Marijuana cannabinoids slow brain degradation and aging, reverse dementia

[kentuck]

http://www.realfarmacy.com/marijuana-cannabinoids-slow-brain-degradation-and-aging-reverse-dementia/

<snip>
The human brain contains an extensive network of special receptor sites that modulate nervous system function only when activated by the appropriate cannabinoid compounds, many of which are found in abundance in the marijuana plant. And emerging research continues to uncover the unique role these cannabinoids play in protecting brain function, which in turn helps deter the aging process and even reverse the damaging effects of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia and cognitive abnormality.

One of the latest discoveries concerning cannabinoids involves their ability to act as antioxidants in the brain. Researchers from Germany found that the brain’s cannabinoid system is fully capable of not only cleansing damaged brain cells from the brain, but also triggering the production of new brain cells within the brain, a concept that contradicts years of conventional thinking about how the brain works. Cannabinoids also supercharge mitochondria in the brain, which are the powerhouses of energy that maintain proper cell function.

Published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, these discoveries shed new insight on how natural marijuana cannabinoids hold the capacity to literally quell the brain inflammation responsible for causing cognitive decline, neural failure, and brain degeneration. By supplying these receptor sites with cannabinoids, patients may be able to overcome brain conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and many other conditions, not to mention premature brain aging, all conditions for which modern science has failed to find real solutions.


.....more

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. DU Rec

[silverweb]

2. K&R

[immoderate]

3. Solace!

--imm

[redwitch]

4. Cannabinoids is one of my favorite words.

Pot also relieves Crohn's disease sufferers. But big pharma can't make a big fat profit so people are doomed to seek it at risk of being criminals. What a country!

[tridim]

11. Epilepsy too.

Last edited Sat May 25, 2013, 03:18 PM - Edit history (1)

In dogs and humans.

Stewie knows for a fact that Cannabis is a 90% cure for some dogs with severe, crippling epilepsy.

[Dustlawyer]

19. I suffer from small fiber sensory neuropathy, the most painful type of neuropathy.

From the knees down to my feet I have lost a lot of normal sensation (barely feel ice water or hot water) but instead, the short circuited nerves send different types of pain sensations. They are always very sore and sometimes feels like my feet are on fire, fire ants all over, severe sudden electric shocks like from a cattle prod... I have had this for years and unfortunately, I am allergic to most of the medications they use for this. I have been on 12 hour Oxycodine and Vicoden HP; 12 hour Morphene and the max 300 ml Lyrica (anti-seizure drug that works for nerve pain); and a new one called Opana which at my last visit the dose was doubled, plus Lyrica and Tramodol. All of these put me to sleep, weight gain, severe memory loss, bowel trouble, swelling of hands and feet, and shortens my life expectancy due to the strain on my liver and kidneys! I have a neural stimulator implanted in my spine that turns on/off by waving a magnet over it. Despite all of that I still hurt bad and cannot sleep much despite being dead on my feet. I can no longer handle a docket at the firm where I work and have been worried about being let go and losing the crappy insurance.
Pot is the only thing that allows me to experience being pain free, yet I will be piss tested next Tuesday and my doctor will let me go if I ever fail the test. I am treated like a pill head when they see the scripts at the pharmacy. I am constantly running out of this med or the other b/c the insurance will approve it only with week or less left an my doctors office is never in a hurry. I have had many a long weekend in agony b/c of our jacked up health care system. I used to smoke in college before I got sick. A couple of years ago someone gave me half a joint. I smoked some that night and literally cried. I had not spent 1 minute pain free in years! Our medical and political system are unbelievably F'd up! There is another treatment for my condition that I am tod would return me to NORMAL! They can do it at home by IV and it takes 30 minutes a pop. You start with 1 treatment a day for 4 days, then 1 every 2 months for life. The catch is that it costs $30,000.00 per treatment! What a country!

[SomethingFishy]

25. Your doctor is drug testing you?

You need a new doctor. I don't even see how that is legal.

[Mopar151]

28. SOP for chronic pain/opoid prescriptions these days

Yes, it's stupid - what happens when narcs practice medicine

[RainDog]

65. What happens when federal drug warriors

go into the drug testing business once they're out of govt. where they've created policy to benefit their company.

Former DEA Chiefs May Profit From Illegal Pot, Critics Say

Peter Bensinger

Former DEA head (1976-1982), who went on to become a drug testing pusher with Robert DuPont, focusing on drug testing in the workplace. He’s President and Chief Executive Officer of Bensinger, DuPont & Associates (BDA), and is a major supporter of the DEA museum exhibits.

