Can You Use CBD Oil for Hypertension and High Blood Pressure?

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You may have started seeing a ton of CBD products in a lot of stores you walk into, outside of speciality shops like ours. Its popularity has continued to increase in recent years. Today, many people believe CBD can be used as a natural medication for symptoms in the body. There is continuous research regarding what CBD can be used for, and we continue to learn new things every day.  

What is CBD?

Cannabidiol, generally referred to as CBD, is a non-psychoactive drug derived from hemp plants. There are two components to the hemp plant: cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol (which is commonly referred to as THC). THC is the part of the plant that can give you the “high” effect. Cannabidiol, being non-psychoactive, does not give any feelings of euphoria.

Cannabidiol has become an herbal remedy that people use due to its purported anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, anticancer, and neuroprotective properties. The body contains the endocannabinoid system, which regulates sleep, appetite, pain, and the immune system. This has led people to using CBD to treat sleeplessness, pain, and other issues. 

The endocannabinoid system within our bodies produces endocannabinoids, which are neurotransmitters. Cannabidiol impacts endocannabinoid receptor activity, which leads to inflammation reduction and interaction with neurotransmitters.     

How does Cannabidiol affect cardiovascular disease?

Cannabidiol has been known to aid people with multiple sclerosis and epilepsy, having become an FDA-approved treatment for epilepsy in 2018. However, preclinical studies have led to the belief that it has cardiovascular benefits as well. 

Hypertension, high blood pressure, is when someone’s blood is adding pressure to the artery walls for a consistent period. High blood pressure could be caused by many different things, such as stress, and can be temporary in some people. However, if it is a long-term issue, then it is diagnosed as hypertension. If left untreated, hypertension can lead to problems such as heart disease. 

Like any scientific discovery, there is skepticism surrounding whether cannabidiol is a solid natural remedy for specific issues in the body, mainly those related to the cardiovascular system. 

The Journal of Hypertension administered a study that tested the effects of cannabidiol in human pulmonary and rats small mesenteric arteries. The results of this study showed a near full vasorelaxation, which means vascular tension reduced significantly. 

The method included testing isolated human pulmonary arteries (hPAs) that were accessed during resection of lung carcinoma and rat small mesenteric arteries (sMAs) in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

The study found that cannabidiol did induce relaxation in hypertensive obese and hypercholesteremic patients. However, it was largely endothelium-dependent and most effective when mediated through specific receptors within the human body. Cannabidiol was also sensitive to particular receptors in the subjects and was dependent on the hypertensive model.      

Another study published by The American Society for Clinical Investigation investigated whether cannabidiol reduces blood pressure in humans or not. A group of volunteering men were randomly given 600mg of CBD, or a placebo. Then they were monitored and observed to see if it affected their cardiovascular systems. 

This study took into consideration the response to stress in addition to heart rate and blood pressure. The conductors used a cold stress test, an exercise stress test, and a mental stress test.  

This study concluded that resting blood pressure was reduced when an acute amount of cannabidiol was administered. The CBD continued to lower blood pressure even when the heart rate increased, and stress was added to the situation. However, medical professionals who conducted this study made it clear that more research is necessary to determine if cannabidiol can be used to treat cardiovascular disorders. 

Both of these studies suggest that CBD does help patients that suffer from hypertension and high blood pressure. 

What effect does CBD have on other medications? 

If someone is diagnosed with hypertension or high blood pressure, they have usually prescribed medication to manage it. Some common medications are Amlodipine, Benazepril, and Chlorthalidone. There are different classes on medications used as a guideline for when a doctor is prescribing one to a hypertensive patient.

You’ve heard of drugs interacting with other medications in negative, and sometimes positive, ways. Seeing as cannabidiol is a similar remedy, could negative interactions possibly be something someone needs to worry about when using CBD? 

Project CBD found that cannabidiol can potentially interact with other medications by inhibiting cytochrome P450 activity. Cytochrome P450 is a family of liver enzymes that metabolizes a majority of drugs that we use. CBD can deactivate cytochrome P450 enzymes at a specific dosage, for a short period, which inhibits us from metabolizing certain compounds. In addition, these enzymes could potentially deactivate cannabidiol as well. 

Amlodipine is metabolized in the liver through the cytochrome P4503A4, an enzyme within the cytochrome P450 family of enzymes. This means that Amlodipine, a commonly used hypertension medication, and CBD would essentially cancel each other out. Odds are a patient is only taking one or the other, but if you’re taking medications for another long-term condition, you may run into the same problem with those drugs. 

What CBD products are on the market right now? 

The FDA has approved only one CBD product, which is a remedy that can be prescribed to treat seizures associated with Lennox Gastaut syndrome, Dravet syndrome, and tuberous sclerosis complex. According to the FDA, products that are advertised as dietary supplements are currently illegal. The FDA also warns that some CBD products are marketed with little or unproven claims about the benefits—which is why we take special care of our stock here at Indy CBD Plus.

While there are plenty of cannabidiol products on the market right now, they aren’t yet approved by the FDA. There are also no CBD products that are specifically geared toward remedying hypertension. Products only claim that they can be used for hypertension, in addition to its other benefits. You can find both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum products. Full-spectrum products contain a more significant percentage of THC, whereas broad-spectrum has little to no percentage of THC.

Some products available include cannabidiol oil, gummies, soft gel pills, tincture, and capsules. We recommend CBDaily. Different products contain a different number of milligrams of CBD, and serving sizes vary from product to product. Most products promote better sleep, management of stress levels, and inflammation reduction. All of these therapeutic benefits then influence a patient’s hypertension.

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