According to a new study from University of Massachusetts and University of Bath, there may be an answer now as to why marijuana has helped gut issues.
Researchers from the universities are the first to demonstrate the physical process by which cannabis affects Inflammatory Bowel Disease, or IBD.
In our stomach, there is a thin layer of epithelial cells that mediates between our bodies and the microbial “zoo” living within. University of Massachusetts researcher Beth McCormick has been looking at the role these cells play when it comes to regulating the gut microbiome for over a decade.
The study, which has been published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, reveals that there is a chemical pathway that produces substances that prevent neutrophils from getting through the epithelial cells and into the gut. These substances, in mice at least, are endocannabinoids. These fatty substances bind to the same chemical receptors as the cannabinoids found in, well, cannabis. Patients missing this secondary pathway “were more likely to develop ulcerative colitis,” McCormick explained.
Vanderbilt University gastroenterologist Richard Peek, has said that McCormick’s findings “may not just be specific to the intestine.” Epithelial cells are found on the surfaces of organs throughout the body, so this mechanism of action may exist in other systems as well, he says. That would change our understanding of autoimmune responses too. Peek was not involved in the study.
