Tag Archives: plant

Is the pink ribbon campaign a scam?

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“The pink ribbon has become synonymous with solidarity for women who battle breast cancer. After all, a diagnosis of breast cancer changes the life of the diagnosed and the lives of all those involved — many times for the worse.

But, did you ever stop to think about what the pink ribbon campaign is all about? Is it really meant to bring “awareness” to breast cancer? Hasn’t everyone heard of breast cancer? Some have questioned the motives of those who stand behind those pretty pink ribbons.

Some have suggested that Breast Cancer Awareness month can be seen as a push for women to be corralled into the mammography suite so they can await their breast cancer diagnosis when the mammography is complete.

The science behind mammography is clear. Mammography does more harm than good.

Yes, the concept seems harsh. After all, most people who wear pink ribbons are innocent. They just go along with the rest. It’s a chance to show that they support the cause, whatever that is.

The pink ribbon campaign, however, is not completely innocent. Take for example this questionable involvement in the pink ribbon campaign. In October 2010, KFC filled and sold the “Bucket for the Cure,” donating 50 cents to breast cancer for each bucket sold. If KFC had a real interest for preventing breast cancer or for finding its cure, wouldn’t they close their doors forever? After all, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) sued KFC for not disclosing to its customers that the chicken sold at KFC contained a dangerous carcinogen. “KFC should post warnings because its aggressively marketed new product harbors a chemical that increases the risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, and other forms of this lethal disease,” commented Dr. Neal Barnard, of PCRM.

While some participants in the pink ribbon campaign do send raised funds to breast cancer charities, such as Komen for the Cure, others do not follow through with contributions. The Better Business Bureau has issued warnings to consumers regarding this shell game.

Pink Ribbons have hope. On the other hand, the entire breast cancer awareness initiative would be worthwhile if we continued to raise money to advertise the information that we already have about breast cancer prevention: diet, exercise, stress management prevent breast cancer. Why is it that people do not know that eating a low-fat whole plant foods diet is the single most important thing you can do to prevent breast cancer? Why don’t breast cancer organizations teach what we already know instead of continuing to look for a cure that comes in an expensive pill, treatment, or surgery?

Who’s benefiting here, anyway?”

Marijuana Compound Fights Cancer; Human Trials Next

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(NBC) “Research shows component in medical cannabis fights cancer.”

“The “medical” bit of medical marijuana may be legitimate after all: Turns out a component of cannabis fights cancer, according to research.

Scientists at California Pacific Medical Center found that cannabidiol, or CBD, has the ability to “turn off” the DNA that causes “breast and other types of cancers” to metastasize, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“If this plant were discovered in the Amazon today, scientists would be falling all over each other to be the first to bring it to market,” said Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of oncology at the University of California San Francisco, which has also found science behind marijuana’s efficacy.

The drug “has been shown to reduce pain and nausea” in cancer patients, the newspaper reported. AIDS patients also swear by cannabis for its ability to allow them to eat, sleep and otherwise function.

Turns out that cannabidiol has none of the psychotropic effects of marijuana as a whole, according to the newspaper. The researchers hope to move to clinical trials on humans soon.

Cancer cells exposed to cannabidiol lost their abilities to metastasize, according to the newspaper.”

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Marijuana-Compound-Fights-Cancer-Human-Trials-Next-170406116.html

SF Scientists: Marijuana Fights Cancer

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(NBC Bay Area) “The “medical” bit of medical marijuana may be legitimate after all: Turns out a component of cannabis fights cancer, according to research.

Scientists at California Pacific Medical Center found that cannabidiol, or CBD, has the ability to “turn off” the DNA that causes “breast and other types of cancers” to metastasize, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“If this plant were discovered in the Amazon today, scientists would be falling all over each other to be the first to bring it to market,” said Dr. Donald Abrams, chief of oncology at the University of California San Francisco, which has also found science behind marijuana’s efficacy.

The drug “has been shown to reduce pain and nausea” in cancer patients, the newspaper reported. AIDS patients also swear by cannabis for its ability to allow them to eat, sleep and otherwise function.

Turns out that cannabidiol has none of the psychotropic effects of marijuana as a whole, according to the newspaper.”

http://m.nbcbayarea.com/nbcbayarea/pm_108022/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=DXQ0PNfC

Cannabinoids, Endocannabinoids, and Related Analogs in Inflammation.

