ENDOCANNABINOID RECEPTORS
Maintaining balance is the primary role of the ECS. The family of molecules most like the cannabinoids found in cannabis flowers are referred to as the endocannabinoid system.
Humans have been coevolving with cannabis for thousands of years. The Endocannabinoid system is a 600-million-year-old communications system that is found in humans. This system in our bodies contains chemical compounds very similar to the chemical compounds that we find in the plant. It is through our awareness of this regulatory system that we learn more about how plant medicines and a wide variety of healing modalities can support us in regulating physiological processes, including mood, appetite, and sleep.
As an ethnobotanist, someone who studies how culture is defined through the use of plants, I invite you to join me as we deepen into understanding. Our intentional study of plants encourages a fortifying relationship to food, herbs and our neighbors responsible for sustaining us through their stewardship of the land. Here we give reverence to the Earth, grow in community, discover plants and their many applications, and deepen into restorative wellness practices.
Can the ECS help recalibrate a dysregulated nervous system?”
Endocannabinoids change the way we perceive pleasure and pain, the past and present, our inner and outer worlds.
Interest in cannabis for health and wellness has grown exponentially over the years with more people wanting to understand how cannabis works in the body. Cannabis interacts with the body in a lot of dynamic ways. One of the most impressive evolutionary discoveries over the last hundred years has been learning the body has its own THC- like bliss molecule. It helps organ systems and messaging systems like our hormones and nervous system, our immune system and gut.
Endocannabinoids are abundant throughout the nervous system, the brain, the spinal cord—think eating, anxiety, learning and memory, reproduction, metabolism, growth and development. The function of the nervous system is relaying information between your body and brain. This includes involuntary body functions such as breathing, blood flow, and heartbeat as well as sensory information and control of voluntary movement. These functions all contribute to homeostasis, which refers to stability of your internal environment.
Research shoes the ECS has been linked to the following processes:
APPETITE & DIGESTION
METABOLISM
CHRONIC PAIN
INFLAMMATION & OTHER IMMUNE RESPONSES
MOOD
LEARNING & MEMORY
MOTOR CONTROL
SLEEP
Cannabis Use in Patients with Insomnia and Sleep Disorders
Therapeutic Uses of Cannabis on Sleep Disorders