Once considered a potentially life-ruining “Gateway drug,” cannabis has a new reputation: miracle drug.

While many Americans aren’t quite ready to empty out their medicine cabinets and start a pot farm in the backyard, we’re curious about one area where cannabis has shown a great deal of promise: treating inflammation and muscle soreness.

Endocannabinoids are chemical compounds that occur naturally in the body. They’re crucial for regulating the immune system, insulin, inflammation, and fat and energy metabolism. Cannabinoids in marijuana mimic your body’s natural endocannabinoids. That’s why scientists are exploring cannabis’ effects on such a wide variety of bodily functions.

One endocannabinoid, 2-AG, is especially prevalent in the central nervous system. 2-AG regulates appetite, immune function, pain, and inflammation. And as it happens, CBD, the non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis, closely mimics 2-AG. That similarity has piqued researchers’ interest in CBD’s potential to treat epilepsy and autoimmune diseases like lupus, IBD, and inflammatory skin diseases.

According to J. H. Atkinson, M.D., co-director of the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research at UC San Diego, “At the cellular level, cannabinoids are thought to be potent anti-inflammatory agents because they inhibit the proliferation of certain kinds of cells important in inflammation and suppress production of molecules called cytokines, which are important signals turning on the inflammatory response.”

See the original article at Men’s Journal