The cardiac and haemostatic effects of dietary hempseed

Delfin Rodriguez-Leyva1, Grant N Pierce

  • 1Department of Physiology, University of Manitoba and Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, St Boniface Hospital Research Centre, 351 Tache Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2H 2A6, Canada. gpierce@sbrc.ca.

Nutrition & Metabolism
|April 23, 2010
PubMed

Despite its use in our diet for hundreds of years, hempseed has surprisingly little research published on its physiological effects. This may have been in the past because the psychotropic properties wrongly attributed to hemp would complicate any conclusions obtained through its study. Hemp has a botanical relationship to drug/medicinal varieties of Cannabis. However, hempseed no longer contains psychotropic action and instead may provide significant health benefits. Hempseed has an excellent content of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. These compounds have beneficial effects on our cardiovascular health. Recent studies, mostly in animals, have examined the effects of these fatty acids and dietary hempseed itself on platelet aggregation, ischemic heart disease and other aspects of our cardiovascular health. The purpose of this article is to review the latest developments in this rapidly emerging research field with a focus on the cardiac and vascular effects of dietary hempseed.

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