CBD and C. Difficile
The problem today with the overuse of antibiotics is that bacterial strains are now becoming more resistant to antibiotics, which means that antibiotics are becoming less and less effective. Because of these “superbugs” and their ability to develop antibiotic resistance, medical professionals are now warning us that this “future” era of antibiotics not being effective is now (1).
This means that medical professionals must start looking for alternatives that display antimicrobial properties, to help us better fend off against bacterial infections. If alternatives are not sought after, medical professionals stated that we will be facing untreatable illnesses within the public population (1).
This is going to lead humanity back to relying on herbs once again, it is something that we have used since the beginning of time. We are about to see herbal medicines explode over the next decade.
Ancient medical systems such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been around for thousands of years (approx. 3,000), and for good reasons, its efficacy (effectiveness). The best part is that TCM was shown to even be effective, even when being put to the test by standard medical testing.
Clostridium Difficile or C. Diff, is one of those strains of bacteria that have become resistant to standard antibiotics and can wreak havoc on our gut health. C. Diff starts to take off because of heavy antibiotic use that wipes out all the good gut bacteria, causing a bacterial imbalance, which leads to C. Diff. (bad bacteria) take over and dominate the gut microbiome, which is bad news for our health, especially our digestive tract.
C. Diff. can cause major inflammation in our GI tract and cause extensive damage to the mucosal lining (what lines the GI tract), severe diarrhea, colitis (inflammation of the colon), shock, death and can lead to life-threatening infections because of increased antibiotic resistance of this bacteria (2).
Because of this, medical researchers stated they are URGENTLY looking for alternative treatments, when the antimicrobial properties of CBD were discussed (2).
As always, the results are worth screaming from the mountain top.
Check out what the United European Gastroenterology Journal (UEG), a peer reviewed research journal, had to say about Cannabidiol (CBD) and bacterial infections, specifically C. Diff.
CBD was shown to offer anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antimicrobial properties that was shown to cause cell toxicity and cell death (apoptosis) for C. Diff cells (2).
CBD was shown to disrupt the membrane of the bacteria cells and induce cell death, which is very similar to the anti-cancer properties that CBD was shown to exhibit on cancer cell lines (1, 3).
Because of the extensive inflammation that C. Diff. was shown to cause on our intestinal mucosal lining, it will contribute to leaky gut syndrome, and if not corrected, will lead to an autoimmune complication (2).
The paper highlighted that not only did CBD induce cell toxicity and cell death for C. Diff. bacteria, but the anti-inflammatory properties of CBD was shown to soothe an irritated and inflamed mucosal lining, which is huge when discussing C. Diff. (2).
The anti-inflammatory property of CBD is just another bonus of these amazing plant compounds.
One amazing herb that seems to have endless therapeutic uses.
Cheers to one of nature’s most amazing herbs!
Bee-Well,
Brandon Farless
References
1. Blaskovich, M. A. T., Kavanagh, A. M., Elliott, A. G., Zhang, B., Ramu, S., Amado, M., Lowe, G. J., Hinton, A. O., Pham, D. M. T., Zuegg, J., Beare, N., Quach, D., Sharp, M. D., Pogliano, J., Rogers, A. P., Lyras, D., Tan, L., West, N. P., Crawford, D. W., … Thurn, M. (2021, January 19). The antimicrobial potential of Cannabidiol. Nature News. Retrieved December 17, 2022, from https://www.nature.com/
2. Gigli, S., Seguella, L., Pesce, M., Bruzzese, E., D'Alessandro, A., Cuomo, R., Steardo, L., Sarnelli, G., & Esposito, G. (2017). Cannabidiol restores intestinal barrier dysfunction and inhibits the apoptotic process induced by Clostridium difficile toxin A in Caco-2 cells. United European gastroenterology journal, 5(8), 1108–1115. https://doi.org/10.1177/
3. Seltzer, E. S., Watters, A. K., MacKenzie, D., Jr, Granat, L. M., & Zhang, D. (2020). Cannabidiol (CBD) as a Promising Anti-Cancer Drug. Cancers, 12(11), 3203. https://doi.org/10.3390/
