What the Heck is the ECS, and Why Should it Matter to You?

The Endocannabinoid System commonly shortened to ECS, was discovered some 30 odd years ago by researchers looking to understand how cannabis works in the body.

What they discovered was the Endocannabinoid System. It regulates a vast range of biological functions to maintain homeostasis, i.e.  keeping the body in balance and systems functioning effectively, such as:

  • Sleep- wake cycles
  • Pain tolerance
  • Memory & Learning
  • Motor control
  • Appetite & Digestion
  • Mood
  • Immune system
  • Metabolism
  • Inflammation
  • Stress
  • Muscle formation

There are three main parts to the ECS: endocannabinoid receptors, endogenous cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid metabolic enzymes. Because this is such a broad subject this is an overview of one part of this amazing system, the Endocannabinoid Receptors and how Cannabis interacts with them.

ENDOCANNABINOID RECEPTORS: respond to both endocannabinoids and phytocannabinoids (Cannabis)

There are two main cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2, which bind with a set of fatty acid-based molecules called endocannabinoids. These cannabinoid receptors are found in various locations in the body.

CB1 receptors are found primarily in the brain and the central nervous system (CNS). Some are found in the pituitary, adrenal and thyroid glands, fat, muscle and liver cells, and the digestive tract, lungs and kidneys.

CB2 receptors are found mostly in peripheral organs relating to the immune system, the spleen, thymus, tonsils, and gastrointestinal system. Their primary role is the regulation of inflammation, cell migration, and programmed cell death. They also have a role to play in bone mass, density and bone health.

Endocannabinoids bind to these receptors in response to an imbalance in the body. Their job is to help maintain homeostasis, which is our body’s process of maintaining a stable internal environment capable of sustaining life.

So how does Cannabis figure into the ECS? Cannabis is a phytocannabinoid (plant-based) and as such also binds to Endocannabinoid Receptors to help balance the ECS and maintain homeostasis. Both THC and CBD have this binding ability.

Think of these endocannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2 as a lock and both cannabis (THC and CBD) and the endogenous cannabinoids (present in the body) as the key. THC binds with the CB1 receptor to provide medicinal benefits related to pain, insomnia, stress and a plethora of other issues.

CBD interacts with the CB2 receptor to affect our immune system response and provides many other health benefits. And when taken with THC, can increase THC’s effectiveness (the “Entourage” effect) and ameliorate unwanted intoxicating effects.

Cannabis isn’t the “gateway drug” that it’s been stigmatized as – it’s plant medicine that can help relieve many painful and debilitating physical conditions. Cannabis education is key – so find knowledgeable people specifically trained in the use of Cannabis to help you find what works best for YOU.

In conclusion, I’m providing a quote from Dr. Dustin Sulak, a renowned expert in the use of Medical Cannabis and CBD and Founder, Healer.com:

“The ECS is perhaps the most important physiologic system involved in establishing and maintaining human health. Endocannabinoids and their receptors are found throughout the body: In the brain, organs, connective tissues, glands, and immune cells. In each tissue, the cannabinoid system performs different tasks, but the goal is always the same: homeostasis, the maintenance of a stable internal environment despite fluctuations in the external environment. Cannabinoids promote homeostasis at every level of biological life, from the subcellular, to the organism, and perhaps to the community and beyond. “ 

I’ve included a list of resources with links if you’d like more information, but be sure to check out our video on the ECS below!

© 2021 Jean-Anne Taru Fisher

Used with Permission

 

Dr. Sulak’s video: Your Endocannabinoid System Explained

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZYjJf0t2OQ

PubMed: Cannabinoid Receptors and the Endocannabinoid System: Signaling and Function in the Central Nervous System

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5877694/

Healthline: A Simple Guide to the Endocannabinoid System

https://www.healthline.com/health/endocannabinoid-system#thc

Metagenics Institute: The Endocannabinoid System: Components, Actions, and Optimization

https://www.metagenicsinstitute.com/blogs/endocannabinoid-system-components/

Natural Practitioner Magazine: The Endocannabinoid System & Phytocannabinoids

https://naturalpractitionermag.com/the-endocannabinoid-system-phytocannabinoids/

 

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Cannabis, Often Unaffordable

In the US, as around the globe, several political battles are in progress, as well as the raging pandemic that is close to its one-year mark, and economic crises.  Here on our home soil, marijuana decriminalization and legalization are hot topics, but across the pond, the waging war between parents of children with epilepsy and the National Health Service (NHS) continues to grow. 

