Therapeutic Hemp Oil
by Andrew Weil, M.D
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-3s 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 (EFAs)-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 EFAs are fragile and quickly
lost in processing. EFAs 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-3s 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), 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 EFAs 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-3s 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.
Vacuum Processed Hemp Seed Oil, (The Purest Hemp Oil on the
Market Today) 8.5 fl. oz./250 mL $20.00 Ohio Hempery, Inc. 14 North Court
St. #328 Athens, Ohio 45701 Phone 614-593-5826 Fax 614-594-6446