Your body is made up of many different anatomical systems all working together to form what
we call an organism.
So, for instance, you have a nervous system, digestive system, cardiovascular system, just
to name a few and each of them are going to have their own dedicated roles and jobs for
your body but operating within them are what you could almost think of as subsystems that
are going to integrate them together and one of those is the endocannabinoid system.
And with the use of the cadavers here in the lab, today, we're going to take a look at
the various organ and structures that the endocannabinoid system is involved with and
see exactly why it is that when you consume THC or CBD or some of the other cannabinoids,
they can have such far-reaching effects on the body.
It's going to be a fun one.
Let's do this.
[Intro]
The endocannabinoid system is composed of cannabinoid receptors as well as endogenous
cannabinoids and the enzymes that are going to create and break them down.
Now, in today's video, we're only going to be focusing on the receptors and the cannabinoids
but just understand there are going to be plenty of chemical reactions occurring during
this entire process.
Now, let's go ahead and begin with the cannabinoid receptors and to best understand them, we're
going to want to take a look at the human brain and that's exactly what you're seeing
here.
You're seeing the right hemisphere of the human brain.
Now, if you could zoom in and zoom in and zoom in and zoom in onto the surface of the
brain, what you would see would be millions if not billions of neurons.
Neurons are going to be the cells of communication in your body.
Now, if you could zoom in onto the surface of those neurons, you would find many different
types of receptors.
Now, receptors, you could think of as if you, I guess it's probably best to think of it
in a lock and key type of analogy where the receptor would be the lock and then, whatever
is going to bind to it would be the key.
When that occurs, you're going to get some kind of reaction with the cell.
Well, with cannabinoid receptors, what's going to happen is when the cannabinoid binds to
them, that is going to initiate or at least modulate, I should say, the release of what
are called neurotransmitters.
Now, you've probably heard of neurotransmitters before, they are things like dopamine, serotonin,
and glutamate.
So, when cannabinoids bind to them, that is actually going to modulate how those are going
to be released and that's going to be pretty important but in terms of cannabinoid receptors,
there are two primary ones that we're going to be focusing on.
There are more but the most well studied are going to be CB1 and CB2.
That stands for cannabinoid receptor type one and cannabinoid receptor type two.
Now, with the brain, that's where you're going to find the highest density of CB1 receptors.
Now, we do find them in other places in the body but they are most dense here in the brain
and even in the brain, they're going to have varying densities depending on where we're
looking at.
So, this highly folded region is what we call the cerebral cortex and you're going to find
a ton of CB1 receptors here in the cerebral cortex.
But if I actually flip the brain over, when we look at it from this midline view, this
region right here doesn't really look like much but this region is what we call the hypothalamus.
Here, you are also going to find a lot of CB1 receptors.
You're also going to CB1 receptors here in this really cool looking structure called
the cerebellum but this is where I want to stress the point that there's going to be
varying densities because your cerebellum is not going to have the same amount of CB
receptors as rodents and this is important because the cerebellum is actually going to
be involved with motor control but with rodents when they partake of cannabis or cannabinoids,
I should say, their motor is extremely affected because they have a higher density of CB receptors
in this area as compared to a human.
So, even though motor control is going to be affected in human beings, not the same
degree.
Meaning, you actually have a higher density of CB1 receptors located in the cortex of
the brain than you do the cerebellum but you're also going to have CB receptors in areas we
can't really see.
So, if you could kind of picture deeper down kind of like in this region here, and then
right here, we just can't see it in this dissection, there are going to be - there's going to be
another structure called the hippocampus and the hippocampus some of you might recognize
as being associated with memory which is probably not going to surprise you especially when
we're talking about cannabis.
There's also going to be other structures that are going to be distributed all throughout
the brain which are going to belong to the umbrella term called the Basal Ganglia.
Now the basal ganglia do a lot of different things but they're going to be involved in
decision making as well as memory.
So, you're probably starting to get an understanding of how cannabis is going to start affecting
all of these areas because it really comes down to the type of receptor and the density
of the receptor located in the brain.
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Alright, let's get back to it.
Cannabinoid receptor type 2 or CB2 receptors are going to be found in higher densities
in the periphery of the body.
In fact, we used to think they only were in the periphery of the body and we used to think
that CB1 receptors were only ever in the brain but we now know that CB2 receptors are also
going to be in the brain and CB1 receptors are going to be found in other locations.
Again, though, it comes down to different densities.
Now, CB2 receptors are going to be found primarily in lymphatic tissues and immune type tissues.
So, you find it in the spleen for instance.
The spleen is essentially a giant lymph node that stores blood in the upper left of your
abdomen.
You're also going to find CB2 receptors in your tonsils which are going to be lymphatic
tissues in your nasal and oral cavities that's there to help filter potential pathogens and
toxins from getting deeper in your body but you also find CB-2 receptors in both the male
and female reproductive tissues.
You're going to find CB-2 receptors on the testies and you're going to find them in the
uterus for example, but the thing that or the place I should say that you find them
the most is going to be on the immune cells themselves and you're going to find them in
their highest expression on a cell called the B cell but you're also going to find them
on T cells and monocytes and neutrophils.
It's important to understand the role that these immune cells have in your body because
they are going to be the regulators of inflammation and in fact, when you bind a cannabinoid to
a CB-2 receptor that can help modulate how much inflammation is occurring in the body.
That is a very cool thing.
When it comes to the cannabinoids that are binding to these cannabinoid receptors, there
are two overarching types.
You have what are called exocannabinoids and then you have endocannabinoids.
So, exo are going to be produced outside of the body and you need to consume them for
them to have any kind of effect.
