According to some new findings, CBD may have a solid use as an arthritis reliever in pets.
Researchers at the Baylor School of Medicine said in a newly published study that they collaborated with MedTerra CBD to analyze the cannabis compound’s impact on arthritis particularly in a test population of dogs.
The study was the first of its kind, based on the premise that dog arthritis presents many of the same symptoms and problems as human manifestations of the disease.
According to a press release, Dr. Matthew Halpert of the Baylor’s Pathology and Immunology Department led the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health. [1]
The trial featured 20 dogs who suffer from arthritis, with some exposed to CBD products from MedTerra and some exposed to a placebo.
"We studied dogs because experimental evidence shows that spontaneous models of arthritis, particularly in domesticated canine models, are more appropriate for assessing human arthritis pain treatments than other animal models. The biological characteristics of arthritis in dogs closely resemble those of the human condition," Halpert said.
The findings in the study are not earth shattering for many pet owners. Dogs, cats and other mammalian pets have an endocannabinoid system, or ECS, just as humans do. This is the part of their anatomy that CBD activates when consumed, just like with people.
This is intuitive to those who see the benefits of CBD use. People use CBD for their anxiety, for pain relief, and for epileptic seizures, all of which occur commonly enough in dogs and cats as well.
In the case of the Baylor study, researchers found CBD “resulted in reduced production of both inflammatory molecules and immune cells linked to arthritis” in dogs.
"We found encouraging results," Halpert said. "Nine of the 10 dogs on CBD showed benefits, which remained for two weeks after the treatment stopped. We did not detect alterations in the blood markers we measured, suggesting that, under the conditions of our study, the treatment seems to be safe."
Inflammation, arthritis and pain are not the only potential uses of CBD in pets, though naturally this young area of research needs more scientific work to back up many claims.
According to the Regina Leader Post, some limited testing of CBD on dogs also showed limited improvement in epilepsy symptoms in different breeds of dogs.
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