Drinking Alcohol with CBD
Like plenty other situations asking about the potential effects of CBD, its interaction with alcohol hasn’t been heavily researched.
However, if you are mindful and cautious when mixing CBD and alcohol, you should not experience any problems.
How Alcohol Is Metabolized
To be processed in the body, alcohol utilizes a few metabolic pathways and primary enzymes, including alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), and CYP450 (specifically CYP2E1).
When someone drinks socially or just on occasion, ADH and ALDH can handle metabolizing alcohol on their own. However, if someone is binge drinking or chronically consuming alcohol, CYP450 gets involved to help with the overflow. CYP450 is also the group of enzymes that helps metabolize many prescription drugs. When CBD interacts with CYP450, it typically “blocks” the enzymes, meaning that it can be more difficult for medications to be metabolized.
CBD and Alcohol
What is interesting is that the interactions observed between CBD and alcohol have proven different than the interactions between CBD and medication. There have been studies that show that combining alcohol and CBD results in lower blood levels of alcohol. The CB1 receptor is a heavy player in the reinforcing and motivating attributes for alcohol, so CBD actually can reduce those attributes, meaning the desire for more alcohol is reduced.
Again, while there needs to be more research, there do not seem to be any issues with consuming CBD and alcohol. Like anything else with CBD, just exercise caution!