Cannabidiol, also known as CBD, came out to the world in a big way after this simple plant chemical stoppped an epiletic seizure in its tracks on U.S. national television.
Since then many people realized that this ''miracle compound'' can stop spasms, calm anxiety, and soothe those in chronic pain.
But.. what CBD exacly is and how does it work?
Why is it diffrent from THC?
CBD is one of the most prevalent chemical compound in the cannabis plant. Unlike the more famous molecule, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol),
CBD is completely nonpsychoactive.
Don't expect to get ''high'' off of this organic chemical.
While CBD still has an effect on your body, consuming CBD by itself isn't going to send you on the cerebral adventure associated with THC.
For decades, medical professionals and the general public overlooked CBD because psychoactive cannabis took center stage. Now, the medical potential of CBD has taken cannabis to mainstream audiences.
Preclinical trials have found that cannabidiol shows prosmise as an:
- anti-inflammatory
- antioxidant
- neuroprotectant
- antidepressant
- analgesic
- anti-tumoral agent
- anti-psychotic
CBD is often used as an oil.
Patients with more chronic conditions such as cancer and epilepsy often use medical cannabis oil extracted from high-CBD varieties of cannabis.
By now I think we covered what CBD exactly is, but how does it work?
You may have heard that inside the human body there's the endocannabinoid system (ECS), with receptors spread throughout the brain and body.
And cannabinoids are agonists that bind to this special receptors on your cells, called cannabinoid receptors.
I know,
it sounds like they are meant to be stimulated by cannabis :D
Certain receptors are heavily concentrated in the central nervous system while others are found in almost every organ of the human body.
Cannabinoid receptors are even found in the skin, digestive tract, and even in the reproductive organs.
We can think of agonists as keys and cannabinoid receptors as locks. By consuming cannabis, you are taking in agonists that interact with diffrent locks on cells in the body.
Together, these cell receptors make up a larger endocannabinoid system (ECS).
Four primary purposes of the ECS include:
neuroprotection,
stress recovery,
immune balance and
homeostatic regulation
The last one is a fancy way of referring to a system that creates optimum energy balance in the body.
Somehow, CBD seems to tap into this balancing system to produce its therapeutic effects.
CBD is able to interact with cells in our bodies because the molecule has a similar composition to similar chemicals that the human body produces naturally, called endocannabinoids.
THC vs. CBD
As mentioned above THC is psyhcoactive, while CBD does not. While both compounds are cannabinoids, they each interact with the body in diffrent ways.
THC directly engages the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1), which is concentrated largely in the central nervous system.
Both, THC and CBD basically connect to the same receptors in two diffrent locations. This is why CBD is enable to act psychoactivity as THC does.
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