At the start of this week Monday 28th February marked Rare Disease Day of 2022 and there are many reasons why as a CBD company this is something we should be talking about.
A rare disease is described as an “orphan disease” because the majority of pharmaceutical companies are uninterested in working on developing treatments for these. According to new research, approximately 4% of the world population is effected by a rare disease, which is much more than many would think.
Corticobasal Degeneration is a rare disease of the brain where the tau protein levels in the brain have developed to an abnormal level. From this, individuals will experience deterioration of brain cells and symptoms similar to that associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Along with memory loss, a person could experience muscular jerks, difficulty swallowing and poor coordination. Tragically the disease will progress further to behavioural changes, sepsis and blood clots. This process takes six to eight years and usually ends in death.
Over time some medications have proven to help with the symptoms of Corticobasal Degeneration, such as clonazepam for muscle jerks and speech therapy to assist communication to a certain extent, but there is still no specific treatment used for this terrible disease or to slow the production of the tau protein.
However in 2005 a study discovered that CBD was able to inhibit the tau protein’s growth, which in turn limited the deterioration of the brain. More research was conducted in 2017, which concluded that CBD also has positive effect on patients suffering from other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Multiple sclerosis.
In conclusion it seems, that CBD contains neuroprotective qualities that could protect the areas of the brain responsible for development and maintenance of neurodegenerative diseases, therefore could be an excellent alternative for patients.
Written by Alice Scoggins.