Robert DuPont

DuPont was the first director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and was White House Drug Chief from 1973 to 1978. He is co-founder of Bensinger, DuPont & Associates (BDA) — a company that specializes in workplace drug testing.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/03/08/former-dea-chiefs-may-profit-from-illegal-pot-critics-say

Two of the former Drug Enforcement Agency officials who came out (in March) urging the federal government to nullify new state pot laws in Washington and Colorado are facing criticism for simultaneously running a company that may profit from keeping marijuana illegal.

Robert L. DuPont, who was White House drug czar under Presidents Nixon and Ford, and Peter Bensinger, who was administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration in the 1970s, today run Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, a company that specializes in workplace drug testing, among other employee programs. Both men signed an open (along with eight other former DEA officials) addressed to Senate Judiciary Committee members this week criticizing the Obama administration for failing to quickly address the new states laws legalizing pot, which are inconsistent with federal law.

[Dustlawyer]

64. It is SOP. Her nurse told me that my random tests would be every 3 months.

[bettyellen]

38. Would medical tourism a possibility for this treatment?

[Dustlawyer]

63. My girlfriend and I have discussed it but nothing can happen until after the BP oil spill

case is concluded. France is my 1st choice so far but I really need to do some detailed research and compare options. It seems the only way to go. I have been praying for single payer. Thanks for your concern.

[Hekate]

66. Have you considered Amsterdam, the Netherlands?

They used to be wide open for recreational drug use, though since it is not my thing I have not followed it.

I have to say that every time I read something about France's educational and medical systems I just about want to cry myself.

In your situation I would definitely be researching Western European nations with an eye to leaving our backward country. Every place has its pros and cons, but I certainly wish you all the best.

[redwitch]

39. I am so, so sorry!

Nobody should hurt like you are hurting when there is a treatment to fix it. What a country indeed.

[Hekate]

67. Don't know if this would help, but it might be worth a try

Some personal background:

My mother lived with chronic pain from a back injury in the early 1960s, and then back in the late 1970s/early 1980s she dealt with a cancer of the external genitals that was treated partly with in-patient surgery and then for-practically-ever with follow-ups with laser surgery in the office. It hurt like bloody hell for (iirc) years.

I remember that on her own she got into a program that worked with pain management via meditation and visualization. There was the "ice glove", things like that. She made her own tape. It helped her a great deal at the time.

You might give the Sounds True online catalog a look, specifically for Shinzen Young's cds on pain relief. There's one called Break Through Pain, another just Pain Relief. These are not cures, and they are not touted as cures. But they can help. Young uses Vipassana meditation techniques.

I took a look at some of the customer reviews at Amazon.com, and while one person complained that the 2006 CD for Break Through Pain was a watered down version of her old cassettes from 1997, everyone else felt the CD and book together were very useful.

I wish you all the luck in the world.

Hekate

http://www.amazon.com/Break-Through-Pain-Step-Step/dp/1591791995/ref=tag_dpp_lp_edpp_ttl_in

http://www.soundstrue.com/shop/search?querySort=bestsellers&queryFilter=All&searchTerm=shinzen+young&queryDomain=author&queryType=All+Products

[indepat]

24. History will likely regard the government's long-term position on the cannabis issue as

flagrantly felonious, sadistically inhumane, and meaningfully ignorant.

[sakabatou]

5. Marijuana: is there anything it can't do?

[JDPriestly]

16. Ditto. The miracle drug of all time (sarcasm).

[SomethingFishy]

26. Remove the sarcasm tag and you might be right..

You can deny it all you want, pot is a miracle plant. On top of it's PROVEN MEDICAL QUALITIES, pot can also make paper, rope, clothing, oil, food. Find me another drug that can do all of that. Shit finds me another plant that can do all of that. It can create jobs, income and tax revenue. Yes there are hundreds of plants, maybe even thousands that have all of those qualities... NOT.

You anti-pot people have lost...to the facts. Get over it.

[kelliekat44]

43. Are "flashbacks" considered remembering? lol nt

[SomethingFishy]

54. I have been waiting for my flashbacks for 30 years...

Not a one. Not a single free buzz. I'm quite angry about that. I was promised by the government that if I did certain drugs I would have "flashbacks". Well I did a shitload in my youth and I didn't get a damn thing...

[ismnotwasm]

52. I'm not anti-pot

I want it legalized (yesterday) and every potential benefit explored.

