Yo yo yo, what’s good fam? It’s ya boi Dan here droppin’ some knowledge about CBD and its potential as an antioxidant. You know how there’s a war goin’ on inside our bodies between the good guys (antioxidants) and the bad guys (free radicals)? Well, turns out CBD and other cannabinoids might just be our allies in this fight. Let’s dive into it.
So, check it out, humans need to eat to survive, right? And when we process food to create energy, we end up with waste products. Some of these waste products are called free radicals, which are basically molecules with an unpaired electron. These little buggers are bad news because they can damage our cells by stealing electrons from healthy molecules and setting off a chain reaction that leaves us with a bunch of messed up molecules.
Too many free radicals in your body can lead to all sorts of health problems like cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and stroke. Plus, they can even cause your skin to age prematurely. Not cool. That’s where antioxidants come in. Antioxidants are natural substances that can stop the chemical reaction that produces free radicals and prevent them from damaging cells. They give electrons to those lonely electrons in free radicals and help stabilise the molecule to prevent it from wreaking havoc on your body.
Now, your body can produce some antioxidants on its own but not enough to handle all the harmful effects of external factors like pollution, junk food, smoke, and such. That’s why it’s important to eat a lot of antioxidant-rich foods like fruits and veggies. Antioxidants include things like vitamin C, vitamin E, glutathione, lipoic acid, uric acid, carotenes, and coenzyme Q10.
But here’s where things get interesting: recent studies suggest that CBD might also have antioxidant properties. Researchers are testing CBD against models of oxidative stress to see if it holds up as an antioxidant. Early studies show that cannabinoids like CBD might be able to fight free radicals and even have neuroprotective properties.
Antioxidants are drawing particular interest as neuroprotectants because they can help prevent glutamate toxicity and oxidative stress – both of which are tied to conditions like brain cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Researchers are now studying the impact of CBD in cell and animal models of glutamate toxicity.
However, it’s still too early to say whether or not CBD will prove to be an effective antioxidant for severe conditions like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. Most studies so far have been conducted in labs or on animals rather than humans. Plus, there’s no clinical evidence yet that CBD or other cannabinoids can actually treat these conditions.
But it’s definitely encouraging news! Based on the studies done so far, it looks like most cannabinoids produce some sort of antioxidant or protective effect. And because there are all sorts of different cannabinoids out there, they can be found in all sorts of products like oils, capsules, edibles, and topicals.
So next time someone asks you if you’re getting enough antioxidants in your diet, tell ‘em you’ve got CBD on your side! Just remember that while there’s plenty of research being done on the benefits of CBD and other cannabinoids, more human trials need to be conducted before we can say for sure how effective they really are. Until then though…stay lit!
