Transcriber: Almudena Torrecilla
Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs When I was 33 years old, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. And like so many who've gone before me, that diagnosis changed my life. It changed the way I look at the world. And it led me to two very common questions that one starts to ask when diagnosed
with a life-threathening illness. How did this happen? And what do I do now? Now this isn't a story
about self blame. These are just common
and natural questions that come from many in times like these. I actually found the questions empowering. This is actually a story about how those
two questions led to a realization that I think can help
to change the conversation around what means to be and stay healthy. So back to my first question: how did this happen? See, (Sigh) I felt like I had done
everything right. What do I mean by that? Well, if I ask you, what does
it mean to be healthy, to live a healthy lifestyle? What kind of answers do you get? Regular exercise? Balanced diet? Taking your vitamins? Annual checkups? Limiting toxic exposure to chemicals,
personal care products? Well, by all of these
accounts, I was healthy. I had done the work. So I was angry, and I was frustrated that I'd followed the rules
and I still found myself sick. Now, I had a friend
who a few years earlier had been diagnosed with breast cancer. And when it came to being healthy, she put everyone I know to shame. So I knew she would understand
how I was feeling. When we got together,
she told me something that would eventually change the way
I think about health. She told me that her journey
had taken her to a place where she believed whole-heartedly that she had not in fact
been truly healthy. Not at a whole person level because
she'd overlooked taking care of herself at the level of her thoughts
and her emotions. So what she was saying
had some subjective merit to me because I can relate to suppressing
my own thoughts and emotions maybe in order to please others, or taking on the stress
of trying to juggle a thousand things. But then the pragmatist in me just wanted to brush that off
as a little too woo-woo. Then again I had, you know, tackled all of these. And here she was standing
right in front of me, the picture of health and vitality. So what could it hurt
to look into this a little further? So down I went through
rabbit hole number one: mind-body medicine. And for those who of you don't know, mind-body medicine
studies how our mind, mood, thoughts and emotion affect our body. So that would be things like
stress management, stress reduction, like going for a walk in nature,
unplugging from technology, getting a massage, meditation, (Sigh) mindful breath-work, and thought and belief awareness. So this would be something as simple
as being more mindful of our thoughts, or something more concrete
like cognitive behavioral therapy, where you become actively aware
of your thoughts and behaviors and then replace them
with more positive alternatives that in turn elicit
more positive emotions. I also started delving into stories that highlight the mind's ability
to affect the body. Like the peer-reviewed account
documented by Dr. Klockner in 1959 about a man who he called Mr. Wright. Mr. Wright was diagnosed
with terminal cancer and given only days to live. With tumors the size of oranges
he had heard or a horse serum that was said to be effective
against cancer and he begged to receive it. His physician, Dr. Philip West,
reluctantly agreed but was astonished to find
less than a week later his patient was out of his death bed
and joking with his nurses. Now, this went on for months until Mr. Wright read a newspaper article stating that the serum was a quack remedy and he suffered an immediate relapse. Now, Dr. West, testing out a hypothesis, said: "Well, don't believe everything
you read in the papers," and then he proceeded
to inject him with what he said was a super-refined, double-strength
version of the drug. Really it was water.
But again, the tumors melted away. Mr. Wright was the picture of health
and vitality for another two months until he read what he felt
was a definitive report stating that the serum was worthless,
and he died days later. Now, this is just one of thousands
and thousands of examples that highlight how the mind
can affect the body. And, so I had my anecdotal evidence, which
included the example of my own friend, and I'd like to say that I took
what I learned and put it into practice and lived happily ever after. Of course, that's not what happened. And I don't think I'm alone in that, because many of us hear about how stress
and emotions can affect our health and how mindfulness meditation
can make a difference in our lives and all of that, but many of us also
don't do anything about it. I had the stories and the theories, but what I really needed
was hard evidence, science to prove that it was true. I mean, we've all grown up
in a world of, you know, Newtonian, science-based thinking, meaning if we can't see it
or measure it, then it's not real. So I, like maybe, maybe many of you, didn't start to put these ideas
into practice just yet. What I did, and this is now getting into
the second of the two questions that I alluded to earlier,
the "What do I do now?". What I did is I started using
medical cannabis at the recommendation
of my nurse and other patients. And it helped immensely with pain
and nausea and anxiety and all of the really fun staff
that come along with cancer treatment. I also started joining online
medical cannabis user communities. And I was in awe at the spectrum of issues
that cannabis was helping with. Intractable illnesses that weren't
responding to other forms of treatment, like MS, fibromyalgia, PTSD,
Tourette syndrome, IBS, epilepsy, chronic pain, autoimmune
diseases ... I could keep going. The list goes on. But I started to wonder, how was it
that cannabis was helping with all of these unrelated conditions, because I can't think of another
medication out there that would be able to help
with so many illnesses. So how did it work? Well, down I went
through rabbit hole number two, and this was a deep hole. In a nutshell, I learned that the reason that cannabis was working
for so many different conditions is because it interacts directly with
our body's own endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system is
a little known but massive bodily system responsible for maintaining homeostasis,
that's balance, in the body. It consists of a network of
neurotransmitters called endocannabinoids as well as receptor sites, the most well-known being the CB1 and CB2
receptors, and enzymes. Think of it kind of like
the traffic lights of a city, keeping the streets moving smoothly. But if a light goes out anywhere,
it will cause problems. Congestion, confusion. Cars and people will keep moving,
but without the guidance and the rules, the flow just won't be as efficient
and far more susceptible to accidents. It's actually been called the most
