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As CBD continues to explode in popularity, research into the countless potential therapeutic benefits it has is struggling to catch up.

According to Blood Pressure UK, around a third of adults in the UK suffer from high blood pressure. That means around 20 million people in our country are living with an increased risk of heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes, and many of them don’t even know it.

CBD is often touted as a “cure-all” compound that is good for overall health and general wellness. Could it be possible that CBD is even better for us than we think?

Let’s take a closer look at the potential for using CBD for blood pressure.

CBD Effects on Blood Pressure

Let’s be honest, you’ve probably heard CBD connected with numerous health claims by now, including pain, inflammation, anxiety, stress, acne, and epilepsy, so you may be wondering if it’s all just too good to be true. Can CBD really help with blood pressure too?

What is High Blood Pressure?

As you probably know, your arteries carry blood from your heart to other parts of your body. Your blood pressure is literally the pressure exerted by your blood on these artery walls. Therefore, if you have high blood pressure, there is simply too much pressure being put on your arteries, veins, and blood vessels, which can cause complications, some of which we mentioned previously.

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High blood pressure can be aggravated by high cholesterol levels, too much salt in your diet, and alcohol and tobacco use. But stress, anxiety, inflammation, and insomnia are also known to exacerbate the problem.

It’s thought that CBD’s role as an anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, and antioxidant compound, could potentially be employed in this area of heart health.

CBD and Blood Pressure: The Research

Many preclinical studies have suggested that CBD possesses numerous cardiovascular benefits. A research paper from 2013, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, summarized many of the key findings from a variety of studies on CBD and heart health.

By 2013, CBD had already been shown to reduce vascular tension, thereby helping blood flow more freely, as well as possess cardioprotective effects. Such as the ability to reduce vascular damage associated with inflammation, type 2 diabetes, and high glucose levels.

Evidence from animal studies had also concluded that CBD could help to regulate the body’s cardiovascular response to stress. But it wasn’t until 2017, we finally had access to results from a human clinical study.

The study was small, involving just nine healthy males, but it set out to investigate the researcher’s hypothesis, that CBD could help to lower blood pressure in humans. 

Results were published in the American Society for Clinical Investigation and concluded that “acute administration of CBD reduces resting BP (blood pressure) and the BP increase to stress in humans, associated with increased HR (heart rate)”.

So not only did CBD lower resting blood pressure in this study, but it also seemed to help regulate the blood pressure levels when responding to stress, which the researchers thought may be attributed to the anti-anxiety properties of CBD. 

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A further study in 2020, on arteries from humans and rats, also concluded that CBD could help improve blood flow by widening blood vessels. 

The Bottom Line

There seems to be a consensus that CBD could potentially be used to help widen blood vessels. This, coupled with its antioxidant properties and its ability to reduce anxiety and stress, has teams of researchers all over the world very excited about its use in all areas of cardio-health.

So, if you’re wondering whether or not CBD gummies are good for blood pressure, then you’re not alone. Obviously more research still needs to be carried out, but in the meantime, CBD should not be considered as an actual medical treatment for high blood pressure.

If you’re on blood pressure medication then you should consult your doctor before taking CBD due to potential interactions.