Your Body Makes Its Own Cannabinoids — Here’s Why That Matters
Join Dr. James Odell for Season 2 of the Science of Self-Healing Podcast! He's the medical and executive director for BRMI, as well as a practicing naturopathic doctor for over 35 years, and he's here to share with you his extensive knowledge of medicine from a different perspective.
Ever wonder why you’re hungrier after a bad night’s sleep, or why a good run leaves you feeling calm and clear-headed? Part of the answer may be the endocannabinoid system, a signaling network your body uses every day to help regulate sleep, mood, appetite, pain, and immune responses.
In this episode of The Science of Self-Healing, I explain how your body makes its own cannabinoid-like messengers right when it needs them, how they help nerve cells communicate, and how they shape the way you respond to stress. You’ll hear what research shows about poor sleep and food cravings, why endorphins may not fully explain the runner’s high, how gut bacteria interact with this system, and why the popular advice to “boost” your endocannabinoids misses the point.
I also cover where cannabis and CBD fit in, what to know before choosing a CBD product, and the everyday habits with the strongest research behind them, so you can support this system in ways that actually make a difference.
Transcript: Your Body Makes Its Own Cannabinoids — Here’s Why That Matters
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Science of Self-Healing podcast. For health and wellness knowledge from a different perspective. Produced by the Bioregulatory Medicine Institute, also known as BRMI. We are your source for unparalleled information about how you can naturally support your body's ability to regulate, adapt, regenerate, and self-heal. I
I'm your host, Dr. James Odell, the medical and executive director for BRMI, as well as a practicing naturopathic doctor for over 35 years. And remember, this podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for the direct care of a qualified health professional who oversees and provides unique and individual care. The information here is to broaden our different perspectives and should not be construed as medical advice or treatment. Let's get started.
Have you ever noticed that after a bad night’s sleep, you’re hungrier than usual, and that bag of chips suddenly looks a lot more tempting? Or that after a good run, you feel calmer and lighter? For years, most of the credit for that post-run feeling went to endorphins. But research now points to another player, a signaling system most people have never heard of, even though it’s working in your body right now.
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Science of Self-Healing. Today I’m going to talk about the endocannabinoid system, a network your body uses every day to help manage sleep, mood, appetite, memory, pain, and immune responses. We’ll start with what this system is and how its parts work together. Then we’ll look at how it helps nerve cells communicate and how it shapes the way we respond to stress. After that, I’ll cover its role in inflammation, pain, and the gut, and what research shows about sleep, appetite, and exercise. Finally, we’ll talk about nutrition, the idea of an “endocannabinoid deficiency,” where cannabis products fit in, and the everyday habits with the best research behind them.
What Is the Endocannabinoid System?
So, let’s start with the basics. Long before cannabis became a subject of medical research, the human body was already making its own cannabinoid-like chemicals, called endocannabinoids. “Endo” means “within,” so the name simply means cannabinoids made inside the body. The two main ones are anandamide, or AEA, and 2-arachidonoylglycerol, which thankfully goes by 2-AG.
Both are lipid messengers, meaning signaling molecules made from fats in the membranes around our cells. They aren’t stored and waiting to be released. They’re made on demand, right when and where a cell needs them, and then enzymes break them down so the signal doesn’t last longer than it should. Together, these messengers, the receptors they attach to, and the enzymes that clear them away make up the endocannabinoid system.
The name is a little misleading. It sounds like a system built to respond to a plant, but it got that name only because researchers first found these receptors while studying cannabis. Its everyday work is part of normal human physiology.
A receptor works like a lock on the surface of a cell, and the messenger is the key. The two main receptors are called CB1 and CB2. CB1 is plentiful in the brain but also shows up throughout the body. CB2 is mostly associated with immune cells, and its levels can change during inflammation. Their locations overlap, though, so “CB1 for the brain and CB2 for immunity” is only part of the picture.
You’ll often hear this system described as a regulator of homeostasis, the body’s way of keeping internal conditions in a workable range. That’s helpful, as long as we think of balance as something active. The body is constantly adjusting its signals. A rise in an endocannabinoid might be exactly right in one situation and less helpful in another. So the real question is always what the signal is doing in that particular setting. And that idea, that the body regulates itself by responding to what’s happening in the moment, is at the heart of bioregulatory medicine.
How Nerve Cells Communicate
Next, let’s look at how this works in the nervous system. Nerve cells talk to each other across tiny gaps called synapses. The sending cell releases a chemical messenger called a neurotransmitter, which carries a message to the receiving cell.
Endocannabinoids let the receiving cell send a message back. When it’s getting a lot of signals, it can make an endocannabinoid that travels backward to the sending cell. There, it attaches to CB1 receptors and tells that cell to release less neurotransmitter. This is called retrograde signaling, which just means signaling in reverse. It gives the receiving cell some control over how much stimulation it gets.
