Metabolite Encyclopedia › Endocannabinoid system
Anandamide is your body’s own version of the compound in cannabis. Your cells build it when they need it, it reaches the same receptors, and an enzyme destroys it within minutes.
- Also calledAEA, the bliss molecule
- Made inCell membranes, on demand
- Built fromArachidonic acid and ethanolamine
- Signals viaCB1 and CB2 receptors
Three things worth knowing
The name is literal. It was isolated in 1992 by a team working with Raphael Mechoulam and named from ananda, the Sanskrit word for joy or bliss. It is one of the few molecules in biochemistry whose name is a value judgment.
It is built on a timer and destroyed on one. An enzyme called FAAH breaks anandamide down within minutes. Nothing is held in reserve. That short lifespan is the whole design: the body’s own cannabinoid signaling is a brief local message in one place, not a state that spreads and lingers.
A fungus makes it too. Black truffles contain anandamide, along with enzymes from the same signaling system. A molecule named for human bliss, found in something that grows underground and has no nervous system at all.
Same receptor, different clock
Where you meet it in food
- Cocoa
- Dark chocolate
- Black truffles
Anandamide really has been measured in chocolate and in truffles. The amounts are tiny and eating them is not a way to raise your own levels. What is interesting is that it turns up in food at all.
Questions people actually ask
Is anandamide the same as THC?
No. They act on the same receptors, which is why THC works at all, but anandamide is made by your own cells and broken down within minutes. THC comes from a plant and stays in the body far longer.
Does anandamide make you feel high?
Not in the way the name suggests. It is released in small amounts, in specific places, for a short time. The nickname describes where it was found rather than what it feels like.
What is the runner's high theory?
Endorphins were the long-standing explanation, but they are too large to pass from blood into the brain. Anandamide is not, and it rises with sustained exercise, which is why it is now the leading candidate.
Is it found in mushrooms?
It appears in AHARA's metabolomic map of its Reishi and Lion's Mane elixirs. It has also been measured directly in black truffles, which are fungi.
Anandamide is one of more than 2,000 metabolites AHARA mapped across its Reishi and Lion's Mane elixirs. You can browse the rest of what is in the bottle.
Open the Metabolite EncyclopediaReferences
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