Over the years, one cannabinoid that has sparked massive interest from all and sundry is cannabidiol or CBD. With reports about the therapeutic benefits of the compound swirling all over the place, it really is no surprise that it has caught the attention of many people including researchers, users and the general public at large. Whilst research and studies continue to be conducted on the compound to find out more about it and what it can or cannot do, people often wonder what role CBD plays in the body’s metabolism.
When we speak of metabolism, we are simply speaking about those chemical processes carried out in the body of a human being or animal for the proper maintenance of life.


Can CBD Affects Your Metabolism?
Yes, CBD can and does have an effect on the body’s metabolism. This has its basis founded on a study conducted in 2016 by Korean researchers. In the research, it was discovered that CBD had what it takes to induce the browning of fat or in other words, change white fat to brown fat. White fat has been shown to increase the body’s chances of contracting heart disease, diabetes, stroke, etc. Brown fat on the other hand has been shown to assist in the burning of calories to promote weight loss. CBD’s role in metabolism involves changing white fat to brown fat by stimulating those genes and proteins that have a hand in increasing the rate of fat breakdown.

How does CBD affect metabolism?
The way CBD affects metabolism is indirectly through the body’s endocannabinoid system. This system is made up of cannabinoid receptors and metabolic enzymes that play key roles in regulating a myriad of psychological processes of the body. The endocannabinoid system has been shown to be responsible for many functions including storage of energy and transportation of nutrients. When THC, for instance, interacts with cannabinoid receptors of the endocannabinoid system, metabolism is affected which can cause a surge in appetite and cause a person to want to take in more food. This is just one example of the role the endocannabinoid system plays in interacting with cannabinoids to affect metabolism.

The endocannabinoid system though goes just beyond interacting with cannabinoids to cause hunger in a person. There are many other areas of the body including the skeletal muscles, gastrointestinal tract etc. involved in metabolism that the endocannabinoid system can stimulate. As has been mentioned earlier, the endocannabinoid system is made up of cannabinoid receptors and these receptors CB1 and CB2 can be found all over the body including the brain, digestive tract and adipose tissue. When CBD is taken into the body, it interacts with these receptors of the endocannabinoid system in these areas so as to aid in the metabolisation of food compounds during the process of digestion by changing white fat to brown fat.

It should be noted that the endocannabinoid system’s role in affecting metabolism differs depending on the cannabinoid taken. Whilst CBD would lead to a reduction in appetite, reduction in food intake and reduction in weight gain, cannabinoil (CBN) would lead to an increase in appetite, increase in food intake and increase in weight gain with THC producing the same effects as CBN. This was found in a 2012 study by a team of researchers at the University of Reading, School of Pharmacy.

We now have a bit of idea about how CBD, as well as other cannabinoids like CBN and THC, affect the metabolism of the human body. However, studies are far from conclusive.