Cancer is one of the most dreaded diseases, whose cure has eluded medical researchers till date. If caught in time, it can be controlled or even eradicated from the body, but nothing really is known about its prevention or the conditions that bring it on.
Today, cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the US with one in three being diagnosed with it. What’s even more alarming is cancer is on the rise. If the National Institute of Cancer is to be believed, the death toll due to cancer will increase by 60% by 2030. This alarming statistic has compelled cancer researchers to look for alternate means to cure this disease. And one of them is the use of CBD oil.
What is C-B-D Oil?
C-B-D or cannabidiol is one of the naturally occurring cannabinoid compounds in the cannabis plant. This plant is also the source of marijuana, a popular recreational drug. C-B-D oil is derived from the plant’s secretions.
Although derived from cannabis, the purest form of C-B-D oil does not display any psychoactive properties and therefore is incapable of giving a high. This makes it legal to be sold as a food supplement, but not as a medicine. However, for more information on the same, cbdcentral.com displays CBD state laws.
C-B-D oil and cancer
Various studies have shown the effectiveness of cannabinoids in treating the symptoms of cancer. The cannabinoids not only inhibit the growth of cancer cells but also promote their death. To this end, Dr David Meiri, the lead researcher of an Israeli project, and his team has successfully killed brain and breast cancer cells through exposure to cannabinoids in animals.
However, such encouraging findings suffer from two drawbacks. One, cannabinoids don’t have the same effect on all types of cancer cells, so they might not work the same for all. Second, the psychoactive compound present in most of them makes them illegal for use in the US.
Where cannabinoids work well in cancer patients is in treating the side effects of cancer and chemotherapy, such as nausea, vomiting, anxiety, pain, lack of appetite, insomnia and other related symptoms. This is what prompted the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve two cannabinoids – dronabinol and nabilone – for the prevention and treatment of chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting.
According to Dr Abrams, a leading oncologist at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, cannabidiol help with the side effects of cancer, but he cautions against assuming that it is a cure. If it were, there would have been many more cancer survivors. Even researchers from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine state there is insufficient evidence that cannabidiols can directly treat cancer.
Effects of C-B-D oil on cancer
The illegality of psychoactive cannabinoids in cancer cure has brought C-B-D oil into focus since it is a non-psychoactive derivative of cannabis. This is what the current research on C-B-D oil says:
● C-B-D not only helps in reducing symptoms related to cancer but also the side effects of cancer treatment, such as pain, nausea and vomiting.
● Some studies have shown C-B-D to possess anticancer properties. One test-tube study found that C-B-D inhibited the spread of aggressive breast cancer cells in mice.
● Some studies indicate that C-B-D may have an anti-tumor effect. Research on animals has shown the death of tumor cells in both colon cancer and leukemia.
● Research on animals has shown that C-B-D prevents the spread of cancer cells in cervical cancer.
Despite promising findings, the test-tube and animal studies only suggest that C-B-D oil can be an effective option in the fight against cancer. However, more studies in humans are required for it to be declared a cancer cure.