Cannabis Edibles 101: Exploring Their Impact on the Body

Friday, 22 September 2023 Written by Crystal M. Wilson Views: 2243

Cannabis edibles have been trending in the past few years. These products are a preference for both new and seasoned marijuana users due to their numerous advantages over and above regular weed formulations.

This article looks at cannabis edibles and their potential impacts on the body.

What Are Cannabis Edibles?

The first step in understanding the effects of cannabis edibles is to familiarize ourselves with what these products are. And the best way to define weed edibles is to start by listing the various marijuana products.

Cannabis comes in a variety of formulations. Popular ones include oral tinctures, cigarettes, e-juices, aromatherapy products, topicals, and edibles.

Whichever form of marijuana you choose depends on your intended delivery method. For instance, e-juices are meant for vaping, while oral tinctures are best consumed sublingually.

Cannabis edibles are essentially edible goods infused with marijuana. There are dozens of different marijuana edibles to try out. Examples include gummies, chocolate products, baked goods, and herbal teas.

How Are Cannabis Edibles Consumed?

Most cannabis edibles are ingested. But since these products can take on different shapes, the ideal method to administer them is the same way you’d consume their regular product equivalences.

For instance, cannabis-infused gummies look and feel like traditional gummy bears. That means you chew them the same way you’d chew regular gummies.

The same logic applies to drinking cannabis herbal teas, munching cannabis buns, or licking cannabis ice cream.

How Do Cannabis Edibles Impact Your Body?

To understand the impact of cannabis edibles on your body, you’d need to determine the primary active compounds in these products.

Predictably, all cannabis products have marijuana as their active ingredient. That applies to edibles, too.

However, cannabis produces numerous chemicals for its therapeutic and psychoactive properties. These compounds are known as cannabinoids.

Research has uncovered at least 100 cannabinoids in weed. However, the most abundant ones are cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

CBD and THC are the most active ingredients in cannabis products. Sure, weed edibles may be formulated with more of either compound, while others usually contain an equal blend of both.

Both cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol impact the body through the endocannabinoid system. That means the two compounds share nearly the same therapeutic properties.

CBD and THC are commonly administered for pain relief. Studies have shown that CBD may relieve pain by desensitizing the vanilloid receptor, an endocannabinoid receptor involved in transmitting pain signals through the body. On its part, THC mitigates pain by affecting specific pathways in the central nervous system (CNS), along which pain signals travel to the brain.

Cannabis edibles may also attenuate inflammation. According to research, THC and CBD may alleviate inflammation by inhibiting cytokine and chemokine production, the two proteins involved in the body’s inflammatory responses.

The following are additional ways in which cannabis edibles may impact your body;

Treating Stress and Anxiety

Cannabis is a renowned stress-buster. One of the key active ingredients in marijuana edibles, cannabidiol, may treat stress by reducing the body’s sensitivity to cortisol.

Further research has proven that CBD and THC may increase serotonin signaling. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter associated with a host of positive mental health benefits.

Boosting Sleep Quality

Are you struggling with insomnia? Before you hit the next dispensing pharmacy for conventional sleep pills, perhaps you might want to try cannabis edibles.

There’s an abundance of research suggesting that cannabidiol-based products may improve sleep quality. One way CBD boosts sleep is by reducing the duration of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

REM is the fourth stage of a normal sleep cycle. It’s during this phase that dreams occur. And while there’s nothing inherently wrong with dreaming, certain dreams can be sleep-disrupting nightmares. That’s especially true for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Improving Appetite and Relieving Fatigue

Many seasoned cannabis users swear by the herb’s ability to induce the munchies. It turns out that most of marijuana’s appetite-stimulating properties come from tetrahydrocannabinol.

THC can improve your appetite by increasing the hunger-stimulating hormone ghrelin.

Tetrahydrocannabinol also possesses powerful energizing properties. That makes cannabis edibles formulated with more THC excellent for consuming before hitting the gym or heading out to work.

Will Cannabis Edibles Get Me High?

The impact of cannabis edibles on the body doesn’t only relate to their therapeutic properties, but also their potential mental effects.

Cannabis edibles may be psychoactive or not, depending on their chief active ingredient.

Marijuana edibles will get you high if they contain significant levels of tetrahydrocannabinol. Note that THC is the primary psychoactive compound in weed.

On the other hand, edibles formulated purely with CBD are non-psychoactive. Such compounds are especially popular for their medicinal properties.

Are Cannabis Edibles Legal?

Just like their psychoactive abilities, the legality of cannabis edibles depends on the specific active ingredients in them.

Marijuana edibles are federally legal in the United States provided they’re hemp-derived and their THC concentration doesn’t exceed 0.3%. Hemp is a cannabis cultivar noted for producing higher yields of cannabidiol than tetrahydrocannabinol.

However, note that cannabis laws differ from one state to another. So, check with your local regulators before using or distributing marijuana edibles.

Summary

Cannabis edibles provide all the therapeutic benefits you’d derive from other marijuana goods. These products also come with additional perks, including ease of administering and longevity of effects. But as with other cannabis extracts, weed edibles are most effective if moderately consumed.

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