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This system is a mystery up until today.  Although it is nothing new, as scientists had discovered this back in the 90's, we are just starting to hear about it today.  Doctor's and the majority of health care workers have no idea this even exists.  This is not part of the medical curriculum, and purposefully so.  

Back in the 90's scientists were trying to study what the psychoactive effects of THC on an individual.  However, what they uncovered was far more relevant.  They Found that there is a complex network of receptors (CB1) in the brain and our central nervous system that were perfectly in sync and undeniably present strictly for THC.

Upon further research, they also discovered the CB2 receptor, which was predominantly in the immune system, gut and most major organs.


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What has been realised in the 90's and more and more today is that the endocannabinoid system fine-tunes our physiological functions.  It is there to bring balance to our sleep, inflammation, pain, memory, mood, reproductive system, appetite and pretty much everything else.  You can think of this system as the sheep dog keep all the sheep in line.  This system is responsible for making sure the body's physiological responses are all balanced.  It basically makes sure the body is in perfect harmony.  

This being a huge role, it is not the only role this system plays.  Below are 8 more interesting facts about this system and what it does for us daily.

- All vertebrates and non vertebrates have the ECS (endocannabinoid system).

- CB1 receptors are predominantly in the brain and consist of the most abundant neurotransmitter receptors in the brain.  We are all familiar with serotonin and dopamine, but in fact the endocannabinoid 'anandamide' (classified as a neurotransmitter) has the most receptors of all.

- The system works backwards.  Most of our neurotransmitters have a one directional communication pathway.  The endocannabinoid system however works in the opposite direction, which is referred to as retrograde signaling.  What this means is simply that if there is a receptor that is over/under stimulated, it will signal backwards across the synapse and tell the neuro to change behaviour.  You can almost think of it as a feedback loop, for corrective measure.  If there is any imbalance, it will signal to change the activity in order to return to homeostasis.

-  There is an increased output of work done by this system when there is an illness in play.  As we mentioned above, the modus operandi of this system is to create balance, therefore if there is an illness present this system will work harder to try and reach that harmonious state.

-  Deficiency may occur, which can the result in the creation of an oversensitivity to pain such as migraines, fibromyalgia, IBS and all other afflictions.  Therefore a deficiency can be remedied with the supplementation of compounds from the cannabis plant.  

-  Doctors know little to nothing at all about this system.


Hope you have enjoyed this post.  

Feel free to comment, follow and/or upvote.

Cheers.

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