When most people hear the word cannabinoid, they think of the devil's lettuce, but did you know that you have an endocannabinoid system, and your body produces endocannabinoids?
What is the endocannabinoid system, and what does it do?
The endocannabinoid system (hereafter referred to as the ECS) performs many essential functions and affects nearly every part of the body. Most people have never even heard of the ECS, which makes sense because endocannabinoids were only discovered in 1992.
Your body makes several endocannabinoids, but “There are two main types of endocannabinoids: anandamide, or AEA, and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol, known as 2-AG. Both of them can activate the body’s cannabinoid receptors, which receive and process chemical signals in cells.”
The cannabinoids found in plants are called phytocannabinoids.
“The endocannabinoid system (ECS) in the brain primarily influences neuronal synaptic communication, and affects biological functions—including eating, anxiety, learning and memory, reproduction, metabolism, growth and development—via an array of actions throughout the nervous system.”
One of the most critical aspects of the ECS system is its integral role in responding to and handling stress, which is more important than ever in today's insane society. If you ever feel that no matter what you do, how you eat, or the lifestyle changes you make, you cannot handle stress, your ECS probably needs some love and support.
What causes problems with the endocannabinoid system?
Chronically high stress levels, lack of sunshine, poor diet, sleep problems, nutritional deficiencies (omega-three, magnesium, etc.), and an out-of-whack omega 6/3 ratio cause our ECS to break down.
“Across a wide array of stress paradigms, studies have generally shown that stress evokes bidirectional changes in the two eCB molecules, anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG), with stress exposure reducing AEA levels and increasing 2-AG levels. Additionally, in almost every brain region examined, exposure to chronic stress reliably causes a downregulation or loss of cannabinoid type 1 (CB1) receptors.”
This breakdown causes problems in many body systems. It creates a feedback loop where people are unable to respond well to stress because of the breakdown, which makes them feel more stressed, which becomes a vicious cycle, further speeding up the breakdown of the endocannabinoid system. That’s why so many people feel like no matter what, they constantly feel stressed. If the system is broken down, it’s not just about stress relief but nourishing the endocannabinoid system so it can attain homeostasis (nothing like finally getting to use those high school science terms). Thankfully, no matter how compromised your ECS is, you can do many things to support the ECS's plasticity (flexibility) and balance.
Nearly everyone’s ECS is pretty beat up because of all of the stress we are under in today’s screwed-up world. It’s essential to do the things to nourish your ECS consistently. Doing something once in a while and inconsistently is not going to give the results you are looking for. It will take time to nourish your ECS fully. There is no ECS quick fix.
What can you do to help your endocannabinoid system?
Exercise has potent benefits for your ECS. One of the most important neurotransmitters involved in the ECS is called Anandamide (also known as N-arachidonoylethanolamine, an N-acylethanolamine), the “bliss molecule.” Moderate to high-intensity exercise is one of the best ways to get your levels up. If you have ever felt a runner's high, this “bliss molecule” is responsible for that feeling. Regular exercise is one of the best ways to keep your ECS balanced.
Sunlight helps activate the cb1 and cb2 receptors, as well as TRPV1. The best time to get your sunshine is first thing in the morning. Before looking at your phone or screens, go outside (even when it’s cloudy) and get some sun for fifteen minutes. For bonus points, walk around barefoot in the grass (grounding) while you do it. At sunset, go outside and take a walk for fifteen minutes. Not only will this nourish your ECS, but it will also help improve your sleep and mood. While a few minutes in the morning and at sunset of unfiltered sun on our skin and eyes are good, if you are going to be out in the sun a lot, make sure to use clean sunscreen, sit in the shade, or wear sun protective clothing, because getting sunburned is always a bad idea.
Good stress management is a massive part of getting your ECS back in fighting shape. Reduce stress as much as possible to help prevent further breakdown. Reducing and managing all types of stressors helps support healthy cortisol levels, which is crucial for keeping your ECS healthy. Check out our blog, Stress 101, to learn a variety of ways to help manage stress.
