CBD goods are popping up everywhere, a trend mainly attributable to the compound’s various therapeutic benefits.

It’s interesting to note that CBD products were held with a considerable degree of disdain only a few years ago. The compound remains illegal in many countries and still attracts many dismissive skeptics. However, there has been a significant paradigm shift in how industry regulators and users view CBD.

But in the interest of you who’ve just stumbled upon this word, we’ll back up a bit and acquaint ourselves with CBD. Later, we’ll explore emerging claims that the compound may enhance cognitive skills.

What Is CBD?

CBD is short for cannabidiol. It refers to a compound naturally derived from cannabis, believed to offer numerous health benefits.

The cannabis plant contains more than 130 other therapeutically valuable chemicals. However, CBD and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are the most popular ones.

Cannabidiol is touted as a potential remedy for various chronic ailments. CBD is particularly effective for diseases that manifest in pain and inflammation, such as arthritis, osteoporosis, and certain forms of cancer.

Cannabidiol may also treat stress and anxiety, nausea and appetite loss, sleep deprivation, adverse muscle spasticity, and erectile dysfunction (ED), among other conditions. And now, emerging reports cite enhanced cognitive skills as one of the many CBD oil benefits.

But how credible are these claims?

What Are Cognitive Skills?

Cognitive skills refer to brain-based skills required to acquire knowledge, advance logical reasoning, and manipulate information. The term includes several other names, including cognitive abilities, cognitive capacities, and cognitive functions.

Cognitive skills play a fundamental role in promoting the learning process. Not only do these skills help in acquiring and processing vital information. But they’re also necessary for solving everyday problems and making logical deductions from our daily experiences.

There are six main aspects of cognitive functions. They include perception, attention, learning, decision-making, memory, and language.

Can CBD Improve Cognitive Skills?

Cannabidiol may enhance various aspects of cognitive function through its numerous therapeutic effects on the body. Some of those effects include;

Pain Management

Research has established a direct correlation between chronic pain and a decline in cognitive processing. One experiment comparing the cognitive performance of chronic pain patients with that of pain-free individuals discovered that people with chronic pain exhibited diminished cognitive abilities.

Researchers also noted that pain inhibited performance across several cognitive aspects, including attention span, long-term memory, and information processing speed.

Fortunately, cannabidiol is highly effective against both acute and chronic pain. CBD combats pain by stimulating pain-signaling receptors spread across the endocannabinoid system.

Anxiety Relief

Anxiety is a leading cause of mental health problems. Therefore, the condition directly impacts cognitive performance.

Anxiety can impair your mental concentration, thereby shrinking your attention span. An anxious mind is also more prone to making flawed decisions. Besides, racing thoughts can make it exceedingly difficult to internalize new and recall past information.

Now, cannabidiol has proven effective against stress and anxiety. CBD fights anxiety by inhibiting the stress hormone cortisol. The compound may also increase the body’s access to ‘feel-good’ hormones like serotonin.

Ultimately, CBD can go a long way in mitigating cognitive impairment resulting from stress and anxiety.

Improving Blood Circulation in the Brain

Cannabidiol contains powerful vasodilatory properties. CBD can help to enlarge narrowed blood vessels, thereby promoting blood circulation to various body parts.

Due to CBD’s vasodilatory effects, the compound is commonly prescribed for ED. And it turns out those properties may also come in handy in enhancing cognitive functions.

In one research investigating cannabidiol’s vasodilatory properties, researchers noted that a single CBD dose could increase blood flow to the parts of the brain responsible for memory.

Alleviation of Brain Inflammation

Brain inflammation is another leading cause of a decline in cognitive function. Fortunately, it’s also another area where cannabidiol has demonstrated immense potential.

Consuming CBD products like CBD vape pen, CBD gummies etc. regularly may improve cognitive skills by keeping various inflammatory brain conditions, such as encephalitis and meningitis, at bay.

Like most cannabinoids, CBD packs powerful anti-inflammatory properties. The compound alleviates inflammation primarily by targeting cytokines and chemokines, the two main proteins involved in transmitting inflammatory messages.

Seizure Management

Recurrent seizures can have long-term adverse effects on cognitive functions, and there are tons of studies to back that up. Therefore, any compound that treats or reduces seizure attacks directly supports cognitive abilities.

Animal studies have shown that CBD can produce anti-seizure effects by reducing neuronal excitability of GPR55 and TRPV1 receptors.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a CBD-based epilepsy drug known as Epidiolex. The drug is mainly recommended for two rare but life-threatening forms of epilepsy – Dravet Syndrome and Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome.

Promoting Neurogenesis

Neurogenesis is the process whereby new neurons are formed in the brain. Neurons are the nervous system cells.

Neurogenesis mainly happens in the hippocampus and the subventricular zone of lateral ventricles. Interestingly, these brain regions are dense in endocannabinoid receptors, including CB1 which CBD may indirectly impact.

Due to CBD’s neurogenerative properties, the compound is commonly administered to people with dementia, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and other neurodegenerative conditions.

The Bottom Line

Cannabidiol may not improve all the parameters of cognitive functioning. However, the compound is effective against several conditions that may slow down cognitive performance.

As a parting shot, consult a licensed psychiatrist before using CBD for enhanced cognitive skills.