What is CBD? The Amazing Benefits of CBD Oil

11.04.2019

Today we’re gonna break down the science of how CBD truly works in our body. We need to do this, because there's a lot of misinformation out there. Also we need to understand that Endocannabinoid receptors in our body are a natural thing, that are existing in our body. 

Let’s find out what happens inside the body with Endocannabinoids, different Adenosine and Serotonin receptors, Glutamate, Dopamine, all the things that actually make our body go round, when it comes down to Endocannabinoids.

- What exactly is CBD?
CBD is the non psychoactive component of cannabis. CBD oil is usually extracted and it's the component, that doesn't have an effect like THC. It works on different receptors within the body.

- So how exactly do these Endocannabinoid receptors will work within the body?
We have 2 different receptors: CBD1 and CBD2. These are all throughout the body, not just in the brain. They are affecting the brain, but also even more, throughout the course of the body: in our inflammatory and immune system, and everything, that we need. CBD1 is found mostly in the brain however. CBD1 is the one, that affects our mood, emotion, appetite, even coordination movement and pain, that relates to our brain and how we perceive it. Then we have CBD2. CBD2 works on the body: inflammation and immune system. And there is a correlation between CBD 1 and CBD 2. They communicate, but one is more so for the brain, and one is more so for the immune system and for the body. And what we're gonna find is, that THC activates both of these.

Let us see how CBD oil works. CBD2 receptors have to do with the immune system and inflammation. But CBD oil does not directly affect CBD1, nor CBD2 receptors. It doesn't affect them at all. What it does? It influences the body to naturally utilize more of its naturally occurring Endocannabinoids. 
Endocannabinoids are things that our body can create. But we also get them from food and various polyphenols, that we consume. It's a totally normal natural thing. Whether our body uses them is a completely different story. CBD oil influences the body to utilize more of the Endocannabinoids, that are already existing. Therefore enhancing how those Endocannabinoid receptors, particularly CBD2 actually, utilizes them. So it's not directly affecting the receptors, the way, that THC would.

What is CBD? The Amazing Benefits of CBD Oil

But how does it actually work in the body? What physiological effect does this have?

Here's the interesting thing: even though you have a natural utilization of these Endoсannabinoids, it doesn't necessarily mean, that the Endocannabinoids are the end-all be-all. It's the bioproduct of this. It's the utilization and the activation of Vanilloid, Adenosine and Serotonin receptors, that ultimately give us the sensation. The Vanilloid receptors end up working with body temperature. They end up working with helping us regulate inflammation through different ways. If we have a higher core body temperature, it's going to affect our inflammation. If we have a lower core body temperature, it's going to affect our inflammatory levels within the body. So, Vanilloid receptors play a key role, and they are directly correlated with the Endocannabinoid receptors. But here's the really interesting one: Adenosine.

How many of you have ever had a cup of coffee? 
Or how many of you have ever had caffeine?
We all know that excited exit, or feeling that we get.

What happens with Adenosine? 
Do we end up blocking Adenosine with caffeine?
Caffeine blocks the Adenosine receptor. It means, that we get more excited, because Adenosin would normally make you relaxed. If we have a lot of Adenosine in the body, we're relaxed, we might even be sleeping. But caffeine blocks that receptor, which therefore makes you more energized. CBD affects the Adenosine receptor, by increasing the activity of it.

But what does that mean? Does it the opposite of caffeine?
Kind of. It's gonna do the opposite of the bad effect of caffeine in some ways. When we actually have caffeine, we are basically blocking that Adenosine receptor and therefore triggering a secondary response. We're triggering a secondary response of exit Catecholamines. That means – Adrenaline, Noradrenaline, Epinephrine. All of the Catecholamines that cause us to have this heightened sense of awareness and alertness. That is what's giving us the energy. It's not specifically the blocking of Adenosine. When we do allow Adenosine, we don't have the opposite of Epinephrine or Adrenaline. There really isn't an opposite of it. it's either just on or off . We don't go fully polar-opposite with it. Basically, we're slowing down the Epinephrine and the Adrenaline, and allowing our body to relax. It's not like we're gonna have the negative effect, where we're super-super sleepy. We're just getting a calming effect, which is why so many people like utilizing CBD oil.

Then we have to talk about Dopamine receptors.
Dopamine is the reward system within the brain. By activating dopamine, it ends up allowing us to feel better all the time. But it allows us to naturally utilize dopamine. We're not taking exhaustion as dopamine. We're not taking drugs. We're not taking recreational drugs, things that are actually causing us to have more dopamine, or naturally increasing the body’s utilization, of existing dopamine, by enhancing the receptors sensitivity.

We also have to talk about Glutamate.
Glutamate actually triggers energy. But too much of it - is a bad thing. Too much Glutamate can lead to a seizure and all kinds of bad things. Glutamate is not what we want a lot of. However, the right amount of it can trigger energy in the right places. When we think about the calming effect of Adenosine, making us calm, and then we combine it with a specific energy effect of Glutamate - we actually have a really unique thing: we're calm. But that Glutamate is activating and energizing specific parts of the brain, that are correlated with memory and retention. So we can have the right energy in the brain, stimulating creative process, while feeling calm, relaxed, anti-inflamed and still awake in terms of your brain, so much powerful, when it comes to them.

And of course, look at the Serotonin receptors. CBD activates something known as 5-HT1A, which acts in a very similar way as an SSRI (Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor). It allows our body to create more serotonin and utilize it more efficiently. That's gonna help us feel good. Serotonin is just a feel-good neurotransmitter. But now we have to talk about Cancer. We have specific signals that happen in the body when it comes down to cancer,pacifically. We are talking about GPR55, which is something, that triggers minerals and vitamins, to be retrieved from the bones to, ultimately,- feed Cancer. That's why, when people get cancer a lot of times, they end up getting weaker bones a lot of times. They end up increasing their risk of fractures and things like that.

So what ends up happening?
CBD reduces the body's ability to retrieve nutrients from the bone, to feed cancer cells. This is just one of the many ways, that CBD has an effect on cancer, and it's one of the most researched.