Having an orgasm helps to increase the levels of an endocannabinoid called 2-AG. So tell your partner to get in the bedroom ASAP because you need to improve your ECS. If that kind of sexy talk doesn’t get things steamy, I don’t know what will. My wife is a lucky lady.
Mindfulness and meditation are great ways to support your ECS. This book makes it easy to get started.
Improving the quality of and getting enough sleep helps improve the endocannabinoid system in many ways. Dysfunction of the ECS system can contribute to sleep issues, which creates another lousy feedback loop. Click the button below to download our free guide to healthy sleep.
It’s important to reduce alcohol, weed, and recreational drug consumption. When these things are used frequently, they overstimulate the endocannabinoid receptors, leading to a tolerance effect that causes CB1 receptor issues in the brain. It takes about a month of not using them for the ECS to recover from their overuse. Never stop any drug or alcohol if you use them frequently without speaking with your doctor first, as withdrawal problems can be very dangerous in some cases. You want help from your doctor to help you gradually get off them. While they may make you feel good in the short term, they create many problems over time.
I know that no one wants to hear this, but large amounts of coffee and caffeine reduce levels of beneficial neurotransmitters. Having a normal-sized cup with breakfast (but not before) is not a big deal, but having huge cups multiple times a day will give you problems.
Try starting your morning with a maca latte, which nourishes your ECS, instead of coffee, which depletes it.
Drink plenty of water daily, but avoid drinking it from plastic bottles. Many plastics can disrupt the ECS.
What foods And Nutrients are good for your endocannabinoid system?
The food you eat has a powerful effect on your ECS. However, it’s not just what you eat but also when you eat.
Strive to eat a balanced breakfast with at least 30 grams of high-quality protein and some fruit within an hour of waking up. In addition, never have caffeine or coffee before breakfast. Skipping breakfast or having caffeine before breakfast increases cortisol levels to a higher level, much faster than they usually would, especially in women. This creates lots of stress and problems for your ECS. NO SKIPPING BREAKFAST!
Keeping your blood sugar stable is essential to helping keep your ECS balanced. This means eating throughout the day and not skipping meals. Try to have some good protein, fat, and carbs at each meal.
One of the most important things to support your ECS is to increase your omega-three food consumption and decrease your omega-six food consumption. Nearly everyone gets too much omega-six and not enough omega-three in their diet. This leads to a whole host of health problems. The body uses omega-three fatty acids to produce endocannabinoids, which help promote homeostasis and reduce the burden of an overwhelmed ECS system. Without enough omega-three, you cannot produce enough endocannabinoids. Check out our blog, All About Omegas, to learn how to achieve a good omega 6:3 ratio. One big misconception about omega-three fatty acids is that hemp, flax, and chia are good sources. They are not. They contain a precursor, alpha-linoleic acid, of which only a tiny amount is turned into EPA and almost none into DHA. Do not rely on them as a source of omega-three.
Magnesium is another nutrient most people don’t get enough of and is essential for a healthy ECS. Without enough magnesium, your stress response is not going to be good. Magnesium deficiency can increase cortisol levels as well. Check out our blog, All About Magnesium, to learn how to get enough magnesium.
One of our favorite foods for the ECS is cacao. Some ceremonial cacao pastes (not all of them) contain molecules called N-acetyl-ethanolamines that help to keep healthy levels of endocannabinoids in the body. As these molecules are fat-soluble, finding a high-quality, full-fat cacao paste is important, as it contains the highest amounts. Not all cacao or chocolate has this or has high enough levels to obtain these beneficial effects, and cacao powder does not contain nearly enough because it is fully or partially defatted. Check out this page to learn how to source the best cacao paste.
Next up is eggs. Egg yolks are rich in phospholipids, nutrients, and fatty acids that provide robust support to the ECS. Eat those yolks, not just the whites.
