“Researchers in Madrid say the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana (what is it?) and other “cannabinoids” (what are those?) could help slow cancer growth, as well as manage many cancer symptoms (like what?). Scientists studied cancer cells (which type?) that grow faster than normal cells, and discovered that the cancer cells died whenever they were exposed to the pot ingredient.”
http://specials.msn.com/a-list/healthyliving/marijuana-fights-cancer-popular-pages
“Preliminary research suggests that a combination of compounds in marijuana could help fight off a particularly deadly form of brain cancer.
But the findings shouldn’t send patients rushing to buy pot: the levels used in the research appear to be too high to obtain through smoking. And there’s no sign yet that the approach works in laboratory animals, let alone people.
Still, the finding does suggest that more than one compound in marijuana might boost cancer treatment, said study author Sean McAllister, an associate scientist at California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco. “Combination therapies might be more appropriate,” McAllister said.
Researchers have long studied the compounds in marijuana known as cannabinoids, which are thought to hold possible health benefits. One, known as THC, is well known for its role in making people high when they smoke or eat pot. Researchers have been testing it as a treatment for the brain tumors known as glioblastomas.
In the new study, researchers tested THC and cannabidiol, another compound from marijuana, on brain cancer cells. The findings appear in the January issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.
The study authors found that the combination treatment seemed to work better at killing the cancerous cells and preventing them from growing back.
About 9,000 people in the United States develop glioblastomas each year, said Dr. Paul Graham Fisher, chief of the Division of Child Neurology at Stanford University and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The most famous patient was the late U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy.
The prognosis for people with the condition is grim because tumors spread throughout the brain. It can be impossible for treatments to remove the entire tumor, Fisher said.
“No matter what you do, this tumor has a larger border than you ever think,” he said. “We know there are microscopic satellites all throughout one side of the brain and pretty soon in the other side of the brain. The only thing that will fix this disease is something that provides a more blanket approach.”
Instead of targeting the tumors itself, he explained, treatments need to do something like disrupt the pathways that cancer cells use to communicate.
In the big picture, “you’re seeing a lot more thinking outside the box about trying to treat glioblastoma,” he said. “I think in the next 10 to 15 years we’re going to start seeing progress forward.”
For now, he said, there’s no evidence that marijuana is good or bad for glioblastoma tumors.
Back in the laboratory, McAllister said the next step is to test the combination treatment on laboratory animals and then on people. The treatment may be given to people directly through the brain, which could be expensive. But the compounds themselves may not be expensive, McAllister said.
As for the idea of getting the same effect through a couple of marijuana joints, he had this to say: “It’s unlikely that you could reach effective concentrations by smoking the plant.””
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/marijuana-compounds-beat-back-brain-cancer/story?id=9534388
“Cannabinoids selectively inhibit proliferation and induce death of cultured human glioblastoma multiforme cells.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16078104
“(OTC: MJNA), a leading hemp industry innovator, is pleased to report on a September 18 San Francisco Chronicle Article, “Pot compound seen as tool against cancer.” The article states that scientists at California Pacific Medical Center who have been researching marijuana’s compounds for the 20 years have found that Cannabidiol, or CBD, has the ability to “turn off” the DNA that causes “breast and other types of cancers” to metastasize. CBD is the second-most abundant cannabinoid within marijuana, but does not cause the psychotropic high of THC.
As stated in the article: “We started by researching breast cancer,” said scientist Pierre Desprez. “But now we’ve found that Cannabidiol works with many kinds of aggressive cancers–brain, prostate–any kind in which these high levels of ID-1 are present.” Desprez said he is hopeful clinical trials will begin immediately. He currently has grant funding through the National Institutes of Health, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the U.S. Department of Defense and the California Breast Cancer Research Program.
As previously announced in the MJNA press release dated September 5, MJNA portfolio company, Red Dice Holdings, recently launched its Hemp-based high concentrate CBD health and wellness products, Dixie X, for over-the-counter sales. These Cannabidiol products represent the highest strength of CBD products on the market today, and this same concentrate will soon be used to launch the CanChew Biotechnologies line of CBD-enriched chewing gum. Click here for recent production news from PhytoSphere. Dixie X can currently be purchased in over 100 retail locations in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico as well as on-line by anyone living in the U.S.
In short, MJNA and its portfolio company, PhytoSphere Systems, currently produces non-THC, high quality CBD enriched Hemp oil that according to this story, may fight the most aggressive forms of cancers we know of today.
Studies, such as those in this article and at Project CBD, have continually shown that these non-psychoactive CBD wellness products provide powerful relief for pain and anxiety sufferers, but without the euphoric effects provided by THC. The CBD health and wellness industry is estimated by MJNA to be a $5 billion market.”
“Marijuana’s active ingredient may curb inflammation and help treat skin allergies.
That news comes from researchers including Meliha Karsak, PhD, and Thomas Tuting, MD, of Germany’s University of Bonn.
Marijuana’s key compound, THC, is a type of chemical called a cannabinoid. The brain contains two types of cannabinoid receptors.
Karsak and colleagues studied mice born with or without cannabinoid receptors. The mice wore ear tags to identify them; those ear tags contained nickel.
The mice without cannabinoid receptors were particularly likely to have allergic skin reactions to the nickel in the ear tags.
The scientists reasoned that the mice’s allergies may have been linked to their lack of cannabinoid receptors.
Karsak’s team tested that theory in several experiments.
First, they turned off cannabinoid receptors in healthy mice. Those mice then became more likely to develop skin inflammation near their nickel ear tags.
Next, the researchers exposed other mice with cannabinoid receptors to a skin irritant. Some of the mice got THC shots after being exposed to the irritant. Others got a THC skin lotion before and after exposure to the irritant.
The THC shot and lotion both helped soothe the mice’s inflamed skin.
“If we dabbed THC solution onto the animals’ skin shortly before and after applying the allergen, a lot less swelling occurred than normal,” Tuting says in a University of Bonn news release.
In the journal Science, the researchers write that their study “strongly suggests” that the body’s cannabinoid system can help tame inflammation and that THC skin lotions have “promising potential” for treating skin allergies caused by contact with irritating chemicals.
However, the researchers didn’t test the THC lotion on skin allergies in people.”
http://www.webmd.com/allergies/news/20070607/pot-chemical-may-curb-inflammation
“Attenuation of allergic contact dermatitis through the endocannabinoid system…These results demonstrate a protective role of the endocannabinoid system in contact allergy in the skin and suggest a target for therapeutic intervention.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17556587
“Stoners may spend a lot of time on the couch and craving White Castle, but they apparently don’t let their bodies go to pot.
People who smoke marijuana regularly are less likely to be obese than non-pot smokers, according to a new study by French researches.
“We found that cannabis users are less likely to be obese than non-users,” Dr. Yann Le Strat, French psychiatrist and co-author of a new study in the American Journal of Epidemiology told MSNBC. “We were so surprised, we thought we had [made] a mistake.”
Using data from two epidemiologic studies of U.S. adults, researchers found that between 22% to 25% of participants who didn’t smoke pot were obese.
But only between 14% and 17% of those people who admitted to taking a toke at least three times a week were overweight.
Le Strat said other factors, such as the stoners’ level of physical activity or diets, could have contributed to the results, but his team tried to rule out those factors.
The researches were also quick to point out that sucking on a bong isn’t the key to a tight tummy.
“The take-home message is certainly not ‘smoke cannabis, it will help you lose weight,'” Le Strat said. “The possibility that cannabis is associated with a lower risk of obesity remains an interesting hypothesis, but certainly does not counterbalance its negative effects on health and mental health.””