CBD AND THE HUMAN BRAIN
The main question is, how does CBD actually works in your body and brain, to provide all that natural goodness that helps us with our overall health.
Once focusing on this topic, it get pretty complicated. I am going to explain it in simple words , so you can understand it easy!
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How eactly does CBD work?
Before answering that, we need to understand what CBD is. CBD – a cannabidiol, is a phytocannabinoid derived from the plant cannabis.
All cannabinoids work on your Endocannabinoid system ( ECS).Your body’s ECS helps the body control appetite, pain , mood, memory, immune system and much more.
It maintains a healthy balance of all processes in the human or animal body.The ECS is found in the whole body’s nervous system , that means central and peripheral.
ECS has the ability to adapt and change the way our nervous system and cells works and interacts with each other.
Our body doesn’t work the same all the time. Like in nature and in lfe things change, also our body changes.
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Earlier, I wrote that CBD is a phytocannabinoid. Did you know that the body produces its own cannabinoids?
We call them endocannabinoids. The two most known endocannabinoids are Anadamide and 2 – AG .
The body starts to produce these cannabinoids on demand when triggered by activity in our nervous system.
These small cannabinoid molecules work by attaching to receptors or proteins to cause a response.
This works similarly to a lock and key where the key is cannabinoid and the the lock is the receptor.
Studies have shown that when activated these receptors prevent neurotransmitters from being released to activate other nerve cells.
We know two primary cannabinoid receptorsCB1CB2These receptors are protein receptors made from many proteins and amino acids.CB1 receptors are mainly found in the brain and also in other parts of the nervous system .
CB2 receptors are heavily concentrated in tissues of the immune system and throughout the spleen, tonsils and thymus and they are found also elsewhere in the body.
CBD, specifically, is an antagonist to CB1/CB2 receptor agonists.This means that CBD produces an opposite effect to that of other cannabinoids.
CBD is the key that goes into the lock and produces an effect that is opposite or antagonistic to a typical response.
In simple words, if one cannabinoid made you run forward then CBD would make you run backward.
Once the CBD molecule binds to a receptor, some enzymes are activated in the nerve cell that triggers a set of events.
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For example, if your nerve cells are activated to cause inflammation in the body then CBD can come in and prevent the activation of those inflammatory responses and with that, it lowers the inflammation.
Talking simplified on a scientific level, this is how CBD works in the brain and body to create its therapeutic effects.
Let’s look how CBD gets broken down and how much your body in real uses it. To say it straight, it’s much less.
The wrong thinking: i take 50mg of CBD and my body uses it all. Why that? Because of a process called first-pass metabolism.
First pass metabolism is a process that affects the bioavailability of a taken drug or substance.The term bioavailability is a term used to describe how much is left of a given drug after it has gone through the digestion and the liver.
If we take 100 mg of CBD, don’t expect all 100mg will be used by your body. A lot of it gets broken down and therfore wasted. When you take CBD orally, only some 6% becomes bioavailable.
So, if you took 100 mg of CBD then only 6 mg would be available for the body after metabolism. The good news is not all methods of taking CBD is subject to that first-pass metabolism.
Inhaling (vaping) CBD has a much higher bioavailability. The percentages are in the range of 11-45%.
Just know that how you take CBD will also have an impact on how long it takes to work.
