'Survivor' Winner Ethan Zohn Says CBD Helped His Anxiety After Cancer
Survivor winner Ethan Zohn was diagnozed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2009.
He's been in remission since 2012, but he still had anxiety over a possible relapse.
Zohn credits CBD with restoring his confidence and piece of mind.
Survivor's Ethan Zohn has been open about his battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma ever since he was first diagnosed with the disease in 2009. He relapsed in 2011, but after undergoing a second stem-cell transplant in 2012, Zohn has been in remission.
However, Zohn recently explained to People that while his body was healthy, his mental state wasn't in the best shape. "The constant fear and anxiety of my cancer coming back was debilitating. I suffered in silence—and it’s not a great way to live...Once I was given that clean bill of health and sent back to my normal 'everyday. life, that’s where the anxiety and the fear kicked in of what had just happened to me."
The season 3 Survivor winner also noted that his father had died from cancer when Zohn was just 14: "So to me, cancer equals death. The fear and the loneliness—and the fear of the cancer returning after I was in remission—was totally paralyzing."
Zohn credits CBD with giving him piece of mind. He's part of a new video series by cannabisMD, a consumer education platform, and he's says that he's used CBD since 2012.
"It calmed my mind and restructured my thought patterns and got me out of this vicious cycle of destructive thoughts. I was able to sleep better, I was able to interact with my friends and family in a better way, I wasn’t as anxious and jittery."
Zohn also added that CBD "makes me feel a little better about myself and more confident in my body, and reminds me that my body in an incredible thing that can heal itself."
CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a chemical compound found in cannabis plants. Its fans claim it can help treat a myriad of conditions—insomnia, anxiety, muscle pain, you name it—all without the psychoactive effects of its brother, THC. Scientists are still studying the possible applications of CBD, but in 2018, the FDA approved a CBD drug to treat two rare forms of epilepsy.
Dr. Margaret Haney, professor of neurobiology at the Columbia University Medical Center, previously told MensHealth.com, "We’re in the infancy of cannabis science...As a society we’ve jumped very far ahead of our use of CBD. We don’t have any of the data, and we really struggle to understand where and how it’s doing anything." But Haney also added that she's "actually very excited about CBD. I think there’s tremendous potential."
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