We enter into the third year of the Covid pandemic most of us have been impacted by it either directly or indirectly.
This once in a lifetime experience has shown us how important health is and prevention in the current age. As the science and research advances we have seen the introduction of vaccines in record time as well as pharmaceuticals to treat the condition coming out now. The science has also been investigating other preventative and curative agents in the past few years. Some include repurposed drugs but also herbs, natural extracts and most recently cannabinoids!
Cannabinoids and Covid 19
Most followers of our blog are familiar with the basic cannabinoids such as THC, CBD, CBG and many others, these all have medically active properties and work in synergy with each other along with the terpenes in the cannabis plant. What most don’t know is that these cannabinoids that are made by the cannabis plant require drying to become what they are, in other words CBD is CBDA when the plant is fresh and has different functions than CBD. One striking example is THC which is the main psychoactive cannabinoid, when it is THCA or the acid precursor to THC it is not psychoactive but has many anti-inflammatory properties.
In a recent research conducted by van Breement and colleagues (2021) it was found that the fresh plant precursor to CBD, CBDA and to CBG called CBGA were effective in blocking cellular entry of the SARS-COV2 virus in cells by blocking the virus’ spike protein. Another research from March 2021 found that CBD itself is a very strong preventative agent for Covid 19 and can help with the infection especially if administered early on in the infection. Interestingly this research found that only CBD was helpful with preventing and curing Covid, other cannabinoids such as CBG and THC had no effect on the infection. Thus for this purpose it is important to use a CBD isolate rather than broad or full spectrum CBD.
Healthy (Good) Fats and cannabinoids
As we have written in several other posts, the endocannabinoid system functions on fats and good fats are an absolute must for overall health. In terms of the previously mentioned studies on cannabinoids it is crucially important to remember that all these cannabinoids are lipophilic they are attracted to fats and therefore need to be absorbed with fats. That is why if one is to take a CBD extract the ideal is to take it with a very good oil such as a high quality hempseed oil. Aside from being crucial to the ECS the hempseed oil will also act as a vector for the CBD or other cannabinoid if needed. Another important point is that proper diet, exercises and adequate levels of vitamin D have also been found to be associated with lower mortality from Covid, thus prevention is key and if cannabis medicine is needed just remember that the base for its proper functioning are always good fats!
References
Nguyen, L. C., Yang, D., Nicolaescu, V., Best, T. J., Ohtsuki, T., Chen, S. N., Friesen, J. B., Drayman, N., Mohamed, A., Dann, C., Silva, D., Gula, H., Jones, K. A., Millis, J. M., Dickinson, B. C., Tay, S., Oakes, S. A., Pauli, G. F., Meltzer, D. O., Randall, G., … Rosner, M. R. (2021). Cannabidiol Inhibits SARS-CoV-2 Replication and Promotes the Host Innate Immune Response. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology, 2021.03.10.432967. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.03.10.432967
van Breemen, R. B., Muchiri, R. N., Bates, T. A., Weinstein, J. B., Leier, H. C., Farley, S., & Tafesse, F. G. (2022). Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants. Journal of natural products, acs.jnatprod.1c00946. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jnatprod.1c00946
