Millions of Americans live with high cholesterol, which can increase the risk of developing heart disease, developing peripheral artery disease, or having a stroke — all of which are potentially life-threatening. Research is being conducted to determine whether patients with high cholesterol could see health benefits from using marijuana.

So far, scientists haven’t reached a conclusive verdict about whether cannabis can lower cholesterol, but while more research is needed, existing studies have raised some interesting points about marijuana’s potential role in the fight against high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease.

Marijuana Can Lower, Raise Good Cholesterol (HDL)

Cholesterol is an organic compound that naturally exists in all of your body’s cells.  Cholesterol is critical to various bodily functions, such as synthesizing vitamin D, making hormones, and producing substances your body needs to digest food properly. But while some cholesterol is essential to life, too much can wreak havoc on your health. According to the CDC, about 73.5 million American adults — roughly a third of the population — have high cholesterol, which can double the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

A 2013 study published in Diabetes Care examined the relationship between cannabis use, cholesterol levels, glucose (blood sugar), and insulin (a hormone that helps moderate glucose levels). It makes sense for researchers to study these variables together, because high cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, which occurs when the body produces no insulin or insufficient insulin.

However, before digging into the study, it’s important to know that cholesterol can be described as “good” or “bad.” “Bad cholesterol” refers to LDL (low-density lipoprotein), while “good cholesterol” indicates HDL (high-density lipoprotein), which helps remove LDL deposits.

LDL (bad) cholesterol can accumulate inside your blood vessels, causing your arteries to become harder and narrower. Eventually, an artery can become so clogged that it gets completely blocked.  When this happens, blood can no longer reach the tissue or organs on the other side of the obstruction, leading to a stroke or heart attack (myocardial infarction).

This can occur whether you have diabetes or not, but diabetes patients are at an elevated risk for a number of reasons, including that diabetes has a tendency to decrease HDL levels while simultaneously raising LDL levels. The more LDL builds up in your arteries, the more likely you are to develop a blockage.

In the Diabetes Care study, researchers examined 30 “chronic cannabis smokers” whose median self-reported use was six joints per day over a period of nine and a half years.  (Participants’ use ranged anywhere from three to 30 joints per day, over a period of two to 38 years.) Slightly more than half of the participants — 18 out of 30 — were male.

According to the study, “Cannabis smokers had lower plasma HDL cholesterol,” but unchanged levels of LDL. That means heavy daily cannabis users had a decrease in good cholesterol, but no increase or decrease in bad cholesterol.  However, a study published the year before in BMJ Open found a different result: that “marijuana users had a higher prevalence of serum HDL cholesterol [and] total cholesterol.” In other words, an elevated level of good cholesterol.

The difference in findings is due partially to the fact that each study evaluated different bodily substances. The Diabetes study, which said that cannabis lowered good cholesterol while having no effect on bad cholesterol, examined participants’ blood plasma: yellow fluid that doesn’t contain any cells. The BMJ study, which came to the opposite conclusion, looked at participants’ blood serum: the part of your blood that remains after clotting occurs. Additionally, the cannabis use described in the Diabetes study was far heavier than the use described the BMJ study, which classified “heavy” use as more than five uses per month (as opposed to six joints per day).

Another study, published in 2007 in Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, also examined marijuana’s effects on LDL and HDL. The Neuroscience study, while critical of cannabis as a potential (though rare) trigger for schizophrenia or psychosis, also noted an increase in good cholesterol in patients who used a drug called Rimonabant.

Rimonabant actually blocks some of the effects of THC, but, like cannabis, acts on the brain’s CB1 receptors.  Intended as an anti-obesity drug, Rimonabant was never approved for use in the United States because subjects reported feelings of depression and suicidal ideation. However, the fact that Rimonabant is a CB1 antagonist, like Cannabidiol (CBD), further suggests that medical marijuana could potentially have applications in helping to improve your cholesterol.

Patients in Pennsylvania were denied access to medical marijuana on Tuesday, the result of a crash in the system used to track sales. 

All such transactions in the state are processed through a tracking software system called MJ Freeway, which is required by the Pennsylvania Department of Health under the medical cannabis law there. 

But the system suffered intermittent glitches for about 90 minutes on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson for MJ Freeway, which stymied both producers and consumers. As a result, dispensaries throughout the state were unable to complete transactions to patients, and growers could not complete shipments to dispensaries because there was no way to log them in the system.

“It may have felt longer because it was intermittent,” MJ Freeway spokesperson Jeannette Horton told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “We’re very apologetic for the issues they experienced. Today, we’re hearing it’s all been resolved.”

The state of Pennsylvania has an exclusive $11 million contract with MJ Freeway, which is based in Colorado, to track medical marijuana, but the Inquirer described the company’s software as being “prone to chronic glitches.”

