This article was published yesterday and talks about a very recent study that was done to see why anti-inflammatory drugs, like ibuprofen, essentially kill the 'buzz' from marijuana and suppress marijuana's negative effects on cognition. The point being that this may lead to new treatments for patients with Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Marijuana has been shown to decrease inflammation in the brain, a big role in many neurodegenerative diseases. However, marijuana also can create a 'high' and long-term cognitive and memory effects that are probably not desired by patients with already deteriorating neurons. So, scientists are thinking that isolating the active compound from marijuana (THC) and supplementing it with an anti-inflammatory drug will stop the patient from getting the unwanted side effects!
They performed multiple experiment on AD mice to show that a combination of THC and COX inhibitors (anti-inflammatory) resulted in a decrease in beta-amyloid plaques and no lethargy that is usually seen with 'stoned' mice. Since this was only given over a couple of days though, I wonder how long-term chronic use of the combinations of drugs would affect cognition and memory.
I thought this article was really interesting (even if it is a lay article) so I recommend checking it out, even if you don't want to comment on it!!! The article also has the link to the research paper.
Here is the article:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-marijuana-ibuprofen-alzheimers-buzzkill-20131121,0,7844486.story#axzz2lPckqpnH
How fascinating! A lot of the modern medications are plant based, there are even professionals under the title "Ethnobotanists" whose job is to discover medicinal qualities and molecules in plants by studying people and their uses of plants all over the world. I am sure that there are some cultures that use this method of combining THC with some sort of anti-inflammatory in order to treat illnesses among their communities. Although, now that marijuana is such a huge topic in our country and many know the association of THC with it, I am not sure how people will react to this area of research.
ReplyDeleteI think that after people read this article, the general public would promote the usage of marijuana as it is "good for you". In other thoughts about this, people who actually abuse the plant for personal uses would maybe continue using it since this article says that it has benefits from using marijuana.
ReplyDeleteI also think that this article is quite interesting. I mean you often hear the term "medical marijuana" for those that need it versus the people that use it for more recreational purposes and often it is usually just frowned upon. It's great that they found a positive use of its main ingredient of THC when combined with COX inhibitors, but I agree with Leanne that it's uncertain how this information will be received by the public. But also being that it is in a mouse model, I wonder how that would really translate in humans and if it really is that effective.
ReplyDeleteMy concerns with medical marijuana is that the delivery method is still the same. You have to smoke it! Which means you are still inhaling smoke, which isn't good. Which for someone like me who gets a sinus infection anytime I'm around smoke of any kind (even campfires), it wouldn't be appealing. However here are other methods of introducing it into your system. So perhaps down the road (as we do with a lot of compounds) we can see THC and COX inhibitor pills. Which could eliminate some of those unwanted long term effects from getting 'high'.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Ann. If you think about it, it is helping one problem while causing another! Another thing about the THC and COX inhibitor pills you mentioned, that would be a great research to be done to see if the COX inhibitor will cancel some of the beneficial effects of the THC. There are so many interactions between chemicals which could be a big deal in this case.
DeleteFirst, I don't feel like the negative effects of smoking are rellevant in this case. Many medical marijuana users cannot smoke, so there are multiple alternatives available.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, the study needs to be continued in order to determine the long term effects of using the THC and COX inhibitors, because this study did not directly test cognition and memory. I think the results of this study are interesting and promising.
Also, I think this study's findings could be useful for medical marijuana users with other illnesses. For example, I have known patients in the past who had severe nausea but refused medical marijuana (THC capsules) when suggested by a doctor because they did not want to get high. I think this combination of THC and COX inhibitors could be really beneficial because then THC could be used for medicine and the ethical controversy would then be irrelevant.