Thursday, 3 May 2018

Why are cannabinoids prohibited? Functioning and effects.

The Cannabinoids are a group of natural substances present in the plant Cannabis Sativa. Chemically they are derivated of dibenzopyrene or monoterpenoids. The Cannabis Sativa contanis about 420 chemical compounds of which the more important are THC, cannabinol (CBN) y cannabidiol (CBD). You can see the molecular form of these substances below.




As happen with the opiates, that they join directly to the endorphine receptors, the cannabinoids receptors join to his specific molecule: the anandamide. The anadamide is involved in the regulation of the mood, memory, appetite, pain, cognition and feelings.

Cannabis is widely use to have the characteristics of mood alteration and relaxation. The lack of scientific evidence about how cannabis could increase the performance is associated with the obvius evidence of their harmful effects over psychomotor skills and the cognosctive function, what could be dangerous in certain sport modalities (sky, motor sports).

The prohibition of the use of cannabinoids in sports is based in the safety concern during training and competition. According to the WADA, cannabinoids samples not are analysed in out competition tests.

The primary effects of cannabinoids are exercised over the central nervous system and cause lack of physical effort motivation and a weakening of the psychomotor system, memory and perception in the short term. Regarding to the physiological effects, cannabinoids cause tachycardia, bronchodilation and a greater blood flow to the limbs. The chronic consumption of cannabinoids could produce the destruction of CB1 brain receptors, giving as a result a blood flow shortening and a decrease in the glucose and oxygen supply to the brain what could produce attention déficit, memory lose and a deteriorated learning capacity.

Finally, it should be noted that since the beginning of 2018 Cannabidiol(CBD) stopped being considered as a ilegal substance by the WADA. We will talk deeper about it in following posts.






1 comment: