The Inside Story of Cannabidiol
- What are the Benefits of CBD?

AMA Regenerative Medicine & Skincare

Published on Jul 22, 2017https://youtu.be/3bZb10ZxpBk

http://CBDtheInsideStory.com


What is CBD oil? What are the benefits of CBD? How does CBD work? This is The Inside Story of Cannabidiol about the benefits and physiological effects of CBD on the human body. A couple of years ago a remarkable thing happened when CBD oil became legal in all 50 states. If you remove CBD from the THC coming from the cannabis plant or the hemp plant, CBD oil is now legal to use as a nutritional supplement. Since that time of course, the market for cannabis oil has exploded with interest. Truly, CBD is not just another nutritional supplement. This short conversation is going to describe the intense scientific research that is going on around the world on the benefits of CBD, or cannabidiol, and why it is so important for human physiology.


In our actual physiology where does CBD work? We are going to travel into our physiology. Right into our central nervous system. We are going to see at the level of individual cells that the cell surface is covered with these green receptors. These are receptors for CBD. When the CBD binds to that receptor it sends a message into the cell which travels all the way down into the nucleus of the cell where the intelligence of our entire physiology is contained in our chromosomes. Here a chromosome will unwind and you are going to see the DNA that contains the codes for everything that our body does. This is like the software that runs our physiology. Genes are the codes for every protein that our bodies make. Including all the signaling molecules that run our physiology. Such as our neurotransmitters that run our nervous system. Our hormones that run our endocrine system and our cytokines that run our immune system. So we see that throughout our physiology we have receptors specifically designed to bind with cannabidiol and CBD has its effect on the nucleus of our cells where proteins are being made. Cannabidiol modulates the transcription of over 1100 genes that make the signaling molecules that naturally reduce inflammation in our central nervous system and throughout our immune system. Restoring homeostasis to both our immune and central nervous systems.


Bottom line… One of the benefits of cannabidiol is that it causes a cascade of Homeostasis through our entire central nervous system and our entire immune system. Why is this happening? As I mentioned before we have receptors in our body for CBD. This is called the endo-cannabinoid system. Back in medical school we didn’t’t even know about the endo-cannabinoid system. It was discovered in the 1990’s by Dr. Rafael Mechoulan from the Hebrew University in Israel. So the endo-cannabinoid system is a network of cells throughout our body that have receptors for CBD. In fact, there are more receptors for CBD in our body than any other kind of receptor.


So the endo-cannabinoid system is truly the largest network of its kind throughout our entire physiology. Among other things Dr. Mechoulam also discovered that we make our own cannabinoids in or body. This is Anandamide and 2AG. Those two are natural cannabinoids that our bodies make and bind to our CBD receptors. Our bodies are filled with CBD receptors. What kind of symptoms what kind of stress do all these things cause to us?


If your immune system is inflamed you might be suffering from autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, inflamed bowel disease, lupus and thyroid. Or fibromyalgia or even multiple sclerosis. And you skin, psoriasis and eczema and all sorts of other chronic infections. Do you realize that many of things didn’t even exist 100 or 150 years ago. Incidences of these sorts of diseases is growing throughout the last century.


Now lets take a look at your central nervous system. If it is inflamed what types of things might you be suffering from? Brain fog, migraines, epilepsy, anxiety and PTSD, ADD, ADHD, autism and insomnia. Again, 100 or 150 years ago these kinds of symptoms, these kind of diseases where rare.


If you are suffering from any of these conditions, any of these symptoms, CBD might provide you with tremendous healing, tremendous relief, right through your own natural endo-cannabinoid system that brings homeostasis both to your immune system and to your central nervous system.


