“Medical cannabis is used as an appetite stimulant, antiemetic, antispasmodic and sometimes as analgesic to help treat chronic, non-cancerous pain, vomiting or nausea caused by chemotherapy. In some cases, it is also used to aid treating symptoms of AIDS patients…
Marijuana or “weed” is now among the several ingredients that researchers are looking into to helping stop further spread of HIV infection.”
“People with HIV (and other conditions) have used prescription marijuana to treat the side effects of medication, but a new study published in the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, recently showed that daily doses of may even help combat the disease.”
More: http://www.hivplusmag.com/research/2014/02/11/breaking-news-study-says-marijuana-may-stop-spread-hiv
“There’s been some interesting research on using THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the principal psychoactive drug in marijuana, to help fight HIV, and damage cancer cells in some leukemias and possibly malignant tumors.
…the possibility exists that information from both of these research studies may produce beneficial results in the treatment of HIV and cancer.”
More: http://americablog.com/2014/02/marijuana-treatment-hiv-cancer.html
“But the U.S. government won’t let scientists try out this promising treatment on humans… proving that an illegal drug can stop a deadly disease in humans—without testing it on them—is impossible…
THC is one of 500 active ingredients in marijuana. And marijuana, despite many studies proving its medical value, is sill classified by the government as a Schedule 1 Substance.
In the face of mounting evidence that it is beneficial in treating diseases… it remains a controlled substance.
During HIV infection, one of the earliest effects is that the virus spreads rapidly throughout the body and kills a significant part of cells in the gut and intestine. This activity damages the gut in a way that allows the HIV to leak through the cell wall of the intestines and into the bloodstream.
When THC is introduced into this environment, it activates the CB2 receptors in the intestines to build new, healthy bacterial cells that block the virus from leaking through the cell walls. In other words, the body works hard to keep bad stuff in the intestines and the good stuff out.
Put another way: HIV kills the cells that protect the walls— THC brings them back. Reducing the amount of the virus in the lower intestines could then help keep uninfected people uninfected.”
More: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/15/weed-can-block-h-i-v-s-spread-no-seriously.html
“Marijuana has long been used to effectively treat symptoms associated with HIV, such as chronic pain and weight loss. But a growing body of research suggests the plant may be able to stop the spread of the disease itself.”
“Recently a 5-year-old child was administered a medical marijuana card, the youngest person to ever receive one. Her parents are nothing less than ecstatic, as this drug has worked wonders to reduce the amount and severity of her chronic, life-threatening epileptic seizures. This new found use for the highly controversial drug has been the reason for much debate, as well as hundreds of families deciding to relocate to Colorado, where marijuana is accessible to children to cure epileptic seizures…”
More: http://guardianlv.com/2014/02/marijuana-accessible-to-children-as-a-cure-for-epileptic-siezures/
“Kaercher said no matter what treatments Grace is on, the seizures continue. She has tried every option except medical marijuana, which isn’t legal in Pennsylvania,
Kaercher said. “Marijuana isn’t that extreme compared to all these other things we have done,” Kaercher said. Kaercher, 45, has watched her daughter suffer from seizures since Grace was a baby. Kaercher said Grave is so brave for going out into the world every day and her heart breaks every time Grace has a seizure.“It’s been a long road for us,” Kaercher said. “We hope medical marijuana will be a viable option for her.””
“From cinnamon buns in the morning to a burger after a long run, food never smells as good as when you’re superhungry.
Now scientists have uncovered a clue as to why that might be — and it lies in the munchies and marijuana.
Receptors in the brains of mice that light up when the animals are high are also activated when the critters are fasting, French scientists reported Sunday in the journal Nature Neuroscience.
In other words, skipping a meal triggered the same hunger-inducing brain receptors that marijuana does. And it works, at least in mice, by boosting the sense of smell, neuroscientist Giovanni Marsicano and his team at the Universite de Bordeaux report.
That’s because the receptors that get activated are located in the smelling center of the brain. And sense of smell is known to be a key factor driving appetite.
In case you’re wondering, the mice didn’t toke up. The researchers injected the rodents withTHC, the active ingredient in marijuana.”
“The endocannabinoid system controls food intake via olfactory processes.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24509429
“When the immune system attacks a flu virus, it causes widespread inflammation throughout the body. This inflammation presents itself in runny noses, soar throats, and body aches that accompany influenza. Runaway inflammation can cause the immune system to destroy the body it was meant to protect and lead to death.
If the endocannabinoid system cannot keep up – which often happens in very severe influenza infections – organ failure, particularly lung failure, may result.
“We estimated the association between legalizing medical marijuana and suicides.
Suicides among men aged 20 through 39 years fell after medical marijuana legalization compared with those in states that did not legalize.
The negative relationship between legalization and suicides among young men is consistent with the hypothesis that marijuana can be used to cope with stressful life events.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4232164/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24432945
http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2013.301612