



A team from Neuroscience Research Australia has published the first evidence suggesting that CBD may reverse the memory impairments of Alzheimer’s disease.





The results were presented at the Australian Neuroscience Society ’s 2013 annual meeting and were published this week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology .

“It basically brings the performance of the animals back to the level of healthy animals,” Dr. Karl told The Sydney Morning Herald in an earlier interview. “You could say it cured them, but we will have to go back and look at their brains to be sure.”

The researchers believe cannabidiol’s anti-inflammatory properties may combat the primary issue underlying the disease.

A “decrease in neuroinflammation will decrease neurodegeneration, one of the main triggers of Alzheimer’s disease,” explained Dr. Karl in an email.

“Furthermore, CBD has anti-oxidant and neuroprotective effects, which suggests that it might have potential as an early multi-modal drug target,” he notes, adding: “more comprehensive research must be carried out to evaluate CBD’s role in Alzheimer’s disease in detail.”

“CBD has anti-oxidant and neuroprotective effects”According to the team, CBD did not appear to cause any side effects in the mice and has been shown in other studies to promote the growth of new brain cells – a process known as neurogenesis.

While there have been case reports of improvements in Alzheimer’s patients who smoke cannabis, the researchers say the study was the first to investigate the treatment in a lab.

The next step is to examine the brains of mice and see if they also show physical improvements after CBD treatment.