In conclusion, what have we learned from this conversation? That health is achieved through physiological homeostasis right through our natural endo-cannabinoid systems. Therefore, CBD is an indispensable catalyst for optimal health.


http://ashermilgrom.primemybody.com

Yogadork: Stretching Is In Your Brain (Part 1): A New Paradigm of Flexibility and Yoga +(PART 2): What is the Value of Flexibility Without Strength? by Jenni Rawlings

Stretching Is In Your Brain (PART 1):
A New Paradigm of Flexibility and Yoga

by YD

in Featured, For Teachers, YogaDork Ed

tags: Asana, brain, flexibility

by Jenni Rawlings


In yoga, we tend to place a lot of emphasis on stretching as a means toward more flexibility. But what actually happens in our body when we stretch? Most of us envision our bodies as consisting of play-doh like tissues that we pull on and make longer through stretching, but new science is revealing to us a model of stretching that is much more complex, dynamic, and fascinating than what has previously been imagined. And it turns out that thinking of our bodies in this older “play-doh” like version may be counterproductive and can lead to a number of injuries and structural problems resulting from our yoga practice. In order to keep our wonderful yoga tradition evolving and current, it’s important that we understand this new and fascinating science of stretching and any implications it might offer for our practice and teaching.


A NEW PARADIGM OF FLEXIBILITY


Biomechanics-based Restorative ExerciseTM teaches a lot of new and eye-opening information about stretching and flexibility that isn’t yet common knowledge in the yoga world. Additionally, the wonderful yoga teacher Jules Mitchell is on a mission to educate the yoga community about the science of stretching. Her recently-completed master’s thesis in exercise science is a comprehensive literature review of the most current scientific research on stretching to date, and it’s full of an abundance of important information for yogis.


Utilizing the innovative knowledge that these resources offer, let’s examine some of our current beliefs about stretching and introduce some helpful ways we can begin to update these beliefs to reflect the newest scientific word on the street.




WHAT WE THINK HAPPENS WHEN WE STRETCH


Most people think of their muscles as being either “long” or “short”, and that during a stretch, they are targeting their “short” muscles by physically “lengthening” or “loosening” them. In this stretching paradigm, our muscles are mold-able tissues like taffy or play-doh which we can form into a shape of our choosing by simply pulling or pushing on them. For example, when we fold forward into paschimottanasana (seated forward fold), we tend to imagine that our hamstrings are physically growing longer in that moment of our stretch in the same way that taffy would grow longer if we tugged on both of its ends for awhile. We imagine that when we release paschimottanasana, our hamstrings remain just a bit longer than they were before we did the stretch. And we also imagine that the longer and deeper we hold a pose like paschimottanasana, the longer and looser our hamstrings become.


This stretching paradigm is what most of us were taught in our yoga classes, workshops, and teacher trainings. It’s completely understandable that we might see the body as working like this, but new research is revealing a very different version of the biomechanics of stretching.





THE NEW SCIENCE OF WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE STRETCH


We all know that when we stretch, we experience a feeling of “tightness” at our end range of motion – a sensation that limits us from moving any deeper into the stretch. We have traditionally defined this “tight” sensation as the result of having reached the end length of the muscle(s) we’re stretching. In other words, we pulled on the ends of our muscle until we reached its maximum physical length, and once we hit that boundary, the stretch stopped and we felt the “tightness”. With enough stretching, we could increase the length of our muscle and therefore move further into our stretch with time.





But we now understand that increasing our flexibility has much less to do with the physical length of our muscle tissue, and much more to do with the part of our body that controls and moves our muscles: the nervous system. Our brain, the main control center of our nervous system, is in constant communication with our muscles and one of its main imperatives is to keep our body where it perceives it is safe. Normal movements that we make throughout our day are considered safe by the brain because it knows and trusts them. But on the other hand, our brain is not familiar with ranges of motion that we never move into, so it’s much less likely to consider those places safe. When we stretch, if we move into a place that the brain isn’t familiar with, our nervous system will end our stretch by communicating with our muscles to put the breaks on the movement.


For example, if you happen to work on your computer for 8 solid hours a day (and if you don’t take frequent intermittent stretch breaks for your shoulders – hint hint ), the brain becomes very familiar with the arms-forward position that you use while typing and considers that range safe. Then later, if you decide to do a chest stretch in which you take your arm out to the side and then behind you, the brain doesn’t feel that that movement is safe because you so rarely go there, so it will limit your range very early on in the stretch.


