Endocannabinoid system
A signalling network in the human body that helps regulate pain, mood, appetite and immune function.
The endocannabinoid system is a signalling network found throughout the human body. It helps regulate pain, mood, appetite and immune function, and it does so using cannabinoids the body makes itself.
The two best studied of those are anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol, usually written 2-AG. They act on the CB1 and CB2 receptors — the same receptors that THC and CBD interact with, which is why plant cannabinoids affect the body at all.
Researchers at the US National Institutes of Health have noted that targeting this system may have therapeutic potential across an unusually wide range of conditions, precisely because it touches so many basic physiological processes.