New Discovery: CBD Lotion Protects Skin From UV Damage
CBD has been known to help with depression, chronic pain and sleep. Recently we just found out that it also helps to protect our skin from UV rays.
In a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, scientists discovered that CBD-infused lotion helped to prevent skin damage caused by the sun’s harmful UV rays.
High exposure to UV radiation causes inflammation and oxidative damage that causes the skin to age and possibly develop into cancer. This process is known clinically as photoaging or photocarcinogenesis.
We know that CBD has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties so it’s feasible to theorize that it can be used alongside traditional sunblock.
First Ever Study On Efficacy Of CBD In Decreasing UVA Skin Damage
A team of researchers from George Washington University, Northwestern University, the University of Miami and the Center for Clinical and Cosmetic Research tested this theory on twenty participants aged 23-64 years.
Some were given CBD-infused cream while the others were given a placebo. They applied it to the same area on their buttocks twice per day for two weeks and received minimal targeted irradiation with UVA. Biopsies were taken 24 hours later to analyze for any skin damage.
21 percent of participants who used the CBD cream had less observed erythema (abnormal redness) compared to the placebo group. 47 percent had comparable damage and surprisingly 11 percent displayed better results than the CBD cream group.
“This work highlights the protective potential of CBD against UVA-induced DNA and mtDNA damage,” the authors wrote in their study.
“We showed that samples treated with nCBD had less severe UV-related skin thickening, a decrease in the UVA-induced rise of the premutagenic marker OGG1, and fewer of those major mtDNA deletions linked to skin aging from sun exposure.”
This study really digs into how CBD applied to the skin can impact DNA damage in humans caused by UV-A rays. We took biopsy samples from the buttocks, which is usually a pretty covered area. While all clothing offers some sun protection, things like thickness, fabric, and color can really affect how well regular and UV-protective clothes shield us. These findings definitely challenge what we currently think about sun protection.
The authors stressed that people shouldn’t take this as an endorsement for CBD as a viable alternative to sunscreen but rather as an additional measure against sun damage.
According to the Skin Cancer Foundation more than 5.4 million cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer were treated in 2012. Did you know that around 90 percent of nonmelanoma skin cancers are linked to UV radiation from the sun?
