What is the endocannabinoid system, and what does it do? This animated explainer covers what endocannabinoids and cannabinoid receptors are, how the ECS works as a brake at your synapses, how THC and CBD act on it, how to increase endocannabinoids naturally, why humans have cannabinoid receptors at all, whether dogs and cats have an endocannabinoid system, and what endocannabinoid deficiency is.
The full answer
What is the endocannabinoid system?
What is the endocannabinoid system? It's locks on your cells and the keys your body makes to turn them, and together they work as a brake. I'm Justin Hartfield, and I've spent twenty-five years in cannabis.
People have burned this plant to get high for at least 2,500 years.
In 1964, two chemists in Israel finally pulled out the molecule that does it. THC.
It took until 1988 to find where it goes. A lock in your brain that THC fits.
But that lock is hundreds of millions of years older than the plant.
So it was built for something your own body makes. You've been high your entire life, and nobody's told you.
What are cannabinoid receptors?
What are cannabinoid receptors? They're the locks, proteins in a cell's wall that switch on when a key lands, and you have two main kinds.
CB1 sits mostly on nerves, and on the liver and fat that store fuel. CB2 was found in 1993 in the spleen, and it sits mostly on immune cells.
What are endocannabinoids?
What are endocannabinoids? They're the keys, the cannabinoids your body makes itself, and the first ever found, in pig brain in Jerusalem in 1992, is the one sliding in now.
That's yours. Anandamide. Your cells make it on demand. Its name comes from the Sanskrit word for bliss.
2-AG. Your brain makes far more of it than anandamide, and it turns the lock all the way.
FAAH. It cuts anandamide in two. That's why your own keys only last moments.
What does the endocannabinoid system do?
What does the endocannabinoid system do? Mostly it works as a brake on the messages between your nerve cells.
This is a synapse. You have about a hundred trillion of them. Messages cross the gap one way, from the top cell to the bottom one.
See that? The bottom cell carves 2-AG out of its own membrane and sends it backward. Against the traffic.
That tells the top cell to ease off, and the same brake has a hand in hunger, pain, stress and letting go of fear.
How do THC and CBD act on the endocannabinoid system?
So how do THC and CBD act on the endocannabinoid system? THC is a key from outside the body that fits CB1.
THC holds the locks part of the way open, whether the cell asked or not. And your own brake has a harder time getting through. Now picture that everywhere at once. That's the high.
CBD, the other famous cannabis molecule. Surprise. It barely touches this lock.
How can I get endocannabinoids naturally?
How can you get more endocannabinoids naturally?
You keep making these keys for the rest of your life, and you can make more. A long run is one way. After forty-five minutes, both of your endocannabinoid keys rise in your blood, and runners still felt the high when scientists artificially blocked their opioid receptors.
Why do we have cannabinoid receptors?
Why do we have cannabinoid receptors? They were never there for the plant.
Start with how old this lock is. A sea squirt has a version of it, so it's more than 500 million years old. Early in the vertebrates, the gene doubled. CB1 went mostly to the nerves. CB2 went mostly to the immune cells.
Do animals have an endocannabinoid system?
Do animals have an endocannabinoid system?
Everything with a backbone carries this lock. A fly has none at all.
So yes, cats and dogs have cannabinoid receptors too, and a dog that eats an edible needs a vet.
What is endocannabinoid deficiency?
What is endocannabinoid deficiency? It's the neurologist Ethan Russo's hypothesis that some cases of migraine, fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome come from this system running low. An Italian study did find less anandamide in the spinal fluid of people with chronic migraine.
So the endocannabinoid system is your own locks and keys, and THC is a plant's key that fits them. The whole film is on my site, linked below, and next, what THC actually does in your brain.
What the studies show
Every claim in this answer, the study behind it, who was studied, and who paid for the research. “None listed” means the paper names no funder.
