New Research Suggests High Potent CBD May Help COVID-19 Virus From Replicating
This topic of conversation has taken storm over the past few weeks. Hemp, known scientifically as Cannabis sativa, is a source of fiber, food and animal feed, and multiple hemp extracts and compounds are added to cosmetics, body lotions, dietary supplements and food, but now could potentially help with prevention or early-treatment in COVID-19.
Oregon State University Findings
On January 10, 2022 Oregon State University announced their research showing that "hemp compounds prevent coronavirus from entering human cells."
Findings of the study led by Richard van Breemen, a researcher with Oregon State’s Global Hemp Innovation Center, College of Pharmacy and Linus Pauling Institute, were published today in the Journal of Natural Products.
Van Breemen and collaborators, including scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, found that a pair of cannabinoid acids bind to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, blocking a critical step in the process the virus uses to infect people.
The compounds are cannabigerolic acid, or CBGA, and cannabidiolic acid, CBDA, and the spike protein is the same drug target used in COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapy. A drug target is any molecule critical to the process a disease follows, meaning its disruption can thwart infection or disease progression.
CBDA and CBGA are the precursors of "CBD" and "CBG" before decarboxylated and the carbon atoms (the "A") is burned off. Typically, in a Full Spectrum CBD product, there will be levels of CBDA and potentially CBGA. When looking at COA's (Third Party Lab Tests) you can see these levels.
Although, the research done by Orgeon State does not specifically state the levels of CBDA and CBGA needed to potentially prevent or aid in early-treatment.
UChicago Medicine Study
Furthermore, on January 20, 2022, UChicago Medicine study suggests "high-purity CBD may help block the virus from replicating."
The idea to test CBD as a potential COVID-19 therapeutic was unexpected. “CBD has anti-inflammatory effects, so we thought that maybe it would stop the second phase of COVID infection involving the immune system, the so-called ‘cytokine storm,’” said Marsha Rosner, Charles B. Huggins Professor in the Ben May Department of Cancer Research and a senior author of the study. “Surprisingly, it directly inhibited viral replication in lung cells.”
To see this effect, the researchers first treated human lung cells with a non-toxic dose of CBD for two hours before exposing the cells to the COVID virus and monitoring them for the virus and the viral spike protein. They found that, above a certain threshold concentration, CBD inhibited the virus’ ability to replicate. Further investigation found that CBD had the same effect in two other types of cells and for three variants of the COVID virus in addition to the original strain.
CBD did not affect the ability of the virus to enter the cell. Instead, CBD was effective at blocking replication early in the infection cycle and six hours after the virus had already infected the cell.
Like all viruses, the COVID virus affects the host cell by hijacking its gene expression machinery to produce more copies of itself and its viral proteins. This effect can be observed by tracking virus-induced changes in cellular RNAs. High concentrations of CBD almost completely eradicated the expression of viral RNAs. It was a completely unexpected result.
“We just wanted to know if CBD would affect the immune system,” Rosner said. “No one in their right mind would have ever thought that it blocked viral replication, but that’s what it did.”
The researchers wanted scientific data to show that CBD prevents viral replication in live animals. The team showed pretreatment with CBD for one week prior to infection with the virus suppressed infection both in the lung and the nasal passages of mice. “These results provide major support for a clinical trial of CBD in humans,” said Rosner.
And the success of CBD wasn’t limited to the laboratory: An analysis of 1,212 patients from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative revealed that patients taking a medically prescribed oral solution of CBD for the treatment of epilepsy tested positive for COVID-19 at significantly lower rates than a sample of matched patients from similar demographic backgrounds who were not taking CBD.
“A clinical trial is necessary to determine whether CBD is really effective at preventing or suppressing SARS-CoV-2 infection, but we think this may have potential as a prophylactic treatment,” said Rosner. “Maybe you’re in a hot spot or you think you might have been exposed or you’ve just tested positive—that’s where we think CBD might have an effect.”
Final Thoughts
Similar to the Oregon State Study, UChicago does not disclose what the "high-purity" amounts of CBD should be or what doses they conducted in their study. We are interested in future research disclosing these amounts.
UChicago also say you can't trust "Your Dispensary's CBD." If products are Third Party Tested, use quality extracts, have proven product consistency and follow the future research guidelines, why not? Is this due to Pfizer investing $6.7 billion into medical cannabis? Is Big Pharma ready to capitalize on a plant that they outlawed until 3 years ago...? While that is opinionated, try to look from our perspective. Big Pharma typically does not support holistic alternatives that are a threat to their narrative, so this is just a food for thought.
Here at Budz Family CBD, we are in no way making claims that CBD can cure Covid-19. We are here to share the research being done, which is a huge win in the world CBD, while continuing to question the direction of this research.
What We Do Know About CBD and Covid-19
So while we do not know in detail how CBD, CBDA or CBGA can help in blocking the replication of virus cells, we do know how our Full Spectrum CBD products (which contain CBDA and CBG) can be a great aid in alleviating the discomfort from inflammation due to the side-effects caused by Covid-19.
We have customers who have said our products have helped tremendously, as their pain level from the body aches and soreness was "worse than child birth" and our 2500mg Full Spectrum CBD Oil helped eased that. Our family has also seen benefit from taking CBD while feeling ill.
Note, that you will need to be taking strong doses of CBD during this. A 2500mg Full Spectrum Tincture is the best place to start, as it has the most concentrated dose (42mg per serving). We recommend you start with 42mg and increase as needed. At times, customers report taking 80+ mg. This strong of a dose also helped with sleep, which is needed while sick.
A 500mg Full Spectrum Tincture will most likely NOT help with this level of pain, as a single serving is only 8.5mg of CBD. And if you've been sick with this, you know the pain level can be pretty high...
As for potential preventative health purposes, then a 500mg Tincture may work great for you, as you'll be absorbing multiple cannabinoids like CBD, CBG, CBDA, etc.