prolific and integrative system in human health and homeostasis, and even dubbed
our body's own master system because of its role in maintaining balance
among all the other systems of the body. Now, this is important because all illness
can in fact essentially be boiled down to some sort of imbalance in the body, whether genetically induced or otherwise. Now, if you haven't heard of this system
before, you're not alone. And if you are hearing about it
for the first time, you may be wondering why on earth you haven't heard of this
epically important system until now. And it's partly because it's newly
discovered in around the 1980s, but also partly because
of the stigma around cannabis, for which the system is named. Because scientists discovered the system when they were trying to answer
that same question: "how does cannabis work?" So they learned that compounds in the
cannabis plant called phytocannabinoids actually fit near perfectly
with the receptor sites of the endocannabinoid system. So used properly, this plant
can help to activate, tone and support the endocannabinoid
system when it's out of balance. So it's a pretty amazing plant. To say I became obsessed with
cannabis and the endocannabinoid system is an understatement. I buried myself in research papers,
lectures, courses, certifications, learning everything I could about cannabis as well as ways to keep
the endocananbinoid system itself healthy and balanced. Because while it's easy to say, "wow, look at this amazing
plant that we have; it's able to help
with all these chronic conditions and balance the body," and obviously I believe that; I've dedicated part of my life
to spreading the message that cannabis is medicine. But it's equally important
to look beyond cannabis as a single cure. Because when you look closer, you'll see
that cannabis is an important ally, but it's only part of the puzzle. So, let's use that example again
as the endocannabinoid system and the traffic lights. Except for in this scenario, cannabis
is like the friendly police officer that comes in to direct traffic
when the lights are out. So the officer's doing their best, and certainly it's helping to keep traffic
moving in a more organized manner, but we still have to figure out
or at least try to figure out how to fix the lights. So how do we go about fixing the lights? How do we support and heal
the endocannabinoid system when it's out of balance? Well, it just so happens
that one review study in particular looked at 325 other studies that all focused on what helped
and hindered the endocannabinoid system by focusing on key
endocannabinoid health factors, and here's what they learned
directly affect the system. Exercise, and notice I wrote
"Pleasurable Exercise" there - it has to be something
that you enjoy doing. Okay? Diet and supplements.
So a couple examples that I'll give you. Herbs and spices contain
small amounts of phytocannabinoids, the same compound that cannabis contains. And certain healthy fats can actually
help your body to synthesize its own endocannabinoids. Environmental exposures. So some pesticides will actually
downregulate the endocannabinoid system, have a direct effect with it. There are a few others
I'm going to share with you. But before I do, I just want to bring
your attention to a sentence that really jumped out at me
when I was reading this study. It said that the endocannabinoid system represents a microcosm
of psychoneuroimmunology. And I had to look that last word up. In case some of you don't know,
I'm going to break it down. Psychoneuroimmunology is the study of the interaction
between the psychological processes, "the mind," and the systems
of the body, "the body." So really it's just a fancy way of saying
that metaphorically speaking, the endocannabinoid system represents
a microcosm of mind-body medicine. So now hopefully you can see
where this is all coming full circle and coming together, I hope. Because here's what else was shown
to affect the endocannabinoid system: Chronic stress. So they looked at stress from pain as well as stress
from thoughts and emotions, so repeated feelings
like anger, guilt, depression - something that is chronic
means more long-term. That was shown to significantly impact
the endocannabinoid system. And activities that elicit
the relaxation response. So that would be, again,
kind of that walk in nature or doing some yoga, getting a massage. They consider osteopathic
manipulation in that study. So why does this matter? Well, I said before that we live
in a physical world, so for many of us if we can't see it
and measure it, then it's not real. I told about how I had heard stories
about how the mind can affect the body, but I still didn't give it the same weight
that I would give to nutrition and movement and medicine. But when I understood
that my own endocannabinoid system, my master system for maintaining
health and homeostasis, required me to start taking care
of my thoughts, my emotions, my stress, my beliefs, it finally clicked for me. So I want to leave you
with a scenario to imagine, an idea of how this information can help
to change the conversation around health, like I said in the beginning. Imagine if the message that we heard from
our physicians and public health officials sounded like this: "Listen, what if I told you that there's
this really important bodily system, call it a master system, and if you can keep it functioning well, it can do wonders in allowing your body
to innately keep itself healthy, heal itself and improve the quality of life for those
with biological and genetic illnesses." If I told you there was
a system like that, would you want to know
how to keep it strong and healthy? And I think most would answer yes to that. And then they would go on to say, "Great,
so think of this system like a stool. Each of the legs represents
all that's required to keep the system functioning well. And here's why we compare it to a stool. Each of those legs is an integral part
of keeping that stool stable and balanced. If we remove a leg, or even shorten a leg,
the whole stool starts to wobble and becomes less efficient,
less stable, less balanced. So let's design a plan for you
that incorporates all of these concepts as part of a healthy lifestyle." Imagine. Not only is that proactive,
but it's empowering. And I invite all of you to consider
where your stool is wobbling. It's been said that mindfulness could be
the next great public health revolution. I believe it's only a matter of time
before mindfulness, stress reduction, thought-belief awareness is every bit
as important as seeing your doctor, taking your vitamins, eating a balanced
diet and getting regular exercise. And maybe the endocannabinoid system
can help to catalyze that. It's my hope that the more we understand
the ramifications of this master system, the more we'd be willing to develop
a truly integrated approach to whole personal health. Who would have thought
that cannabis, the gateway drug, could actually form part of the gateway to
the next great public health revolution? Thank you. (Applause)