I simply don't believe it's a panacea for all ills. It is a drug, a combination of chemicals like any other substance we put in our bodies. Not everyone is going to have the same reaction. As long as the medical information stays safe and out of woo, I'm good with it. My husband has multiple sclerosis, and there may come a time where he chooses medical marijuana over, say baclofen. That doesn't mean he should drive on either drug.

I'm a transplant nurse, and despite the benefits of pot on pain and stimulating appetite, it's a no go to be transplanted if you're a pot smoker. You have to quit to be listed. Why? Pot is a plant and plants carry fungus and mold types that can kill you once you are immunosuppressed. It's also, whether true or false, associated with general type of partying--also not congruent with being listed for a organ. I don't need my patients being fed false information that leads them to death.

Marijuana advocates need to keep their information accurate and stay out of woo. We want the government involved in standardization for medical research, but what about recreational use? Or do we want to grow it under our own lights?

(BTW My favorite dress is a combo of hemp and silk)

[SomethingFishy]

53. I agree with you 100%.

It is not the be all end all of everything. It's like anything else, but the fact is the pros way outweigh the cons, and the only reason it is illegal is because someone is making money of it being illegal. Whether it's private prisons, big pharma or big tobacco and alcohol..

[ismnotwasm]

55. My daughter was a prison guard for a while

A Mens mid-security--After she got out of the military. (It's a shit job don't let anyone tell you different) She leans to the right just far enough not to lose her sanity. She told me that the only way to fix our prison system is to revise drug laws, starting with legalizing pot. My SIL, who leans even a little farther over the dark side, and still works in the prison industry, completely agrees.

[SomethingFishy]

56. When we were legalizing here in Colorado there were ads running

with Cops, Judges, Lawyers, all advocating legalization. I think those ads may have even put us over the top.. Like I said the pros outweigh the cons by far.

Your daughter is gutsy. Military service and a Prison Guard? Sounds like folks should pay attention to her.

[ismnotwasm]

58. Ha!

Now she's got a daycare and my grand babies. She's still a badass though--oh, and Washington State here; trailblazing states that got it right. I expect an influx of people wanting to spent their money in Colorado and Washington.

[whistler162]

35. Right up there with snake oil!

[sakabatou]

41. What a great analogy!

[Bennyboy]

6. I know this from experience.

My dad would puff every night at 5 PM. For two hours he was pleasant, funny, coherent and okay to be around. The other times he was a dementia patient that did not know his own neighborhood. he was mean, violent and a horrible horrible human being. But come 5 oclock, he wasn't.

I have a friend who's wife is a dementia patient and I try to get him to give her a cookie. "Do you want your wife back, if only for a little while?" But he is so old school that he refuses,even though for the past 20 years or so the pharma industry has ruined her mind. She has been on Morphine and other opioids for ever and ever and now she is a total zombie.

[Gregorian]

15. Incredible.

In an attempt to solve a physical problem I was having, I quit smoking pot. And from that day until now I've been fighting to regain the health I had.

I believe I suffered from alcohol, which I quit. But quitting cannabis was problematic.

[TeamPooka]

7. hemp and cannabis can save the world...if we let it.

[In_The_Wind]

9. +1

[madokie]

8. Reply so I can find this later

[tridim]

10. It is a crime that this herb is illegal.

Maybe we should start arresting the drug warriors.

[spartan61]

12. I would have given up everything I own,

including my right arm, to have been able to give my husband cannabinoids to help cure his brain cancer, but instead he died. I truly believe this plant can cure almost everything (See UTube "Run from the Cure&quot but large pharma and politicians are stopping it. Everything is all about the money and to hell with peoples' lives.

[vanlassie]

13. Those Rastafarians will outlive us all!

Jah Mon! Eyirie Eyeits!!

[Cooley Hurd]

14. Pot KILLS - if you text about it...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022899516

[Initech]

17. Marijuana: nature's cure all!

[Skidmore]

29. And it will clean your house and

cut your hair for you too.

[otohara]

48. Actually Cleaning House

after a hit or two is a much more pleasant experience....sure i walk around in circles a teeny weeny bit, but it gets done eventually and I tend to do a better job.

[DeSwiss]

18. K&R

[retread]

20. What was the question? Oh I know, I know!! Blue!!

[wordpix]

21. I don't know - my mother has advanced Alzheimer's

Maybe it would have helped when she was in middle stage and still able to understand off and on. But now she wouldn't be able to understand, "Hold it in."

I agree it would probably be very helpful to Alz. patients who are violent. My mother was that way for awhile, again in mid-stage, b/c she thought there were people trying to kill her. She would grab knives and so on to protect herself from the "bad men" she was hallucinating, who weren't there.

