CBD may help prevent sun damage, protect skin from UVA rays

• Researchers have demonstrated that CBD may have potential protective benefits against UVA radiation, the type of wavelength that can cause aging and lead to cancer.
• A small study of just 19 participants showed skin treated with a CBD cream had less redness after exposure to high levels of UV radiation.
• Experts say more research is needed, and that CBD cannot replace sunscreen.

CBD may one day be used alongside sunscreen to help protect the skin from sun damage, new research indicates.

Researchers from the George Washington School of Medicine are the first to establish that cannabidiol ( CBD ), an ingredient derived from the cannabis plant, may have protective benefits against UVA radiation.

“We know that we need to throw everything we have at protecting our skin from the harmful effects of UV radiation , and we have even more limited options against UVA which penetrates deeper into the skin. No one approach is perfect and foolproof. This study highlights that a nano-CBD formulation could be an additional weapon against the harmful effects in combination with our current modalities,” Adam Friedman , MD, co-author of the study and a professor and chair of dermatology at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences told Medical News Today.

The research was a small, prospective, single-center clinical trial involving just 19 participants. They had Fitzpatrick skin types I-III — the palest skin types — ranging from white skin that always burns and never tans to skin that moderately burns and may tan gradually to a light brown.

As part of the study, the 19 participants applied one cream to the left buttock and a cream to the right buttock twice a day for 14 days.

One cream contained the nano-encapsulated CBD cream whilst the other cream was the same cream but without CBD.

The participants and laboratory investigators did not know which cream went on which buttock.

After the 14-day period, the skin on the buttocks that was treated with the creams was exposed to up to three times the amount of UV radiation than is necessary to injure or burn the skin.

The researchers performed skin biopsies 24 hours later.

They found that 21% of the participants had less redness on the skin that was treated with CBD compared with the skin that was treated with the cream that didn’t contain CBD.

They also found that skin thickening, which can happen with sun exposure, was reduced significantly in the biopsy samples of skin treated with CBD compared to the other cream.

Damage to DNA , as well as mutations to DNA that can occur due to UVA skin damage, was also reduced in the skin treated with CBD cream.

The findings were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology .

More CBD research is needed

Sherry Yafai , MD, board certified emergency medicine physician, director of integrated medicine at Providence Saint John’s Health & Wellness Institute in Santa Monica, CA, and a cannabis researcher, who was not involved in the study, said the study is a good starting point, but more research is needed.

“It’s impressive, but I think there’s still a lot more that can be done. The 21% is not a huge number. In terms of medicine, we hope that things have at least 40 or 50% effectiveness. Because the number needed to treat then goes down. The next question becomes is it the amount of CBD that was being utilized? Is it not enough? Do we need more? Do we need other components of the cannabinoids? Is it just CBD alone? Is it CBD-A, CBD-B? Is THC playing a part into any of this? So while that number is an exciting starting point. It is certainly not an ending point,” she told Medical News Today .

The study did have some limitations, including having only 19 participants, being conducted at a single center and not including a variety of skin types, like darker skin tones.

But experts say the research could pave the way for more options for sun protection in the future.

“There are more and more people who are recognizing the medical benefits of these non- psychotropic cannabinoids [p]eople are looking for more ‘natural’ opportunities to prevent ultraviolet light A damage,” Dr. Zakia Rahman , a clinical professor of dermatology at Stanford, who was also not involved in the study, told Medical News Today .

“This (research) is promising. I think that getting more and more products that give us protection against ultraviolet light A which can… prematurely age our skin, damage the mitochondrial DNA , create sunburn cells, would be useful. Now, we do have a number of things already in our toolkit that do protect us against ultraviolet light A. So I think I would want readers not to be concerned that this is the only thing that could potentially protect us against UVA.”

What is CBD?

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a compound derived from the cannabis plant. These plants may be referred to as hemp or marijuana. THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) also comes from these plants, and can give people a “high”. CBD does not.

People may use CBD oil for a variety of purposes , including pain relief, anxiety and depression.

Yafai argues that CBD has a good safety profile, but often carries a stigma.

“Not only is there a stigma amongst patients, but physicians as well, care providers, et cetera. And I think part of the problem becomes that we are not educating people appropriately, people who are in the know, like myself, are considered fringe medicine, if you will, whereas there’s 1000s of documented research. This just adds to the plethora of knowledge base that we already have looking into CBD as a treatment strategy,” she told Medical News Today .

“The study is not done on THC; it’s been strictly on nano-CBD particle[s]. So, that’s a non-intoxicating chemical that can come from cannabis , hemp… This is where we get a stigma attached to it. We have to start changing our perspectives and understanding and looking at the research as guiding us.”

CBD should not replace sunscreen

The GWU researchers emphasize that their study demonstrates potential, but does not mean people should switch their sunscreen for CBD creams.

“This study does not make any claims about the utility of nCBD compared to current standard-of-care for UVA protection, such as sunscreen. Future work can utilize an active control (i.e. commercially available UVA filters, Polypodium leucotomos extract ) to assess whether nCBD has any additional protective benefit,” the study authors write.

Friedman argues there has been so much interest in CBD that research needs to be ongoing.

“There was so much hype and promise without the work needed to prove the many marketing claims pushed out. There is so much potential here, just need to invest in the research to prove it,” he told Medical News Today .

“To be clear, it’s not to replace sunscreen, it is meant to support it,” he said.