For decades, weed was dismissed by governments as a destructive drug. Fortunately, that is changing dramatically. Worldwide, medical cannabis is now being embraced as a medicinal and even life-saving plant. As a result, more and more people are wondering how medicinal weed actually works in the human body. A simple step-by-step explanation!
Finding out that medical cannabis contributes to your health is a special discovery. Learning how this plant interacts with your body is simply fascinating. Especially since weed has been put away for years as something that demolishes your life.
Fortunately, we now know better. That’s mainly thanks to scientists who managed to identify a mechanism that every human (and animal) possesses. This is the endocannabinoid system that extends throughout the body and brain. It regulates and influences many important processes, including how we think, react, and how we feel mentally and physically.
The mechanism was discovered around 1992 and since then we have been learning more about it every day. In fact, in a 2009 study, researchers discovered that the endocannabinoid system is already fully functional in an unborn baby.
The ECS in a nutshell
Although the endocannabinoid system (ECS) was only discovered relatively late, it appears to be one of the most important mechanisms in the body. You can compare it to the hormonal system that most people know.
The body makes hundreds of hormones that regulate all kinds of important processes. Is your stomach empty? Then a hormone regulates that you get hungry. Does something unexpected happen? Then a stress hormone regulates that you are immediately alert. Do you really like something or someone? Then happiness hormones regulate that you feel jitters in your stomach.
The ECS works about the same. There, too, there are all kinds of signal substances that we call medical cannabis. These substances trigger reactions throughout our bodies. Scientists have even discovered that all organs contain receptors that respond to the signal substances of the ECS. In fact, science assumes that we have more endocannabinoid receptors in the brain than any other neurotransmitter.
The special thing about the active substances in cannabis is that they interact with our endocannabinoid system.
The main function of the ECS is to help you achieve and maintain a state of homeostasis. Homeostasis means that the thousands of processes that take place in your body perform optimally. Think of your metabolism, circulatory system, nervous system, lymphatic and hormonal system, muscle coordination, reproductive organs, skeleton, and breathing. If this and much more work perfectly and work together, you’re healthy.
The special thing about the active substances in cannabis – such as THC and CBD – is that they interact with our ECS. And that interaction between weed and our body leads to all kinds of beneficial effects. The active substances in cannabis are also called cannabinoids. But then a vegetable form.
How medical cannabis communicate
Now that we superficially know how weed affects your body, it’s time to go into more depth.
The human body possesses neurons or nerve cells. They communicate both with each other and with the rest of the body and send important messages to each other. These messages are also called ‘neurotransmitters’. When neurotransmitters are released, they travel throughout the body and attach to certain receptors; the receivers of the signals.
This process works just like a key on a lock. Neurotransmitters (the keys) only attach to receptors (locks) that they actually fit. Like a key slipping into a lock, a reaction to our mood thought processes, feelings, movements, and actions follows.
The endocannabinoid system works slightly differently. Although the ECS sends messages in a similar way, it extracts specific signal substances from fat cells in neurons. From there, they travel away from the nerve cell and attach to cannabinoid receptors.
The special thing is that the signal substances of the ECS influence all kinds of other neurotransmitters, even before those neurotransmitters properly start their own journey through the body. So we can think of medical cannabis as a kind of on-button for other neurotransmitters. As a result, the ECS exerts a lot of influence on all kinds of other messages (keys) that our body sends.
These are cannabinoid receptors
Neurotransmitters all attach to their own receptors. The ECS has its own receptors. There are two main types of cannabinoid receptors in the body: CB1 and CB2.
CB1 is more abundant in the central nervous system and brain. CB2 receptors are mainly located outside the nervous system and are mainly located in organs. Some tissues have both receptors, although when activated they each have a different effect.
CB1 receptors are responsible for regulating pain sensations, learning, memory, addiction, metabolism, nerve inflammation, heart functions, bone mass, and appetite. On the other hand, CB2 receptors play a role in autoimmune diseases, allergies, inflammation, osteoporosis, stress, chronic pain, and neurodegenerative diseases.
The ECS naturally produces cannabinoids (called endocannabinoids) that stimulate CB1 and CB2 receptors. We currently have six of the body’s own cannabinoids such as anandamide and 2-AG.
What is special is that plant medical cannabis (called phytocannabinoids) in cannabis are molecularly very similar to endocannabinoids. And that’s why they’re able to stimulate the endocannabinoid system.
Let’s take a closer look at that using the body’s own cannabinoid ‘anandamide’. This is the best-known cannabinoid because it can contribute to a blissful feeling. Anandamide is therefore also called ‘the happiness molecule’. The component is produced in the brain.
Anandamide is also responsible for important brain functions such as memory, motivation, movement, appetite, pain, and even fertility. The substance also helps to get rid of unimportant memories, become happier, promote neurogenesis, and fight anxiety and depression.
THC in cannabis is very similar to anandamide. Therefore, it is necessary for scientists to understand how anandamide works, and then understand how THC works. It is believed that the more anandamide you naturally have, the less important weed is to you. That’s why cannabis works so well for people who suffer from anxiety and depression.
