Marijuana May Grow Neurons in the Brain

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SETIsLady
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Marijuana May Grow Neurons in the Brain

Post by SETIsLady » 10-15-2005 06:41 PM

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, Oct. 14 - Advocates for medical marijuana can take heart over the findings of two Canadian research teams.

A synthetic cannabinoid -- similar to the compounds found in marijuana, but substantially stronger -- causes the growth of new neurons and reduces anxiety and depression, investigators at the University of Saskatchewan here reported.

And researchers at the University of Calgary said they've found evidence that the brain contains so-called CB2 cannabinoid receptors, previously seen in immune tissue but thought not to exist in brain tissue. The discovery, they added, could lead to new drugs to treat nausea associated with cancer or AIDS.

Most so-called drugs of abuse -- such as alcohol or cocaine -- inhibit the growth of new neurons, according to Xia Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Saskatchewan.

"Only marijuana promotes neurogenesis," Dr. Zhang said.

The finding -- reported in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation -- does not involve smoked or ingested marijuana, but rather a synthetic compound dubbed HU-210, which Dr. Zhang said is 100 times as powerful as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound responsible for the highs experienced by recreational users.

Dr. Zhang and colleagues showed that administration of HU-210 in high but not low doses, not acutely but over a period of several weeks, promotes new neurons in the hippocampus of rats by causing neuronal progenitor cells to proliferate.

The new neurons were associated with a reduction in behaviour typical of anxiety and depression, such as unwillingness to eat in a novel situation.

When neuronal progenitor cells in the hippocampus were destroyed by x-rays, however, the HU-210 had no effect, Dr. Zhang said.

The finding is "exciting" because it offers the possibility of new ways to treat anxiety and depression, said Lisa Kalynchuk, Ph.D., also of the University of Saskatchewan. Dr. Kalynchuk, like Dr. Zhang a member of the university's neural systems and plasticity research group, was not part of the research team.

"It certainly shows that drugs that act on these cannabinoid receptors -- and that would include marijuana -- can have beneficial effects on brain and behaviour," she said.

At the University of Calgary, Keith Sharkey, Ph.D., and colleagues have for the first time showed that the cannabinoid receptor CB2 can be found in the brain stem of rats. What's more, they reported in the Oct. 14 issue of Science, manipulating the two cannabinoid receptors -- CB1 and CB2 -- blocked emesis in ferrets.

If it can be translated to humans, the finding has direct implications for several aspects of clinical care, Dr. Sharkey said, including:

Nausea and vomiting associated with diseases such as HIV/AIDS
Common physiological reactions, such as morning sickness
Better pain management

"We would be thinking of the implications of our finding (as) being able to develop novel anti-emetic therapeutics that would target this system and block emesis without having very many side effects," he said.

THC is known to be effective in the treatment of nausea and vomiting, and acts on neurons in the brainstem, Dr. Sharkey said. The researchers hypothesized that endocannabinoids -- endogenous compounds that resemble the active ingredient in marijuana -- might act at the CB2 receptor in the brainstem to reduce emesis.

Using morphine to stimulate vomiting in ferrets -- since rats do not vomit -- Dr. Sharkey and colleagues showed that endocannabinoids that preferentially target the CB2 receptor blocked vomiting better than compounds that prefer the CB1 receptor.

Dr. Sharkey said the well-known use of marijuana to treat nausea and vomiting probably relies at least partly on this newly discovered mechanism, although others may be involved.

In the long run, he said, the hazards associated with marijuana make it unattractive as a therapy. "This is a way to use the body's own systems that can perhaps enhance the benefits and reduce the costs a bit," he said.

The finding "gives us important and unexpected insights," said Raphael Mechoulam, Ph.D., of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was the first to isolate THC and later discovered the first endocannabinoid.

It "has changed the way we think about the flow of information within the brain, and how the brain communicates with other parts of the body," Dr. Mechoulam said in a statement.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/G ... gy/tb/1934

Linnea
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Post by Linnea » 10-15-2005 07:38 PM

Thank you for this article, SetisLady. I had to laugh at the quaint remonstrations that marijuana, raw and uncensored, was not to be considered for therapy. The pharmaceutical companies must redesign and remarket what occurs in nature. More and more in issues of health and nutrition - the message is to eat natural and plentiful foods, sans the chemicals which are sprayed on them and without the chemically contrived unnatural additives - and you will be healthy.