A major takeaway from this new flexibility paradigm is that when we increase our range of motion through stretching, it isn’t because we pulled on our tissues and made them longer. It’s because we visited the edge of our stretch (also called stretch “tolerance”) enough times that our brain started to feel comfortable there and it began to allow us to move deeper into that range.


OKAY, I THINK I’M STARTING TO GET IT, BUT WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?


It’s definitely interesting and more scientifically accurate to understand this previously-overlooked role that our nervous system plays in flexibility. But whether it’s your nervous system or the physical length of your muscles limiting you in a stretch, why does it matter? Isn’t a stretch a stretch, regardless of the mechanism behind it?





That’s a great question – I’m so glad you asked! The main answer has to do with what tissues are being targeted when we stretch. We often think and talk about stretching our muscles in our yoga poses (i.e. paschimottanasana stretches our “hamstrings”), but in truth our muscles are surrounded by, interwoven with, and inseparable from our fascia. Our fascia is our incredible body-wide web of connective tissue that is literally everywhere inside of us, and it includes our tendons and ligaments. Muscles and fascia are two distinct tissues with different properties, but both are affected when we stretch. And how we choose to stretch, which is based on whether we believe that we’re physically lengthening our muscles (old paradigm) or increasing our nervous system’s tolerance for the stretch (new paradigm), determines how our fascia will be affected during the movement. (Preview for Part 2 of this post: if we’re going with the older “pulling on our tissues like play-doh” paradigm, we’ll feel more drawn to stretching deeper and harder in our poses, which is much more likely to simply damage our tissues than give us the flexibility we seek.)


I’ll elaborate more on this and other important topics, like how we might choose to apply this new information to our yoga practice and teaching, in my next blog post. Stay tuned, guys! And in the meantime, if you’re interested in further reading, check out this awesome article by Jules Mitchell (written for a pretty science-oriented reader). See you for Part 2 soon!


——

Stretching Is In Your Brain (PART 2):
What is the Value of Flexibility Without Strength?

by YD

in YogaDork Ed

tags: Asana, brain, flexibility

by Jenni Rawlings


In Part 1 of my “Stretching Is In Your Brain” series, we looked at some updated information on what happens physiologically inside of us when we stretch. To re-cap, new science is revealing that the widely-held belief that we physically grow our muscles longer during a stretch is inaccurate. Instead, flexibility is controlled by our nervous system, which determines how far it will allow us to move into a stretch based on how safe it perceives our body to be in that range of motion.


As yoga practitioners and teachers, we’ve been treating our muscles as though they are independent entities which we can mold through direct manipulation, but in reality our muscles are just the peripheral, subservient component of a much broader system of communication and control. Let’s explore some of the implications that this major paradigm shift has for how we approach the body in our yoga practice.


WHAT DOES PULLING HARD ON OUR TISSUES ACHIEVE?


In the old paradigm of stretching in which we believe that we’re physically pulling our tissues longer like taffy when we stretch, it would logically follow that in order to gain more flexibility, we should simply pull harder and deeper. Wringing oneself deep into a spinal twist or receiving a strong adjustment from a teacher intended to push your range of motion further are common examples of this strategy. But we now understand that flexibility is much less about using brute physical force to grow our muscles longer, and much more about using intelligent communication to suggest to our nervous system that a particular range of motion is safe.


In fact, the “brute force” method of stretching is problematic in multiple ways. When we stretch, our muscles aren’t the only tissues that are affected. Muscles are surrounded by and interpenetrated with fascia, which also makes up the body’s ligaments and tendons. When we move our body into a stretch, both our muscles and our fascia experience the stretch at the same time.




