Eating cannabis enables the beneficial cannabinoids found in Marijuana to become available to your Endocannabinoid System. What is the Endocannabinoid System?
It all started with a scientific breakthrough in 1964, when a scientist from Israel named Raphael Mechoulam was able to identify and isolate THC for the first time – just prior to which they were able to identify CBD as well.
Isolating these cannabinoids was the first stepping stone in discovering the endocannabinoid system – a biological system that can be found in just about any living thing with vertebrae.
In 1988, the first cannabinoid receptor was found in the brain of a rat. Initially found by Allyn Howlett and William Devane these cannabinoid receptors turned out to be plentiful in the brain – more so than any other neurotransmitter receptor.
It wasn’t until two years later in 1990 before the next big breakthrough; when Lisa Matsuda announced at the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine that she and her colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health had managed to pinpoint the DNA sequence that defines a THC-sensitive receptor in a rat’s brain.
Soon after, in 1993, a second cannabinoid receptor was found – as a part of the immune and nervous systems. Dubbed CB2 (the CB receptors in the brain officially dubbed CB1 receptors) receptors they are found to be plentiful throughout the gut, spleen, liver, heart kidneys, bones, blood vessels, lymph cells and even the reproductive organs.
However that curious, pesky question remained unanswered – why do we have cannabinoid receptors in the first place?
The endocannabinoid system is possibly the single-most important system within our entire bodies – responsible for maintaining homeostasis. Basically, if our endocannabinoid system is out-of-whack, your whole body could be at risk as it is responsible for many of our normal day to day functions.
The possibilities that come with understanding the endocannabinoid system are practically endless. This one system helps to regulate almost every aspect of our well-being – meaning if we can learn to manipulate these receptors (with use of cannabinoids from cannabis) we could possibly have the answer to not only curing diseases, but preventing them all together.
