CRANBERRY, Pa. (EYT) — Calvin Bickel, owner of Cranberry Wellness Center, submitted the following health blog:

BENEFITS OF CBD OIL

This time we will start out by looking at some of the benefits of CBD Oil.

There is a lot of information on the internet about the benefits of taking CBD oil. The truth of the matter is there has not been a lot of extensive testing in the status on it. A lot of this is because drug companies can’t patent it yet, but once they do you will hear a lot more about it; however, there are a few things that have documentation on them, so let’s take a look:

Natural pain relief or anti-inflammatory properties

People commonly use prescription or over-the-counter drugs to relieve pain and stiffness, including chronic pain. Some people feel that CBD offers a more natural way to lower pain. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine found that CBD significantly reduced chronic inflammation and pain in some mice and rats. The researchers suggest that the non-psychoactive compounds in cannabis, such as CBD, could be a new treatment for chronic pain.

Quitting smoking and drug withdrawals

There is some promising evidence that CBD use may help people to quit smoking.

A pilot study posted to Addictive Behaviors found that smokers who used an inhaler containing the compound CBD smoked fewer cigarettes but did not have any additional craving for nicotine. Another similar study posted to Neurotherapeutics found that CBD may be a promising substance for people who abuse opioids.

Researchers noted that some symptoms experienced by patients with substance use disorders might be reduced by CBD. These include anxiety, mood symptoms, pain, and insomnia. These are early findings, but they suggest that CBD may be used to avoid or reduce withdrawal symptoms.

Epilepsy and other mental health disorders

CBD is also being studied for its possible role in treating epilepsy and neuropsychiatric disorders.

A review posted to Epilepsia noted that CBD has anti-seizure properties and a low risk of side effects for people with epilepsy. Studies into CBD’s effect on neurological disorders suggest that it may help to treat many of the disorders that are linked to epilepsy, such as neurodegeneration, neuronal injury, and psychiatric diseases.

Another study published in Current Pharmaceutical Design found that CBD may have similar effects to certain antipsychotic drugs and that it may be safe and effective in treating patients with schizophrenia.

CBD hemp extract is often used as an adjunct to medications in treating patients with refractory epilepsy. Please note that concomitant use of CBD along with anti-epileptic drugs requires close monitoring of serum drug levels of the prescription anti-epileptic medications. Also, it is prudent to monitor liver function tests, especially in patients also taking valproate and other medications. Patients with epilepsy should never start taking CBD products without the guidance of an experienced healthcare practitioner and close monitoring by the patient’s neurologist or primary care physician.

Anxiety disorders

Patients with chronic anxiety are often advised to avoid cannabis, as THC can trigger or amplify anxiety and paranoia in some people. However, a review from Neurotherapeutics suggests that CBD may help to reduce the anxiety felt by people with certain anxiety disorders.

The researchers point to studies showing that CBD may reduce anxiety behaviors in disorders such as:

– Post-traumatic stress disorder
– General anxiety disorder
– Panic disorder
– Social anxiety disorder
– Obsessive-compulsive disorder

The review notes that current medications for these disorders can lead to additional symptoms and side effects and that people may stop taking the drugs because of these unwanted effects. CBD has not shown any adverse effects in these cases to date, and the researchers call for CBD to be studied as a potential treatment method.

Alzheimer’s disease

Initial research published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that CBD was able to prevent the development of social recognition deficit in subjects. This means that CBD could potentially prevent people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s from losing their ability to recognize the faces of people that they know. This is the first evidence that CBD has potential to prevent Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.

Helps fight cancer

CBD has been studied for its use as an anti-cancer agent.

A review posted to the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology notes that CBD appears to block cancer cells from spreading around the body and invading an area entirely. The review indicates that this compound tends to suppress the growth of cancer cells and promote the death of these cells. Researchers note that CBD may help in cancer treatment because of its low toxicity levels. They call for it to be studied along with standard treatments, to check for synergistic effects

WARNING

CBD can affect how the liver metabolizes some prescription (pharmaceutical) medications taken at the same time. When adding or increasing CBD, the effect of some prescription medications can change. One can minimize this effect by starting with low doses of CBD, increasing in small steps and separating doses of CBD and prescribed medications by two hours.

