The ECS is responsible for maintaining ‘homeostasis’ or stability and balance of all our bodily functions.
Just as other food supplements can help to maintain and improve your health, so you can nourish your ECS with Love Hemp CBD food supplement or other CBD products. A healthy diet and a balance of exercise and rest are the essential components of good health.
You can also learn more about how CBD is produced in the UK.
How does CBD oil work?
How CBD works: The endocannabinoid system explained
Before we go any further, let's briefly recap how CBD works within the body.
The (ECS) is a wide-ranging natural network of cannabinoid receptors that affect virtually all functions throughout the body.
The ECS is network of endocannabinoids and cannabinoid receptors, which are distributed throughout the body.
There are two major cannabinoid receptors within the ECS: CB1 and CB2. These aren’t the only cannabinoid receptors, but they were the first ones discovered and remain the best-studied.
CB1 receptors are one of the most abundant receptor types in the brain. CB2 receptors are more abundant outside of the nervous system, in places like the immune system. However, both receptors can be found throughout the body.
What does CBD do to the endocannabinoid system?
Research reveals that when cannabinoids found in cannabis interact with the CB1 or CB2 receptors, they alter and/or improve the capabilities of that receptor, thereby improving the receptors functionality.
Additionally, if the body suffers from cannabinoid deficiency, administering CBD can help equalise the deficiency (studies suggest that cannabinoids are a finite resource, and the deficiency of cannabinoids can result in headaches, irritability, and other health issues).
Basically, it’s like a power-up for our Endocannabinoid System.
By interacting with the body’s CB1 and CB2 receptors, CBD not only helps to maintain vital health functions―it helps to restore the homeostasis, or balance, within the body. This is the root of its many health benefits.
Let us discuss more about CBD and homeostasis.
What does homeostasis mean and why is it important?
Homeostasis is the concept that most biological systems are actively regulated to maintain conditions within a narrow range. Our body doesn’t want its temperature to be too hot or too cold, blood sugar levels too high or too low, and so on.
Conditions need to be just right for our cells to maintain optimum performance, and intricate mechanisms have evolved to draw them back to the “Goldilocks zone” if they move out.
The body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS) is a vital molecular system for helping maintain homeostasis - it helps cells stay in their Goldilocks zone.
When an imbalance is detected, the body naturally produces endocannabinoids to interact with the cannabinoid receptors within the ECS, which in turn stimulate a chemical response that works to return the process that is out of balance back to homeostasis.
Unfortunately, numerous factors such as pollution, poor diet, stress and lack of exercise can lead to our bodies being unable to produce endocannabinoids and the ECS becomes deficient.
As you can see the endocannabinoid system controls many vital functions within the body and this enforces the importance of a “healthy” ECS. If any of these functions are disturbed then our health deteriorates. The sheer number of functions regulated by the ECS may also go some way to explain why CBD appears to be effective for so many health conditions.
How can consuming CBD help the body achieve homeostasis?
Cannabinoids found in plants like cannabis and hemp, including cannabidiol (CBD), are similar to the endocannabinoids naturally produced by the body. Research shows that they interact with the cannabinoid receptors of the endocannabinoid system the same way our bodies own natural endocannabinoids do.
As we have discussed, the main function of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is to maintain balance within the body. A body in balance functions much more effectively, it allows us to function at an optimal level. CBD and other cannabinoids found in cannabis help the body reach homeostasis. So, CBD, homeostasis and balance are key to well-being and a healthy lifestyle.
All Love Hemp products provide a convenient way of supplementing your diet with whole plant, low-THC cannabis extract. The principal active ingredient is cannabidiol (CBD) which is non-psychoactive. You won’t get ‘high’ from Love Hemp products and they are all perfectly legal.
The cannabis plants from which they are made are low-THC varieties known as industrial hemp which are grown under licence.
Some people might be concerned about taking even a non-psychoactive form of cannabis. For many years the media has been full of reports about cannabis as a dangerous substance. However, science is now proving that most of these concerns are unfounded. Of course, high-THC cannabis remains illegal and it is a powerful, psychoactive drug but the low-THC varieties from which Love Hemp products are made contain only safe and beneficial compounds, most importantly CBD.
The endocannabinoid system (ECS) is complex and there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to an imbalanced ECS, but we can give our bodies a helping hand by boosting our natural endocannabinoids, with plant cannabinoids (phytocannabinoids) like CBD.
Cannabis-derived medicine
On the 1st of November 2018 cannabis-based medicines became available on prescription in the UK. There still remains strict criteria in place for patients to be eligible for these treatments, but we look forward to seeing how medical cannabis treatment progresses.
CBD supplements
It’s important to be clear that Love Hemp CBD products are not medicines, they are food supplements.
They are perfectly safe as long as you follow the dosage instructions, and they will help optimise your health over time.
So just as you have a routine with watching your diet, eating plenty of vegetables, not too much fat, sugar or alcohol, exercising regularly and getting plenty of rest and a good night’s sleep, so you can regularly take a few drops of Love Hemp CBD oil.