Christina Visco, president of TerraVida Holistic Centers, a company that operates three dispensaries in the Philadelphia suburbs, told the Inquirer that Tuesday’s glitches were frustrating for many patients.

“We turned away literally hundreds of patients yesterday,” Visco said. “The system was down all morning, came back up for a couple of hours, then crashed again.”

“I had product I couldn’t sell to anyone yesterday,” she added. “It never left my vault.”

It’s not the first setback for MJ Freeway’s tracking software in Pennsylvania. Last year, a number of cannabis retailers in the state were forced to suspend sales due to glitches and slowdowns with the company’s system. MJ Freeway has also dealt with glitches in Washington, where it also has a contract to track medical marijuana. 

The company’s software platform was also the subject of an apparent hack in 2017, which triggered outages at 1,000 marijuana retailers across more than 20 states. 

In an interview last year, MJ Freeway co-founder Amy Poinsett defended the company’s products, and said that improvements were being made following the 2017 hack.

“Could the hack have been prevented? Yes and no,” Poinsett told Marijuana Business Daily. “Now we know the specific points of vulnerability, they’ve been fortified, and we’ve added many additional layers of security. However, as systems age and hackers get more sophisticated, the vulnerabilities are ever-changing. So, in theory, every hack is preventable, and yet hacks are never 100% preventable. No company can claim they will never have one. Any company that says so is either lying or unsophisticated. We suffered outages in 2017 that were not related to cyberattacks. We owned that and resolved that by launching MJ Platform, a much more stable, modern, elegant architecture.”

Pennsylvania legalized medical marijuana in 2016 after Gov. Tom Wolf signed legislation allowing the treatment for more than a dozen qualifying conditions. MJ Freeway was awarded its contract with the state the following year.

Marijuana and violence have been getting connected in odd ways over the past month or so. A new book argues that there is a connection, and a famous TV host has also raised the issue. Experts, on the other hand, have lined up to argue that they are both wrong.

The latest controversy over marijuana and violence got kickstarted by FOX News host Tucker Carlson when he recently interviewed  former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson.

Speaking about the mass shooter in Dayton, Ohio, Carlson said the young man was “known to be a long-time user of marijuana. It turns out, in fact, that many violent individuals have been avid marijuana users. Is there a connection?"

Studies Don't Support A Connection

The fact that Carlson brought this up is no surprise. Berenson has a book — called “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence” — that (if the title isn’t obvious enough) makes the connection between marijuana and violence.

His book essentially argues that marijuana use leads to psychosis, and that psychosis is connected with violent behavior. Carlson offered no pushback on Berenson’s book, according to PolitiFact. Rather, he praised the former reporter as a “voice in the wilderness.” 

Is he? Science suggestions the answer is “no.”

Katherine Newman, University of Massachusetts interim chancellor and author of a book on school shootings, told PolitiFact that the idea of marijuana use leading to violence is “absolute nonsense. There is no link whatsoever between marijuana and extreme violence.”

She’s far from alone. Scientists and clinicians wrote a public letter earlier this year that blasted Berenson’s book. Among their assertions is that the author attributed cause to mere association, cherry picked data and suffered from selection bias.

“In addition to his flawed use of science, Berenson’s argument outright ignores most of the harms of prohibition, focusing narrowly on the harms of marijuana use,” the letter stated. While acknowledging that “none would argue that marijuana is risk-free” they wrote that prohibition led to the “criminalization of millions of people, overwhelmingly black and brown.” 

They wrote: “Legalization is the less harmful approach.”

A British And Dutch Study IS Often Used As Source Material

British and Dutch researchers published a study that found marijuana increased violent behavior, but that involved people who already suffered from psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.

Even given that context, the researchers wrote this: “It is unclear to what extent different categories of illicit substances, as defined by their psychopharmacological effects, are related to violent behavior.”

Even one of the authors of the study used by Berenson in the book, Ziva Copper, the head of UCLA’s Cannabis Research Initiative, Tweeted that the study was not as conclusive as Berenson’s book suggested.

She wrote that the study found an association between marijuana and psychosis, but not that marijuana causes psychosis.

Taking a relaxing bath at the end of a long day is one of the most luxurious ways to treat yourself. An evening soak can relax sore muscles, replenish the skin, and offer a temporary escape from daily stressors. If you already enjoy the tranquility of soothing bath treatments, you’re going to absolutely love the all-around rejuvenating experience of a CBD bath.

As more is learned about the botanical benefits of cannabidiol (CBD), one of the most abundant natural cannabinoids found in cannabis, consumers are exploring different ways of using cannabinoids for wellness. Today, you can bring CBD hemp oil and its detoxifying and rejuvenating benefits with you into the bathroom with a CBD bath.

