CBD & Heart Disease

Heart disease usually includes conditions such as arteriosclerosis, which is the blocking or narrowing of blood vessels, meaning the arteries of the heart cannot deliver enough oxygen-rich blood to the heart, which could lead to some strokes, angina, or a heart attack. According to the World Health Organization, Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number 1 cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year. The CDC report that one person dies every 36 seconds In the United States from heart disease.  Some of the key risk factors for heart disease include high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking, as well as uncontrollable factors such as age or family history.

Research has been showing that CBD can potentially maintain healthy cardiovascular function and prevent heart disease on a number of fronts, including against arteriosclerosis, lowering blood pressure and reducing the incidence of potentially dangerous arrhythmias.

High Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for hypertensive heart disease. Your blood pressure can rise under stress, but some research suggests a dose of CBD can lessen that spike.
Resstel et al. (2009) study examined rodents that were subjected to a stressful situation that caused their blood pressure and heart rate to increase. A dose of CBD lowered both their blood pressure and heart rate.
Jadoon, Tan & O’ Sullivan (2017) made a similar study only with human volunteers that were subjected to situations that caused increased blood pressure and heart rate. The he CBD lowered their blood pressure, as compared to volunteers given a placebo.
However, a 2017 empirical study by Sultan et al. (2017) s found that there’s no evidence that CBD provides similar results under non-stressful conditions. Talk to your doctor before using CBD if you have high blood pressure. So, while more research is needed to say for sure, CBD may be useful in lowering blood pressure and heart rate under stress.

Stroke

Heart disease increases your risk of stroke. An ischemic stroke happens when a blood clot blocks blood flow to the brain. A blood vessel in the brain can also burst, causing a haemorrhagic stroke.
A 2010 review by Hayakawa, Mishima and Fujiwara suggests that CBD may help protect stroke patients from brain damage and even aid recovery by boosting brain function. While Sultan et al. (2017) review also concluded that CBD increased cerebral blood flow during a stroke. However, it’s important to note that these reviews focused on animal studies. More research is needed to determine whether these findings also apply to humans.

Inflammation

Inflammation is part of the process that leads to many diseases, including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke, and there is some evidence that CBD has anti-inflammatory properties. Other studies have suggested that CBD can have a protective effect on the heart: this has been proven in rats after a heart attack and in mice with some of the heart damage associated with diabetes. But because these studies are often based on findings in a lab or in animals, not in humans, we cannot yet be confident that CBD will benefit the human heart.
There is ongoing research into the use of purer forms of CBD for a variety of conditions, including heart and circulatory diseases and, in particular, diseases of the heart muscle, including myocarditis and some types of cardiomyopathy.
Some of this work is still in animals, and much more research is needed before we can definitively say that CBD can help in this area.