Please be sure to consult your licensed healthcare provider and prescribing physician to best assess drug-herb interactions.

Is CBD Marijuana?

Until recently, the most well-known compound in cannabis was delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). This is the most active ingredient in marijuana. Marijuana contains both THC and CBD, but the compounds have different effects. THC is well-known for the mind-altering “high” it produces when broken down by heat and introduced into the body, such as when smoking the plant or cooking it into foods.

Unlike THC, CBD is not psychoactive. This means that it does not change the state of mind of the person who uses it. However, it does appear to produce significant changes in the body and has been found to have medical benefits. Most of the CBD used medicinally is found in the least processed form of the cannabis plant, known as hemp. Hemp and marijuana come from the same plant species, cannabis sativa, but they are very different. Over the years, marijuana farmers have selectively bred their plants to be very high in THC and other compounds that interested them, either for a smell or an effect they had on the plant’s flowers. On the other hand, hemp farmers have not tended to modify the plant. It is these hemp plants that are used to create CBD oil.

DRUG TESTING

When drug testing is mandated, employers almost always follow the SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) guidelines because it puts them on solid legal ground.

Typically, there is an overlap between testing guidelines and accepted cutoff levels for drugs and drug metabolites in confirmatory testing and screening. Because THC is widely recognized as being responsible for marijuana’s psychoactivity and euphoria, a routine urine drug screen for marijuana use consists of an immunoassay with antibodies that are made to detect it, and its main metabolite, 11-Nor-delta9-caboxy-THC (THC-COOH). SAMHSA has set the cutoff level for a positive urine screen in the immunoassay at 50 ng/mL.

When the immunoassay screen is positive at the > 50 ng/mL level, a confirmatory GC/MS (Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry) test is performed to verify the positive urine screen. The confirmatory GC/MS has a cutoff level of 15 ng/mL and is specific only to the 11-nor-THCCOOH metabolite. Fortunately, the urine drug screen for THC-COOH is known to have very little cross-reactivity to other cannabinoids that are not intoxicating, such as CBD (cannabidiol), CBG (cannabigerol), CBN (cannabinol), and others.

This is good news for “normal” consumers of CBD/hemp oil.

That said, individuals using unusually large doses of a cannabinoid-rich hemp oil product (above 1000-2000 mg of hemp oil daily) could theoretically test positive during the initial urinary screen. Although very rare, the urine screen in these cases would likely represent a “false positive” due to other non-THC metabolites or compounds, which may cross-react with the immunoassay. When this is the case, the confirmatory GC/MS test would be negative, since CBD and other cannabinoids will not be detected by the more accurate (and specific) GC/MS screen.

Keep in mind that most of the high-quality, reliable CBD-rich hemp oil products contain much less THC than marijuana. For example, hemp contains anywhere from 1/10th to 1/300th of the THC concentration found in marijuana. An individual consuming 1000-2000 mg per day of hemp oil would thus consume approximately 3-6 mg of THC. This exceedingly high dose may result in detection of positive urine screen in up to 11% to 23% of assays.

On the other hand, there is some data demonstrating that at daily doses of 0.5mg of THC from 3-5 servings of most commercial CBD-rich hemp oil products, the positive urine screen rate is < 0.2%. Again, most servings of typical high-quality, high-purity CBD-based hemp oil products contain well below 0.1mg of THC and therefore have over 400-600 times less THC than marijuana products. What does all this mean? Put simply, a consumer who uses a high-quality, scientifically vetted hemp-based product at the standard serving size is highly unlikely to test positive for THC and/or THC-COOH. However, it’s important to be cognizant that extremely high doses may result in a positive urine screen (that would be subsequently shown to be false via GC/MS). Ultimately, consumers need to be fully informed of the specific regulations posed by their employers and adjust their consumption of cannabinoid products accordingly.

~Calvin

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