Can CBD Positively Affect Cardiovascular Health?

Original Publish Date - February 16th 2023

February is proclaimed as American Heart Month and is done so to draw attention to the number 1 killer of Americans… Heart Disease. President Lyndon B. Johnson, among the millions of people in the country who'd had heart attacks, issued the first proclamation in 1964. Since then, U.S. presidents have annually declared February American Heart Month.

On average in the US, someone dies from cardiovascular disease every 34 seconds. In the us, 47% of adults have high blood pressure. That’s more than 120 million Americans! Heart health is a major problem in the US and deserves our continued attention.

Throughout the years of my involvement with Imbue Botanicals, I have been asked many times if CBD might be helpful in managing Cardiovascular Diseases (CVD’s). Let me be CLEAR. THIS ARTCLE IS NOT TO BE INTERPRETTED AS CLAIM THAT CBD SHOULD BE USED TO TREAT HEART DISEASE. Rather, it contains citing from a few key articles the reader might find informative.

Among the earlier articles published, a December 2010 study in the Journal of American College of Cardiology concluded:

“Collectively, these results coupled with the excellent safety and tolerability profile of CBD in humans, strongly suggest that it may have great therapeutic potential in the treatment of diabetic complications, and perhaps other cardiovascular disorders, by attenuating oxidative/nitrative stress, inflammation, cell death and fibrosis.”

CBD's anti-inflammatory and antioxidative properties are well known and several in the scientific community believe that it may be able to reduce risk factors that can lead to heart disease, like high blood pressure. A June 2017 article published in JCI Insight noted that “a single dose of cannabidiol reduces blood pressure in healthy volunteers in a randomized crossover study” It may also be able to reduce the risk of related conditions, like stroke. A review article published in January of this year concluded:

“Among many components of the Cannabis plant, studies on CBD demonstrate the greatest potential in experimental models of described herein CVDs. Although animal models and in vitro experiments have shown promising outcomes, data from human studies are still extremely limited and only these clinical trials may shed light on the actual therapeutic effect of CBD.”

As for me, I fully agree that more studies, especially human clinical style trials, are required to determine the actual therapeutic effects of CBD on CVD’s. I believe, however, the promise CBD has in helping to ameliorate the effects of CVD’s is bright. As a survivor of a massive stroke in 2005, I can tell you that I take my CBD every day, along with eating right and excercising, in the hopes that it will positively impact my cardiovascular health.

All our best,

Tom