Is there anything to the Covid transmission and cannabinoids hype?
So is it just a late-night joke, or is there some actual evidence to the buzz about how this study that cannabinoids (specifically: CBDA and CBGA (the acidic forms of CBD and CBG) could help to block transmission of the Covid virus? What do we actually know, and what’s wishful thinking?
Read the actual article in Journal of Natural Products
So here’s the good news: it’s a real study, conducted in a responsible way, and it’s got some interesting findings that need further investigation! But no, that’s NOT the same thing as “cannabinoids products as we have them today can stop Covid” (shoot - trust us, we’d really like that too.)
“Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants” looked at how CBDA and CBGA could potentially block the Covid virus from entering the body by attaching to the virus’ spike proteins - you might imagine it a little like wearing sunscreen, providing a physical layer of protection for your cells from being entered by the virus. The exciting discovery is that those elements DO bind - in a controlled lab setting. The study does not yet look at what happens when we try this in a complex living organism (i.e., in vivo) - and you probably don’t need us to tell you, what happens in a lab does not always work in a living human. There’s a lot of work to do yet to discover how we can make these findings apply in a real-life setting - and if we can design hemp-based products that really could be proven to limit Covid transmission.
One point that stands out to us at Impact Naturals is: The study suggests that the cannabinoid levels would have to be very, very high for this ‘sunscreen’-type preventative approach to guarding the body to work. If you’ve been following us long, you know that bioavailability (i.e., the proportion of a drug or other substance which enters the circulation when introduced into the body and so is able to have an active effect) is very important to us. CBD naturally has a quite low bioavailability - so we created a patented process Chylosoma to boost the bioavailability of our products 5x or more than other CBD products (you can learn more about that here. Another reason to really care about how much CBD actually gets absorbed and used by your body, not just how much it says on the label!