Use plenty of fruits, herbs, and spices in your cooking. Many of them contain beneficial terpenes. Terpenes are a large and diverse class of organic compounds various plants produce. Terpenes give each flower, herb, and fruit a unique scent and flavor. Every day, everywhere you go, you encounter terpenes. When you zest a lemon, you smell terpenes. Open a jar full of herbs; what you smell is the terpenes. Stop and smell the roses? It's more like stopping and smelling the terpenes. Terpenes are aromatic compounds that, when inhaled, applied to the skin, or consumed, enhance our sensory experience and greatly influence flavors and aromas. Terpenes help support the entourage effect, which supports the body's own endocannabinoids and makes dietary phytocannabinoids work better. Think of it like flying an airplane. Cannabinoids control the altitude and velocity, but the terpenes provide the direction like the rudder. Different terpenes are why some weed strains give the feeling of being in a chill or calm state, and others can cause a more focused or alert state.
Terpenes and the endocannabinoid system
Here are a few examples of foods and the terpenes they contain:
Citrus fruits are rich in limonene, an uplifting terpene that helps put you in a good mood, and much more.
Basil, dill, and rosemary are rich in pinene, a terpene with a wide range of benefits, including anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. It also has significant lung benefits, many of which are because of how it interacts with the ECS.
Lavender, coriander, basil, oregano, and marjoram are rich in linalool, a terpene that promotes relaxation.
Do not ingest essential oils.
Apples, nutmeg, and parsley are rich in terpinolene, a potent antioxidant that helps with sleep and muscles.
Mangos, lemongrass, thyme, and sweet basil are in myrcene, a terpene that helps with sleep, muscles, and relaxation.
Hops, sage, and cloves are rich in humulene, a terpene with anti-inflammatory and analgesic benefits.
This next part will be a bit scientific, but I did my best to break it down as much as possible. If you have questions, please get in touch with us at info@rooted-nutrition.com, and we will happily answer them.
Direct Versus Indirect Endocannabinoid system support
There are two main ways to affect the ECS: direct and indirect.
First up is direct. A lot of people take marijuana (and similar things) to activate their ECS directly. The benefits of using direct cannabinoids, like THC, are that they act rapidly and can be used at high potencies. However, this can come with some drawbacks and problems.
The first is that it can be challenging to adjust the dose to ensure that desensitization of cannabinoid receptors does not occur. Using direct cannabinoids like THC regularly or excessively increases the risk of developing a dependency on it and can result in an inability to manufacture sufficient endocannabinoids like anandamide. People who develop a dependency on direct cannabinoids may find they suffer from withdrawal effects like brain fog, lethargy, and anxiety when it is withdrawn. In addition, some CB1 agonists like THC can be psychoactive, a property that is not ideal for everyone and often not wanted when consumed for medicinal benefits. Based on these risks, we feel it would be better to support the ECS in a different way.
In going down the rabbit hole that was researching the ECS, we found supporting the ECS via indirect means would be far more beneficial and safer.
Indirect support of the ECS means using nutrients and compounds that support healthy ECS function and sensitivity, as well as healthy production and levels of the body's own endocannabinoids, rather than taking various forms of direct phytocannabinoids. Compounds that indirectly support the ECS do not bind directly to the CB1 and CB2 receptors but support the cannabinoid entourage effect.
The body's endocannabinoids have significant advantages over ingested phytocannabinoids. They are locally produced, so they act at the production site and are more specific. The amount the body produces is in proportion to the demand, and the dose is well known. Once they have performed their service, they are quickly broken down by the body and recycled back to the components of cellular membranes from which they originated. As a result, there are little to no issues with side effects or dependency, and different cannabinoid entourage plants or extracts can be combined for enhanced synergy. They can be used long-term and are well tolerated.
The cannabinoid entourage effect may occur through different mechanisms, e.g., preventing the breakdown of the ECBs by enzymes that are responsible for their destruction, in which case the ECBs last longer in the body, giving a prolonged and enhanced action, or improving the binding of ECB’s on various receptors, or by activating other receptors, e.g., opening up ion channels that cause a synergistic effect of the significant molecule. The most commonly targeted ways to improve cannabinoid entourage are via inhibition of FAAH (fatty-acid amide hydrolase)– the critical enzyme that breaks down our ECBs or through slowing re-uptake of ECBs.
