Viral Pneumonia and CBD*

Bacteria could cause pneumonia; but a virus can also cause it. Is there anything you can do to protect yourself when you’re about to experience pneumonia after an infection?

In fact, there is.

I’m Dr. Mary Clifton. I’m an internal medicine doctor and the founder of CBDandCannabisinfo.com.

Pneumonia is the fourth leading killer in the United States. There are different ways that unchecked inflammation goes on in the lungs after exposure to a virus or bacteria. One of the ways that information appears to be improved is through the use of CBD or other cannabinoid formulations.

In a study published in 2016 in primary care medicine, the forced expiratory volume was measured in people who used cannabinoid formulations and in those who did not.

The studies showed that people who used cannabinoid formulations actually had a higher forced vital capacity than people who didn’t. A forced vital capacity is measured by having your patient take a complete inhalation, and after their lungs are full, have them blow out their air as fast as they can.

The forced expiratory volume is what is measured to determine a healthy FEB. That’s measured to look at situations like COPD, asthma, or to just see how compliant the lungs are.  It shows well your lungs are functioning.

CAN CBD OR OTHER CANNABINOID FORMULATION CAN CAUSE ONGOING DAMAGE TO THE LUNGS FROM SMOKING? THIS STUDY SHOWED THAT WITH REGULAR USE THERE WAS ACTUALLY AN INCREASE IN FORCED VITAL CAPACITY.

What was the unexpected finding in relationship to Viral Pneumonia and CBD?

That was an unexpected finding. Other studies that have backed up that using cannabinoid formulations may not be as inflammatory to the lungs we thought.

In a study published in 2015 by the Annals of American Thoracic Society, a 20 year follow up study involving several hundred patients showed no significant difference in lung function when patients were using cannabinoid formulations or when they did not.

People in the past have lumped smoking with smoking. That if you’re smoking cannabis, they give you the same disease risks as if you were smoking tobacco.

Smoking cannabinoid formulations is obviously not like smoking tobacco. When you’re using tobacco products, you’re inhaling 400 inhalations a day, if you’re smoking a pack a day. Even my heaviest users of medicinal cannabinoids might be inhaling 10 times a day. The exposure, the risk, the potential damage, is so utterly different from 400 smoking inhalations compared to four or five in a usual cannabis user.

The other thing that’s really different is the amount of inflammation that the tobacco delivers. There’s all kinds of inflammatory mediators in tobacco products that have been very well studied and reviewed in other videos. Not only mine, but millions of other videos.

Cannabinoid formulations are not only loaded with CBD, CBN and THC. They appear to have potential positive effects on bronchodilation and lung function. In addition to the cannabinoids, there are also the terpenes, and pinene in itself may be a natural bronchodilator. There are also natural antibacterial effects in products like limonene.

Learn more about the terpenes in cannabinoid formulations. And in a subsequent video, I’m going to talk to you about asthma and how asthma may also benefit from inhalation of cannabinoids.