBD, together with TERPENOS, may help to improve COVID 19 inflammation.

Now, early results from an ongoing Israeli study add to the chorus of researchers suggesting that cannabis ingredients could be a game-changing treatment in the fight against Covid-19. But this study claims that terpenes - compounds that provide the aroma and flavour of cannabis and many other plants and have a multitude of therapeutic and medical uses - may work even better than CBD alone, and could outperform conventional treatments such as corticosteroids (laboratory-synthesised chemicals that have many different effects on the body and are used to treat many different conditions, including acute inflammation).

The study reports show that a combination of CBD with Terpenes was 2 times more effective in inhibiting cytokine activity than corticosteroids which, according to a recent study, is an effective treatment for Covid-19 cytokine storms.

CBDa and COVID 19

About a month ago, promising results were published, produced by research published in the US, which found that cannibidiolic acid - or CBD-A, a cannabinoid in acid form that is also a precursor molecule of CBD, as well as similar cannabis acids that convert into the well-known cannabinoids when heated - prevented the entry of the coronavirus into isolated human cells.

The acid forms of the cannabinoids

The 'A' forms are the acid forms of CBD and CBG that are generally not in most commercially available hemp products", "The acid forms are found in the fresh plant. There are processes that stabilise the acid forms, so you would have to look at the analysis of the product to see if the acid forms are still present in the final product".

CBDA and CBGA exist naturally in true whole plant hemp extracts that are not excessively distilled to increase CBD content. "The data on whole plant versus isolated CBD follows the basic principle of true botanical medicine", "Whole plant synergism works better than isolated plant components.

What the findings may mean is that cannabis-derived medicines or preparations could complement vaccines in the fight to end the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been raging for almost three years.