How CBD May Help The Immune System
What is the immune system? The immune system is quite complex. It is a system of cells and proteins that help defend the body from harmful infection. Furthermore, it records every germ and bacteria it has defeated in your entire life. This allows the immune system to quickly recognise and destroy germs if they were to ever enter your body again. The immune system is basically essential to help your body stay healthy from all the harmful germs and bacteria that you may come across. The most important part of our immune systems are white blood cells. White blood cells come in two types: lymphocytes and phagocytes. Phagocytes help the body by neutralizing invaders and preventing them from spreading more damage. Lymphocytes destroy toxins called “antigens” and help your body remember the toxins so they can react quickly if they sense the same toxins enter the body again.
Now with CBD more popular than ever before and with more research supporting its claimed benefits, could it possibly also benefit the body’s immune system? CBD is a natural cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant that is known for its therapeutic properties. CBD has been reported to help with many things like stress, anxiety, pain, inflammation, and much more. It has been shown through research that CBD works with your body’s endocannabinoid system to achieve homeostasis. Homeostasis is when the body’s physiological processes are balanced and in stable equilibrium. These physiological processes include mood, appetite, memory, focus, managing anxiety, and dealing with pain. CBD can be consumed in the body through various application methods including inhalation, sublingual, edibles, and topically. The most popular way people consume CBD is sublingually using a product like full spectrum CBD oil where you simply use a dropper to drop a little bit of CBD oil under your tongue. Another popular CBD product people enjoy are edibles like CBD gummy bears because it is easy and tasty to get your CBD dosage.
CBD & The Immune System
The endocannabinoid system has receptors called the “CB1” and “CB2” receptors that are throughout our entire body and nervous system. This system is what helps our body try to achieve homeostasis. CBD interacts with our endocannabinoid CB1 and CB2 receptors and helps our bodies with any physiological processes. CBD has shown that it benefits the immune system by constantly keeping it in check. CBD helps our immune responses respond to antibodies in the most efficient ways possible. It is considered an “immunomodulator”, which means CBD knows exactly what our bodies need to do to aid our immune systems. This works because CBD has anti-inflammatory properties that lower the immune system’s inflammatory response. Inflammation plays a key role in the immune system because it isolates and prevents toxins from spreading.
CBD has also shown it can suppress the function of cytokines, which are large masses of proteins. Their goal is to alert molecules that regulate your body’s white blood cell production, immunity responses, and inflammation. In addition to suppressing cytokines, CBD can also do the same for chemokine. Chemokine is a mass of cytokines that lead immune cells to an infected area of the body. White blood cells then destroy the invading germs and toxins.
Final Thoughts:
Since CBD has both anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive properties, it will have its benefits for the immune system; however, it is not an essential supplement for people that are considered healthy. It is way more effective for those that have autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases are when the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells and organs instead of antigens and toxins. So CBD would be a great choice for people with autoimmune diseases because it would fine tune the immune system to function properly.
When shopping CBD for sale online, it is important to look for lab test reports on the products you are looking at. These lab test reports will show all the cannabinoids that are present in the last batch made of the CBD product. CBD products are legally only allowed to be sold with less than 0.3% of delta-9 THC in them. So it is important to see if the lab test reports are easily available and make sure that it is testing for the correct amount of CBD as advertised and that there is less than 0.3% of delta-9 THC. This should ensure you are consuming a safe and legal CBD product.