Chili peppers, as well as cannabis, have extremely different effects on the brain, a brand-new research study shows that, when eaten, their impact on the gut might not be so dissimilar.
Scientists have discovered that capsaicin – the compound that gives chili peppers their heat – targets a receptor in the gut that creates a substance called anandamide, which is chemically just like the substances in cannabis.
In the guts of mice, anandamide generated by capsaicin intake was found to minimize inflammation by mobilizing anti-inflammatory immune cells, and it also reversed type 1 diabetes mellitus in the rodents.
Research co-author Pramod Srivastava, professor of immunology and also medicine at the UConn Health and Wellness School of Medicine in Farmington, CT, and also coworkers state that their findings suggest that both cool peppers, as well as edible cannabis, may help to deal with kind 1 diabetes as well as colitis (swelling of the colon).
Also, the group states that the study increases some crucial questions regarding exactly how the immune system, the intestine, as well as the brain are linked.
The scientists just recently reported their findings in the Procedures of the National Academy of Sciences.
Srivastava and associates pertained to their searchings for by administering capsaicin to computer mouse models of type 1 diabetes as well as examining exactly how the chili pepper substance impacted the gut.
The researchers discovered that capsaicin targets and also bind to a receptor called TRPV1, which exists on customized cells in the intestinal tract. This led to the production of anandamide.
Additional investigation revealed that anandamide not only connects with TRPV1 to create even more anandamide, but it additionally works with a receptor called CX3CR1, which recruits a sort of macrophage – or leukocyte – that reduces inflammation.
As anandamide degrees raised, so too did the degrees as well as the task of the anti-inflammatory macrophages.
In the computer mouse designs, both capsaicin and anandamide separately reduced gut inflammation, and the chili pepper compound even turned around type 1 diabetic issues in the rodents.
The team keeps in mind that anandamide is chemically equivalent to the substances discovered in marijuana, and also it binds to cannabinoid receptors in mind. This not just shows that edible cannabis could lower intestine inflammation, but it drops further light on the partnership in between the digestive tract, the body immune system, and also the mind.
“This allows you to imagine means the immune system, as well as the brain, might talk with each other. They share a common language,” Srivastava.
The authors state that future research should investigate just how edible marijuana impacts intestine inflammation in humans. Accumulating such data must currently be a simpler process because of the legalization of the drug in certain states.
“I want to work with the public wellness authority in Colorado to see if there has been a conduct on the severity of colitis amongst regular users of edible weed,” says Srivastava.
The scientists also plan to figure out the precise molecular path through which chili peppers and also good cannabis lower intestine swelling, in addition to whether there are various other receptors targeted by anandamide.