In Telford, England, we learned about another child who has a rare form of epilepsy known as “Landau Kleffner syndrome.” It occurs in children usually between the ages of three and nine years and is characterized by loss of language skills and silent electrical seizures during sleep. It may be associated with convulsive seizures and additional difficulties with behavior, social interaction, motor skills and learning. While not usually life-threatening, it can significantly impact negatively on quality-of-life unless it responds well to treatment. It occurs in approximately one child in a million.

Unfortunately for Sienna Richardson, aged seven, and her family, the realities of LKS are heart-wrenching, made worse by the fact that cannabis medicine has shown great results in her symptoms, but like others in the UK, the cost and legalities associated with cannabis medicine make it difficult to depend on supply.  The Richardson family was able to secure a prescription for Bedrolite, a medical cannabis oil through a private physician and her mother dubbed it a “miracle.”  Minimal progress in the UK for cannabis as medicine includes a change in the law to allow the prescription of cannabis-based medications, but some families can’t secure it on the NHS, which is government-run healthcare used by nearly all UK residents.  Sienna’s treatment was estimated at £15,000 (roughly $20k in US) and while the family was able to raise just over half of that, they secured the prescription. 

Sienna’s mother, Lucy Richardson, said they saw improvements within weeks. “Since taking it she is able to understand and speak normally,” she said. “She is living a normal life, she is still in mainstream school, playing with friends, she is doing really, really well.” 

The medication costs about £1,400 per month, which the family will have to fund themselves in the new year. They are supporting a campaign by End our Pain and Epilepsy Action for access to cannabis-based medicines for children with severe and treatment-resistant epilepsy, but the inherent issue with this type of regulatory restraints becomes more widespread.  As a parent, how can you acquire medication that clearly helps your child when you can’t afford it and risk breaking the law to obtain it?

 

 

  

Seizure-Free Days Thanks to Cannabis

UK resident Robin Emerson finds himself fighting the fight against healthcare organizations in order to help his daughter enjoy a better quality of life and potentially extend the length of her life simultaneously.  Like other parents with a child suffering from epilepsy, the road to medicine for daughter Jorja, has not been short or without peril.  Jorja was born with a severe form of epilepsy that caused her to suffer from over 30 seizures per day – before she had even turned one-year-old.  Six months of her life at that point had been spent hospitalized, and the worst of the seizures lasted up to 17 hours each.  

A series of moments in his daughter’s young life spanned the range of emotions from rage to terror but Emerson took his emotions and channeled them into finding relief for Jorja despite the known battles ahead, first seen in the Billy Caldwell case.  During research into similar stories, not only did Emerson read about the struggles in the UK, but also learned the story of a child in Australia that was the same age as Jorja and had the same condition, currently thriving under a treatment plan that contained medical cannabis.  

Jorja’s first prescription for medical cannabis was issued in 2018 after a neurologist at a private hospital was open to writing the script and importing the medicine from Canada.  Emerson recalls the nervous anticipation when administering the first dose and over five long weeks of experimentation with the medicine under Jorja’s tongue via syringe, her symptoms began to improve.  Two years later, Jorja is now four and her seizures have significantly decreased, with many days that are completely seizure-free, and on those days when they do occur, they last mere seconds, not hours.  

While those living in the UK still fight to have medical cannabis available, Emerson quit his job two years ago to work within the medical cannabis industry to gain access for patients like Jorja whose life has been saved and extended as a result of the medicine.  It’s stories like these that make us more determined than ever to change the lives of patients and educate them about options for medical cannabis and improve their quality of life.  

To read more about CBD oil from Project CBD, check out the link below. 

