CBD and Blood Pressure

Recently, as scientific research has begun to delve deeper into the benefits of the active compounds in the cannabis plant, some studies have drawn attention to cannabidiol (CBD) as a potential substance capable of reducing blood pressure in cases of confirmed hypertension.

Human studies aimed at verifying the potential benefits of cannabidiol (CBD) on blood pressure are still few and relatively recent. In 2017, a study conducted by researchers from the Department of Medicine at the University of Nottingham and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre yielded the first encouraging results.

The study involved nine healthy male participants who were administered either 600 mg of cannabidiol (CBD) or a placebo. The volunteers' cardiovascular parameters were monitored and analyzed, revealing that cannabidiol (CBD) reduced systolic blood pressure (the higher number) and stroke volume - the amount of blood pumped by a ventricle - under normal conditions. Similarly, cannabidiol (CBD) also reduced blood pressure when subjects were under stress.

At the time, researchers were not yet able to determine whether this effect of cannabidiol (CBD) was due to a direct cardiovascular action or its anxiolytic and analgesic properties. However, the study by the English researchers was one of the first to call for a better understanding of the potential effect of CBD on hemodynamics: the 'behavior' of blood in circulation.

Indeed, despite numerous studies analyzing the effects of cannabidiol (CBD) in vitro, its effects on hemodynamics in vivo remain unclear. For this reason, another team of researchers from the Royal Derby Hospital Center at the University of Nottingham published a systematic review of all studies conducted to date aimed at verifying the effects of CBD on blood pressure, both in animals and humans.

In the review - published in Frontiers of Pharmacology - a total of 25 studies were considered. The scientists who contributed to this review concluded that, by analyzing the overall data from the studies, cannabidiol (CBD) might be able to reduce blood pressure and heart rate under various stress conditions that had caused an increase.

Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that this action of cannabidiol (CBD) should undoubtedly be investigated further to determine whether its use could be considered to support therapy aimed at reducing blood pressure in cases of arterial hypertension.