I have long been a fan of supporting our Endocannabinoid system, with organic CBD and CBD derivatives. The latest research has just boosted my commitment to offering safe, effective, pharmacy grade USA grown organic hemp CBD products, because of its effect on our Natural Killer immune cell function.
Natural Killer (NK) immune cells do exactly what you think they would do — they scour our body continuously for invading viruses and other pathogens to kill them before they have a chance to make us sick. They can recognize when our cells have been invaded by a virus and they trigger a cytotoxic reaction to stop that cell from replicating and infecting other cells, as well as boosting cytokine response to ensure our body’s immune system does it’s job before we are even aware that we were exposed and potentially getting sick. This limits the viral spread as well as tissue damage in our body.
But Natural Killer cells do another really important job, which is cancer prevention.
Natural killer cells provide both anti-tumor as well as anti-metastasis defense, which make them invaluable for not only preventing cancer but also decreasing metastasis. In fact, Natural Killer cells are our body’s main innate defense against developing cancer. Because of this, there are all kinds of new drugs being tested to boost Natural Killer cell function and treat a wide variety of cancers, a new generation of cancer treatments called immun0-oncology treatments, so of course there are lots of pharmaceutical companies investigating the role of immuno-oncology drugs.
A great medical review of the 25 tumor types that NK cells show promising therapeutic effects for can be read right here.
But new research suggests we already have a natural way to boost NK cell function, through CBD supplements.
This latest article, published in September 2023 in Nutrients found that after only 8 weeks of daily CBD supplements, NK immune cell function was significantly enhanced. That means not only boosted immune function but potentially boosted anti-cancer benefits. This on top of the fact that the study participants reported improved sleep quality as well.
The dose required for this effect? Only 50 mg CBD daily.
How long did they take the CBD supplements for? Only two months!
Anti-cancer and immune boosting benefits in just weeks? Yes.
I know I’ll get asked what the best supplement is for CBD supplementation, and there is only one CBD oil product I recommend — that’s because as a holistic physician I know that how each ingredient is grown (organically) and where supplement is made (in the USA) and how it is processed (cold pressed) and how it is stored (in a pharmaceutical grade storage facility) is just as important as what the ingredients are.
There is only one physician grade, organic, cold-pressed, raw, made in the USA CBD oil I would give to my patients, and I’ll tell you more about that below.
Meanwhile, let me tell you about a few other super impressive benefits that we already know from the medical literature can come from regular CBD use. How about that when you apply it topically it works to relieve pain so well that it can even relieve shingles pain?
Well all know that one of the most painful skin conditions, maybe secondary only to burns and chronic ulcers, is shingles. Very difficult to treat, not much decreases shingles pain once it starts. Shingles pain is a nerve pain that can be hideously intense — burning, stabbing and stinging so badly that it’s hard to even do the most basic functions during a flare, the pain can even prevent sleep.
Topical CBD application is one of the only all natural ways to decrease pain in shingles, with a recent study founding that shingles pain was reduced by 88% — that’s almost 90% relief! — in over 60% of the study participants, with no negative side effects and well tolerated by all.
How could CBD applied topically almost entirely relieve nerve pain?
That’s because cannabinoid receptors are found all throughout our body, including throughout our skin.
CBD is incredibly anti-inflammatory and soothing (if you want to hear me speak about the role of CBD in trauma recovery, you can listen to my podcast on that here) so it’s no surprise that researchers have found several different cannabinoid receptors in the skin.
Both cannabinoid receptors type 1 and type 2 (CB1 and CB2) are found in all skin, and help regulate everything from our hair growth to our skin’s immune system to it’s oil production. CB1 and CB2 receptors have been found in our keratinocytes, hair follicles, sebeceous glands, on the skin’s nerve fibers (including pain receptors that give rise to pain and itch sensations) and mast cells (which are responsible for our skin’s allergic response.)
