Although modern medical science has come a long way over the past several decades, there are still important breakthroughs happening every day. While scientists continue to research the various things that make us tick, there’s still so much to learn even after the initial medical discovery.
One of the most amazing discoveries in recent years is the Endocannabinoid System, or ECS, and how it serves as a master regulator in the human body. We’re still researching the ECS, but we’re finding that the ECS has receptors all throughout the body and is responsible for regulating everything from our mood to our immune responses. Anandamide, one of the molecules produced by the ECS, plays such an important role that it has picked up a nickname: the bliss molecule.
The ECS is classified as a homeostatic regulator, which means that it is partially responsible for helping us to maintain physical and emotional balance. This system, as a whole, works to make sure that our cells, organs, and systems as a whole are functioning optimally. This means that when the ECS isn’t working optimally, many other different processes in our bodies start to perform poorly.
What Does Anandamide Do?
One of the more recent finds concerning the ECS is the discovery of anandamide, a molecule that works within the ECS as an agent that helps regulate mood. It even helps to reduce discomfort during the critical post-workout recovery period. Anandamide, as it turns out, is partially responsible for helping people to feel joyous and happy; in a word, it helps us to feel bliss.
Of course, this unfortunately means that a lack of anandamide, the bliss molecule, is responsible for a number of serious medical issues. Research indicates that anandamide being out of balance may actually be responsible for a number of mental health problems that many of us face. Anandamide has been shown to ease low mood-related behaviors in rats, which share a remarkably similar ECS to humans'.
Anandamide has been shown to:
- Naturally promote a sense of wellbeing
- Provide relief for temporary physical discomfort
- Impact memory
- Regulate appetite
- Improve workout recovery
Sounds Great, but Where Does the Bliss Molecule Come From?
Anandamide is naturally produced on demand by your body. Producing and interacting with anandamide to help us feel happy and blissful is one of the many functions of the ECS. Anandamide also occurs naturally in some foods, like chocolate and truffles.
This begs the question: if Anandamide is produced in the body on demand, how can we possibly ever run short?
The answer lies in the ECS. Anandamide is one of several endocannabinoids that your body naturally produces to balance the functions that the ECS is responsible for. Unfortunately, just like other bodily functions, sometimes the ECS is starving for the nutrients it usually produces, naturally.
The ECS seeks to maintain homeostasis, and problems occur when it isn’t able to produce enough endocannabinoids to properly regulate all of its functions. Fortunately, CBD is able to support the ECS by introducing natural botanical cannabinoids.
Botanical cannabinoids like CBD are so similar to the endocannabinoids that they can help complement the Anandamide that your body naturally produces. Many users report feeling more like themselves after complementing their own ECS with CBD.
This is because CBD helps to restore balance to your body and your ECS. Supporting your endocannabinoid system with botanical cannabinoids naturally helps to boost how much of the bliss molecule that your body is producing. In someone that has an anandamide deficiency, it’s obvious how using CBD to provide a natural boost to the ECS can help.
