4 Facts About the Body System Your Teacher Never Taught You About: All About Your Endocannabinoid System

Before we begin, you’re probably thinking “What is the Endocannabinoid System?” Commonly referred to as ECS, the system is made up of two types of cell-receptors located throughout your body (CB1 and CB2). These receptors join with cannabinoids and endocannabinoids to help keep your body in check. We like to think of it as a lock with a key. The receptors are the lock while a cannabinoid or endocannabinoid is they key that can help with pain relief, inflammation and a host of other medical issues.

1. The ECS has only recently been discovered

As Doctors Shenlong Zou and Unendra Kumar pointed out in 2018, most scientists simply ignored the ECS because they thought it only pertained to making people high. It wasn’t until the 1990s that any studies began on the system, and only over the past roughly fifteen years have scientists actually taken a good luck at the ECS.



2. Your body produces endocannabinoids 

Endocannabinoids cannot be artificially produced nor do they grow in nature. Endocannabinoids regulate multiple systems in your body, including pain receptors in our nervous systems, our memories and our metabolisms. Your body produces endocannabinoids to keep itself in a perpetual state of balance. Cannabinoids, such as those found in hemp, are able to mimic the endocannabinoids produced by our bodies to put us back in homeostasis. 



3. ECS helps multiple systems in the body

Even scientists don’t know exactly how the ECS is dispersed in our bodies, but they have seen how the ECS aids a multitube of systems. For example, CB2 regulates bone mass and can help prevent strokes. CB1 receptors regulate a number of biological processes including: “appetite, mood, motor function, learning and memory, and pain.” We all need ECS receptors in order to function. In fact, those with low amounts of CB1 receptors may develop a host of health issues, including Parkinson’s Disease.



4. CBD activates the ECS 

CBD, which does not get the user ‘high’ like THC (the psychoactive component of marijuana), binds to both CB1 and CB2 receptors in your body, although some scientists argue it might actually bind to an undiscovered receptor, to activate your ECS. This activation helps put your body into check by encouraging your bodily systems to “talk” to one another by transmitting signals between receptors. This communication can make our bodies heal themselves by creating the right environment for self-regulation.