It’s important to understand that fascia has only a set range that it can stretch. Stretching offers many benefits to the health of our fascia, but it won’t change the range of this tissue. This means that after fascia experiences the load of a stretch, only one of two possibilities can happen: 1) it returns to its original length after being stretched or 2) it is stretched too far and is damaged. And that’s it! We don’t make our fascia “longer” when we stretch. And if we pull too hard on this tissue in an effort to elongate it, we will most likely move beyond its ability to withstand the load, which will ultimately lead to injury. As counterintuitive as it may seem, for the health and balance of our structure, we actually want our fascia to be quite “stiff” and “resilient”.
BUT HOW MUCH STRETCH IS THE RIGHT AMOUNT?


We understand that stretching intensely does not benefit us, but how do we know where that boundary lies in our body as well as our students’ bodies? Here’s a key rule to use in your practice: when we stretch, we should only move into a range of motion over which we have muscular control. This is because our nervous system feels safest when it senses that we have control over our movement.


Put another way, we don’t want to create flexibility without the strength to support it. If we stretch within these parameters, our practice is likely to contribute to a balanced body that moves well. However, when we stretch into a range in which the targeted muscles cannot function, we are creating excessive mobility (and more than likely hypermobility) that we don’t have the ability to stabilize.

Hanumanasana, yoga’s forward split.

To illustrate this point, let’s look at hanumanasana, yoga’s forward splits. If we practiced this pose with the goal of building flexibility within the context of strength, we would only move as deep into the shape as the muscles of our legs could maintain control. Picture it: without using your arms pressing into the floor, you would slowly lower down into your full hanumanasana and then use those very same leg muscles to lift yourself all the way back up (again, without the use of the arms!) This might seem like a superhuman acrobatic feat, but I promise it would be possible if you truly worked to build power at your end range.

My friend Maddy demonstrating gomukhasana arms.

Let’s touch in on a few other asanas to see how this “stability at your end range” principle might apply. Padmasana, or lotus pose, is one of yoga’s classic asanas. Most of us use our arms to pull our legs into this shape. We also sometimes use momentum to quickly fold our legs into lotus, but momentum is another method of moving into a range of motion that we don’t have the strength to control. Is it any wonder that padmasana is notorious for tearing soft tissue in many a yogi’s knee joint? Try this instead: without using your arms or momentum, use only the muscles of your legs to fold your feet as close to your hips as you can and breathe there. This shape – one over which your muscles have control – is the correct stability edge for your body. Another great example is eka pada sirsasana, yoga’s leg-behind-the-head pose. If that leg can climb behind your head itself, without the use of your arms, then you’re staying within your excellent strength-at-your-end-range limits. But I have yet to see a yogi who can accomplish such a daunting task! A less obvious pose in which we commonly move beyond our stability edge is gomukhasana, or cow-face arms. Many people like to use their opposite arm to help that bottom arm climb higher up the back, but as soon as we interfere with that bottom arm’s own ability to move itself to its edge, we are stretching past our active range of motion and into unsupported mobility.


IN CONCLUSION…


I know that so many of us yogis are used to going as deep as our bodies will allow in our poses. Think of the innumerable beautiful photos that yoga teachers have in their portfolios or on Instagram of their bodies looking extremely graceful in a perfectly- executed forward split. (I don’t personally have a photo of myself in hanumanasana, but I certainly have photos of many other asanas in which I’ve moved well beyond my active boundaries.)


The science behind utilizing stability as a container for flexibility is not yet widely understood in the yoga world – and not surprisingly, the number of overstretching injuries in our community is quite high. But as a yoga community, we have to ask ourselves some tough questions: if you have the mobility to move deeper into a pose than your muscles can control, where is that mobility coming from, what is it offering you in terms of how well your body functions, and how many more times can you practice this pose before an injury occurs? What is the value of flexibility without the strength to support it? This is the kind of shift in thinking that yoga needs to make if we want our practice to truly offer the structural health and other long-term benefits like aging with ease that so many yoga practitioners seek.


~
Jenni Rawlings loves to weave her natural interest in anatomy and biomechanics into her yoga teaching. She is grateful to so many teachers who inspire her, most notably amazing biomechanist Katy Bowman. You can find out more about Jenni at www.jennirawlings.com.

