Cannabis oil improves symptoms of Crohn's disease: study

According to a new study, cannabis oil can "dramatically" improve the symptoms of Crohn's disease.

"Studies have shown that many people with Crohn's disease regularly consume cannabis to relieve their symptoms," said Dr. Timna Naftali, Israeli gastroenterologist and Tel University teacher, in a written statement. Aviv. "It has always been thought that this improvement was related to a reduction of inflammation in the intestine and the purpose of this study was to study this."

Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that can cause severe stomach pain and chronic diarrhea.

Dr. Naftali, whose study is presented as the first of its kind, found that an eight-week treatment with cannabis oil containing a CBD: THC ratio of 4 to 1 resulted in clinical remission in 65% of patients. people with Crohn's disease. The randomized placebo-controlled study was conducted in 50 people with moderately severe forms of the disease. The group that received cannabis oil also reported significant improvements in its quality of life.

Interestingly, however, it has been found that cannabis has no effect on inflammation of the intestine that underlines the disease.

"We previously demonstrated that cannabis can produce measurable improvements in the symptoms of Crohn's disease, but to our surprise, we found no statistically significant improvement in endoscopic scores or inflammatory markers in the oil group. of cannabis compared to the placebo group, "said Dr. Naftali explained. "We know that cannabinoids can have profound anti-inflammatory effects, but this study indicates that improving symptoms may not be related to these anti-inflammatory properties."

In the future, Dr. Naftali and her research team plan to deepen their research into the potential anti-inflammatory properties of cannabis in the treatment of IBD.

"There is very good reason to believe that the endocannabinoid system is a potential therapeutic target in Crohn's disease and other gastrointestinal diseases," said Dr. Naftali. "At the moment, however, we can only consider drug-based cannabis as an alternative or additional intervention providing temporary relief of symptoms to some people with Crohn's disease."