When you have cancer, the disease is often only half of the equation, as the treatments for cancer can be debilitating. If you’re struggling with pain, anxiety, nausea, and vomiting, among other symptoms, CBD products may be able to restore your quality of life as you battle this disease.
While we may be a practice devoted to cosmetic solutions, Dr. Thomas McHugh and the team here at McHugh Plastic Surgery, also offer wellness services that include CBD products.
In the following, we explore how CBD can play a role in your fight against cancer.
The active ingredient in our CBD products is cannabidiol, or CBD, which is derived from cannabis plants, including hemp. It’s important to note that cannabis contains two active ingredients — CBD and THC, the latter of which is a psychoactive agent. We point this out because our products contain only CBD.
The reason why CBD products are fast gaining favor in the medical world for a wide range of issues is that CBD works with an existing system in your body called your endocannabinoid system (ECS).
Your ECS system contains cells that create a signaling network that affect a number of areas of your health, including mood, inflammation, appetite, pain — all of which can come under fire when you have cancer and/or you’re undergoing cancer treatments.
Cannabis has long been in use to help cancer patients deal with some of the unpleasant symptoms that come with chemotherapy treatments, namely nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite.
As your body reacts to the chemo, your immune system goes into overdrive and creates a cascading response that stirs your gastrointestinal (GI) tract, which is why nausea and vomiting are so common.
With CBD, we can calm your GI tract, as the CBD interacts with the serotonin receptors that regulate your moods.
In addition to quelling nausea, CBD stimulates hunger, which is important when you have a cancer diagnosis, as you need all the nutritional tools that are available to you.
Another benefit of CBD in fighting cancer is relieving cancer-related pain. We commonly recommend CBD for chronic pain, and you can read more about this application from a previous blog post here.
While we recommend CBD for the quality-of-life symptoms that often accompany cancer, as well as the side effects of your treatments, there’s also emerging evidence that CBD may work to fight cancer.
More specifically, studies conducted on cell lines in a laboratory setting found that CBD may work to inhibit the growth of many tumor types. This was a small study and more research is needed, but these preliminary results are certainly interesting.
At our practice, we offer water-based CBD products by Ultracell™, which boast a 94% bioavailability rate. This means that the CBD is absorbed easily into your system and goes to work quickly to stimulate your ECS.
If you would like to find out more about the potential role that CBD can play in helping you in your battle against cancer, contact our office in The Woodlands, Texas.
