Up until 1930s, marijuana aka cannabis had been used by different societies across the globe as a remedial plant; however, with increased awareness about its addictive nature, governments across the world started banning its use.
Recent studies have shown that the plant does hold medicinal value and has shown promising results in lab based experiments against a range of diseases including cancer, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis among others.
A new study has shown that cannabis holds the potential of significantly healing bone fractures. Researchers at Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University explored the potential of non-psychotropic component cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) against fractures.
The study, conducted on rats with mid-femoral fractures, found that CBD — even when isolated from tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the major psychoactive component of cannabis — markedly enhanced the healing process of the femora after just eight weeks.
///The research was led jointly by Dr. Yankel Gabet of the Bone Research Laboratory at the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the late Prof. Itai Bab of Hebrew University’s Bone Laboratory.
The same team of researchers previously discovered how cannabinoid receptors within our bodies stimulated bone formation and inhibited bone loss. This discovery opened up doors for possible treatment of osteoporosis and other bone-related diseases using cannabinoid drugs.
“The clinical potential of cannabinoid-related compounds is simply undeniable at this point,” said Dr. Yankel Gabet of the Bone Research Laboratory at the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine.
Dr Gabet acknowledged that there is a lot of work that still needs to be done to develop appropriate therapies, but it is evident that psychoactivity of cannabis can be detached from a clinical therapy objective thereby making it safe. CBD, the principal agent of the study, is primarily anti-inflammatory and has no psychoactivity.
Researchers found that CBD makes bones stronger during healing and also enhances the maturation of the collagenous matrix which provides the basis for new mineralization of bone tissue. Dr Gabet added that after being treated with CBD, the bone that is healed is much stronger than before and much harder to break in future.
In the study, one group of rats was injected with CBD alone while another with a combination of CBD and THC. After evaluating the administration of THC and CBD together in the rats, they found CBD alone provided the necessary therapeutic stimulus.
“We found CBD alone to be sufficiently effective in enhancing fracture healing,” said Dr. Gabet. “Other studies have also shown CBD to be a safe agent, which leads us to believe we should continue this line of study in clinical trials to assess its usefulness in improving human fracture healing.”
Dr. Gabet adds that our bodies are equipped with a cannabinoid system, which regulates both vital and non-vital systems. Our skeleton itself is regulated by cannabinoids. Even the addition of a non-psychogenic compound acting outside of the brain can affect the skeleton.
