Benefits of CBD and Alzheimers Disease

By Brandon Manns

 

Alzheimer’s is one of the most serious, yet common diseases in the world today. It’s prevalence is so high, in fact, that by 2025, there are projected to be over 14 million people with the disease. 

 

That’s compared to the current 5 million in the United States. By 2014, it was responsible for more deaths than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. 

CBD oil is a naturally occurring substance that’s found in the marijuana and hemp plant. With all the fuss around its benefits with improving memory, reducing pain and anti-inflammatory properties, does it have any kind of benefit to people with Alzheimer’s?

What is Alzheimer’s?
Dementia is a progressive disease that slowly impairs memory function, speech and thought. During later stages, it can cause total inability to carry out conversations.

Alzheimer’s is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases in the world. It is a form of dementia characterized by loss of memory, inability to care for oneself and an increased likelihood of wandering off and getting lost. Up to date, we have little understanding of how Alzheimer’s works or even what causes it.

Unfortunately, that means there’s currently no cure for the disease. The best we can hope for once a person has been diagnosed is to improve their quality of life so their routine isn’t disrupted too much.

One of the newest proposed methods of taking care of dementia is using CBD – a non-psychoactive component of the marijuana plant. It’s known to take care of symptoms such as chronic pain, and reduce the impact these symptoms have on an individual.

What can CBD do to help?
When CBD is taken into the body, it targets a network of neuroreceptors spread throughout the body known as the endocannabinoid system (ECS). The specific receptors it targets are known as the CB1 and CB2 receptors. Combined, these two receptors are responsible for a huge chunk of what goes on inside the human body. This includes regulating hunger, sleep, and pain.

CBD, when taken into the body by common means such as a CBD dropper, has a wide range of effects. As such, it presents a multi-faceted approach to treating Alzheimer’s disease, by reducing the intensity of the symptoms, or preventing them from manifesting altogether.

• Neuroprotective properties: CBD protects the brain from the harmful effects of amyloid-beta, a highly-toxic protein linked with Alzheimer’s. Amyloid-beta usually clumps around the brain in plaques, contributing to forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s. When taken into the body, CBD has been shown to help clear these plaques.
• Reduces inflammation: Alzheimer’s also contributes to memory loss thanks to an inflammatory response by the brain. While this would be useful in other parts of the body, it leads to the death of neurons. Additionally, brain inflammation is particularly difficult to get rid of. CBD is naturally anti-inflammatory, and reaches even the brain.
• Supports neurogenesis: Since dementia is a neuron-destroying disease, it helps that CBD helps these neurons to regrow. Often, it’s not at the same rate, but it can greatly slow down the disease.
• Reduces agitation: the loss of memory is often accompanied by other feelings, including anxiety and constant confusion. More often than not, this can also extend into agitation and aggression. Luckily, CBD can be taken in many forms, including the easy-to-administer CBD dropper, as can be found on reputable sites like Greenleaf Farms. CBD’s calming effect is very effective for cooking such a patient.
• Improved communication: a common side-effect of all the above-mentioned benefits is that communication with loved ones is often greatly improved. Since it’s linked with better memory, dementia’s onset is greatly slowed.

The road to a dementia cure
We may not know exactly what causes Alzheimer’s, but we do know it has something to do with amyloid plaques. These sit between neurons as a dense cluster of amyloid-beta molecules and tau proteins that clump together in the neurons.

The problem with finding a cure so far lies in scientists not knowing why these clumps form in the first place. However, inflammation is a huge part of it. Once we find a way to reduce the inflammation and encourage the erosion of these clumps, we may be well on our way to an effective treatment for dementia. CBD oil, as promoted by Greenleaf Farms, is able to do both of these to varying degrees, and may well be the elusive wonder-drug.