Endocannabinoids and their receptors are found throughout the body: in the brain, organs, connective tissues, glands, and immune cells. Human breast milk is also a rich source source of endocannabinoids — these compounds act as  neuromodulators that stimulate the suckling process by activating oral-motor musculature, which helps teach children to eat. Without it, newborns might not want to eat or even know how.

 

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The body has 2 main types of cannabinoid receptors – CB1 exists in the brain, CB2 is in the immune system and the rest of the body. Both receptors respond to cannabinoids whether obtained from breast milk or consumed cannabis. Our bodies were built for these nutritive substances that protect everything from the nervous system to the immune system.

 

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In each tissue, the cannabinoid system performs different tasks, but the goal is always the same – homeostasis; the maintenance of a stable internal environment despite fluctuations in the external environment. Cannabinoids promote homeostasis at every level of biological life, from the sub‐cellular, to the organism, and perhaps to the community and beyond. Here’s one example: autophagy, a process in which a cell sequesters part of its contents to be self‐digested and recycled, is mediated by the cannabinoid system. While this process keeps normal cells alive, allowing them to maintain a balance between the synthesis, degradation, and subsequent recycling of cellular products, it has a deadly effect on malignant tumour cells, causing them to consume themselves in a programmed cellular suicide. The death of cancer cells, of course, promotes homeostasis and survival at the level of the entire organism.

 

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Endocannabinoids and cannabinoids are also found at the intersection of the body’s various systems, allowing communication and coordination between different cell types. At the site of an injury, for example, cannabinoids can be found decreasing the release of activators and sensitizers from the injured tissue, stabilizing the nerve cell to prevent excessive firing, and calming nearby immune cells to prevent release of pro‐inflammatory substances. Three different mechanisms of action on three different cell types for a single purpose: minimize the pain and damage caused by the injury.

 

The Endocannabinoid System, with its complex actions in our immune system, nervous system, and all of the body’s organs, is literally a bridge between body and mind. By understanding this system we begin to see a mechanism that explains how states of consciousness can promote health or disease.

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The discovery of an endogenous cannabinoid system, with specific receptors and ligands, has progressed our understanding of the therapeutic actions of cannabis from folklore to valid science. The human body’s neurological, circulatory, endocrine, digestive, and musculoskeletal systems have now all been shown to possess cannabinoid receptor sites. Indeed, even cartilage tissue has cannabinoid receptors, which makes cannabis a prime therapeutic agent to treat osteoarthritis. Cannabinoids have been shown to produce an anti‐ inflammatory effect by inhibiting the production and action of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and other acute phase cytokines, which also makes them ideal compounds to treat the autoimmune forms of arthritis. It is now suggested by some researchers that these widely spread cannabinoid receptor systems are the mechanisms by which the body maintains homeostasis (the regulation of cell function), allowing the bodies tissues to communicate with one another in this intricate cellular dance we call ʺlife.ʺ

 

With this knowledge of the widespread action of cannabinoids within all these bodily systems, it becomes much easier to conceptualize how the various forms of cannabinoids have therapeutic effect on diseases.