The Amazing Health Benefits of Cannabis: Our Endocannabinoid System
Just like humans, the Cannabis Sativa plant naturally produces cannabinoids. In our bodies, cannabinoids are located in abundance in our brains, as well as our connective tissues, glands, and our immune cells. They make up what is called our Endocannabinoid System.
What is the Endocannabinoid System, exactly? Well, it’s our body’s natural control system. Its job is to check regularly to make sure every other system in our body is working smoothly. When the system detects an imbalance, endocannabinoids are then sent with further instructions to our cannabinoid receptors - stimulating a chemical response that works to return the physiological process back to normal.
In addition to regulating our appetite, sleep, pain, inflammation, and our memory, the Endocannabinoid System also helps to control and limit the risk of diabetes, cancer, your body’s ability to survive a stroke or heart attack, glaucoma, epilepsy, dementia, and on and on. If our Endocannabinoid systems become too inactive or deficient, it can lead to a great number of illnesses including migraines, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, irritable bowel syndrome and depression. i
But here is why cannabis works so well to specifically boost our Endocannabinoid System. This amazing plant contains at least one hundred different cannabinoids itself. What’s more, the plant’s natural abundance of cannabinoids bind to the very cannabinoid receptors that already exist in our bodies!
Diseases as diverse as ALS, Alzheimer’s, asthma, Pulmonary fibrosis, Tourette’s Syndrome, Crohn’s and other gastrointestinal disorders, have all been shown to benefit from supplementing with cannabinoids from the plant!
One cannabinoid research scientist, who is also a retired cardiac surgeon, said that the discovery of the Endocannabinoid system is the single most important medical/scientific discovery of our lifetimes, and that “More people will be saved by manipulation of the Endocannabinoid system than are currently saved by surgery. iii Western medicine has never seen a substance like this and we’re only just beginning to discover the remarkable benefits this plant holds for human beings.
i Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency Reconsidered: Current Research Supports the Theory iurn Migraine, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel, and Other Treatment-Resistant Syndromes, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5576607/
ii From Phytocannabinoids to Cannabinoid Receptors and Endocannabinoids: Pleiotropic Physiological and Pathological Roles Through Complex Pharmacology, https://www.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/physrev.00002.2016
iii The Endocannabinoid System, https://cbdhempexperts.com/the-endocannabinoid-system/