CBD Oil for Cancer: What’s the Truth?
In their frenzy to learn as much about the disease as they can, newly diagnosed cancer patients who are ineligible or otherwise averse to standard treatments (surgery, chemo, and/or radiation) are often surprised at the number of alternatives that have been suggested in research. Conversely, cancer patients who do undergo conventional treatment, especially chemo and/or radiation, often find themselves sleuthing for supplements that can help with nausea, pain, fatigue, and other associated symptoms. The case of CBD oil for cancer is a prime example and for good reason. This natural constituent of the hemp wellness gummies (visit the website) plant has shown its mettle under empirical scrutiny when it comes to symptom management for cancer patients. It may even directly counteract tumor growth. While CBD producers and consumers wait patiently for the lobbyists and legislators to get on board, the evidence is quietly making its own statement. To best understand how cannabidiol may strengthen the body’s defenses against cancer, we must expand on the layman’s understanding of the disease.
Cancer cells don’t invade the body from the outside like a virus; they are created within our bodies, and they thrive by working around vitally important cellular processes like apoptosis. Apoptosis is often referred to as "programmed cell death"; it is our body’s way of killing off cells when they are supposed to die so that they don’t become cancerous or defective. When this control mechanism fails, cancer cells are not only allowed to survive longer and multiply, but they have the time and resources they need to develop more harmful mutations that enhance their ability to spread. Of course, this complex disease requires many other conditions to be met in order to defeat the body’s immune defenses, but this control mechanism "glitch" is at the heart of the problem. The endocannabinoid system and its agonists (e.g., CBD and many other cannabinoids) may counteract this glitch at the source. The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is the body’s network of receptors (CB1 and CB2) and innately produced cannabinoid neurotransmitters used to manage pain, inflammation, seizures, and a growing number of health problems.
Constituents of the hemp plant like CBD activate these receptors because they are chemically similar to the cannabinoid neurotransmitters like anandamide that our bodies already produce. ECS receptors (CB1 specifically) may have a role in slowing tumor growth by suppressing a protein that extends cell life, says the research. In a study authored by Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center, tumors in mice with colorectal cancer responded to changes in ECS receptors. The authors noted that "Loss of CB1 accelerated intestinal adenoma growth … In other words, CB1 was shown to play a role in counteracting the ability of cancer cells to resist apoptosis and survive longer than they were programmed to; it accomplished this by "down-regulating" survivin, meaning it decreased the potency of this pro-cancer factor by reducing the number of receptors it binds to. Thankfully, apoptosis isn’t the only pathway the body uses to trigger cell death, which means oncologists and researchers have multiple therapeutic targets to choose from when it comes to tumor suppression.
Autophagy is a cell-signaling mechanism that provides the body with another defense against tumor growth. From the Greek words for "self" and "eating," autophagy is the process by which our cells break down potentially cancer-causing molecular structures within themselves. Apoptosis and autophagy are thought to have "cross-talk" potential, meaning they can coordinate with each other in specific situations to enhance the body’s defense against tumors. If a cancer-causing molecule somehow eludes autophagy, it then has to contend with apoptosis. A study from Madrid’s Complutense University Biochemistry and Molecular Biology departments found that cannabinoid consumption induces glioma cell death through autophagy stimulation. A glioma is a type of tumor that develops in the brain and spinal cord (glial cells). According to the finding, using CBD oil for cancer in mice activated a stress response that promoted autophagy, resulting in clinically observable antitumor potential. Interestingly, the authors also found that "Autophagy is upstream of apoptosis in cannabinoid-induced human and mouse cancer cell death," meaning cancer-causing molecular structures that aren’t snuffed out early may be capable of living longer than they should.
If we have so many defenses against cancer, why is it so successful? Unfortunately, cancer has a way of turning our own defenses against us, which is exactly what happens with tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and even the above mechanisms in certain cases. On the one hand, a case report and literature review from the UK’s Guy Hilton Research Center and Royal Stoke University Hospital shows the "striking" response of an elderly patient with lung cancer to cannabidiol. After trialing CBD for cancer for roughly two months, the lung cancer patient in the study showed "near total resolution" of the tumor in his lung. The researchers attributed this to upregulation (increase in available cell receptors) of tumor necrosis factor alpha, a pro-inflammatory protein that plays an important role in eliminating cancer cells. On the other hand, this same protein also possesses the ability to support cell migration and a process we’ll review momentarily called angiogenesis, both of which cancer relies on to grow and spread.
