The Facts On Endocannabinoid Deficiency And Medical Marijuana

By: Kent Gruetzmacher

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The complex interrelations happening within the human body are still far beyond rational comprehension, and that includes what we know about endocannabinoid deficiency. Modern science is still regularly surprised by its findings when investigating the inner workings of humankind’s physiology. In a fashion akin to deep sea exploration, when probing the vast abysses of bodily “inner space” medical practitioners and scientists alike continue to discover new and exciting phenomena.

Some of these newfound marvels have the ability to cause a paradigmatic shift within medical thought. Moreover, many of these discoveries come about in completely unexpected fashions.

Take the endocannabinoid system, or ECS. During the 1980s, research scientists were investigating “where the psychoactive compounds in cannabis THC” interact with the human body and haphazardly discovered an entire network of “chemical compounds and receptors” now referred to as the endocannabinoid system. Upon discovering the previously unknown element within bodily processes, scientists began to theorize that the endocannabinoid system acts to regulate chemical stasis and balance within the entire human body. It’s crucial to note here that research into marijuana use actually led to the potential discovery of a completely novel, and critical, element of human physiology. What is more, these same scientists came to conceive that imbalances within the endocannabinoid system can lead to certain deficiencies and health issues for sufferers. Hence the term “clinical endocannabinoid deficiency” or ECD. It’s important to note that the endocannabinoid system as whole still remains in the realm of scientific theory and conjecture. However, within this theoretical framework symptoms of endocannabinoid deficiency stem directly from the essential functions of ECS.

Dr. Robert Melamede from the University of Colorado postulates that “it is the role of our bodies’ endocannabinoids to regulate healing processes by controlling free radicals… [he] refers to free radicals as the friction of life and the endocannabinoids as the oil.” Point being, if the theories of Dr. Melamede and his contemporaries are valid, ECS is an essential network within the human organism that presents both challenges and opportunities for medical practitioners. On the negative side, it could take the medical community a number of years to pinpoint and properly prescribe clinical endocannabinoid deficiency within patients. However, if found to be true, studies into ECS as well as ECD could potentially present some relatively easy to treat root causes behind human maladies such as migraine headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, and fibromyalgia.

Medical Study: ECS, ECD, Medical Marijuana And Migraine Headaches

While any studies concerning both ECS and ECD are in their infancy, ECD manifestation in migraine headaches has received some attention in the medical field—which is also in relation to medical marijuana. In fact, in one relevant study doctors studied the cerebrospinal fluids from a group of 15 migraine victims and found that they all had low levels of “anadanamide”. This novel medical term denotes a compound manufactured within the human body that resembles marijuana plant sourced cannabinoids on a cellular level. Many doctors feel that the use of medical marijuana can help with anadanamide deficiencies in ECD/migraine victims. Because, THC is believed to help resupply ECD compounds on a cellular and neurological level, appeasing maladies such as migraine headaches.

In fact, the aforementioned study revealed that for regular cannabis users, “the frequency of headaches diminished from 10.4 to 4.6 attacks per month.”