Regardless of whether you believe in the healing effects of medical cannabis or not, there is no denying the popularity it has gained in the medical field over the past few years. But considering that it’s not FDA-approved, it isn’t used beyond certain states within the United States and a handful of other nations.
Thankfully, people don’t need to light one up in order to gain the so-called nourishing effects that cannabis is said to have on the body. Apparently, doing some simple exercises can already increase the body’s own natural cannabis-like substances that are known to lessen inflammation and even possibly help treat particular conditions like heart disease, arthritis and even cancer.
A new study, which was done by some experts from the University of Nottingham, discovered that while exercise intervention in patients suffering from arthritis, it not only reduced their pain, but also managed to lower the levels of inflammatory substances, which are otherwise known as cytokines.
But that wasn’t the only thing it increased. There were increased levels of cannabis-like substances that were produced by their bodies as well, which are called endocannabinoids. How this occurred was through exercise, where there was an altering of the body’s gut microbes.
Exercise is a well-known way to decrease chronic inflammation, which normally causes a number of debilitating diseases like heart disease, arthritis and cancer. Yet there isn’t much known just yet about how exercise manages to reduce inflammation in the first place.
Professor Ana Valdes led a group of scientists from the School of Medicine at the University who tested 78 people suffering from arthritis. From the total number of participants, 38 were asked to do 15 minutes of muscle strengthening exercises every day for a total of six weeks. The remaining 40 participants were asked to do nothing.
By the end of the study, the participants that were made to exercise not only reduced their pain, but upon checking they had more microbes in their guts that were the kind that produce anti-inflammatory substances, lower their levels of cytokines, and higher their levels of endocannabinoids.
They also explain that the increase in their endocannabinoids was mostly probably due to gut microbes changes, as well as the anti-inflammatory substances that were produced by the gut microbes that are known as SCFAS, or short-chain fatty acids. They added that ‘at least one-third of the anti-inflammatory effects of the gut microbiome was due to the increase in endocannabinoids.’
Research Fellow in the School of Medicine, Doctor Amrita Vijay, who also happens to be the first author of the paper explained, “Our study clearly shows that exercise increases the body’s own cannabis-type substances. Which can have a positive impact on many conditions.”
She adds, “As interest in cannabidiol oil and other supplements increases, it is important to know that simple lifestyle interventions like exercise can modulate endocannabinoids.”
To learn more about the paper, you can read it in the publication, Gut Microbes.
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