Cannabis May Help Mend Bone Fractures, Study

Scientists have a found a component in marijuana which has been effective towards significantly mending bone fractures.

Researchers who carried out the study are now hopeful that cannabinoid drugs could be used to combat osteoporosis and other bone related disorders in the future.

According to the Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University, the use of non-psychotropic component cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) could help treat bone fractures.

For the study, rats with mid femoral fractures were administered CBD. They observed the femora healing at an enhanced rate just after 8 weeks of use. This was found to be the case even when CBD was isolated from tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) which is a psychoactive ingredient found in cannabis.

"The clinical potential of cannabinoid-related compounds is simply undeniable at this point," said Dr Yankel Gabet of the Bone Research Laboratory at the Department of Anatomy at Tel Aviv University.

"While there is still a lot of work to be done to develop appropriate therapies, it is clear that it is possible to detach a clinical therapy objective from the psychoactivity of cannabis. CBD, the principal agent in our study, is primarily anti-inflammatory and has no psychoactivity," said Gabet.

"We found that CBD alone makes bones stronger during healing, enhancing the maturation of the collagenous matrix, which provides the basis for new mineralisation of bone tissue," said Gabet.

"After being treated with CBD, the healed bone will be harder to break in the future," said Gabet.

The researchers administered only CBD to a group of rats while another group was given a combination of THC and CBD.

"We found CBD alone to be sufficiently effective in enhancing fracture healing," said Gabet.

"Other studies have also shown CBD to be a safe agent, which leads us to believe we should continue this line of study in clinical trials to assess its usefulness in improving human fracture healing," Gabet added.