Well, endocannabinoids are literally produced by your body.
In fact, are produced by the cells that we were just talking about.
So, they're going to be much more involved with your day-to-day activities than an exocannabinoid.
Now there are multiple different types of endocannabinoids but we're going to focus
our attention on two of them because they are by far the most well studied and that
is going to be 2-Arachidonoylglycerol also known as 2-AG and then arachidonoyl ethanolamide
also known as anandamide.
Now that's a mouthful to say so I'm probably just going to say 2-AG and anandamide from
now on.
But these are going to be produced by neurons, by the immune cells, by these tissues and
they are going to start modulating the tissues and surrounding area that we just discussed.
So, if it's in the nervous system, they would be modulating how much dopamine, how much
serotonin, how much glutamate is being secreted and then, if they're in the immune system,
they can be modulating things such as inflammation.
So, these are going to be playing a really important role with your day-to-day activities
and right this moment, they're being secreted, produced and secreted in varying amounts depending
upon their demand.
When it comes to the exocannabinoid, there are again going to be two main types.
We have phytocannabinoids which just means they come from a plant and then synthetic
cannabinoids which means they're going to be made in a laboratory.
So, those are going to be things like Spice or K2 if you've ever heard of those and despite
being made in a laboratory, they're still going to bind to those CB receptors and cause
all the effects that we've discussed but the phytocannabinoids are the reason why you probably
clicked on this video because that's the one that everyone knows.
This is going to be THC and CBD and many, many others although THC and CBD are going
to again be the most well studied.
Now, THC is primarily going to bind to CB1 receptors although it will also bind to CB2
receptors but that means it's going to have a high affinity for the brain because again,
CB1 receptors are in their highest density in the brain and then, they're in an even
higher density in say like the prefrontal cortex than they would be in the cerebellum
which would mean consuming of the phytocannabinoid THC is going to affect this area and so then
you just have to start filling in the blank; which areas are it affecting? is it affecting
the hippocampus?
Or if again if it's if it's affecting the prefrontal cortex, if it's affecting this
area here, that's more rational decision making.
If it's affecting this area over here it might be affecting more of your morality and empathy.
So, it's fascinating because when it comes to the endocannabinoids, those are going to
be secreted in much less quantities and it's not like you're this massive dose, right?
It's not at - one point in time all of a sudden it's like boom.
All of a sudden, I'm getting a bunch of 2-AG or anandamide.
Instead, they're happening in the right proper amounts but if you're consuming THC from some
phytocannabinoid, then you're going to get a massive quantity of it.
Now, the other thing to take note of though is that CBD is actually a non-psychoactive
cannabinoid and that's because it doesn't bind to CB1 or CB2.
It's to be binding to some of the other receptors and proteins that I mentioned existed but
we're not really going into detail but what is fascinating is you're seeing a lot of those.
CBD is going to places like the immune system.
It's helping with inflammation.
It's helping with a lot of these, you know, I guess you could say medicinal properties
that people are really interested in which is exactly why you're seeing CBD oils or CBD
products, I should say, just all over the place and that's because people are really
interested to see how medicinal CBD can be, especially considering that it's non psychoactive
because again, it's not binding to the receptors, the CB1 or CB2 receptors which means it's
not really going to be affecting the brain.
So, what is it that exactly creates that characteristic high that we all know when people consume
phytocannabinoids in the form of cannabis?
Well, that's actually a little more difficult to answer than you may think because it's
not as simple as to say in presence of THC you're going to then become high because what's
going to happen is THC is not the only cannabinoid that's going to be competing for those receptors.
You're also going to have 2-AG, you're going to have anandamide and what will happen is
as they're binding to the receptors, there's going to be kind of like this up and down
effect I guess you could think about it.
It's like this - because it's really this agonism and antagonism of the receptors and
how that gets perceived when you have this happening over the body 'cuz you're having
it happen in the brain, right?
You're having it happen in this area, in this area, in this area, in this area but it's
also happening in the periphery of the body and so, depending on how the endocannabinoids
and the exocannabinoids are interacting with the specific cells that they're binding to,
that's where you're going to start getting different types of highs and you may have
heard of like more of a body high versus more of a mental high.
That's exactly what we're talking about here but at the same time, like we know exactly
how that high is going to manifest every single time.
It's going to be subtly different and that's just going to show the complexity of this
situation, the dance between the endocannabinoids and those exocannabinoids.
The endocannabinoid system is absolutely fascinating to me and that's because you know, now that
it's starting to shift into more of the mainstream and you're seeing it legalized at least here
in the United States medicinally all over the place and even recreational in several
states, it's cool to see that because that means you can start doing more robust and
rigorous scientific research and medical research on it and to me, that is where I get most
excited especially when it comes to treating psychiatric disorders especially like PTSD
really hits home to me as a veteran of the United States Military.
I'm really excited to see where things are trending with cannabis research but I also,
you know, I can't help but you know, feel like we can't oversell things either especially
when it comes to CBD.
You know, CBD has some real amazing potential but it's hard to really know and respect that
when you're seeing CBD items being sold literally everywhere and people are just stamping CBD
on anything they can and they're, you know, it has a real snake oil feel to it when it
comes to me and that's not CBD as much as it's just the products that people are doing.
So, I really - I hope we're able to find this balance where we can find out what it's really
capable of without overselling it because so far what we've seen with what THC specifically
has been able to do and hopefully CBD, it's exciting.
It's super exciting especially when it comes to the non-addictive properties of it but
I hope you enjoy this video and be sure to go ahead and find the link in the description
below for Curiosity Stream.
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It's one of my favorite ways to wind down at the end of the day but thanks again for
watching this video and I will see you next time.