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“This review covers reports published in the last 5 years on the anti-inflammatory activities of all classes of cannabinoids, including phytocannabinoids such as tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol, synthetic analogs such as ajulemic acid and nabilone, the endogenous cannabinoids anandamide and related compounds, namely, the elmiric acids, and finally, noncannabinoid components of Cannabis that show anti-inflammatory action. It is intended to be an update on the topic of the involvement of cannabinoids in the process of inflammation. A possible mechanism for these actions is suggested involving increased production of eicosanoids that promote the resolution of inflammation. This differentiates these cannabinoids from cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitors that suppress the synthesis of eicosanoids that promote the induction of the inflammatory process.”

 

“INTRODUCTION

This review is intended to be an update on the topic of the involvement of cannabinoids in the process of inflammation. Other reviews cover certain aspects of this subject and the reader is referred to them for a discussion of earlier reports. In this review are reports published in the last 5 years on the activities of all classes of cannabinoids, including the endogenous cannabinoids such as anandamide, related compounds such as the elmiric acids (EMAs), and noncannabinoid components of Cannabis that show anti-inflammatory action. An interesting recently published example of the latter one is caryophyllene, an abundant component of Cannabis oil that shows anti-inflammatory activity and has high affinity for cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2; 5).”

 

“Phytocannabinoids: Tetrahydrocannabinol and Cannabidiol”

 

“PLANT PREPARATIONS AND NONCANNABINOID CONSTITUENTS OF CANNABIS”

“Cannabis sativa is a complex botanical, and it is not unlikely that the therapeutic benefits of marijuana are due to some of the more than 60 cannabinoids and 200–250 noncannabinoid constituents of the plant. One noncannabinoid, the geranylated flavone cannflavin A (Fig. 5), is 30 times more potent than aspirin as an inhibitor of prostaglandin E2 . These potentially important findings have been overlooked, as most attention in marijuana research has been directed to the analgesic effects of the plant and to mechanisms of psychoactivity. A further example that this line of inquiry has remained dormant is a series of overlooked observations, which demonstrate potent anti-inflammatory actions of a crude marijuana extract and of the nonpsychoactive Cannabis constituents, CBD, cannabinol, and cannabichromene in the carrageenan paw edema model of acute inflammation in rats. Volatile oil products of the plant also have biological activity. Thus, pyrolysis products may add to the therapeutic properties of smoked marijuana. Several of the most abundant cannabinoid and noncannabinoid constituents of C. sativa are nonpsychoactive.”

“Flavonoids are ubiquitous plant phenolic compounds that consist of two aromatic rings linked by a three carbon bridge. They are attracting interest because of their antioxidant, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activities. The flavone luteolin, a constituent of C. sativa, is also found in spices and in vegetables such as celery and green pepper. When added to peripheral blood mononuclear cells in vitro, luteolin suppresses production of the inflammatory cytokines TNFα, IL-1b, and IL-6, actions that relate to a selective reduction in numbers of monocytes. Perhaps more importantly, luteolin inhibits growth of Plasmodium falciparum in vitro and protects against induction of colon cancer in mice.”

“CONCLUSIONS

Possibly the very earliest literature reference on Cannabis describes its use as an anti-inflammatory agent. The Chinese emperor Shen-nung (ca. 2000 B.C.), in a work called Pen-ts’ao Ching, noted many of the effects of Cannabis in humans. Among other properties, it was claimed that cannabis “undoes rheumatism”, suggesting possible anti-inflammatory effects. The reports described in this review of the current literature provide support for the claims made by the ancient Chinese healers. These more recent publications include relief from chronic neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and postoperative pain. In addition, a large body of preclinical data on all classes of cannabinoids, including the endogenous examples, point to a variety of therapeutic targets for cannabinoids and important roles for the endocannabinoids in the physiology of inflammation.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2664885/

Why Cannabis Stems Inflammation

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“Cannabis has long been accredited with anti-inflammatory properties. ETH Zurich researchers, however, have now discovered that it is not only the familiar psychoactive substances that are responsible for this; a compound we take in every day in vegetable nutriment also plays a significant role.

People not only rate cannabis sativa L. highly because of its intoxicating effects; it has also long been used as a medicinal plant. Although the plant has been scrutinized for years, surprising new aspects keep cropping up. For example, researchers from ETH Zurich and Bonn University examined a component in the plant’s essential oil that until then had largely been ignored and found it to have remarkable phar- macological effects. The findings open up interesting perspectives, especially for the prevention and treatment of inflammations.