–

Life Is an Expression of Joy a message from Tony Samara

I love this article. Came across it in my email where I had accidentally pasted it into a forward of something else..but very relevant right now. Was meant to be. -PB



Life Is an Expression of Joy
a message from Tony Samara
Thursday, 29 May, 2014


"Life is an expression of joy.  If we see this vibration in the stars, in the galaxies that surround humanity, then we understand that this joy goes beyond the personal that the mind tries to grab onto, so that it has something to understand, and rather expands to a space that is unknown.  This simplicity of focus means that whenever the complication of the mind comes into your experience, all you have to do is remind yourself to go back to that space of simplicity, remind yourself to go back to that space of joy, remind yourself by remembering an aspect of this joy.

For example, the beauty of the light that shines when you look at the stars at night.  The beauty of this light that goes beyond an understanding that can be put into words – it’s an experience that is uplifting.

When you remember the joy that is the potential of all life, that is present to everything and everyone, then the mind comes back to remembering how to focus on more than the ego talk that happens when we are caught up in the mundane, material, everyday world.  This is not bad for a little while, but it doesn’t bring the deep joy that we all seek.  If we come back to that simplicity, if we come back to that beauty, then we transform our mind, so our mind expands to a space where we can begin to see the light not just outside, but also on the inside.  The stars are beautiful, the light of the stars that shine and remind us of beauty is a wonderful aspect of nature, but then we begin to see the vibration of light within our own mind.This is an alchemical process that is very, very easy to experience once we allow for that space to be much more real, once we honor that space in a much more real way.So when you’re able to do this, and I’ll show you how shortly, what happens is that this light, the inner light that is a vibration, that is the same vibration as sound, that is the same vibration as your truth; once you are able to allow this process to happen inside of your mind, inside of consciousness, then you will begin to understand that this light shines not only from the outside, but from within the core of consciousness, from what creates consciousness, the essence of who you are.  When you have this light shining from within, and touching the light that is outside, then there is a magnetic movement that happens by itself, where you don’t need to search for anything to help you with this process, because the movement is happening without effort.  The light has the space to shine back to your consciousness and really reflect to you who you are, remind you of who you are in this world in the same way as the star remembers its beauty when it shines its light to all humanity, you in your depth will come back to a sense of remembrance.

When this happens our physiology of body, of brain, of the nervous system, begins to adapt to the new situation, and we begin to adapt not only by allowing this process to speed up within ourselves, but we also begin to adapt by allowing our mind and body to create the space where such light becomes tangible, where we begin to be able to relate to the inner light that is deep, deep inside of ourselves.  This requires, as I have mentioned right in the beginning, a letting go.  We cannot look at the light and the darkness at the same time.  The light can shine through the darkness and remind you that in essence everything is a vibration of life, but if you are not able to see the light because your mind is caught up in the darkness of fear, or in the darkness of self-sabotage, then of course that is the space that you create for the mind.  This allows for certain thoughts to navigate and to flow and to play the wonderful games that the monkey loves to play, and keeps you so fully occupied with that process that there is not even one moment to notice that in that whole space there is a beautiful star shining towards you, asking you to remember, to remember the essence.

So when our physiology begins to change, when we begin to let go of, for example, fear, when we begin to let go of the idea that we are not good enough, or not able to allow such a process to happen, we build up a trust in the potential that is behind this light, and behind this vibration.  This trust brings joy in itself.  When you feel this trust, when you feel the need to simply let go and no longer struggle with yourself or with the outer world, or the ideas that you have of the outer world, then there is a sense of joy, because there is a sense of relaxation, which is what meditation is all about.

Meditation is not just a physical relaxation, but also a relaxation that allows you to come back to yourself and be yourself, be the real person that is you.”

Excerpt from ‘The Simplicity of Love Meditation’ a new Book by Tony Samara
Copyright © 2012 Tony Samara. This article, video or audio may be distributed freely in its entirety as long as the author is credited, and the URL www.tonysamara.org is included.

tags: joy life