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Cutting Through the Haze
Is CBD oil a promising antidote or another supplement landmine?
For nearly a decade, Danielle Brand-LeMond, 39, dealt with persistent anxiety and trouble falling asleep. “There were nights I barely slept,” she says. As someone who prefers natural antidotes to pharmaceuticals, Brand-LeMond began taking herbal remedies and hormones like melatonin, but nothing worked. Then, last year, Brand-LeMond’s father, who owns a health food store, suggested she try CBD oil.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a nonpsychoactive compound from cannabis touted as a promising therapeutic for a variety of health conditions, including anxiety, insomnia, pain, and epilepsy-related seizures. The market for CBD could surpass $1 billion by 2020, according to one estimate.
These days, Brand-LeMond swallows a dropper of CBD oil once a day, four times a week. She says she’s less agitated. “I feel like it’s effective,” she says.
There’s a trend of taking charge of your own health and relying less on medical professionals.
“Depending on where you look and what you read, CBD will cure all that ails you,” says Robert Carson, an assistant professor of pediatric neurology at Vanderbilt University who has studied CBD. There’s plenty of solid data that CBD helps with epilepsy, he says. “In the other areas, it’s more tricky.”
A study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology in 2011 found that people who took an oral dose of 400 milligrams of CBD experienced reduced anxiety levels, for instance.
Studies show that CBD can reduce the frequency of seizures and improve quality of life for people with epilepsy. In one study from last year, 62 percent of caregivers said their child’s epileptic condition improved while taking CBD. In June 2018, the FDA approved a CBD oral drug known as Epidiolex as a treatment for two rare types of epilepsy. It marked the first time the agency approved a marijuana-derived medication.
Still, a lot remains unknown about CBD, and some experts caution that businesses are running wild with early research.
“It’s very disconcerting for me” that CBD is so easily accessible without adequate studies…