What happens next depends on the type of message. Some neurotransmitters tell the receiving cell to become more active. Others tell it to become less active. When endocannabinoids reduce a message that says “be more active,” the cell quiets down. When they reduce a message that says “be less active,” the cell becomes more active. So endocannabinoids don’t just calm the whole nervous system. They adjust specific circuits up or down, depending on what’s needed. How long that adjustment lasts depends on two enzymes, called FAAH and MAGL, that break down anandamide and 2-AG.
Now I’d like to talk about stress, because this is where things get especially interesting. Your body’s main stress system is called the HPA axis. That stands for hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal, which names the three places involved: two small areas at the base of your brain, and your adrenal glands, which sit on top of your kidneys. When you’re under stress, these three pass the message from one to the next until your adrenal glands release cortisol. Endocannabinoids are involved at several points along the way. They affect how strongly you react to stress and how well you settle down afterward.
In animal studies, researchers exposed animals to the same mild stress day after day. Over time, the animals’ stress response became smaller. During that process, anandamide levels dropped, while 2-AG rose in the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in emotion. When researchers blocked these signals, the animals didn’t adjust in the same way. So this system seems to help the body respond more calmly to a stress it has faced before.
So this isn’t simply a “calming chemical.” The same messenger can do different jobs in different parts of the brain, and at different points during stress and recovery. That’s why ongoing anxiety can’t be blamed on an anandamide shortage based on symptoms alone. It’s also why a blood test has limits. Three things decide how strong the signal is: how much messenger is made, how many receptors are ready to receive it, and how quickly it’s broken down. A blood level gives us only a rough idea of the first one.
Inflammation, Pain, and the Gut
So, let’s turn to inflammation. During an inflammatory response, immune cells move toward an injury or infection and release chemical messengers. CB2 receptors take part in this. In lab and animal studies, CB2 affects how immune cells move and how much inflammatory signaling they produce, which has made it a target for research on inflammatory diseases. But much of this is still experimental. A treatment that changes an inflammation marker in a dish of cells still has to prove it helps real people, and adjusting the immune system can have effects beyond the symptom being treated.
Cannabinoid pathways also play a role in pain, which has led to research on medicines for long-lasting pain, including nerve pain. The evidence varies by condition and by product. And results from a standardized medicine in a clinical trial can’t simply be applied to a retail oil with different ingredients and doses.
In the gut, endocannabinoids interact with the enteric nervous system, the network of nerves in the gut wall that’s sometimes called the “second brain.” They help control how food moves through the intestines, how much fluid is released, and how discomfort is signaled. The effects depend on the problem. Slowing the gut means something very different for someone with diarrhea than for someone with constipation.
Gut bacteria are part of this too. In a 2010 study, researchers changed the bacteria in the guts of mice and found that the endocannabinoid system in the intestines changed along with them. They also found that this system affects how “leaky” the gut lining is. When the lining is leakier, more bits of bacteria can slip into the body and stir up inflammation. So the gut isn’t just a tube that food passes through. Its nerves, its lining, and its microbes are constantly signaling to each other.
Sleep, Appetite, and Exercise
Next, I’d like to talk about appetite, sleep, and exercise, which brings us back to the questions we started with.
The endocannabinoid system helps link appetite and the drive to eat, which made it an appealing target for weight-loss drugs. One drug, rimonabant, blocked CB1 receptors. In a large trial called RIO–North America, it improved weight and several measures of heart and metabolic health. But psychiatric side effects, such as depression and anxiety, led some people to stop treatment. Rimonabant was approved in Europe in 2006, was never approved in the United States, and was pulled from the European market in 2008 because of those risks. It shows the problem with targeting a receptor found all over the body. Change appetite, and you may change mood too.
So, about that bad night’s sleep. In a controlled study in humans, cutting back on sleep made the normal daily rise of 2-AG in the blood bigger and longer-lasting. At the same time, people felt hungrier and had a stronger desire for tasty, rewarding foods. Endocannabinoids may be part of why poor sleep changes appetite, although other pathways are involved too.
Notice that the endocannabinoid went up during a disturbance to the body. That’s why the common advice to “boost” your endocannabinoids is too vague to be useful. A higher level only makes sense in context.
Now, the runner’s high. In one study, 63 people did a moderate treadmill run and, on a separate occasion, a walk. Beforehand, some took a drug called naltrexone, which blocks the receptors endorphins act on. Others took a look-alike pill with nothing in it. Running raised levels of both anandamide and 2-AG, and people felt happier and less anxious afterward than after walking. Here’s the interesting part. Blocking endorphins didn’t stop those good feelings. That means endorphins can’t be the whole explanation, and endocannabinoids are a likely contributor. But the researchers didn’t block the endocannabinoid receptors, so they couldn’t prove endocannabinoids caused the mood changes. That’s still an open question.
A smaller 2024 study followed 16 adults through an hour-long outdoor run. Mood and endocannabinoid levels went up afterward, but responses varied from person to person.
And you don’t need a runner’s high for movement to be worth it. These studies don’t give you a number to hit or a test of whether your workout “worked.”
