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You don’t have to look far to find glaucoma patients today. Despite being a common eye disease, it can lead to complete blindness caused by damage sustained to the optical nerve. Statistics show that there are about 60 million people worldwide living with glaucoma. In the U.S, the figure is almost three million. This condition is also among the leading causes of permanent blindness.
Treatment for this glaucoma includes surgical procedures aimed at correcting it. And medical advances since the 1980s have helped reduce the possibilities of irreversible blindness by half. Meanwhile, patients still have limited options for topical medications. However, many states with legalized marijuana also consider glaucoma as a qualifying condition for cannabis use. Consequently, many patients suffering from this condition now look to cannabis, specifically CBD, for remedy. But how effective is CBD for treating glaucoma?
To answer this question, let’s take a closer look at the condition.
What is Glaucoma?
Glaucoma is also called the “sneak thief of sight” because it is a blinding eye condition that leads to pressure in the eye. Experts call this pressure intraocular pressure (IOP). Fluid produced by the eye continually drains into the eye. This fluid is known as aqueous humor and has to circulate properly throughout the eye. If this doesn’t happen, pressure in the eye increases leading to the condition called glaucoma.
Aside from this, glaucoma could result from inadequate blood supply to the fibers of the optic nerve. Whatever may be the cause, you need to treat glaucoma during the early stage; else, there is a high chance of permanent blindness. Common symptoms of glaucoma include:
- Painful eye
- Vomiting and nausea
- Blurred vision
- Reddened eye
- Seeing bright lights with halos
Keeping the symptoms in mind, two common glaucoma types exist, namely angle-closure glaucoma and open-angle glaucoma.
Current Remedies of Glaucoma
Due to the way intraocular pressure affects the onset and progression of this specific eye condition, ophthalmologists’ prescriptions are aimed at intraocular pressure. Indeed, the only effective approach used to prevent inevitable vision loss is to reduce intraocular pressure. At present, treatments received by glaucoma patients are either eye drops or surgery.
However, the specific treatment will depend on the progression and severity of your glaucoma. Patients that want to explore other options turn to CBD and other natural remedies. Usually, this course of action involves purchasing quality CBD products from companies like Edible Canada to minimize side effects and obtain the best results. Let’s find out if CBD oil can be the ideal treatment in any situation.
Can CBD Oil Treat Glaucoma Effectively?
Bear in mind that there’s hardly any lasting remedy for glaucoma. In truth, research on how cannabis-derived CBD oil affects glaucoma is still inadequate. Nevertheless, the better part of reviews indicates that strains of cannabis containing high THC levels may prove useful for glaucoma treatment.
THC can help manage the primary cause of this condition by decreasing pressure in IOP. The only caveat, this treatment will make you high. If you find this thrilling, fine. But some people may not like this side effect. In this case, CBD should be your go-to alternative. Studies dating back to 1971 showed that taking cannabis can help decrease IOP by about 25 to 30 percent.
How to Use CBD For Glaucoma
If you know how to use CBD oil properly, it’s possible to see some reduction in IOP and treat glaucoma with it. However, you may need to choose between three primary types of administration. You could choose to administer CBD oil orally. Some people also choose to inhale it, while others use it as topical eye drops.
The results you get will differ depending on other factors apart from the method used. However, since CBD is known as a vaso-relaxant, it can boost the blood supply to ocular tissues and promote recovery. You only need to ensure that all CBD medications have high purity.
What The Future Holds For Glaucoma Treatment And Cannabis
The body’s endocannabinoid system plays an integral role in general well-being—almost all healthy functions such as immune response, pain management, inflammation, and neuroprotection relate to the ECS. When you reflect on how instrumental the ECS is to neuroprotection and inflammation, it’s easy to see how cannabinoid-based products like CBD canada could be viable treatments for glaucoma.
Cannabinoid receptors influence the ocular tissues that regulate and control intraocular pressure. Hence, it’s possible to develop CBD medications that achieve two things: protect retinal cells and reduce intraocular pressure. Evidence collected from research shows that anandamide, CBD, and other cannabinoids like CBG could become therapeutic agents for this purpose.
Challenges of Using CBD For Glaucoma
Despite the promising evidence, CBD for glaucoma still has to surmount several hurdles to become the preferred treatment for this eye condition. One of the main difficulties is the oral availability of glaucoma medications. Due to the lack of bioavailability, oral preparation for glaucoma prevention and treatment are unpredictable.
Plus, their absorption is low. On the other hand, inhalation of CBD oil also has its limitations because the observed effects don’t endure so long. The only option left would be topical preparations like CBD eye drops. Though these are better than inhalation and oral administration, they also don’t penetrate intraocular tissues deep enough.
Conclusion
Although cannabis in itself may not be the most effective treatment for glaucoma, research and development of cannabinoid-derive products like CBD oil is a promising future remedy. Some patients swear that it’s the best thing to happen to their condition on its level of efficacy. However, others also only turn to it as an adjunct to therapy instead of their primary medication. If you, a friend, or family has succeeded in treating glaucoma with cannabis or CBD oil. In that case, it might help others to learn from your experience, not forgetting that the results you get depend primarily on multiple variables like the purity of your CBD oil. Therefore, always purchase from trusted brands and suppliers.
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