ELLIOT MERCIER 

This article is for informational purposes only. Consult your physician before undertaking any medical treatment.

The world of medicine has had its share of breakthroughs via what many what consider unconventional means: the smallpox vaccine was created through the collected fluid of a cowpox sore injected into an individual theorized to be immune to a former threat; the fiddling of vacuums and photosensitive plating gave light to the revolutionary X-ray. While today’s discovery and current investigation isn’t promising something quite so grand, it is giving credence to ideas of treatment for today’s global danger – COVID-19. 

The coronavirus is often defined by a relentless fever, dry cough and a feeling of being unable to breathe. The last symptom is caused by an unfortunate irony – your body trying to protect you from infection by creating inflammation. The chemical responsible for this defense is cytokines, and severe cases of the disease cause the human body to overproduce this chemical. This overflow of inflammation leads to organ failure eventually. This inflammation is the main reason why this disease is so deadly to older folks with a history or being immune-compromised. 

So how does CBD, a common chemical in cannabis, help out with this? In case you’re unaware, CBD is not the stuff in marijuana that gets anyone high. It’s a chemical known as cannabidiol, which has been used in the medical field before for epilepsy, anxiety, muscle disorders such as dystonia, and several other conditions. 

Even with this applied use becoming more popular as time goes on, the medical community at large considers the relief and evidence of healing to be insubstantial. There’s no place that comes to mind that will prescribe the usage of CBD right off the bat, and these exceptions can be considered experimental for the time being, with most folk going to their local retailer to test it out themselves for muscle aches and other minor afflictions. 

More importantly, CBD is an inhibitor of cytokines, able to decrease and stop the production of too much of the chemical. This won’t be the same as curing a patient of COVID-19 symptoms outright, but, according to preprints provided and authored by Olga and Igor Kovalchuk, current testing shows CBD has ability to decrease the inevitable inflammation by 70%- 80%. 

Well, if the solution seems so easy, why aren’t we going full hog on it? Other than the substance used being possibly deemed controversial, the Kovalchuks have admitted that this solution isn’t bulletproof and must be done in controlled doses for patients that critically need it. Using this substance too early on a minor case can have the domino effect of leaving the nervous system kneecapped, with not enough cytokines and other compounds left to fight off other symptoms of COVID-19. More than likely, the application of CBD will be used as an addition to a pre-existing or soon-to-be-developed treatment of COVID-19, since the decline of inflammation isn’t enough to kill the disease.