Do the products contain cannabinoids?

In short, the answer is no. But in the aim to increase the knowledge and understanding of the clients, and to promote confidence in our products, we can explain further.

Oncology care products are often misleadingly linked to psychoactive cannabinoids, as the one found in the plant Cannabis sativa.

However, the cannabinoid family is much larger; in addition to those in the Cannabis plant (only one of which is psychoactive), there are two other classes of cannabinoids -the synthetic cannabinoids and the endogenous cannabinoids, or endocannabinoids.

Thus the cannabinoid system is very complex, including different mediators (plant-derived, synthetic and endogenous), various types of targets (cannabinoid receptors and others), multi-signal pathways and a lot of ion channels. A thorough understanding requires considerable background in immunology and neurology.

In recent decades, the endocannabinoid system has attracted considerable attention as a potential therapeutic target in numerous physiological conditions, such as in energy balance, appetite stimulation, blood pressure, pain modulation, embryogenesis, nausea and vomiting control, memory, learning and immune response, as well as in pathological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.

The Again Life Italia products contain FAG® (patented Fatty Acid Group) a formulation of natural Fatty Acids which at the topical level, promotes the regulation of the inflammatory reaction through modulating the release of inflammatory mediators and angiogenesis-promoting factors, while binding, among others, to cannabinoid and vanilloid receptors of mast cells, macrophages and keratinocytes. These activities lead to a decrease in clinical signs (pain, itching, redness, etc.) by reducing inflammation, a decrease in the thickness of lesions and to the re-instauration of physiological apoptosis, normal cell replacement and regulation of angiogenesis.

One ingredient of the FAG® formulation for the oncological support line is PEA (Palmitoylethanolamid), which belongs to the class of the NAE phospholipids, which also includes the first endocannabinoid to be discovered. PEA was firstly isolated from soy lecithin, egg yolk, and peanut meal (Ganley et al.,1958; Petrosino and Di Marzo, 2017). While PEA is technically a non-endocannabinoid lipid mediator (does not bind itself directly to the cannabinoid receptors but promotes the binding of others), both preclinical and clinical studies indicate that PEA is potentially useful in a wide range of therapeutic areas, including eczema, pain, and neurodegeneration.

To further clarify, endocannabinoids are substances that occur naturally in our body and control the activity of the mast cell and nerve fibers. Due to the increased stress to which the tissue and the nerve fibers are exposed during chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy, the body can no longer produce these substances themselves. FAG® regulates the mast cell activity by supplying the required natural substances which will help restore system functionality.