CANNAHEALTH The Power of Cannabidiol | Page 18

The best benefit to patients is a balanced approach to cannabinoids. Many strains of Cannabis were bred for recreational users and have high THC levels (30%). These can actually overpower the Entourage Effect, dampening the benefits for patients who use Cannabis as medicine. Ideally, patients should seek out a balanced, medium-potency (not high-potency) Cannabis, with THC levels around 15%.

What Are the Effects of CBD vs. THC on Anxiety and Insomnia?

CBD oils have increasingly become an area of interest for parents whose children have been diagnosed with certain forms of epilepsy, which can cause hundreds of seizures per day. Since CBD does not produce psychoactive effects (a high), parents seem more comfortable using it for their children. However, as I noted in my article on hemp seed oil, CBD oils invariably fail unless they contain some THC.

When THC is reduced below a certain threshold, you are essentially left with hemp, which has no medical value precisely because its THC content is so low. Even proponents of Project CBD – which, as you can guess from the name, doesn’t exactly have an anti-CBD agenda – openly acknowledge the medical necessity of THC. The following Project CBD quote sums it up nicely:

“CBD can modulate CB1 receptor signaling only when THC or another cannabinoid compound is active at the orthosteric binding site. In terms of whole plant [C]annabis therapeutics, CBD’s efficacy as an allosteric modulator requires the co-presence of THC.”

That being said, it would probably be jumping the gun to dismiss CBD as outright useless while research is still in the process of being conducted. While acknowledging that, unfortunately, “Little experimental research exists on the effects of CBD alone or in conjunction with THC,” a 2013 study published in

Frontiers in Psychiatry also noted “indications that CBD may have some neuroprotective properties.” The study explained, “In some neurodegenerative diseases that are often associated with declines in cognitive functioning, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, CBD may have some role in treatment or prevention.”

The authors of the

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