How much longer are we to suffer at the hands of the evil complicity of the shortsighted, the greedy and immoral, the corporations and stockholders?

It is a race, although a mysterious and not too reassuring one - to that event heralded to culminate in 2012 - in which the great turning point of human consciousness will arrive and roar forth in an affirmation of the continued co-creation and progress of the carbon life forms on planet earth - and a rapid falling away from type zero consciousness.

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Corvid
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Post by Corvid » 10-15-2005 10:12 PM

It works for me. :p

SETIsLady
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Post by SETIsLady » 10-15-2005 11:54 PM

It would seem the more the pharmaceutical companies want to "help" us the sicker we get. If some can be helped from Mother Nature I don't know why the government feels the need to make it illegal. So many things point to marijuana, being helpful yet the government wants to keep people from it. Seems to me we have much bigger issues than this to worry about.

This study was done in Canada, and really contradicts what we have been told. But we already knew that :)

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Post by Shirleypal » 10-16-2005 12:37 AM

It is all about money Linda, they can't make any if we are allowed to grow our own.

SETIsLady
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Post by SETIsLady » 10-16-2005 12:41 AM

yes, I know they make plenty of money on taxing my cigarettes :eek:

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Post by Shirleypal » 10-16-2005 12:45 AM

SETIsLady wrote: yes, I know they make plenty of money on taxing my cigarettes :eek:


I know but you are still better of than I am, $50.00 a carton here and I think my son in Ocala pays about $22.00 for Marlboros.

SETIsLady
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Post by SETIsLady » 10-16-2005 12:49 AM

Shirleypal wrote: I know but you are still better of than I am, .00 a carton here and I think my son in Ocala pays about .00 for Marlboros.

so true :) I pay about $25 for a carton. Ooops I hijacked my own thread ;)

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Post by palosheights » 10-16-2005 11:29 AM

i dropped off my 9 year old daughter by one her classmates house yesterday and was talking with her classmates mom and she mentioned that she and her husband were both pharmacists and i mentioned about how i read about the cost of pharmaceuticals and how it costs only a few pennies to formulate these drugs and she totally agreed and started off on a tangent on big business and other problems like the hole we are in with the economy and then she said 'i hate to sound like a conspiracy nut but' and then i asked if she had ever heard about rense and she said no and then gave her the rense site info and to check it out for herself. she and her husband were both in their mid thirties so many americans are starting to see the truth in the way things are really are.

andy

segasr544
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Post by segasr544 » 10-19-2005 09:21 PM

rense site???
what is this ,do you have an address?
waven a hand ,,around the world!!!

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Fred_Vobbe
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Post by Fred_Vobbe » 10-20-2005 10:11 AM

SETIsLady wrote: It would seem the more the pharmaceutical companies want to "help" us the sicker we get.


It's a business. Like a goods manufacturer who sells you a product where they calculate 33% or more of profits coming from you reinvesting in the product by purchasing necessary accessories or repairs.
scientia quod ethics super ususfructus

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SvladCjelli
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Post by SvladCjelli » 10-20-2005 11:46 AM

Thanks for the article, although humankind has known about the benefits of MJ use for almost our entire history. It is only very recently that governmental and social control forced this mind-opening drug to be demonized.

As we can all see, humankind knows better, and we will always find a way to provide ourselves with the tools we feel we need to improve our minds and souls.
Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't following you...

palosheights
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Post by palosheights » 10-20-2005 10:10 PM

sorry segasr544 but been away for awhile, the rense site is at rense.com, this site gives you all the news you will never see, almost never see on the regular media i.e., bird flu. the rense site has been telling us for months on end and how this affecting countries in asia and it was spreading. in our local media in the chicago area the first ever mention of the bird flu was last week, where has the local media been all this time?

andy

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Hi

Post by Cynic » 10-21-2005 12:50 PM

You've got to be careful with pot, though. It doesn't cause projectile vomiting, internal hemorrhaging, loss of all body hair, blindness or restless bowel syndrome, unlike many prescribed drugs advertised on your major network news programs. It will give you an appetite, a hard-on, :D mellowness, and it chills restless leg syndrome (among other things). As long as the pharmaceutical companies "own" half the ad's on the major news programs($$billions in ad revenues for the broadcasters), don't look for fair and honest journalism there as far as hemp promotion goes!:(
SOCRATES: I just drank WHAT??!!

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