My favorite thing about CBD is really learning the medicinal value of CBD and how we can utilize this safe and effective cannabinoid to our benefit our health and many conditions we all live with. This leads us to learning just how potent of an antioxidant CBD really is.
Let’s first start with understanding what antioxidants are and how we need them in our diet, which is important. Check this out.
When we don’t consume enough antioxidants in our diet, this can lead to an imbalance ratio between oxidants and antioxidants. Although this doesn’t seem like a big deal, believe me it is... When more oxidants are present then antioxidants, this imbalance can lead to oxidative stress, which then opens the floodgates for cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases like heart disease, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and neurodegenerative diseases (1). Think about it like rust formation. If there are not enough antioxidants present, things like our cells will oxidize or rust, which lead to pain and inflammation on a cellular level. We can think of the rust forming within our cells if there is too much oxidants and not enough antioxidants…
So, if we want to stop this oxidative process that forms the very basis for these inflammatory conditions mentioned above, we need to be proactive when it comes to our health and ensure that we are taking in enough antioxidants to keep this oxidation-reduction balance in order.
Understanding the importance of antioxidants is huge, but what is even more important is learning how to include them in our daily routine from things like fruit, veggies, and you got it, CBD.
In fact, CBD is such a powerful antioxidant that it exhibits 30-40% more antioxidant activity than vitamin C alone (1). Say what?! That is HUGE! This is amazing because we all know about vitamin C because of its antioxidant properties, only to find out CBD is far superior when it comes to just how powerful of an antioxidant it is. The antioxidant properties are so profound, cannabinoids like CBD are being used as a treatment to improve how we address different disease proceses.
Here is where the beauty of studies comes in. We can really study cannabinoids and put them to the test to see just what they are capable of, and as always, it is worth hitting the front-page news.
CBD was shown to help address any oxidative imbalances by modifying the levels of oxidants and antioxidants and interrupting free radicals by neutralizing them into a less harmful form (1). These free radicals, if not neutralized, will try to sabotage our healthy cells, so it is important to keep this ox-redox balance. This imbalance is literally the process that leads to the formation of many disease processes because of chronic oxidative stress on our cells.
CBD is such a fantastic antioxidant that we can use it to directly improve how we face neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s (as well as a few others) because CBD was shown to decrease what is known as “β-amyloid” formation, which is this buildup of fatty protein in our brain that is directly linked to the formation of Alzheimer’s (1,2).
This further highlights the potential of CBD as not only a treatment for Alzheimer’s, but how we can also use it as a preventative (1,2). Believe me, you want to change your cars oil before a problem arises. Preventative medicine is everything when it comes to our health. Once a problem arises it is difficult (but not impossible) to get things back in order.
Much of CBD’s benefits can be attributed to CBD’s ability to reduce oxidative conditions by preventing the formation of superoxide radicals and the best part about it is the fact it is a natural herb with an amazing safety profile (1). This means it comes without the insert that typical pharmaceuticals come with, which lists the tons of negative side effects to be expected with that medications use.
To add onto this “Antioxidants”, a peer reviewed medical journal, published a journal in 2019 that discusses just how serious the antioxidant properties of CBD are, check this out.
According to Antioxidants, CBD it is currently being studied as a “…treatment of diabetes, diabetes-related cardiomyopathy, cardiovascular diseases (including stroke, arrhythmia, atherosclerosis, and hypertension), cancer, arthritis, anxiety, psychosis, epilepsy, neurodegenerative disease (i.e., Alzheimer’s) and skin disease” (1).
My only problem is that this study was published in 2019 and there are still people dying around the world from cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases like heart disease (#1 killer in the world alone), cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and suffering from conditions like arthritis and diabetes.
My question is this, why are we not sharing about the amazing health benefits that these plant compounds have to offer? We are here to help each other, right?
Nature's finest medicinal herb and for good reasons… safety and efficacy.
Bee Well,
Brandon Farless
References
- Atalay, S., Jarocka-Karpowicz, I., & Skrzydlewska, E. (2019). Antioxidative and Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Cannabidiol. Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland), 9(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox9010021
- Murphy, M. P., & LeVine, H., 3rd (2010). Alzheimer's disease and the amyloid-beta peptide. Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD, 19(1), 311–323. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-2010-1221
