How You Can Help Your Endocannabinoid System With CBD

Understanding the relationship between the endocannabinoid system and CBD is vital to making an informed decision about whether CBD is right for you. This vital body system is important to your health and wellness, and when there’s a problem, it can manifest as both physical and psychological systems that affect your day-to-day life. Making sure your body has the tools it needs for systemic health is one of the surest ways to stay healthy. For the endocannabinoid system, CBD and other cannabinoid supplementation can be the missing link you’ve been looking for to feel better.

Role of the Endocannabinoid System

If you don’t remember your school’s biology classes covering the endocannabinoid system, you’re not alone. It was only identified in 1992 and remains poorly understood to this day, with most research only in its nascent stages. This lack of awareness is part of what leads to misunderstandings about the effects of CBD and the endocannabinoid system’s responses to it. It is very much an evolving field of science with exciting discoveries and innovations regularly challenging our understanding.

As our understanding of the endocannabinoid system has grown, scientists have come to understand it plays a vital part in modulating many functions inside the human body. In many cases, it does not directly cause the effects itself, rather it encourages other systems to behave in a certain manner, sending its signals through the use of hormones and neurotransmitters. This ability to act as a “control system” makes the endocannabinoid system (and the CBD that supports it!) one of the most powerful ways to take control of your health and wellness naturally.

Industrial Hemp-Derived CBD

Humans have used hemp for millennia, cultivating it to fill a variety of roles in their societies. It provided needed oil for fuels and cooking. Its fibers have long been prized for the production of textiles, to make strong, durable ropes, and even to produce paper. Long before the discoveries of the endocannabinoid system and CBD, it was even cultivated for the wellness benefits that still make it so popular today!

Even without understanding the role of the endocannabinoid system, early practitioners of the healing arts understood that hemp had the potential to help people be healthier and happier. While no distinction at the time was made between hemp and cannabis varieties that would be considered marijuana, we do know that THC concentrations were lower in these early hemp plants, as selective breeding had yet to produce the higher concentrations sought after by medical marijuana and recreational users today. The technology to derive CBD for the endocannabinoid system and create a pure oil did not exist, so it truly offered a whole plant experience to those who used it for relief.

This didn’t change for early America. Hemp production in the US boomed in colonial times when land-owning founding fathers grew hemp on their farms, and it was considered a strategically important crop all Americans should cultivate when possible. It provided a needed commodity to help pay revolutionary war debts, supplied the new nation’s army and navy with hemp for clothes, sails, and rope, and its medicinal potential was alluded to in several writings, although some debate over the full meaning has risen.

Hemp’s vilification began at the hands of timber, fuel, chemical, and textile monopolies who were threatened by the growing commercial interest in hemp in the 1930s. By pushing the fallacy that it was indistinguishable from marijuana -- a close cousin that was the subject of a racially charged smear campaign itself -- all cannabis plants were subjected to the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, and eventually, the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. This effectively banned the cultivation, processing, possession, and use of hemp.

As interest in the role of the endocannabinoid system and the medicinal effects of cannabis grew in the 1990s and early 2000s, however, advocates pushed not just for the ability to explore medical marijuana but also the benefits of hemp. By this time, CBD and the endocannabinoid system had both been identified, and along with its other commercial uses, hemp seemed like the perfect way to explore cannabis wellness support without getting high. As public opinion shifted towards a more accepting view of cannabis as a whole, legislators felt the pressure to legalize hemp, and with the 2014 Farm Bill, they authorized a pilot program to allow states to explore cannabis commerce. With the re-legalization of hemp, both anecdotal evidence and research into the role of the endocannabinoid system and CBD’s effect on it have taken off.

What We Know About the Endocannabinoid System

Okay, but that is the endocannabinoid system and what is its role? Endocannabinoids are naturally occurring neurotransmitters in your body that bind to specific receptor sites. These receptor sites are found throughout the body but are most abundant in the central nervous system, brain, and peripheral organs. When an endocannabinoid bonds with these receptor sites, it either causes a specific reaction or it blocks other endocannabinoids from bonding with the site, preventing a reaction. Through this complex operation, it helps regulate other body systems.

The cannabinoids available in cannabis, including CBD, and the endocannabinoid system provide this regulatory stimulus either directly or indirectly. CBD, specifically, does not act directly on endocannabinoid receptor sites, rather, it encourages the body’s production of its own naturally occurring endocannabinoids. This helps address deficiencies so the endocannabinoid system can fulfill its role.

While CBD gets much of the attention, cannabis contains over 100 active compounds that offer potential benefits to health and wellness. These include terpenes that have shown potential to fight pain and inflammation, help control anxiety, and help balance demeanor by protecting the neurotransmitters in the Hippocampus. This is all accomplished through cannabis compounds binding to endocannabinoid receptor sites, mimicking your endocannabinoid to trigger the same effects. This so-called “Entourage Effect” is why so many CBD users choose full-spectrum or whole-plant CBD products.

How to Use CBD and Support the Endocannabinoid System

CBD oil is found in the leaves, stems, and flowers of industrial hemp plants, members of the cannabis family with less than 0.3% THC concentration by dry weight (by comparison, marijuana can have THC concentrations over 30%). Once the raw plant material is processed, the ultra-pure oil is tested to ensure its CBD concentration and purity. Then it’s formulated into CBD products that are designed to fit seamlessly into your everyday life.

• Topicals - Topical products are designed for external use, delivering a dose of hemp-derived CBD directly to the tissues through the skin. As it penetrates, CBD encourages a localized increase in endocannabinoid production and utilization while any associated terpenes go to work on the endocannabinoid receptor sites in the area. The benefits of CBD cream include reduction of pain or discomfort through the application of a CBD-rich lotion, salve, balm, cream, or gel.
• Edibles - One of the yummiest ways to get your CBD dose and boost the endocannabinoid system, edibles have the goodness of CBD infused into a tasty treat. The most common commercially available edibles are gummies and hard candies. Because it is the active ingredient in the drug Epidiolex, CBD is not approved as a food commercial additive, but you can make your own edibles by adding CBD oil to your favorite baking recipe, coffee beverage, or salad dressing.
• Vapes - Vaping is fast becoming a stylish way to get your daily CBD dose. Just pick your favorite flavor, put the cartridge on your atomizer, and puff in some hemp-derived CBD. This can be a fast, fun way to unobtrusively dose on-the-go.
• CBD Oil - CBD oil in liquid form is incredibly versatile. It makes the perfect additive to your recipes, but it can also be used directly. Packaged in convenient dropper bottles, just draw up your preferred dose and place it under your tongue. This vascular area allows for easy absorption, or you can simply swallow it. If you are out of topical CBD products, both hemp and MCT (coconut) oil, common CBD oil bases, absorb readily into the skin, allowing you to “make do” until your favorite topical is handy.

Support the Wellness Role of the Endocannabinoid System

When you’re ready to support the endocannabinoid system with CBD and hemp products order your premium CBD and boost the endocannabinoid system in your body with CBD today!