“Marijuana Smoke Not as Damaging as Tobacco, Says Study (ABC News)”
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/marijuana-poses-no-threat-to-lungs-1326344236-slideshow/
Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of California at San Francisco analyzed marijuana and tobacco use among 5,000 black and white men from the national database, CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study), which was intended to determine heart disease risk factors over a 20-year period.
Measuring participants’ lung function for air flow and lung volume five times throughout the study period, the researchers found that cigarette smokers saw lung function worsen throughout the 20-year period, but marijuana smokers did not. Only the heaviest pot smokers (more than 20 joints per month) showed decreased lung function throughout the study.
“The more typical amounts of marijuana use among Americans are occasional or low levels,” said Dr. Stefan Kertesz, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and principle investigator of the study. “From the standpoint of being a scientist, these data suggest that low and moderate range use of marijuana do not do long-term harm.””
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/smoking-pot-harm-lung-function-time/story?id=15331989
“Researchers from UAB helped conduct a 20-year study designed to measure heart disease, but it’s getting international publicity because of what it means for moderate marijuana use and lung function.
Researchers studied low to moderate marijuana users, those who reported smoking about two to three times per month. With cigarette smoking, the more you smoke, the more you decrease your lung function.
This study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows with marijuana, it’s a much more complicated relationship.
Stefan Kertesz with the UAB School of Medicine says, “There was actually an increase in air flow and an increase in lung capacity, but not enough that a person would necessarily feel healthier.”
Dr. Kertesz says it’s important to emphasize the smokers in the study are not the heavy duty smokers often portrayed in movies. Researchers weren’t able to draw conclusions on the effects of heavy marijuana use and lung function.
He says it’s possible the very small increase in air flow researchers saw could represent something of a practice effect. Marijuana smokers are used to taking in deep breaths, holding it and breathing out, which could help them ace the office test of lung function.”
“Add one more data point to the decades-old debate over marijuana legalization: A new study concludes that casual pot smoking – up to one joint per day – does not affect the functioning of your lungs.”
“The study, published in the Jan. 11 edition of Journal of the American Medical Association, also offered up a nugget that likely will surprise many: Evidence points to slight increases in lung airflow rates and increases in lung volume from occasional marijuana use.”
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57356548/study-no-lung-danger-from-casual-pot-smoking/
“People who occasionally smoke marijuana do not suffer long-term lung damage the way cigarette smokers do, and may actually experience a slight improvement, a 20-year US study has revealed.”
“Since the research included more than 5,000 people over a long time span, the authors said it should help clear up some of the confusion about the risks of marijuana smoking, which is increasingly common in the United States.”
Read more: http://health.msn.co.nz/healthnews/8401956/no-lung-damage-from-marijuana-study
“Unlike the cigarette habit, occasional pot smoking does not seem to trigger declines in lung function that could lead to breathing problems, a new 20-year study suggests.
“Tobacco takes you down that road toward breathlessness, but low to moderate levels of marijuana don’t,” said study co-author Dr. Stefan Kertesz.”
Read more: http://healthyliving.msn.com/diseases/cancer/occasional-pot-smoking-wont-harm-lungs-study-3
“Periodically smoking marijuana doesn’t appear to hurt lung capacity, the largest study ever conducted on pot smokers has found.”
“This is a well-done study involving more subjects than in the past,” says Tashkin, who is not affiliated with the new study. “The public should take away it’s a confirmatory study, but larger and longer than previous studies demonstrating, once again, that smoking marijuana does not impair lung function, unlike tobacco.”
“Smoking a joint once a week or a bit more apparently doesn’t harm the lungs, suggests a 20-year study that bolsters evidence that marijuana doesn’t do the kind of damage tobacco does…
The analyses showed pot didn’t appear to harm lung function, but cigarettes did…”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/01/11/marijuana-doesnt-appear-to-harm-lung-function-study-finds/
“People who smoke marijuana do not appear to be at increased risk for developing lung cancer, new research suggests.
While a clear increase in cancer risk was seen among cigarette smokers in the study, no such association was seen for regular cannabis users.
Even very heavy, long-term marijuana users who had smoked more than 22,000 joints over a lifetime seemed to have no greater risk than infrequent marijuana users or nonusers.
The findings surprised the study’s researchers, who expected to see an increase in cancer among people who smoked marijuana regularly in their youth.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,196678,00.html
“The discovery that botanical cannabinoids such as delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol exert some of their effect through binding specific cannabinoid receptor sites has led to the discovery of an endocannabinoid signaling system, which in turn has spurred research into the mechanisms of action and addiction potential of cannabis on the one hand, while opening the possibility of developing novel therapeutic agents on the other. This paper reviews current understanding of CB1, CB2, and other possible cannabinoid receptors, their arachidonic acid derived ligands (e.g. anandamide; 2 arachidonoyl glycerol), and their possible physiological roles. CB1 is heavily represented in the central nervous system, but is found in other tissues as well; CB2 tends to be localized to immune cells. Activation of the endocannabinoid system can result in enhanced or dampened activity in various neural circuits depending on their own state of activation. This suggests that one function of the endocannabinoid system may be to maintain steady state. The therapeutic action of botanical cannabis or of synthetic molecules that are agonists, antagonists, or which may otherwise modify endocannabinoid metabolism and activity indicates they may have promise as neuroprotectants, and may be of value in the treatment of certain types of pain, epilepsy, spasticity, eating disorders, inflammation, and possibly blood pressure control.”
“Marijuana and cannabinoids as medicine”
“Although references to potential medicinal properties of cannabis date to ancient times, and despite cannabis being included as a medication in Western pharmacopeias from the nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries, there is still no body of reliable information on possible indications or efficacy. In part, slow progress can be attributed to difficulties in identifying the active ingredients in cannabis; THC was not actually characterized and identified as the main psychoactive substance until 1965. The chemical properties of the cannabinoids, for example their virtual insolubility in water, and the fact that they consist of oily liquids at room temperature has posed further challenges in formulation and administration. Increased governmental concerns about the abuse potential of marijuana and hashish also created a regulatory climate in many Western countries that emphasized the negative properties of these substances and absence of any documented medicinal properties, thus discouraging research into therapeutics.”
“Cultural and attitude changes in the latter half of the twentieth century in many Western countries resulted in large groups of ‘mainstream’ adults and adolescents experimenting with marijuana. The scarcity of obvious acute serious toxic effects, and lack of consistent information on longer-term adverse effects has lead to more recent attitudinal changes in many Western societies that have re-opened the possibility of use of cannabis as a medication.”