CBD and longevity: what scientific research says about cellular ageing

Longevity and healthy ageing are two of the most popular topics in biomedical research today. The role of CBD in this context has begun to be explored scientifically, although the available studies are very preliminary. This article looks at what science is studying about CBD and cellular ageing, without extrapolating beyond what the current data support.

How the body ages: relevant mechanisms

Ageing is a multifactorial process involving the accumulation of cellular damage over time. The most studied mechanisms include oxidative stress — damage caused by free radicals that cells cannot fully neutralise —, chronic low-grade inflammation (inflammaging), the shortening of telomeres with each cell division, mitochondrial dysfunction, and cellular senescence: cells that stop dividing but do not die and that emit pro-inflammatory signals.

These mechanisms are interdependent: oxidative stress contributes to chronic inflammation, which in turn accelerates oxidative damage. Any compound that can modulate any of these processes is potentially interesting from an ageing perspective.

CBD and oxidative stress: what the studies say

CBD has shown antioxidant properties in multiple laboratory models. It acts as a free radical scavenger and can modulate antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and catalase. A study by Hampson et al. (1998) in the journal PNAS was one of the first to document the antioxidant properties of CBD compared with vitamins C and E in cultured neuron models.

However, it should be noted that antioxidant properties measured in cell models do not necessarily translate into a clinically significant anti-ageing effect in humans. The bioavailability of oral CBD is limited, and the fact that it acts as an antioxidant in a test tube does not guarantee that it will have the same effect in specific tissues of the body.

CBD and chronic inflammation: the inflammaging hypothesis

Chronic low-grade inflammation is one of the common denominators of ageing and of the diseases associated with it. CBD has shown anti-inflammatory properties in models relevant to this context: inhibition of NF-κB (a transcription factor central to the inflammatory response) and reduced production of TNF-alpha, IL-6 and IL-1 beta in cell models.

Researchers such as Atalay et al. (2020) and others have proposed that CBD could play a role in modulating chronic inflammation, although in the specific context of ageing, studies in animal models are scarce and studies in humans are practically non-existent.

Studies in longevity models

An emerging area is research into CBD in short-lived organism models used to study ageing. Caenorhabditis elegans, a small nematode whose genome has been fully sequenced and which lives for only 2-3 weeks, is one of the most widely used model organisms in ageing research. A study by Nguyen et al. (2021) observed that CBD extended the lifespan of C. elegans and improved certain ageing-related health markers.

Studies of this kind are very valuable for identifying mechanisms of action, but the gap between C. elegans and humans is enormous. The findings are working hypotheses, not conclusions that can be applied in practice.

Why the evidence in humans is so scarce

Longevity studies in humans are inherently difficult: they require decades of follow-up, very large populations and control of multiple confounding variables. There are no clinical trials that have assessed whether CBD delays ageing in people, and there are unlikely to be any in the near future, simply because designing such studies would be extremely complex and costly.

What does exist are studies on intermediate markers: inflammation, oxidative stress and mitochondrial function, which are relevant to ageing but do not directly measure longevity. These studies are the starting point of research, not its conclusion.

Sources and scientific references

• Hampson, A.J. et al. (1998). “Cannabidiol and (−)Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol are neuroprotective antioxidants.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95(14), 8268–8273.
• Atalay, S. et al. (2020). “Antioxidative and Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Cannabidiol.” Antioxidants, 9(1), 21.
• Nguyen, M.H. et al. (2021). “Cannabidiol and Cannabigerol Exert Neuroprotective Effects by Inhibiting Intracellular Signaling Pathways.” ACS Chemical Neuroscience, 12(10), 1781–1792.
• López-Otín, C. et al. (2013). “The Hallmarks of Aging.” Cell, 153(6), 1194–1217.