Strengthen and Protect Your Immune System With CBD

With the worst of Covid behind us, it’s tempting to stop paying attention to your immune system.

But whether we’re experiencing a pandemic, an endemic, or simply in the peak of flu season… it’s always the right time to strengthen your immunity and defend your lungs naturally.

Of course, mainstream medicine keeps pushing its pharmaceuticals on the public. The latest Big Pharma drug being evaluated as a way to protect against Covid lung inflammation is disulfiram. This 70-year-old compound was initially used to make rubber boots. Today it’s used as a treatment for alcoholism.

Possible side effects include extreme fatigue, headaches, rash, trouble breathing, confusion, and decreased sexual ability in men.

I don’t prescribe drugs like this to my patients… Instead, I search for natural solutions backed by research – and proven safe for hundreds of years.

And I’ve recently discovered that CBD can strengthen your immunity and protect your lungs.

CBD works in four ways to improve your immunity. For example, CBD can:

    1. Increase natural killer cells: Natural killer (NK) cells are critical to your immune system because they destroy virus-infected cells. They also help your body remember foreign invaders so it can respond quickly when it detects an invasion. Studies have shown that CBD increases the activity of NK cells.1
    2. Target lung inflammation: In one study, CBD reduced inflammation and improved lung function in mice with damaged lungs.2 A second study found that CBD can help open up bronchial passages, allowing patients to breathe more easily and avoid low blood oxygen levels and other complications.3
    3. Maintain a healthy gut microbiome: Since 80% of your immune system lives in your gut, keeping your gastrointestinal tract in top shape is necessary. Excessive inflammation in the gut can lead to “leaky gut” and an impaired intestinal immune response. Your body counteracts this through the endocannabinoid system.4 In human trials, CBD was found to support a healthy intestinal inflammatory response.5
    4. Alleviate stress to strengthen immunity. Stress and anxiety can weaken immunity. In one study, 10 healthy men were given a single dose of 600 mg of CBD oil. Their resting blood pressure dropped. Then the volunteers took several stress tests to increase blood pressure. But, after just one CBD dose, their blood pressure barely changed.6

CBD can also help you after Covid or any respiratory virus…

A recent study found that CBD can reduce – and even reverse – lung damage by normalizing levels of an inflammation-causing peptide called apelin.

Apelin is made by blood, brain, heart, fat, and lung tissue cells. It is crucial in regulating your blood pressure and keeping inflammation down.

When you’re infected with coronavirus, your levels of this peptide plummet. But researchers say that even when levels were close to zero in patients with ARDS, treatment with CBD increased apelin blood levels by 20 times – and restored lung function to normal levels.

The study authors found that using CBD also relaxed cells lining blood vessels… reduced excessive lung inflammation… increased oxygen levels… and repaired damage to the lungs, including scarring and swelling.7

This study backs up an earlier study that found CBD helps open bronchial passages allowing patients with COPD to breathe more easily and avoid low blood oxygen levels.8

Get the most significant benefits from CBD

Remember, CBD is non-psychoactive — it won’t get you “high.” If you’re ready to try it, here are some important things to consider:

    1. First, decide how to take it. You can take CBD oil in various ways — as a pure concentrate, tincture, edible, or supplement. I’ve found that an oral spray that uses nanotechnology is the most bioavailable. That’s because it’s a quicker, more direct route to the bloodstream and avoids passing through the liver, lowering bioavailability. In fact, nanotechnology gets 1,500% more CBD past your cell membranes.9
    2. Determine your dose. I recommend starting with 5 mg daily for the first week. But don’t be surprised if you don’t feel any effects until you reach about 30 mg per dose. The right dosage depends on your health and your body. Experiment to find out what works best for you.
    3. Next, choose a full-spectrum CBD. Terpenes are fatty oils found in the essential oils of almost all plants. They occur naturally in hemp and are extracted with CBD and other compounds to create full-spectrum CBD products.
    4. Then, maximize your body’s absorption. A study from the University of Minnesota found that patients who ate high-fat foods after taking CBD increased their absorption up to 14 times.10 Because CBD can increase sleepiness, I suggest taking it 30 minutes before bed. To get the maximum benefits of CBD without eating a late meal, consider taking it with a teaspoon of coconut oil

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

Al Sears, MD, CNS

 

References:

1. Ignatowska-Jankowska B, Jankowski M, Glac W, Swiergel AH. Cannabidiol-induced lymphopenia does not involve NKT and NK cells. J Physiol Pharmacol. 2009 Oct;60 Suppl 3:99-103.
2. Ribeiro A, et al. “Cannabidiol improves lung function and inflammation in mice submitted to LPS-induced acute lung injury.” Immunopharmacol Immunotoxicol. 2015 Feb;37(1):35-41.
3. Makwana R, et al. “The effect of phytocannabinoids on airway hyper-responsiveness, airway inflammation, and cough.” J Pharma Exper Ther. 2015:353(1):169-80.
4. Cani PD, et al. “Endocannabinoids–at the crossroads between the gut microbiota and host metabolism.” Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2016 Mar;12(3):133-43.
5. Irving PM, Iqbal T, Nwokolo C, et al. A Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo-controlled, Parallel-group, Pilot Study of Cannabidiol-rich Botanical Extract in the Symptomatic Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2018 Mar 19;24(4):714-24.
6. Jadoon KA, et al. “A single dose of cannabidiol reduces blood pressure in healthy volunteers in a randomized crossover study.” JCI Insight. 2017;2(12):e93760.
7. Khodadadi H, et al. “Cannabidiol modulates cytokine storm in acute respiratory distress syndrome induced by simulated viral infection using synthetic RNA.” Cannabis Cannabinoid Res. 2020; 5(3): 197–201.
8. Makwana R, et al. “The effect of phytocannabinoids on airway hyper-responsiveness, airway inflammation, and cough.” J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2015 Apr;353(1):169-80.
9. Cherniakov I, et al. “Piperine-pro-nanolipospheres as a novel oral delivery system of cannabinoids: Pharmacokinetic evaluation in healthy volunteers in comparison to buccal spray administration.” J Control Release. 2017;266:1-7.
10. Birnbaum A, et al. “Food effect on pharmacokinetics of cannabidiol oral capsules in adult patients with refractory epilepsy.” Epilepsia. 2019 Aug;60(8):1586-1592.