Whole food supplements that support a healthy endocannabinoid system
In addition to all of the lifestyle and dietary changes we talked about in this blog, which provide indirect support for the ECS, the right nourishing whole-food supplements can also help to provide indirect support for the ECS. However, if you want to benefit from them, taking them daily and consistently is essential. Taking too low of a dosage or skipping many days will cause them not to work. It will take time to bring an ECS that has been constantly overtaxed back to balance. If you have been highly stressed for a long time, you cannot expect a healthy ECS system after two weeks.
The first is a whole-food omega-three supplement. Your body's endocannabinoids are made from omega-three. So it’s vital that you get enough, but most people do not. Whole-food omega-three supplements contain the beneficial fatty acids and nutrients in the forms and types naturally found in fish, as opposed to nearly all omega-three supplements, which are heavily refined, ultra-processed, stripped of essential nutrients, and have their fatty acid forms changed into types not found in nature.
Next up is a whole-food magnesium supplement. Since most people are not getting enough of it in their diet, supplementing it can be a good idea. Choosing a whole-food magnesium supplement will help your body get the most bioavailable form, and it’s easier on the stomach and digestive system than traditional forms like oxide and citrate. Getting enough magnesium is an integral part of having a healthy stress response.
Uturunku Cacao is an incredible ceremonial cacao paste made from a unique, rare ancestral strain of cacao. It contains higher levels of N-acetyl-ethanolamines and other beneficial compounds than traditional cacao paste. Uturunku honors the Chavín de Huántar ceremonial temple, representing the jaguar and the world of the Kay Pacha - the here and now. It is a calming and embodied cacao that takes us inwards to connect deeply with our higher self and tunes us into the frequency of the natural world. It is a calming cacao that is great to use at night while journaling to help relax and unwind.
I know I talk a lot about maca. The reason is that vast numbers of people have issues with their ECS and how they respond to stress. This affects many different body systems, and most people are unaware of how that relates to so many underlying issues. It is rare to find a plant or substance that works so profoundly on all aspects of the ECS without causing the side effects and problems (when properly made, improperly grown and processed maca can cause many issues) that others do.
Maca is a traditional food used in Peru to support health and well-being and a healthy stress response. When correctly prepared and grown (never consume raw maca), maca produces molecules called macamides that support healthy levels and lifespan of our body's endocannabinoids like anandamide, as well as supporting healthy sensitivity of our cannabinoid receptors. Unfortunately, nearly all maca products are not grown and prepared correctly. It is essential to use a traditionally prepared maca that has been tested and naturally standardized by macamide levels (not spiked or altered using questionable methods). Using poorly made maca will not provide the benefits this powerful plant offers. To give you an example of a problem, many maca products are spiked with caramelized sugar to give a specific look and taste rather than properly processing them. The right type of maca depends on what it is being used for. We recommend starting with activated yellow maca to nourish your ECS over time.
Concentrated red maca is our next ECS support supplement. It contains a 10x concentrate of red maca to quickly support the ECS and help move things in the right direction. Using it along with the activated yellow maca is the perfect combination.
Using properly made cacao paste, activated yellow maca, and Concentrated Red Maca together creates a powerful entourage effect of support for your ECS. Our ECS Support Pack contains all of these, as well as whole-food magnesium capsules and whole-food omega-three softgels to help support every aspect of your ECS.
Endocannabinoid system support
I know this was a lot of information and a complicated topic. However, having a fully nourished ECS will have a profoundly positive impact on your life, so it was important to go through all of it. Start slowly and gradually add in changes to help support your ECS. Start with the area you feel will have the most positive impact on your life. We are here for you if you need support or don’t know where to start. Please email us at info@rooted-nutrition.com, or schedule a free call, and our fantastic staff will be happy to help you!