Hemp oil bath products have grown in popularity in recent years, with the natural mind and body balancing effects of cannabidiol (CBD) making its way into CBD soaking salts, CBD bath bombs, and CBD bath soaks. 

While human skin in general has low permeability and blocks most substances from being absorbed, soaking in infused CBD bath soaks allow the nourishing cannabinoid to overcome this barrier and penetrate the skin’s surface where it can soothe, fortify, and moisturize.

How Are CBD Bath Products Absorbed Through the Skin?

While you relax with a CBD bath soak, the CBD and other skin promoting nutrients infused into your favorite CBD bath product pass through the epidermis, glands, and hair follicles on the skin’s surface. 

Skin Benefits of CBD Salt Baths

Exposure to the world around us can damage our skin, leaving it painfully dry and cracked. One of the most important steps to maintaining healthy skin, hair, and nails is to provide them the right vitamins and minerals to function at their best.

Beside the botanical benefits of CBD, hemp oil bath products offer other essential nutrients that protect and rejuvenate the skin. Full spectrum hemp oil contains a list of vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fatty acids. 

Hemp contains the optimal ratio of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, which serve as great emollients to soften and smooth the hair and skin. Key elements in a natural skin care diet, these fatty acids are the building blocks of healthy cell membranes and produce the skin’s natural oil barrier that is critical in keeping the skin hydrated and supple.

The collection of vitamins found in CBD bath products, including CBD infused salts and bombs leave the skin looking radiantly healthy and feeling silky soft. Responsible for skin growth and metabolism, vitamins A and D play an essential role in skin repair. Vitamins C and E serve as antioxidants by rejuvenating the skin’s protective outer layer, and protecting it against damage from the sun and free radicals.

How CBD Bath Products Differ From Other CBD Products

Thanks to the growing demand for CBD and great advances in CBD hemp oil product development over the past few years, there are now a wide variety of CBD hemp oil products available. Beside CBD bath and beauty products, consumers can select from CBD dietary supplements in the form of CBD oil concentrates, capsules, and CBD tinctures or liquids.

With soothing CBD bath products, rather than ingesting or inhaling CBD oil products orally, which requires metabolism by the liver and will distribute the oil’s natural compounds throughout the whole body, the hemp oil’s cannabinoids and other nutrients are absorbed directly into the skin for more localized and focused attention. 

Because the nutrients of CBD bath products are absorbed through the skin, the hemp oil’s cannabinoids, vitamins, and minerals never reach the bloodstream. Instead, the CBD interacts with cannabinoid receptors located throughout the skin to provide botanical benefits where they’re needed most.

Because the cannabinoids never reach the bloodstream, even cannabis bath products that contain the psychoactive cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) will never cause an intoxicating high. Still, cannabinoid infused bath products derived from marijuana are only available in states that have legalized recreational or medical marijuana. Hemp CBD bath products, on the other hand, are available in most major markets.

Bathing with CBD

While the idea of a CBD bath soak is relatively new, a variety of cannabis bath products have already hit the market.

Soothing CBD salts, CBD bath soaks, and CBD bombs blend full spectrum cannabis oil extracts with other high quality carrier oils and aromatherapeutic essential oils, natural fragrances, and additional skin nourishing bathing salts, like magnesium rich Epsom salts and nutrient dense sea salts.

Drizzle your CBD bath product into a warm bath for a fizzy, invigorating explosion of color, scent, and moisturizing oils. The salts and oils dissolve when placed under running warm water to produce a botanical CBD extract infused soak.

CBD Bath Products from Medical Marijuana, Inc. 

Our online store offers a number of CBD bath products that allow you to capture the benefits of CBD oil for your skin and hair. 

HempMeds® Personal Care

The HempMeds® Personal Care line of CBD bath products was designed to maximize the effects of CBD and the nourishing properties of hemp. There are hemp oil infused bath products for every part of your bathing routine, helping you get the most out of the benefits of CBD. 

These products are crafted using natural botanicals like jojoba oil, almond oil, green tea extract, licorice oil, goji berry extract, peppermint oil, ginger oil, and argan oil. There are no sulfates, parabens, or artificial dyes, so you can feel good about using these products each day for a CBD bath or shower. 

The HempMeds® Personal Care line features the following products:

• Hydrating & Soothing Body Lotion
• Purifying Shampoo
• Revitalizing Body Wash
• Nourishing Conditioner
• Essential Body Oil

You can find our entire CBD bath and body care line products in our store, including CBD bath products, CBD sunscreen, CBD salve, and more. 

Next time you’re set to jump in the shower, consider swapping out your traditional body washes, shampoos, and conditioners for CBD bath products instead. 

Shop the Medical Marijuana, Inc. online store or visit our education page to discover more benefits to using CBD hemp oil products.