Time for a brief English grammar session! Do you know what a modal is? It’s a kind of verb that gets attached to another verb to modify it. Examples of modals include can, could, may, might, would, will, should, must.
Thus you can change a sentence like “I eat gooseberries every day” to “I might eat gooseberries every day” or “I could eat gooseberries every day.”
CBD oil (Cannabidiol) is a derivative of marijuana. It lacks the chemical ingredient (THC) that makes you feel “high,” but it appears to offer medical benefits for Parkies and others. Benefits seem to include reducing anxiety, reducing pain, and ensuring a full night’s sleep.
Here’s the thing: most of the statements you can read online about CBD throw a modal in front of the main verb, indicating that the positive effect you’re seeking may happen…or it may not.
For example, the Huffington Post recently ran an article on claims about CBD oil, and virtually every statement about the drug included a qualifying modal in front of the main verb.
To wit (copied directly from the HuffPost article):
- CBD oil may help with mental health issues.
- CBD oil might help people living with addiction. “There’s no miracle drug,” Hurd said. “But this could be helpful for at least some aspects of craving.”
- Some evidence suggests it could help with pain and other medical conditions.
- CBD oil could help with sleep. CBD may increase overall sleep amounts, and improve insomnia, according to research.
If you look at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research‘s website, you’ll find the same thing. For example (copied directly from the Fox site):
- THC may help nausea, pain or muscle spasms, but it also can affect mood, behavior and thinking. The second most common cannabinoid, cannabidiol (CBD), doesn’t cause mind-altering effects and could potentially have beneficial effects for treating disease.
- Pre-clinical work, including several studies funded by MJFF, shows that cannabinoids may protect brain cells through antioxidant and anti-inflammatory mechanisms.
- But like any other drug, medical marijuana has potential side effects. These may include nausea, dizziness, weakness, hallucinations, and mood, behavior or memory/thinking (cognitive) changes. Discuss possible influences on cognition, mood and balance, especially if you are already experiencing changes in these areas. It’s unclear how and to what extent marijuana could exacerbate these symptoms.
- The work to date on marijuana and cannabinoids has given promising but conflicting signals on potential benefit for motor and non-motor symptoms as well as levodopa-induced dyskinesia. This therapy may represent a future treatment option for PD, but the correct dose and formulation are not clear, full side effects and drug interactions are unknown, and benefits have not been rigorously determined.
The same for Wikipedia:
- CBD does not appear to have any psychoactive (“high”) effects such as those caused by ∆9-THC in marijuana, but may have anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic effects.
And WebMD:
- …some human clinical trials suggest that CBD could be effective in treating symptoms of anxiety, particularly social anxiety, Bonn-Miller said.
Of course, when you have a modal in a statement like “CBD may have anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic effects,” that could mean that for some people it probably does work. Thus, we shouldn’t resist it or negate the possibilities, just be aware that the drug may or may not work for you.
Deanna Glass Krywy, who manages the WPC (World Parkinson Congress) Buddies Facebook page, wrote the following wise comments about my previous article concerning medical marijuana:
Interesting reading for sure. Because there are so many different strains of marijuana and each person reacts to it differently just as we do to pharmaceutical medications I feel there will never be a time where a doctor will be able to “prescribe” a certain dose of any strain. It will be rather trial and error by patient. I suffer from pain and anxiety so have actually mixed two different strains both with a high ratio of CBD which works for me. As I order through the medical marijuana program in Canada, I know exactly what I am buying, not like at the now popular “corner stores” where content is not assured.
So for Deanna, CBD is working. Hooray! I wish the same for all Parkies and others with debilitating illnesses!
Deanna also posted this video about CBD:
Two notes about the video:
- It’s an advertisement put out by a drug company that wants you to buy its CBD.
- It still uses modals (in particular, can) in many places,which may indicate the company’s hesitancy to trumpet the product’s 100% effectiveness. The word “can” can have multiple meanings:
- “I can play the piano” can mean “I know how to play the piano. I took lessons for ten years.” But in another context (for example, you’re speaking to a concert producer), the same words can mean “I volunteer to play the piano at the performance tonight if Billy Joel, the regular pianist, gets caught in a hurricane and sprains his wrist.”
- “You can swim here” can mean “You have permission to swim here.” But it can also mean “This spot is good for swimming because there are no hidden rocks that might injure you.”
- “There can be some cold days in May,” means that there’s the possibility for cool temps when you’re really ready for summer, although it may not happen.
- “I can’t believe he ate the entire pizza” means “I believe it’s impossible that he ate the entire pizza.”
So which “can” are the video’s producers using?
Also note how when the actor gets to point #1, he says the word “can,” but it doesn’t appear in the subtitles:
Man’s voice: And the #1 thing you should know about CBD, is it can help fight cancer. CBD has anti-proliferative effects, which means it can stop tumor cells from spreading. When the CBD connects to the CB2 cannabinoid receptor site on the cancer cell, it leads to a process called ceramide synthesis, which can lead to cell death.
Subtitles: And the number 1 thing you should know about CBD, is it can help fight cancer. CBD has anti-proliferative effects, which means it can stop tumor cells from spreading. When the CBD connects to the CB2 cannabinoid receptor site on the cancer cell, it leads to a process called ceramide synthesis, which leads to cell death.
And a third point about the video, since we’re talking about grammar:
3. When the man in the video gets to #5, he makes a grammar mistake. He says, “A study has shown that smokers who use a CBD inhaler smoked 40% less cigarettes.” As cigarettes are countable objects, he should have said “…smoked 40% fewer cigarettes.” You use “less” for non-countable objects, like liquids: “I drank less wine than anybody else last night, but still I woke up with a raging headache.”