More than a hundred different plants of medical cannabis have currently been discovered. These are mainly found in the trichomes of a cannabis plant; those white grains you see on cannabis buds. Some result in a psychoactive high, others not at all. But that doesn’t mean the others are doing nothing. On the contrary. As more and more research is being done on the cannabinoids in cannabis, we learn that almost all of them strengthen and stimulate the endocannabinoid system.
What happens when you consume weed
At the moment we know what the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is and that this mechanism responds to the body’s own cannabinoids and to the plant cannabinoids from cannabis. Time to see what happens when you consume plant cannabinoids.
As soon as you consume cannabis in any form, plant medical cannabis enters your body. They go through the bloodstream to the brain and then to the rest of your body.
Smoking or vaporizing weed are two common ways people consume cannabis edibles. When you inhale smoke or vapor, cannabinoids – such as THC and CBD – go straight to your lungs. The lungs are lined with millions of tiny vesicles that easily absorb active ingredients from cannabis and bring them into the bloodstream. The lungs absorb medical cannabis within seconds of inhaling.
Another common way to administer medicinal cannabis is through cannabis oil. You drip it under the tongue after which the mucous membranes in your mouth absorb part of the active substances. The rest goes through the digestive tract. During that process, a lot of medical cannabis from weed is lost, but nevertheless, the majority reaches the bloodstream.
After you ingest medical cannabis, plant medical cannabis attaches to CB1 and CB2 receptors. This process, as we discussed earlier, looks like a key that fits in a lock. What happens next is that the body’s own cannabinoids – such as anandamide – are temporarily unable to bind to those same receptors. After all, they are already occupied by plant cannabinoids.
This is the moment when you can perceive a euphoric and blissful feeling; the most common effects that many people experience when consuming cannabis. The actual effects vary and depend on the type of weed, method of administration, dose, and all kinds of personal factors.
How medical cannabis treats conditions
There are numerous ailments where cannabis fights symptoms or can itself contribute to healing. The most important qualities have to do with the fact that weed can soothe pain stimuli, counteract inflammatory reactions and counteract feelings of stress and anxiety.
Take Crohn’s disease, for example. There is an abundance of CB2 receptors in the gastrointestinal tract. Cannabis can regulate the inflammatory responses in these organs and thus put the disease into remission.
People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) also find relief from their symptoms thanks to THC. That’s because THC works similarly to anandamide, causing patients to forget details that are unimportant. That helps overcome negative memories of a traumatic incident. At the same time, it inhibits anxiety, lowers stress, and improves mood.
CB1 receptors are crucial for controlling anxious feelings. Especially during periods of intense stress, having little to no CB1 receptors can have a major impact on mental health.
Do you want to know where medicinal weed helps even more? On Mediwietsite there are hundreds of articles about various disorders such as pain, stress, depression, ADHD, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, insomnia, neck and back complaints, diabetes, cancer, and much more. Almost every week, science discovers new things about the usefulness of our ECS, the body’s own cannabinoids, and the plant-based versions from weed.
Weed as a supplement to the ECS
A healthy endocannabinoid system is vital for overall health. It doesn’t mean you have to consume mountains of weed every day to be healthy. But weed as a supplement can provide benefits.
An endocannabinoid deficiency is at the root of many diseases, ranging from occasional headaches to completely chronic conditions. That’s why cannabis works in treating diseases.
Other symptoms of an endocannabinoid deficiency include mood swings, insomnia, and gastrointestinal problems. You can easily strengthen your ECS through regular exercise. This causes the body to release neurotransmitters that naturally stimulate the ECS.
Stress is also known to affect the ECS. When you experience long-term stress, the ECS, like other systems in the body, gets burned out. Stress also contributes to inflammation and many other conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce stress in a natural way.
Research shows that taking small amounts of cannabinoids, through microdose, is enough to lower stress and boost the endocannabinoid system.
This also stimulates the production of the body’s own cannabinoids. The body even makes extra cannabinoid receptors. This is one of the things that may explain why some people don’t necessarily feel high after smoking the first time, but the time after, they do.
All parts of the ECS perform different tasks. But the most important one, as mentioned earlier, is promoting homeostasis. When the body feels that you need more endocannabinoids or receptors because this is the only way to return to that optimal state, these receptors and endogenous cannabinoids are produced on demand. This process can be stimulated with medicinal weed so that you contribute to a healthy body in the same mind.
Conclusion
The endocannabinoid system is vastly different for everyone. Think of your own fingerprint; it’s unique. That’s why weed affects everyone in a different way.
If you want to stay healthy, it’s important to pay attention to your endocannabinoid system as well. It is no longer uncommon for people to use weed or CBD as a supplement, as a supplement to ensure that the ECS performs optimally, promotes homeostasis, and prevents disease.
The science behind how cannabis works is real, and there’s more evidence coming every day. That cannabis is bad for you is outdated. With the right method of administration (prefer not to smoke it) and with the right dose, you do your body a great service.
