A Google search on the phrase “CBD for Cancer” resulted in 44.8 million hits, a number I find somewhat staggering. But I couldn’t find any reports of clinical research. Nevertheless, the hope signified in the 44.8 million-hit search results seems justified. The first page of the search results, for example, contains many links from establishment medicine. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) even sponsors an entire page on “Cannabis and Cannabinoids” in cancer treatment. The site includes information about a lot of cannabinoids, as well as a certain amount of hand-waving about cannabis being illegal. It is a government site, after all.
(Don’t worry about the legal stuff. CBD is cannabidiol, not cannabis. While CBD is present in marijuana, most of the CBD you can buy over the counter, like the CBD products we sell here at Peak, is derived from hemp. It will not get you high, and it’s not illegal.)
Lab Research Is Promising
But the NCI site also includes authoritative information about CBD and CBD research. It cites lab tests, for example, that show CBD induces cell death (apoptosis) in some types of breast cancer tumors. An additional mouse study showed that CBD limits the proliferation of colon cancer cells. Another lab test suggested that CBD limits the spread (metastatis) of lung cancer cell lines.
Cannabis has a 1,000-year history of medicinal use, and establishment medicine has begun to understand that it would be foolish to overlook it in the fight against cancer. A research report from 2019, “Cannabinoids in cancer treatment: Therapeutic potential and legislation,” summarized modern research on the subject. Its conclusions included the observation, “Cannabinoids were able to effectively modulate tumor growth in different in vitro and in vivo cancer models, however, these anticancer effects appears to be dependent on cancer type and drug dose.” Of course the paper had to engage in the hand-waving, devoting nearly 1,000 words to the “international and national legal basis for the use of cannabinoids.”
Are Legal Issues Retarding Research?
I can’t help but feel that the need to study the legal status of cannabinoids in every research project is wasting effort that could produce good, usable guidelines on doses vs. cancer types. Every site seems to devote time and space to describing laws on cannabis. This isn’t just an American problem. It’s true all over the world. And even here, in states that have passed laws decriminalizing marijuana, its possession is still a federal crime.
While scientists are busy studying law books, the jury is still out on what dosage of CBD you might need to help control your own cancer or to prevent getting cancer. You can get some help from those who have used CBD before you. But the bottom line is you’re on your own in figuring out your dose, and you need to think of yourself as a clinical study: n=1.
CBD for Cancer
On the positive side, CBD has been pronounced safe by the World Health Organization (PDF): “CBD is generally well tolerated with a good safety profile. Reported adverse effects may be as a result of drug-drug interactions between CBD and patients’ existing medications.” In New Hampshire, CBD from hemp (as opposed to CBD from marijuana) is legally available without a prescription. Just make sure you tell your doctor you are using CBD in order to manage the possible drug-drug interactions.
If you want to try a hemp oil tincture on your own cancer, Peak Recovery & Health Center offers two. Our products — Peak’s Full-Spectrum Hemp Oil and Peak’s Iso-Filtered Hemp Oil — come from American-grown hemp and are typically much purer than Asian hemp products. Questions? We are here to help. Call Peak at 603-402-4564.
