Medical marijuana seeds can help a lot in regulating different things within the body. It can enhance your mood and help ease the pain because of the interaction with your endocannabinoid system.
It left most cannabis consumers wondering about how cannabis can affect the hormone levels. Here is what you need to know about the cannabis and the hormones in your body.
Do Medical Marijuana Seeds Affect Hormone Levels?
Although further studies and tests seem necessary to understand better the way cannabis can affect the hormonal processes in both men and women, the preliminary study reveals that the answer to this question is yes. The newest studies show the way consuming weed can impact the production of both male and female hormones.
Those effects are mainly on the reproductive hormones such as estrogen and testosterone and the growth hormone. This piece of information, while applicable to everybody, is useful especially for people who go through and seek hormone replacement therapy.
As marijuana use continuously increases, people have more time and a bigger sample pool to assess its effects on the grand scale.
The Endocannabinoid System
There’s room for more research on the effect of cannabis on your hormones. Despite this, it is safe to say that something with a powerful influence on the endocannabinoid system will also have hormonal repercussions.
It is due to THC, the main cannabinoid in cannabis. THC can reportedly change the neurotransmitters which are connected to or located within the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is a part of the brain which connects your nervous system to the endocrine system that produces the hormones.
The endocannabinoid system is a network of neurons that are responsible for the host of substantial bodily functions. These interactions will make marijuana effective in killing the pain, stimulating your appetite, and regulating your mood.
While your nervous system works together with other physical functions, marijuana will also produce an effect on the hormone levels.
The Effect of Cannabis on Male Hormones
There’s more conclusive research on the way that cannabis affects your men’s hormones compared to women. The research advises that cannabis can affect the reproductive hormones of men.
Preclinical studies reveal that THC can block the production of GnRH. Eventually, it will reduce the production of testosterone. The same research also found that THC reduces the production of growth hormone that is responsible for the development of your muscles and bones.
According to the National Cancer Institute, GnRH is the hormone created by the portion of your brain known as the hypothalamus. This hormone triggers the pituitary gland to produce and release hormones LH or luteinizing hormone and the FSH or follicle-stimulating hormone. In men, these two hormones stimulate the testicles to produce testosterone. In women, they trigger the ovaries to create progesterone and estrogen.
A study featured in the American Journal of Epidemiology revealed that using cannabis more than a week together with other medicines resulted in sperm count reduction. It also revealed that the use of medical marijuana seeds can increase testosterone production. Take note that using other medicines can have an impact on the result of the study.
Cannabis and Female Hormones
Does cannabis affect hormone levels in women? The scientific society doesn’t know much about the effect of marijuana on a woman’s body.
If a woman uses a strain with higher THC content, it may have a negative impact on her reproductive system. According to Eloise Theisen, a nurse and cannabis expert, high THC levels encourage anti-estrogen activity although science remains very limited.
Theisen thinks that the cannabis strain Sexxpot with lower THC content has the ability to regulate the endocannabinoid system, a group of brain receptors involved with the processes such as sensation, pain, mood and the mediating effects of marijuana. Also, she believes that the strain can help a lot in bringing back the balance between hormones without sacrificing the medicinal properties.
Estrogen and Its Effect on the Potency of Marijuana
The latest researches conclude that the female body is absorbing cannabis in a different way on the estrogen levels. According to the research performed by Professor Rebecca Craft of the Washington State University, the female rats are around 30% more sensitive to THC compared to male rats. It resulted mainly in increased pain tolerance.
Professor Craft said THC can give a clear spike on drug sensitivity when a woman is on the ovulation period. Likewise, estrogen can have an impact on a woman’s experience in using cannabis. In more than 10 days, the female rates have become more tolerant of the THC effects compared to male rats. It means that women are more capable of building marijuana tolerance than men.
Also, Professor Craft observed that marijuana didn’t disrupt the reproductive cycles in female rats. It could mean that hormone levels can determine the potency of marijuana in women.
Cannabis Addiction and Cortisol
Cannabis addiction has increased levels of cortisol or the popular “stress hormone”. Scientists who have been examining the effect of cannabis addiction reported that men who use weed during puberty show a wide array of hormonal differences, unlike those people who never use cannabis.
The research group, supervised by Dr. Syed Shakeel Raza Rizvi, revealed that smoking cannabis had a major effect on the cortisol levels. The scientists also learned that heavy cannabis smokers have higher cortisol levels compared to non-smokers. Therefore, when it comes to correlation vs. causation, it is likely that cannabis addicts use marijuana to treat themselves from anxiety.
Conclusion
Should medical marijuana be prescribed to enhance sexual health? The answer to this question will depend on the particular dysfunction and the patient’s gender.
Some men find their hormone levels dropped down as they use cannabis for therapeutic purposes. On the other hand, women can improve the strength of their orgasms by using medical marijuana combined with the topical oil.
The best way of determining if medical cannabis can aid in the sexual health of both men and women is to discuss the facts of a specific scenario with a certified doctor.