If you or a loved one are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, you know how harrowing the adventure can be. This illness steals your memories and changes the way you behave and act. Many pharmaceuticals can help with some of the symptoms, but sometimes they don’t work and the side effects can be so risky for people of old age. Many people are turning to medical cannabis to help with their symptoms and even help slow down the progression of the disease.

1. Anti-Inflammatory

Patients with Alzheimer’s have a build up of beta-amyloid plaque that surrounds their neurons and instead of being proteins that are broken down, they form a hard plaque that your body can’t get rid of. With this plaque surrounding neurons, it causes cognitive impairments that are synonymous with Alzheimer’s like memory loss or loss of speech.

Research indicates that the presence of this plaque activates immune cells called microglia and go into attack mode to get rid of it. However, the plaque is so strong that the immune cells won’t make any headway, making them stick around and cause long-term inflammation.  Using cannabidiol can help reduce the activity of microglial cells which in turn can reduce the damage done to the brain by inflammation.

2. Slowing Down The Progression

Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease which means that it gets worse and more damaging over time. The accumulation of beta-amyloid creates a toxic environment for cells, encouraging them to die off. Altered glucose metabolism has also shown to be a cause of not only diabetes but Alzheimer’s as well reducing the amount of fuel transferred to cells.

Cannabidiol can help protect the brain, fighting against the beta-amyloid toxicity. These neuroprotective properties can help slow down the progression of the disease. CBD can also regulate the glucose uptake, helping to keep the brain fueling itself with energy.

3. Social Recognition

One of the cognitive impairments that is so common with Alzheimer’s and dementia is social recognition deficit. This is when the individual has a hard time remembering faces and names of people they may have known for years. As a relative of someone with this disease, it can be one of the most heartbreaking things to watch as they forget who their loved ones are.

Studies have shown the CBD treatments may be able to help with social recognition deficits. Not only does CBD help with the damage done by beta-amyloid toxicity and oxidative stress, but researchers have also discovered more treatment options through other courses of interactions available for the cannabinoid. They found that CBD made an impact on neuroinflammation, cholesterol, and dietary phytosterol linking to improved social recognition.

4. Depression

Depression is comorbid with many illnesses and diseases and is often forgotten or put on the back burner while the primary disease is treated. This can make matters worse for any disease making it harder to help yourself treat the illness. People who are depressed often don’t take their medicine and don’t do activities that exercise their mind or body which can make illnesses worse.

Cannabidiol can help with depression in two ways. The first is by helping to reduce inflammation in the brain that can be causing depression. For a long time, we thought depression as just a chemical imbalance, which is true, but there is so much more to the story. Depression may be linked to inflammation in parts of the brain causing these chemical imbalances. CBD can help reduce this inflammation so the brain can begin to function normally again.

CBD also gives the user a boosted mood. It isn’t a high like you would get off of caffeine, alcohol, or THC, but more of a natural high you get like after a good workout or run. By elevating the endocannabinoid anandamide, CBD can make the user feel more uplifted, making day to day activities easier to accomplish.

5. Stimulating Cell Growth

A big part of Alzheimer’s is cell death in the brain. The toxicity from the beta-amyloid can have a lasting impact on neurons resulting in death. The lack of nutrients from the low glucose levels can also contribute to cell death. The connections between neurons break down, and parts of the brain begin to shrink.

Cannabidiol has the ability to help regenerate cells through a process called neurogenesis. It doesn’t make new cells out of nowhere, but it stimulates the process that the brain already uses. Usually, cells die off like our skin cells. Our brain cells are designed to live for years, which means they have to be able to repair themselves. CBD oil can stimulate this process, helping to slow down the cell death repercussions of this disease.  

If you or your loved one are suffering from Alzheimer's, stop by our shop and check ou the wide variety of products we have available for you to choose from. Be sure to talk with your doctor to make sure CBD doesn’t interact with any medications you are currently on.