Nutrition and the Question of Deficiency
So, let’s talk about nutrition. Because endocannabinoids are made from fats, diet has become part of this research. In one study, mice were raised on a diet low in omega-3 fats for their whole lives. In certain parts of their brains, the endocannabinoid system stopped working the way it should. The CB1 receptors were there, but they didn’t pass their signals along well, and nerve cells lost some of their ability to adjust their connections, which is part of how the brain learns and handles mood. This tells us nutrition can affect how this system works. But it’s a mouse study, so it doesn’t give us an omega-3 dose that treats anything in people. The sensible starting point is simply getting enough of the nutrients you need.
You may also hear about something called “clinical endocannabinoid deficiency.” It’s the idea that low endocannabinoid activity may play a part in migraine, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome. Some research fits this idea, but there’s still no reliable test that can find one single deficiency behind these conditions. And since the strength of the signal depends on how much is made, how many receptors are ready, and how quickly it’s broken down, a blood level alone only tells us part of what’s happening.
Where Cannabis Fits In
Now let’s turn to cannabis. The plant contains hundreds of compounds, and more than 100 of them are plant cannabinoids. You don’t need to remember them all. The two that matter most are THC and CBD. THC is what causes the “high.” CBD doesn’t cause a high, has many potential medical benefits, and may lessen THC’s effects. You may also see a few others on product labels, like CBG, CBN, and THCV. These are being studied, but there’s much less research on them, so it’s still hard to say what they do in people.
Neither THC nor CBD is a substitute for anandamide or 2-AG. And responding well to a cannabis product doesn’t prove someone had an endocannabinoid deficiency.
The FDA has approved prescription cannabidiol for a few conditions. But consumer products vary a lot. Testing has found that many CBD products don’t contain the amount listed on the label, and some contain THC that isn’t listed at all. CBD can also interact with medications, because it affects liver enzymes that break down many common drugs, and it can raise liver enzyme levels in some people. So a clinician needs to know the actual product being used, not just that it’s described as “natural.”
In bioregulatory practice, the question is never just whether a compound touches a pathway. It’s whether it helps this particular person, at an acceptable level of risk.
Everyday Habits That Support the System
So, what can you actually do? Let’s bring it back to the research we’ve covered.
Start with sleep. Remember the study where cutting back on sleep pushed 2-AG higher and made people hungrier and more drawn to snack foods? Getting a full night’s rest helps keep that daily rhythm steady and may make your appetite easier to manage. Of everything on this list, sleep has some of the clearest human evidence behind it.
Next, move your body. Both exercise studies we talked about found that a moderate run raised anandamide and 2-AG, and people felt better afterward. In the treadmill study, a gentle walk was the comparison, and it didn’t produce the same effect, so it seems to take a little more effort. You don’t have to be a runner. Moderate aerobic activity like jogging, cycling, or swimming, where your heart rate stays up for a while, is the kind of movement researchers have looked at. The best choice is the one you’ll keep doing.
Then there’s nutrition. The omega-3 study was done in mice, but it showed that a long-term shortage can interfere with this system. So getting enough omega-3s from foods like fatty fish, chia seeds, flax seeds, and hemp seeds may help keep endocannabinoid signaling working properly. You might also cut back on processed vegetable oils that are high in omega-6 fatty acids, which can promote inflammation.
What about the gut? The 2010 mouse study showed that gut bacteria and the endocannabinoid system influence each other. That hasn’t been tested with specific foods yet, but supporting a healthy gut with fiber and probiotic-rich foods like yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut is a reasonable step for many reasons.
Manage stress. The animal research on the HPA axis showed this system helps the body adapt to repeated stress. Practices like meditation, deep breathing, and tai chi may help lower cortisol and support recovery from stress, although they haven’t been studied much for their direct effect on endocannabinoids.
And go easy on heavy cannabis, alcohol, and nicotine use. Brain imaging research has found that people who smoke cannabis daily have fewer CB1 receptors, and that this change appears to reverse after a period of not using. Heavy alcohol and nicotine use may also disrupt this system, so cutting back on all three gives your body a chance to recover.
You’ll also hear claims that cold showers, ice baths, massage, acupuncture, dark chocolate, or vitamin C support the endocannabinoid system. Some of these may be helpful for other reasons, but the research connecting them to this system is still early and mostly comes from small or animal studies. So enjoy them if they work for you, but don’t count on them as endocannabinoid treatments.
So, to sum up. Your body makes its own cannabinoid-like messengers, on demand, to fine-tune communication in the brain, the immune system, and the gut. The system works locally and responds to circumstances, which is why “more” isn’t automatically better and why a single blood test can’t tell the whole picture. But the habits with the best support, good sleep, regular movement, solid nutrition, and managing stress, may give this system the conditions it needs to do its job.
Well, that’s all for this episode. Check back in two weeks for another episode of The Science of Self-Healing. Until then, be well.
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This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for the direct care of a qualified health practitioner who oversees and provides unique and individualized care. The information provided here is to broaden our different perspectives and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
