As the coronavirus has spread across the globe it has left a path of sickness and death in its wake. The search for an effective anti-viral agent is paramount as the sadness and grief that the pandemic has caused is hard to measure.
Italy was hit particularly hard. The country is still struggling to battle the virus, although encouraging news is starting to increase in frequency.
Medical professionals and researchers have scrambled for weeks to find something to help mitigate the fallout, including exploring whether CBD-based treatments have any merit.
The results of a new analysis out of Italy, regarding CBD and potential anti-viral agent effectiveness, is not encouraging.
Reviewing Clinical Evidence
Researchers in Italy, in conjunction with researchers in the United Kingdom, analyzed peer-reviewed data from various studies in an effort to try to determine whether there was ample evidence to support CBD’s anti-viral properties.
The researchers concluded that there was some “circumstantial evidence” in a limited number of instances to support the claim that CBD was an effective treatment.
However, those cases involved hepatitis C and Karposi sarcoma. For the remaining list of conditions involved, evidence of effectiveness was lacking.
Authors of the analysis reported that there is “no evidence from properly designed clinical trials to support the use of CBD for the treatment” of various conditions such as the flu, West Nile virus, Ebola, or common cold viruses.
Beware Health-Related Claims Regarding CBD
Unfortunately, many scammers are trying to use the coronavirus pandemic to their advantage and sell people CBD products under the false premise that it will help them be immune to the coronavirus, as we previously covered here at Cannabis & Tech Today.
To would-be customers that are being pitched false claims by CBD sellers, especially online CBD sellers, consider the following statement from the authors of the recent study that came out of Italy:
“Claims about the benefits of using CBD on viral infections were largely supported by CBD online retailers and most often appear to be a biased interpretation of the scientific literature or a dishonest manipulation of the information for commercial purposes.”
Researchers went on to say, “CBD sellers should stop promoting claims that are not backed by scientific evidence. Misleading claims represent both a threat to public health and a violation of consumer access to accurate information.”
The cannabis plant and all of its cannabinoids, CBD included, possess a number of wellness benefits, and certainly medical value. However, those benefits have a limit and research regarding medical claims and anti-viral properties is limited, so always keep that in mind.
