21 answers · 169 chapters
Weed and your body, answered from the studies
Each answer is a four-minute video with its chapters, the full transcript, and every study it rests on, with who was studied and who paid for it.
What THC does
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4:05 What THC does What does THC do to your brain?
It's the molecule in cannabis that gets you high, and in your brain it holds a built-in brake, the CB1 lock, on everywhere at once.
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4:00 What THC does What happens when you smoke weed?
THC reaches your brain in seconds and turns on CB1 locks everywhere: your heart speeds up, eyes redden, mouth dries.
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3:49 What THC does How long do edibles last?
Edibles usually last 6 to 8 hours, sometimes up to 12, and take 30 to 90 minutes to kick in. Why they hit harder: your liver makes 11-hydroxy-THC.
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4:12 What THC does CBD vs THC: what's the difference?
CBD vs THC: same plant, same atoms. THC turns the CB1 lock in your brain and gets you high; CBD barely touches it, so it doesn't. Here's why.
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3:51 What THC does Is weed a depressant?
Not exactly, and not a stimulant either: THC works on a brain brake that sits on calming and exciting cells, so dose decides.
Too much
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4:08 Too much What is greening out?
Greening out is taking more THC than your body can handle: a racing heart, dizziness and panic. It passes. Here's why it happens and how to come down.
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4:08 Too much Can you overdose on weed?
You can take far too much THC, but nobody has found a dose that stops a healthy adult's breathing, because THC barely touches your brainstem.
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4:08 Too much Why does weed make you paranoid?
THC works on your brain's fear system, and dose decides: a little can calm you, a bit more can scare you.
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4:06 Too much Does weed kill brain cells?
There's no good evidence that weed kills brain cells in people. Where the idea came from, what THC changes and how it comes back, and what twins show.
Hunger
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3:57 Hunger Why does weed make you hungry?
THC switches on CB1, the lock your body uses to run hunger. In mice, that lock sharpens smell and flips fullness cells.
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3:25 Hunger Does weed make you lose weight?
Not directly: THC makes you eat more, yet people who use it are less often obese. Here's what the science shows.
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3:56 Hunger Why am I always hungry?
Partly your endocannabinoid system: it makes its own cannabinoids from fats like linoleic acid, the omega-6 in seed oils.
Your own system
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4:13 Your own system What is the endocannabinoid system?
The endocannabinoid system is your own locks and keys: CB1 and CB2 receptors and the cannabinoids you make, anandamide and 2-AG. THC borrows it.
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4:04 Your own system Is runner's high real?
The runner's high is real, and the best explanation is endocannabinoids, cannabinoids your body makes, more than endorphins. Here's how to get one.
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3:59 Your own system How do you get a natural high?
A natural high is your own chemistry: cannabinoids your body makes, plus dopamine. Here's how to get high without weed, from a long run to cold water.
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4:05 Your own system Can your brain make its own painkiller?
The placebo effect is real relief from expecting a treatment to work. Your brain answers with its own painkillers: opioids and cannabinoids.
Mind & memory
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3:51 Mind & memory How do you let go of the past?
How to let go of the past: in your brain, letting go means learning a newer lesson that wins out over the old one. Here's the mouse that shows it.
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4:03 Mind & memory Can your brain unlearn a fear?
Fear extinction is how your brain unlearns a fear: it learns a newer lesson, that this is safe now. In mice, that needs the CB1 lock at that moment.
Life itself
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4:10 Life itself How does the body heal itself?
Inflammation is how your body heals itself: a fight that clears the damage, then a cleanup that switches it off. How both work, stage by stage.
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4:11 Life itself Why do we age?
Damage builds up faster than the body clears it, and the inflammation that heals you stops switching off. That is inflammaging.
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4:14 Life itself What is life?
Physics gives a good answer: chemistry that stays organized by running energy through it, and copies itself. Are viruses alive? Is fire?