A Beginner's Guide to CBD Oil

Billy

As in previous stories we’ve shared, the battle for medical cannabis legality isn’t unique to the United States.  In Ireland, a fifteen-year-old young man named Billy Caldwell continues to suffer from refractory epilepsy.  For more than 3 years, his mother, Charlotte Caldwell has been waging a war against the Department of Health Northern Ireland.  

 

Back in 2017, when he was then 12, Billy was the first person in the UK to be prescribed cannabis oil, but last month, his General Practitioner was told he could no longer do so.  Desperate to get her son the medication at any cost, they traveled to Toronto to purchase the product, and upon their return to the UK, the medication was seized and Ms. Caldwell took her story to the airwaves with the press.  While on a treatment plan consisting of cannabis oil, her son had gone a remarkable 300 days without a single seizure.  After the medication was removed from her on Monday, Billy suffered a seizure the following day.  

While his mother attempted to go through proper channels, she was given repeated responses that while officials could sympathize, cannabis is a Schedule 1 drug and must be seized, and urged the family to explore options with the Department of Health Northern Ireland.  The Caldwell’s have continued to fight the healthcare system with the support of elected representatives to plead her case, and finally her efforts appear to be paying off after multiple years.  He has been referred to the Refractory Epilepsy Specialist Clinical Advisory Service, which provides a forum for the discussion of difficult cases that have proven hard to treat. Ms. Caldwell has taken legal action in a bid to secure long-term access to the medication.  Recently rules were relaxed to allow some cannabis-derived medicines to be prescribed to patients in the UK by specialist doctors in limited circumstances.

 

Ms. Caldwell said: “This gives new hope to children like Billy. It is beyond valuable to me to know that as long as Billy gets his cannabis oil every day he will be safe.  He won’t have a seizure. It feels like a safety blanket.”

Watch this news clip on cannabis and epilepsy

 

Watch the Video Here

Parents Fight for Access to Safe, Quality Medicine

Dispensary Tour - Cannabis Education - Kansas City, MO

Oftentimes we learn about patients in the media who are struggling from having legal access to safe medicine.  While every patient story is heart-wrenching, it’s the ones about children that seem to stick with us and sometimes serve up the impetus for policy change.  Charlie Hughes is one such patient story that both touches and infuriates readers who learn of the battle his family is waging for access to medicine.

 

In the UK, parents of toddler Charlie Hughes are fighting the National Health Service (NHS) and seeking a policy change that could radically alter his quality of life.  Charlies, 3, has a rare form of epilepsy called West Syndrome, known best for its frequent seizures – up to 120 per day – and historically treated with benzodiazepines which have side effects ranging from lethargic to dazed and not effective at reducing either the seizures nor their impact. 

 

Under the NHS protocols, he has been prescribed seven different prescriptions for anti-epilepsy medication, yet he was still experiencing up to 100 seizures a day.  Charlie’s parents, Allison and Matt claim that with full extract cannabis oil, the number of seizures he experiences in the course of a day is dramatically decreased.  The family pays hundreds of pounds per month to source full extract cannabis oil privately because clinicians at NHS have refused to prescribe Dutch-made oils (which meet the European Medicines Agency guidelines for Good Manufacturing Practice).  

 

Matt said of his son’s improvement since taking cannabis: “Charlie is happier, more alert, far more vocal, constantly babbling and takes an interest in his toys. He can feed himself and loves nothing more than some rough and tumble with me. He’s come alive again.

“No one knows definitively what effect all those anti-epileptic drugs in combination with each other have on the development of the brain. If he wasn’t asleep or completely zonked out, he was just seizing. Cannabis has massively improved his general wellbeing.”

The decision in the Hughes’ case against the NHS could have profound impact on cannabis oil as medicine and the ability for parents like the Hughes to have access to what is clearly making a difference in their son’s quality of life.

Visit the link below to learn more about the Realm of Caring. Not only are they actively involved in making cannabis accessible to all who could benefit, but they provide a financial assistance program as well. 

Realm of Caring.org