By Kurple Investigates – Jake Towner
In this article we’re going to opiates in the metabolism and narrow in on some novel terpenes of interest. The reason I want to talk about opiates and these terpenes together is because I want to talk about pain. Pain sucks and should go away. There are many ways people deal with pain but most are doing it the wrong way. I’m talking about the opiate epidemic in America – something we should all be paying attention to. Using opiates to cope with pain is not a wise decision with only rare exceptions. This article is about the reason why and a better alternative.
To understand the reasons why cannabis is a better alternative to opiates, you’re going to need to educate yourself about the way that opiates work in the body, the way that cannabinoids work, and their differences. If you read my articles you know about cannabinoid receptors a little bit, but we didn’t talk about opiate receptors. It turns out that opiate and cannabinoid receptors share something in common. They are both G-protein coupled receptors; i.e., they both cause the same kind of intracellular signal as the G-protein is released from the protein complex. So why the big difference? It has to do with the different types of opiate receptors and their locations within the brain and body. There is a great article called Basic Opioid Pharmacology: an update by Hassan Pathan and John Williams that I strongly suggest you read to fully understand what I’m talking about. There is another article by Howard S Smith called Opioid Metabolism that support the claims I make in this article.
Opiates are lethal for a simple reason. Opiate receptors can be found in the brainstem and help regulate things like your wakefulness, heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure. This part of your brain is called the locus ceruleus and the presence of mu-opiate receptors there means use of opiates can affect your body’s ability to simply breath. This means opiates can lead to death and it turns out that opiates can kill you if you take too much or even when you try to stop taking them. Opiates are also stored in fat cells due to their lipophilicity. Lipophilicity refers to oil or fat solubility and because opiates are lipophilic they accumulate in your fat cells and are then sometimes released back into your blood. Certain factors like your blood sugar, how much exercise you get, and how hydrated you are can determine the rate at which opiates are recirculated back into your blood from your fat cells. Earl Grey tea and grapefruit also can affect the opiates in your system by inhibiting the enzymes that break down the opiates. The wrong combination of lifestyle choices could become life threatening. This means that as you take opiates they can build up in your body and you could be just one pill away from an overdose and not even know it.
Cannabinoids are also stored in fat cells due to their lipophilicity. There is no reason to fear death from cannabinoids though because they’re concentrated in parts of the brain like the hippocampus which do not control your breathing. Cannabis is however a superior pain management option because of the synergistic effect between cannabinoids and terpenes.
Now we’ll talk about the good stuff – the terpenes of interest for this issue are myrcene and β-caryophyllene. Myrcene is a monoterpene that can be found in many places including cannabis, hops, mangoes, cardamom, and parsley. Myrcene is shown to reduce inflammation via prostaglandin E-2 (PGE2) making it an answer for pain reduction. Myrcene is also a sedative, and blocks hepatic carcinogenesis. There’s another article you should read about terpenes and cannabinoids called, Taming THC: potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoid-terpenoid entourage effects by Ethan B Russo. In this article he talks about myrcene and β-caryophyllene. The latter of which is a bicyclic sesquiterpene which suppresses inflammation via PGE1. It also helps to reduce pain and is found in cannabis, black pepper, oregano, rosemary and many other plants.
With safer alternatives for pain management available other than opiates, like cannabis, we shouldn’t be made to rely solely on opiates, especially for chronic pain. Now is the time for Americans to lobby our congressional representatives for legalization of cannabis on a federal and state level, for the health of our country. Vote to legalize; vote for New Mexico.
Academic Sources:
Ethan, B. R. (2011) Taming THC: potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoid-terpenoid entourage effects. British Journal of Pharmacology, 163(7) 1344-1364. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2011.01238.x
Howard, S. S. (2009) Opioid Metabolism. Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 84(7) 613-624. doi: https://doi.org/10.4065/84.7.613
Pathan, H. Williams, J. (2012) Basic opioid pharmacology: an update. British Journal of Pain, 6(1), 11-16. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/2049463712438493