The hemp plant contains over 450 different substances, only three of which are responsible for its intoxicating effect. They activate the two receptors in the body CB1 and CB2. Whilst the CB1 receptor in the central nervous system influences perception, the CB2 receptor in the tissue plays a crucial role in inhibiting inflammation. If the receptor is activated, the cell releases fewer pro-inflammatory signal substances, or cytokines. The scientists have now discovered that the substance beta-carophyllene, which composes between 12 and 35 percent of the cannabis plant’s essential oil, activates the CB2 receptor selectively.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080720222549.htm

The Endocannabinoid System as an Emerging Target of Pharmacotherapy

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Abstract

“The recent identification of cannabinoid receptors and their endogenous lipid ligands has triggered an exponential growth of studies exploring the endocannabinoid system and its regulatory functions in health and disease. Such studies have been greatly facilitated by the introduction of selective cannabinoid receptor antagonists and inhibitors of endocannabinoid metabolism and transport, as well as mice deficient in cannabinoid receptors or the endocannabinoid-degrading enzyme fatty acid amidohydrolase. In the past decade, the endocannabinoid system has been implicated in a growing number of physiological functions, both in the central and peripheral nervous systems and in peripheral organs. More importantly, modulating the activity of the endocannabinoid system turned out to hold therapeutic promise in a wide range of disparate diseases and pathological conditions, ranging from mood and anxiety disorders, movement disorders such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease, neuropathic pain, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury, to cancer, atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, stroke, hypertension, glaucoma, obesity/metabolic syndrome, and osteoporosis, to name just a few. An impediment to the development of cannabinoid medications has been the socially unacceptable psychoactive properties of plant-derived or synthetic agonists, mediated by CB(1) receptors. However, this problem does not arise when the therapeutic aim is achieved by treatment with a CB(1) receptor antagonist, such as in obesity, and may also be absent when the action of endocannabinoids is enhanced indirectly through blocking their metabolism or transport. The use of selective CB(2) receptor agonists, which lack psychoactive properties, could represent another promising avenue for certain conditions. The abuse potential of plant-derived cannabinoids may also be limited through the use of preparations with controlled composition and the careful selection of dose and route of administration. The growing number of preclinical studies and clinical trials with compounds that modulate the endocannabinoid system will probably result in novel therapeutic approaches in a number of diseases for which current treatments do not fully address the patients’ need. Here, we provide a comprehensive overview on the current state of knowledge of the endocannabinoid system as a target of pharmacotherapy.”

Future Directions

“The length of this review, necessitated by the steady growth in the number of indications for the potential therapeutic use of cannabinoid-related medications, is a clear sign of the emerging importance of this field. This is further underlined by the quantity of articles in the public database dealing with the biology of cannabinoids, which numbered ∼200 to 300/year throughout the 1970s to reach an astonishing 5900 in 2004. The growing interest in the underlying science has been matched by a growth in the number of cannabinoid drugs in pharmaceutical development from two in 1995 to 27 in 2004, with the most actively pursued therapeutic targets being pain, obesity, and multiple sclerosis (Hensen, 2005). As in any rapidly growing area of research, not all the leads will turn out to be useful or even valid. Nevertheless, it is safe to predict that new therapeutic agents that affect the activity of the endocannaboinoid system will emerge and become members of our therapeutic armamentarium. The plant-derived cannabinoid preparation Sativex has already gained regulatory approval in Canada for the treatment of spasticity and pain associated with multiple sclerosis, and the CB1 receptor antagonist rimonabant has been approved in Europe and is awaiting Food and Drug Administration approval in the United States for the treatment of the metabolic syndrome. Undoubtedly, these will be followed by new and improved compounds aimed at the same or additional targets in the endocannabinoid system. However, it may be only after the widespread therapeutic use of such compounds that some important side effects will emerge. Although this occurrence would be undesirable from a health care perspective, such side effects may shed further light on the biological functions of endocannabinoids in health and disease.”

http://pharmrev.aspetjournals.org/content/58/3/389.long

Cannabidiolic acid, a major cannabinoid in fiber-type cannabis, is an inhibitor of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell migration.