[NightWatcher]

22. Make some brownies or marijuana butter

Then put the butter on anything and enjoy.

[felix_numinous]

23. Truly the wonder drug of our time

--I find it ironic that this herb has turned out to be so beneficial after all the years of misinformation.

I know after an evening and night of loading up on this medicine (in the form of oil), I awaken clear as a bell, with excellent recall and ability to tackle the day's tasks. I am taking it for cancer, but have noticed many 'side' benefits from choosing this herb to live with--one of which is on the mental level. I appreciate this one especially, since my mother and her sister have advanced dementia. My older siblings complain about their memory (a lot of this is stress) and I wish there was a way they could take this herb.

One of the biggest obstacles in taking cannabis is the often strong psychoactive effects. Prohibition forced growers to create hybrids that were extremely high in THC in order to smuggle smaller amounts of it for recreational use. I never really enjoyed these super intense varieties ("couch lock'--no thanks!) i think the same thing happened with alcohol prohibition and the proliferation of 'white lightening' being smuggled about.

With legalization, I hope and believe that milder hybrids can return to the mainstream--ones that are relaxing, enjoyable--still containing all the (non psychoactive) good medicine--'walking around' pot With legalization, we can have a CHOICE in what herb to take, not just accept (and be ever so grateful) for whatever mystery weed gets smuggled in from who knows where.

Just some thoughts, thank you for posting this Kentuck!!

[Blanks]

40. You're right milder hybrids will be available...

It is odd to me that everyone is fighting to prevent the government from 'taking their guns', but don't bat an eye that the government forbids certain plants in your herb garden.

It really doesn't make any sense.

[defacto7]

27. My anti-aging recipe keeps expanding....

With all the new discoveries of anti-dementia chemicals and foods, my daily recipe is constantly being updated.

So now every night I mix....

1 c. Blueberries
1 Tbsp. pure ground Cinnamon
1/2 cup of dry oats
8 oz. of Champagne

I have thought of smoking a joint before I eat this to actually help me swallow this horrible concoction, but now I have a healthy reason to do it!

[bettyellen]

32. have the champagne at night with some berries, and the oatmeal with cinnamoned apples for breakfast!

The joint is up to you, depending on what else is going on that day.

[defacto7]

36. Oh, thank you....

I never was much good at cooking.

I had thought about snorting the cinnamon up my nose but that would probably be a mistake.

[Blanks]

42. Snorting the blueberries would be the thing to avoid.

[WinkyDink]

30. Slowly we are re-discovering the knowledge of the distant past.

[niyad]

31. gee, and it has far fewer side effects than aricept

[bettyellen]

33. Aricept was such a god send for a few years. It brought my Mom back for a while and we knew it was

only going to arrest it for a few years, but they were priceless.

[niyad]

34. I am so glad it helped your mother. however, it nearly killed a friend of mine.

[bettyellen]

37. Tks, I was fortunate enough to shoe horn her into a program with amazing doctors,- geriatric

pschychiatrists. They really have to look at the whole medical history and all the currecnt problems and do a lot of testing and calibration of meds. So much can go wrong- they made those last 10 years or so she had, much less stressful. But it was plenty stressful anyway. AZ is horrible.

[malaise]

44. All together now

[Cooley Hurd]

45. After all, he was the Bush Doctor!

[malaise]

46. LOL

[snort]

47. And I just cleaned my bowl.

Perhaps a Bluebird will alight upon my shoulder this fine morning and sing me a bit of a song (bluebird 'cause its blueberry. Hmmm, good thing I'm not smoking something red, because then a cardinal would land on my shoulder and it would probably just peck my fucking eyeballs out).

[mainer]

49. An even more convincing paper from Scripps research institute

http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/2006/080906.html

I don't know what the Royal Society B is, but the Scripps paper is highly credible

"LA JOLLA, CA, August 9, 2006 - Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have found that the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, inhibits the formation of amyloid plaque, the primary pathological marker for Alzheimer's disease. In fact, the study said, THC is "a considerably superior inhibitor of [amyloid plaque] aggregation" to several currently approved drugs for treating the disease.

The study was published online August 9 in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, a publication of the American Chemical Society.

According to the new Scripps Research study, which used both computer modeling and biochemical assays, THC inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE), which acts as a "molecular chaperone" to accelerate the formation of amyloid plaque in the brains of Alzheimer victims. Although experts disagree on whether the presence of beta-amyloid plaques in those areas critical to memory and cognition is a symptom or cause, it remains a significant hallmark of the disease. With its strong inhibitory abilities, the study said, THC "may provide an improved therapeutic for Alzheimer's disease" that would treat "both the symptoms and progression" of the disease.

