seedman

High on the list of unsolved scientific mysteries is the placebo effect, which causes people to inexplicably recover from illnesses despite receiving a mere sugar pill instead of actual medication. If researchers can get to grips with this intriguing phenomenon and learn to trigger it, then pharmaceutical companies may one day be able to stop producing all their chemical concoctions and start manufacturing nothing but sucrose tablets, saving themselves billions in the process. For this reason, numerous studies have been conducted with the aim of understanding how the placebo effect works, and evidence is beginning to point towards the cannabinoid system as one of its primary mediators. Related Post New Study Reveals How CBD Blocks Pain Signalling Pathways Cannabinoids And The Placebo Effect – What’s The Link? First off, it’s important to understand what the placebo effect actually refers to. Paradoxically, the effect in question is not caused by the placebo itself – otherwise it wouldn’t be a placebo. Rather, it’s the patient’s belief in the efficacy of the placebo, and expectation to heal, that somehow produces a genuine biological response. For this reason, some scientists argue that the term ‘placebo effect’ should be scrapped and replaced with ‘meaning response’. Whatever you want to call it, though, studies have shown that the mind’s ability to heal the body involves a number of neurological systems that influence inflammation, pain perception and mood – three things which are also highly affected by cannabis. For instance, the placebo effect has been found to be partially induced by signalling within the brain’s reward circuitry, causing feelings of positivity and enhanced mood. Interestingly, some of these pathways are loaded with cannabinoid receptors, and are therefore activated by the body’s own cannabinoids – or endocannabinoids – in order to produce feelings of euphoria. Similarly, phytocannabinoids like…

Excerpt only …
READ MORE BELOW
Source : The Fascinating Role Of Cannabinoids In The Placebo Effect

reposted by Cannabis News World