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“Cannabidiol (CBD), a major non-psychotropic constituent of fiber-type cannabis plant, has been reported to possess diverse biological activities, including anti-proliferative effect on cancer cells. Although CBD is obtained from non-enzymatic decarboxylation of its parent molecule, cannabidiolic acid (CBDA), few studies have investigated whether CBDA itself is biologically active.

Results of the current investigation revealed that CBDA inhibits migration of the highly invasive MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells, apparently through a mechanism involving inhibition of cAMP-dependent protein kinase A, coupled with an activation of the small GTPase, RhoA. It is established that activation of the RhoA signaling pathway leads to inhibition of the mobility of various cancer cells, including MDA-MB-231 cells.

The data presented in this report suggest for the first time that as an active component in the cannabis plant, CBDA offers potential therapeutic modality in the abrogation of cancer cell migration, including aggressive breast cancers.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22963825

“The data presented in this report support the view that CBDA is a biologically active component of the fiber-type cannabis plant with potential utility as an effective anti-migration agent.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4009504/

The effects of hempseed meal intake and linoleic acid on Drosophila models of neurodegenerative diseases and hypercholesterolemia

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Molecules and Cells

“Hemp seed is rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which have potential as therapeutic compounds for the treatment of neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disease.

In this study, we assessed the effects of the intake of  hempseed meal (HSM) and PUFAs on oxidative stress, cytotoxicity and neurological phenotypes, and cholesterol uptake, using Drosophila models.

HSM intake was shown to reduce H(2)O(2) toxicity markedly, indicating that HSM exerts a profound antioxidant effect.

Meanwhile, intake of HSM, as well as linoleic or linolenic acids (major PUFA components of HSM) was shown to ameliorate Aβ42-induced eye degeneration, thus suggesting that these compounds exert a protective effect against Aβ42 cytotoxicity.

Additionally, intake of HSM or linoleic acid was shown to reduce cholesterol uptake significantly.

Moreover, linoleic acid intake has been shown to delay pupariation, and cholesterol feeding rescued the linoleic acid-induced larval growth delay, thereby indicating that linoleic acid acts antagonistically with cholesterol during larval growth.

In conclusion, our results indicate that HSM and linoleic acid exert inhibitory effects on both Aβ42 cytotoxicity and cholesterol uptake, and are potential candidates for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular disease.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21331775 

“A number of previous studies have shown that polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and phytosterols are critically important for human health. Hempseed is a rich source of plant oil, which contains more than 80% PUFAs and 3922-6719 mg/kg of phytosterols (e.g., sitosterol and campesterol). The fatty acids in hempseed oil include a variety of essential fatty acids, including linoleic acid ”

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10059-011-0042-6

Cannabis Science Updates Cancer Patient Progress As It Receives Verbal Confirmation By A Physician That Both Sites Of The Former Lesions Are Free Of Cancer Cells; Official Physician Documentation To Follow

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“Cannabis Science, Inc. a pioneering U.S. biotech company developing pharmaceutical cannabis (marijuana derivative) products, is pleased to announce that we have now received verbal confirmation that the sites of the former cancerous lesions are free of cancer cells and we are now awaiting official Physician documentation of the patient’s history and biopsy reports.

Dr. Robert J. Melamede, the CEO and President of Cannabis Science Inc., stated, “The photographic documentation in our last press release, demonstrated that cannabis extracts appeared to be effective against what seems to be the patient’s third incidence of basal cell carcinoma. For accuracy, it should be noted that a before treatment biopsy of the lesion on the nose was not been performed. It is obvious that there was a lesion-centered response to the application of the cannabis extract. This patient had a previous surgically removed lesion, as well as a biopsied basal cell carcinoma on the right cheek. The lesion on the cheek was also self-treated and resolved with cannabis extracts over a half year ago. This deeper cheek lesion did not visually respond like the lesion on the nose, hence there is no photographic record.”

Cannabis Science is committed to making cannabis-based medicines available to the public as rapidly as possible. The Company is taking multiple approaches to accomplishing this aim in the United States. The science of cannabinoids has exploded over the past decade, laying the scientific foundation for the many medicinal uses of this unique plant. Cannabinoids are a class of biologically active compounds produced by all vertebrates, the Cannabis plant, and more recently patentable synthetic compounds produced by chemists. In fact, modern peer-reviewed science supports the many historical uses that were discovered over thousands of years of medicinal use by herbalists.”

More: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110309006171/en/Cannabis-Science-Updates-Cancer-Patient-Progress-Receives