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Therapeutic Hemp Oil

 

by Andrew Weil, M.D., Natural Health, March/April 1993

 

The nutritional composition of oil from the marijuana plant could be

beneficial to your health.

 

To most people, Cannabis sativa is synonymous with marijuana, but the

plant's Latin name means the " useful hemp. " Species designated sativa (useful)

are usually among the most important of all crops. In fact, the utility of hemp

is manifold: the plant has provided human beings with fiber, edible seeds, an

edible oil, and medicine, not just a notorious mind-altering drug.

 

In our part of the world, these other uses of hemp are no longer familiar.

We rarely use hemp fiber and know little about hemp medicine. (Some cancer

patients have found it to be a superior remedy for the nausea caused by

chemotherapy, and some people with multiple sclerosis are grateful for its

relaxant effects on spastic muscles.) Hemp seed is sometimes an ingredient in

bird food; otherwise, edible products from Cannabis sativa are virtually

unknown.

 

This may all change. In many parts of the country, promoters of hemp

cultivation are working to educate people about the immense potential of this

plant and to reintroduce it into commerce. They champion hemp as a renewable

source of pulp for the manufacture of paper, as a superior fiber for making

cloth, and as a new food that can be processed into everything from a milk

substitute to a kind of tofu.

 

Hemp seeds contain 25% high quality protein and 40% fat in the form of an

excellent quality oil. Hemp oil is just now coming on the market. Produced by

the Ohio Hempery in Athens, Ohio, it will be sold through natural food stores in

small, opaque bottles to be kept under refrigeration. It has a remarkable fatty

acid profile, being high in the desirable omega-3's and also delivering some GLA

(gamma-linolenic acid) that is absent from the fats we normally eat.

Nutritionally oriented doctors believe all of these compounds to be beneficial

to health.

 

Hemp oil contains 57% linoleic (LA) and 19% linolenic (LNA) acids, in the

three-to-one ratio that matches our nutritional needs. These are the essential

fatty acids (EFA's)-so called because the body cannot make them and must get

them from external sources. The best sources are oils from freshly ground grains

and whole seeds, but EFA's are fragile and quickly lost in processing. EFA's are

the building blocks of longer chain fats, such as eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and

docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) that occur naturally in the fat of cold-water fish

like sardines, mackerel, salmon, bluefish, herring, and, to a lesser extent,

tuna.

 

Adding these foods to the diet seems to lower risks of heart attacks

because omega-3 fatty acids reduce the clotting tendency of the blood and

improve cholesterol profiles. They also have a natural anti-inflammatory effect

that makes them useful for people with arthritis and autoimmune disorders.

 

Health food stores stock many brands of EPA/DHA supplements in the form of

fish oil capsules. I usually do not recommend them because I think it's better

to get your essential fatty acids in foods, and I worry about toxic contaminants

in fish oil supplements. But what can you do if you choose, for one reason or

another, not to eat fish? You can get some omega-3's in expeller pressed canola

oil, the only common vegetable oil that contains them.

 

A much richer source is flax oil. Flax oil is pressed from the seeds of

Linum utilitatissimum, the source of linen fiber and an oil better known in this

country as linseed oil, the base for oil paints.

 

Linseed oil is usually classified as a " drying oil " rather than a food oil

because its chemical characteristics cause it to combine readily with oxygen and

become thick and hard. This tendency to harden on exposure to air quickly turns

linseed oil rancid and unfit to eat, but makes it useful as a vehicle for

pigment on canvas. (The word " canvas " by the way is a relative of " Cannabis, "

because true canvas is made from hemp fiber.)

 

For dietary purposes flax oil must be pressed at low temperatures,

protected from light, heat, and air, stored at cool temperatures, and used

quickly once the containers are opened. Most flax oil is not delicious. There is

great variation in taste among the brands currently sold in natural food stores,

but the best of them still leaves much to be desired.

 

I have been recommending flax oil as a dietary supplement to patients with

autoimmune disorders, arthritis, and other inflammatory conditions, but about

half of them cannot tolerate it. Some say it makes them gag, even when concealed

in salad dressing or mashed into a baked potato. These people have to resort to

taking flax oil capsules, which are large and expensive.

 

Udo Erasmus, author of the classic book, Fats and Oils (Alive, 1986), [and

Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill, The Complete Guide to fats, oils, cholesterol

and human health, Second Printing of Fats and Oils, (Alive,1996). This book is a

fabulous resource on nutrition --ratitor] says that the problem is freshness.

Unless you get flax oil right from the processor and freeze it until you start

using it, it will already have deteriorated by the time you buy it. Hemp oil

contains more EFA's than flax and actually tastes good. It is nutty and free

from the objectionable undertones of flax oil. I use it on salads, baked

potatoes, and other foods and would not consider putting it in capsules.

 

Like flax oil, hemp oil should be stored in the refrigerator, used

quickly, and never heated. Unlike flax oil, hemp oil also provides 1.7%

gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). There is controversy about the value of adding this

fatty acid to the diet, but many people take supplements of it in the form of

capsules of evening primrose oil, black currant oil, and borage oil. My

experience is that it simulates growth of hair and nails, improves the health of

the skin, and can reduce inflammation. I like the idea of having one good oil

that supplies both omega-3's and GLA, without the need to take more capsules.

 

One of the questions that people are sure to ask about hemp oil is whether

it has any psychoactivity. The answer is no. The intoxicating properties of

Cannabis sativa reside in a sticky resin produced most abundantly in the

flowering tops of female plants before the seeds mature. The main psychoactive

compound in this resin is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

 

Strains of hemp grown for oil production have a low resin content to begin

with, and by the time the seeds are ready for harvest, resin production has

dropped even further. Finally, the seeds must be cleaned and washed before they

are pressed. As a result, no THC is found in the final product.

 

A second question that people may ask is, " Is hemp oil illegal? " The oil

itself is perfectly legal. Hemp seeds are allowed in commerce if they have been

sterilized in some way to prevent germination. This is usually done by

subjecting them to heat. At the moment, the Ohio Hempery is importing sterilized

seeds from Canada and extracting the oil here, but it hopes to get some sort of

exemption from this requirement in order to be able to use the freshest seeds

possible in the future.

 

Obviously, there is a political dimension to the appearance of this

product. For many years, Cannabis sativa has been stigmatized as a satanic plant

and its cultivation has been prohibited. As an ethnobotanist interested in the

relationships between plants and human beings, I have always felt that making

plants illegal was stupid, especially when the objects of these actions are

supremely useful plants like hemp. The plant is not responsible for human misuse

of it.

 

The efforts of the Ohio Hempery and other groups to promote hemp

cultivation are part of a campaign to rehabilitate this plant and change

society's view of it. Whether or not you wish to join that campaign, it must

seem counterproductive to deny ourselves access to the many benefits that hemp

offers. Of those, the gift of an edible oil with superior nutritional and

therapeutic properties is one of the most important.

 

If you have a chance to try hemp oil, a long forgotten, newly rediscovered

food, I think you will see why I am enthusiastic about it.

 

Andrew Weil teaches at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, has

a private medical practice, and is the author of Natural Health, Natural

Medicine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Thank you for this article.

 

As an anecdotal note, I have switched all my dogs from flax oil to fish oils

(including a rotation with flax, borage, and primrose

oils) and most often use salmon oil. I find that they look better on the fish

oils and I believe they absorb them better than the

plant oils.

 

Leslye Morrow

 

7/25/04 5:01:48 AM, " virgil " <virgil7 wrote:

 

Therapeutic Hemp Oil

>

> by Andrew Weil, M.D., Natural Health, March/April 1993