CB1 Receptor and Homeostasis

 We had discussed cannabinoid in a lot of our post and now we are visiting it in homeostasis. The importance of it (cannabinoid) cannot be over emphasized, one of our first blog was on hemp seed oil and we have profer CBD for fibromyalgia and also talked about it as a possible remedy for the Novel COVID-19 virus pandemic that took the world by storm. Now we want to discuss homeostasis. Before I continue, I would like to say why I chose to blog on it.

I recently travelled to a region of different weather condition, nevertheless, the theme of this blog is focus on Nigeria so don't worry my Nigerian friends, we shall still talk about alternative health for that demography and FYI, homeostasis is applicable to everyone irrespective of your region.

In Nigeria, we are used to having air-condition and we condition the temperature to 16-18 degree Celsius. I now found myself in an environment where I have to live in a temperature that is -4 or less degree Celsius. I remember in Nigeria when the Air Condition is turn on in a room, people including me sometimes, find the temperature too cold that we would opt for the A.C to be turned off. I was surprise how my body was able to adjust to it and I found the answer in homeostasis.

Homeostasis is any self-regulating process by which an organism tends to maintain stability while adjusting to conditions that are best for its survival. If homeostasis is successful, life continues; if it's unsuccessful, it results in a disaster or death of the organism.

 There is an aspect of the brain know as The Hypothalamus that is responsible for food intake, thermoregulation and anterior pituitary secretions. It has the ability to produce (Endogenous) Canabinoid. This is what cannabis sativa (Marijuna) produces I.e. Canabinoid and tetrahydrocanabinoid (CBD and THC). The one not derived from the Hypothalamus is called exogenous Canabinoid while that produced by the Hypothalamus is called Endogenous Canabinoid or endocanabinoid for short. It has been discover that the endocanabinoid CB1 reflector is the one that is responsible for our food intake.

Imagine we are eating a very delicious (not easy to resist food), one would keep eating and not stop eating it until one get obsessed which is a threat to survival. The endocanabinoid is secreted to encourage balance in food intake. Do you notice most weed smokers do say, if they do not smoke they wouldn't eat well. The exogenous Canabinoid introduced to the body gives them more appetite to eat while leptin reduces the secretions of endocana⁸binoid to reduce food intake. The process as discussed above is called homeostasis or compensated system.

Now let us look at it for body temperature regulations (thermoregulation). CB1 (Canabinoid) can affect body temperature in a dose dependent manner. High dose causes hypothermia while low dose cause hyperthermia.  The concepts of hypo and hyper just depict high and low. Hypo stands for Low while hyper stands for high. Thermia means body temperature. High dose of Canabinoid cause low body temperature (hypothermia), while low dose causes hyperthermia I.e. High body temperature. The yardstick to know if a body is hypothermia is to check with a thermometer  if the body temperature is below 35 degrees Celsius.  If it's below 35 degrees,  the body is hypothermia whereas  hyperthermia if you are above 40 Celsius. 

Cannabinoid administration decreases heat production. It seems that the effects of can- nabinoids on thermoregulation is exerted by altering some neurochemical mediator effects at both the presynaptic and postsynaptic level.

Like we always say, we don't promote the intake of Marijuna because of it's psychoactive,  but it is important to state that, it is essential in the body for body Homeostasis.  We listed some of the benefit of hemp in one of our blogpost, National Hemp Day  please feel free to browse through our blog post to see all we have written on hemp. Please don't forget to leave your comments and follow our blog to help us in our research.