Bone Injury

By Dr. Dustin Sulak

Children, athletes, and elders are all subject to bone fracture. CBD can likely support the healing.

Bone fracture is a common condition that most of us have experienced, or will, in our lifetime. The ability to shorten the healing time and improve the quality of the healing would help reduce short-term disabilities related to the injury. More importantly, some elderly and chronically ill patients have difficulty healing from fractures and face serious associated outcomes, including death. Non-pharmacologic treatments such as casting, appropriate rehab, and nutrition are likely the most important factors in healing, but no drugs are currently approved to speed up bone healing.

Animal studies have shown that CBD can accelerate the healing of bone fractures. One study in rat femur fractures found that, at 5mg/kg/day (a relatively low dose for rodents), “CBD markedly enhanced the biomechanical properties of the healing femora after 8 weeks.” The authors showed that CBD enhanced the ability of osteoblasts, the cells that build bones, to crosslink and stabilize the healing connective tissues.[1]

An animal model also showed that CBD was effective at preventing bone loss after spinal cord injury[2], and preventing vertebral disc degeneration after disc injury[3].

There are currently no human studies that have evaluated the effects of CBD on fracture or disc injury.

It’s important to note that bone, spinal cord, and disc injuries usually include significant pain, and that the common NSAID drugs may impair the healing process after a bone fracture.[4] It looks like CBD would be able to help with both the pain and the healing process.

•  Animal studies of low/moderate doses of CBD have shown improved healing.
•  CBD is likely safer than NSAID drugs to reduce pain and potentially improve healing after a bone injury.

[1] Kogan, Natalya M., et al. “Cannabidiol, a Major Non‐Psychotropic Cannabis Constituent Enhances Fracture Healing and Stimulates Lysyl Hydroxylase Activity in Osteoblasts.” Journal of Bone and Mineral Research 30.10 (2015): 1905-1913.

[2] Li, Dehao, et al. “Cannabidiol administration reduces sublesional cancellous bone loss in rats with severe spinal cord injury.” European journal of pharmacology 809 (2017): 13-19.

[3] Silveira, João W., et al. “Protective effects of cannabidiol on lesion-induced intervertebral disc degeneration.” PLoS One 9.12 (2014): e113161.

[4] Geusens, Piet, et al. “NSAIDs and fracture healing.” Current opinion in rheumatology 25.4 (2013): 524-531.