"While we are certainly not advocating the use of illegal drugs, these findings offer convincing evidence that THC possesses remarkable inhibitory qualities, especially when compared to AChE inhibitors currently available to patients," said Kim Janda, Ph.D., who is Ely R. Callaway, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Scripps Research, a member of The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, and director of the Worm Institute of Research and Medicine. "In a test against propidium, one of the most effective inhibitors reported to date, THC blocked AChE-induced aggregation completely, while the propidium did not. Although our study is far from final, it does show that there is a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which THC may directly affect the progression of Alzheimer's disease."

[RainDog]

50. Royal Society: Biology

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society still in existence.

Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London". The Society today acts as a scientific advisor to the British government, receiving a parliamentary grant-in-aid. The Society acts as the UK's Academy of Sciences, and funds research fellowships and scientific start-up companies.

Proceedings of the Royal Society is the parent title of two scientific journals published by the Royal Society. Originally a single journal, it was split into two separate journals in 1905:

Series A, which publishes research related to mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Series B, which publishes research related to biology

The two journals are currently the Royal Society's main research journals. Many celebrated names in science have published their research in Proc. R. Soc., including Paul Dirac, Werner Heisenberg, James Clerk Maxwell, Ernest Rutherford, and Erwin Schrödinger.

(via wiki)

[SidDithers]

51. More from realfarmacy...

Prevent and Treat Diabetes with Zinc, Cinnamon, and Turmeric

http://www.realfarmacy.com/prevent-and-treat-diabetes-with-zinc-cinnamon-and-turmeric


On the Internet, medical woo sites abound.

Sid

[whatchamacallit]

57. I can't vouch for the quality of the site, but I'm curious

do you believe any natural substances can have a positive effect on disease, or must it be something engineered for profit in big pharma labs?

[SidDithers]

62. The quality of the site is what I'm addressing...

The site is any anti-vax, anti-fluoridation medical woo site.

If the info about the study is available from a reputable source, such as the Royal Society link provided below, lets direct traffic to that site, instead of the one that publishes crap like:

"How Angelina Jolie was duped by cancer doctors into self mutilation for breast cancer she never had"

Sid

[RainDog]

59. The article they cite comes from the foremost scientific asso. in Britain

this organization - http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/

Each issue of Philosophical Transactions B is devoted to a specific area of the biological sciences, and aims to define a research frontier that is advancing rapidly, often bridging traditional disciplines. Each issue is guest edited by one or more experts in the field. All contributions are invited and the journal does not accept unsolicited stand-alone papers.

The Royal Society is the equivalent of the National Academy of Sciences in the U.S. The most prestigious scientific organization in the UK.

Here's a link to the introduction to the Society's Report on the cutting edge of endocannabinoid research:

Endocannabinoids in nervous system health and disease

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/site/2012/endocannabinoids.xhtml

The link also has a video that talks about the journal issue and the focus of research.

You can't just dismiss something because information appears in one context. You need to look at the information itself to determine whether the information is woo or is, in fact, one of the major topics/questions in scientific research.

Here's an article that discusses the issue from a peer-reviewed journal:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17140265

A molecular link between the active component of marijuana and Alzheimer's disease pathology.

Abstract
Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia among the elderly, and with the ever-increasing size of this population, cases of Alzheimer's disease are expected to triple over the next 50 years. Consequently, the development of treatments that slow or halt the disease progression have become imperative to both improve the quality of life for patients and reduce the health care costs attributable to Alzheimer's disease. Here, we demonstrate that the active component of marijuana, Delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), competitively inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as well as prevents AChE-induced amyloid beta-peptide (Abeta) aggregation, the key pathological marker of Alzheimer's disease. Computational modeling of the THC-AChE interaction revealed that THC binds in the peripheral anionic site of AChE, the critical region involved in amyloidgenesis. Compared to currently approved drugs prescribed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, THC is a considerably superior inhibitor of Abeta aggregation, and this study provides a previously unrecognized molecular mechanism through which cannabinoid molecules may directly impact the progression of this debilitating disease.

[SidDithers]

60. Why are we linked to realfarmacy, then...

Why link to an anti-vax, anti-fluoridation medical woo site, instead of The Royal Society?

My issue is not with the information contained in the OP, but with the promotion of sites that provide misleading, and often dangerous, medical advice.

Sid

[RainDog]

61. okay

it's not my op, not what I would do, but would've been more exacting on your part to post information about the source so others would learn something, too.