Holistic Horsekeeping Newsletter January 2020 | Blogging from Madalyn Ward, DVM

January 2020

Holistic Horsekeeping
How to have a healthy happy horse.
Volume 25, Number 1

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In This Issue:

How CBD Really Works – by Richard Thomas
Using Hemp Oil and CBD For Your Animals

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1. How CBD Really Works

By Richard Thomas in CBD Beginner’s Guide
Excerpted from cbdcentral.org

(CBD) Cannabidiol is rapidly becoming the superstar of the cannabis/hemp plant. The demand for CBD is sky rocketing. Companies have pounced. Please read on if you want to understand how CBD really works!

One common explanation for how CBD works begins with a short description of your endocannabinoid system. You’re told about your body’s CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors. The cannabinoids THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (Cannabidiol) activate these receptors setting in motion a cascade of beneficial biological actions. The most common image used to explain how THC and CBD works is the “lock and key” metaphor.

Your CB1 and CB2 receptors are the locks that the perfectly shaped CBD molecule fits into like a key. Voila, here come the benefits: less anxiety, less pain, less inflammation, fewer seizures, and more. While the medical claims are mostly true, albeit sometimes exaggerated, this explanation for how CBD works is oversimplified and is not exactly accurate.

One strongly touted benefit of CBD is that it is not psychoactive like THC. CBD produces no paranoid thoughts, no overwhelming stream of consciousness, no short-term memory lapses, no euphoria.

The definition of psychoactive is: any substance having a profound or significant effect on mental processes.

So, according to that definition, CBD is psychoactive, just not in the same way as THC. CBD actually counteracts many of the so called negative effects of THC. It improves short term memory, decreases paranoia, improves focus. But does that mean it’s not psychoactive?. No.

Let’s look at a condition that leaves little question about the psycho-activity of CBD, schizophrenia.

In a ground breaking, randomized, double blind study conducted on 39 inpatients suffering from acute paranoid schizophrenia, CBD was shown to be as effective as a leading psychotropic drug (Amisulpride) for alleviating symptoms. Both medications worked well but CBD had far less side effects. Why? Because cannabidiol enhances anandamide signaling and alleviates psychotic symptoms of schizophrenia.

The point: CBD is indeed psychoactive but not in a negative way, and it does not work in the same way as THC. And what is anandamide?

Still Not Sure How CBD Works?
To answer this question let’s look deeper into your endocannabinoid system.
As was mentioned at the beginning of this article, you have within your body a set of receptors (CB1and CB2) located mainly in your brain and immune system, but also in your lungs, kidney, liver, bones, heart, muscle, and reproductive organs. These receptors comprise a network called the endocannabinoid system. CB1 and CB2 receptors are activated by chemical compounds called cannabinoids. Once these receptors are activated by cannabinoids a whole series of biological actions occur that regulate sleep, appetite, digestion, hunger, mood, motor control, immune function, reproduction, fertility, pleasure, reward, pain, memory, even temperature control.

Balance
The best way to understand your endocannabinoid system is to think balance.
Essentially your endocannabinoid system is responsible for maintaining balance throughout your entire body. A more technical word for balance is homeostasis. An extreme example of an out of balance body condition are seizures. Both THC and CBD have been proven to dramatically diminish seizures. Balance.

Cannabinoids that your body makes like anandamide are called endogenous cannabinoids. Cannabinoids that your body does not make are called exogenous cannabinoids. THC and CBD are exogenous cannabinoids because they are made by the cannabis/hemp plant. The THC molecule has an almost identical shape as your endogenous cannabinoids and can therefore activate your CB1 and CB2 receptors (hence the ubiquitous lock and key metaphor) and deliver the medical benefits associated with THC.

Since CBD is an exogenous cannabinoid made by the cannabis/hemp plant, it follows that CBD too should work by activating your CB1 and CB2 receptors, right? It doesn’t. CBD actually works, as the schizophrenia study proves, in part by inhibiting the breakdown of your endogenous cannabinoid anandamide.

Anandamide – The Internal Bliss Molecule
Think about the name anandamide. Where have you heard ananda used? How about Paramahansa Yogananda, the venerable Indian yogi. Ananda is a Sanskrit word that means bliss. Yes, your body makes a cannabinoid that can produce feelings of bliss, happiness, and wellbeing. One example is runner’s high. It was thought the feelings of bliss runners experienced was the result of endorphins, but recent research points towards anandamide. It’s important to understand that your endogenous cannabinoid anandamide, your internally made bliss molecule, binds with your CB1 and CB2 receptors, not CBD. Many of the medical benefits associated with CBD, seizure reduction, pain reduction, anti-inflammation, to name but a few, come from CBD’s ability to raise levels of anandamide which in turn works its wonders through your endocannabinoid system.

Anandamide is broken down in your body by an enzyme called Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase (FAAH). If this enzyme is inhibited your body will have higher levels of anandamide. CBD inhibits FAAH, and therein lies its magic. But, CBD does even more than inhibit FAAH. Science has identified at least 65 molecular targets of CBD. For example, CBD binds with serotonin receptors and this action is thought to be responsible for CBD’s anti-anxiety effect. This being said, CBD’s primary mode of action is its ability to increase levels of anandamide.

Ponder This:
Scientists tell us our endocannabinoid system has solely evolved for endogenous cannabinoids such as anandamide and 2-AG. They tell us it is only by happenstance that exogenous cannabinoids like THC fit into our CB1 and CB2 receptors and thereby deliver their medical benefits. Maybe, but why then does nature make CBD, also an exogenous cannabinoid, deliver its incredible medical benefits not by mimicking an endogenous cannabinoid but by increasing its level? Happenstance?

Plus scientists would have never known about our endocannabinoid system had they not started investigating the exogenous cannabinoid THC. How do you think the endocannabinoid system got its name? That’s right, Cannabis!

Happenstance?

(By the way, you may now know more about how CBD works than most CBD companies.)

2. Using Hemp Oil and CBD For Your Animals

Watch this video where Madalyn Ward, DVM talks about the revolution happening in both animal and human biology, and the discovery of a built-in receptor system that we all have hidden in our body, called the endo-cannabinoid receptor system.

This presentation can change your life covering:

Advantages of Hemp Oil
Which Hemp Oil stands above the rest
How to get involved.

If you are unable to access the video embedded here, you can also see the video at https://holistichorsekeeping.com/cbd-products.html

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