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You may well have heard the words Immune Health bandied around in the wellness industry and with Covid 19 running riot at the moment, there has never been a better time when we can all benefit from our immune systems firing at optimum.
Well the new kid on the block to aid immune function is CBD.
Most of us have heard that CBD has numerous health benefits, helping with pain, anxiety, depression, stress, sleep, inflammation, neuroprotection, the list goes on. But its immune- modulatory effect is less well known.
Without our immune systems we would all die very quickly. Every minute of every day our bodies are bombard by diseases and infections, viruses and bacteria, all running amok and intent on wreaking havoc within our bodies.
The immune system is a network of tissues, organs and cells, that together repel the invasion of these foreign bodies, helping to keep us healthy.
A typical immune system response to injury is inflammation in the damaged area.
This is an increase in blood supply to that area, carrying with it the tools to aid repair and recovery.
Normally that inflammation would go down as recovery takes place. However sometimes when the immune system is not performing correctly, even when the damage has been repaired, this inflammatory response can remain and cause chronic inflammation.
CBD has been shown to modulate up or down, these immune responses when necessary and when the immune system is not functioning at optimum. For example, if the immune response to a bacterial or viral attack is too slow, CBD will help boost its speed of action, to help correct the situation.
Conversely, in the case of chronic pain, this can often be caused by an overzealous immune system not shutting down the inflammatory response when it has resolved the problem.
In this case CBD can help modulate and reduce the inflammation causing the pain to get more topical, we briefly discussed CBD’s ability to up or down regulate immune response in the body and you may have heard talk of a “cytokine storm” that can be a very serious issue for some who catch Covid 19.
Cytokines are proteins that are produced by cells of the immune system and are pro-inflammatory, helping combat infections, a good and normal mechanism of control.
However, a cytokine storm is when this response goes totally out of control, with a massive over production of these proteins producing huge inflammation, in the covid case, in the lungs, resulting in breathing difficulties and unless controlled, can lead to death by suffocation. A horrible way to go….. Not that there’s a good way?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7173676/
https://jagwire.augusta.edu/cbd-helps-reduce-lung-damage-from-covid-by-increasing-levels-of- protective-peptide/
As a Covid19 add on here, there is early clinical research showing that CBD can act as a protection against Covid. The mechanism is as yet not fully understood but early research is promising.
Covid enters the body by attaching itself to the Ace2 receptors we have in our bodies gaining a foot hold. However, CBD also interacts with this receptor by blocking it and preventing Covid virus from using this mechanism of attack. Early data is showing that CBD can block up to 70% of these receptors, so reducing the possible attack points. Interesting stuff and one to watch as research develops.
https://www.healtheuropa.eu/medicinal-cannabis-may-play-a-significant-role-during-covid-19/103093/
In summary, the immune system is jammed full of CB2 receptors with which CBD interacts, helping to boost our immune response and fight off disease and infections.
It helps to keep our immune systems in fighting form. There is also early research pointing to increased Covid protection and symptom control.
Should we all be taking CBD during the Covid19 epidemic? A good question to be asking ourselves.
