Cannabis has a long history of medical use, dating back from 2372 B.C. in China. The United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), which provides a list of acceptable medicines each year, listed cannabis among its pages from 1851-1941. However, after the passing of the Marihuana Tax Act, prescribing cannabis became more difficult, and it was removed from the USP in 1942. More recently, however, the medical benefits of cannabis are being reinvestigated.
A new study by researchers from Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University explores one of these benefits. The results of the study show that the administration of cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychotropic component of cannabis, helps to significantly heal bone fractures. The researchers conducted the study on rats with mid-femoral fractures and found that CBD improved the healing process of the fracture after only eight weeks, even when CBD was isolated from tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of cannabis.
Image Source: Peter Dazeley
One group of rats was injected with CBD alone, and the other group was injected with both CBD and THC. The results showed that CBD alone was equally effective as the combination of CBD and THC. Dr. Yankel Gabet, one of the lead researchers, highlighted the differences in side effects between CBD on its own and with THC.
“While there is still a lot of work to be done to develop appropriate therapies, it is clear that it is possible to detach a clinical therapy objective from the psychoactivity of cannabis. CBD, the principal agent in our study, is primarily anti-inflammatory and has no psychoactivity.”
– Dr. Yankel Gabet
Since CBD has been proven by previous studies to be safe, the researchers believe the next step is to conduct clinical trials to see if CBD is equally effective at healing fractures in humans.
Feature Image Source: Cannabis by deviat ed