When our skin gets dysregulated, and the healthy balance of our skin is disrupted, it can be challenging to restore barrier function and get chronic conditions like allergic dermatitis, acne, eczema, psoriasis and other chronic skin conditions to truly resolve.
Everything from the environmental pollutants our skin is exposed to, to the chemicals in the body care products we put directly on our skin, to climate stressors such as UV radiation or cold whipping winds that can literally freeze and crack our skin, as well as the plethora of pathogens (like herpese zoster living in our nerve cells) all of it can stress out our skin.
With all of these irritants and exposures, no wonder skin conditions can be hard to treat. If you’ve tried everything from topical moisturizers to topical steroids to topical antihistamines to topical antibiotics and you still have eczema, or hives, or rashes, resistant acne or even a painful skin condition… you may want to consider adding a topical CBD lotion to your regime.
Researchers have found that supporting the endocannabinoid system may help reduce pruritus (itching) associated with chronic skin conditions, as well as decrease inflammation (showing promise for help in treating eczema) as well as decreasing oil production (making it a new avenue to treat acne) in addition to the research on decreasing shingles pain that I shared above.
Many major research articles suggest that application of CBD to the skin improves human skin function while also being incredibly safe and well tolerated. I’ve listed some of the best ones below, if you’d like to dive directly into the medical literature on this:
- Therapeutic Potential of Cannabidiol (CBD) for Skin Health and Disorders
- The antimicrobial potential of cannabidiol
- Topical Administration of Cannabidiol: Influence of Vehicle-Related Aspects on Skin Permeation Process
- The potential role of cannabinoids in dermatology
- Cannabidiol induces antioxidant pathways in keratinocytes
- Cannabidiol exerts sebostatic and antiinflammatory effects on human sebocytes
- An Observational Study of the Application of a Topical Cannabinoid Gel on Sensitive Dry Skin
- Tolerability profile of topical cannabidiol: evaluator-blinded clinical and in vitro studies in normal skin
- In vitro percutaneous absorption studies of cannabidiol using human skin
- Cannabidiol-Mediated Changes to Keratinocytes from Psoriatic Patients
- The Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Cannabidiol (CBD) on Acne
- Cannabis sativa and Skin Health: Dissecting the Role of Phytocannabinoids
Unfortunately, the purity and potency of the vast majority of CBD products on the market is questionable, so I highly recommend getting your CBD (whether topicals, capsules, gummies or tinctures) through a physician. ECS Therapeutics CBD supplements are prescription grade, pharmacy quality CBD oil products that are organically grown right here in the USA and quality tested more thoroughly than any other CBD product I have ever seen.
It’s the only one I personally trust and use.
You can ask your in person physician for an ECS Therapeutics prescription, or you can fill out my contact form here to request more information on prescription strength CBD products ordered directly through me, and I can have them shipped directly to your front door.
Whether you are interested in boosting your Natural Killer immune cell function — I have organic, USA grown, 50mg CBD capsules I would recommend for that — or you are interested in adding a topical cream, balm or roll on to your skin care routine, I have formulations for that too.
Fill out my contact form here to be evaluated for ECS Therapeutics CBD products and see how they work for you.
And stay tuned for next week’s blog post about 6 additional, all natural ways to treat pain — even chronic, unrelenting pain — so that you can feel your best no matter what your health goals are challenges are right now. Next week’s healing blog post will be a deeper dive into how to help treat other pain conditions in totally natural ways, so be sure you are signed up for my newsletter here to get that article into your email inbox. And if someone forwarded you this article then you’ll want to sign up to get that uplifting, holistic healing article right here right now.
To your natural and resilient health…
xoxoxo,
Laura Koniver MD
PS — ECS Therapeutics even has pet care CBD tinctures… so if you want to improve pain, boost immune function, boost anti-cancer benefits or help improve sleep for your furry friends, you can obtain these products from ECS Therapeutics as well.
Ask your veterinarian to order them for you or fill out my contact form here.
