“A study published earlier this month on the government’s website National Institutes of Health found that marijuana has “significant benefits” for treating Crohn’s Disease and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
“A short course (8 week) of THC-rich cannabis produced significant clinical, steroid-free benefits to 11 patients with active CD, compared to placebo, without side effects,” the study concluded.”
More and more, researchers are investigating the beneficial effects of marijuana on a variety of diseases. In Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology this week, researchers in Israel reported their findings from a study of how cannabis affects patients with Crohn’s disease.
Cannabis sativa has been reported to benefit inflammatory bowel diseases, the researchers wrote. The team wanted to see if it was possible to induce remission in Crohn’s patients through cannabis treatment…
… a short course (8 weeks) of THC-rich cannabis produced significant clinical, steroid-free benefits to 11 patients with active CD, compared to placebo, without side effects,” the team wrote. “Further studies, with larger patient groups and a non-smoking mode of intake, are warranted.”
Read more: http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/15508/20130514/marijuana-thc-crohnsdisease-cannabis.htm
“A new study, published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, suggests that cannabis could help relieve symptoms of Crohn’s Disease, a lifelong chronic illness that causes abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, weight loss and lack of energy.”
“That’s good news for sufferers, especially considering there is currently no cure.
Researchers studied 21 patients with Crohn’s Disease. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: The first group was given cannabis cigarettes twice a day, the second group was given a placebo containing cannabis flowers from which the THC had been removed.
“A short course (8 week) of THC-rich cannabis produced significant clinical, steroid-free benefits to 11 patients with active CD, compared to placebo, without side effects,” the study’s authors wrote.
The most promising part?
“Complete remission was achieved by 5/11 subjects in the cannabis group.”
Crohn’s patients aren’t the only ones who can benefit from marijuana’s medical properties, according to new research.
A recent study published in the American Journal of Medicine, suggests that marijuana can lower the risk of diabetes as well.
Marijuana users have lower fasting insulin levels, Murray Mittleman, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the lead author of the study told Time Healthland. They are “less resistant to the insulin produced by their body to maintain a normal blood sugar level,”he says.
According to Health Canada, medical marijuana can also be used to manage symptoms like severe pain, cachexia, anorexia, weight loss, and severe nausea from cancer; arthritis pain; seizures from epilepsy; and pain and muscle spasms from spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis.”
More:http://www.besthealthmag.ca/blog/post/news-can-marijuana-cure-crohns-disease
In a first-of-its-kind clinical trial, an 8-week treatment regimen involving daily smoking of marijuana ‘cigarettes’ resulted in a reduction in overall disease severity in 10 of the 11 patients that were studied. 5 of these patients experienced complete remission of their disease.
The results were published online in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology and authored by scientists at the Meir Medical Clinical in Israel. Israel has one of the most fastest growing medical marijuana programs in the world, with over 11,000 registered patients as of today — up from just 400 in 2009.
While the researchers say that their study was the first placebo-controlled trial — the “gold standard” when it comes to medical research — to investigate the effects of marijuana use on patients with Crohn’s disease, other studies have produced similar results.
Based on findings from both animal and human research, experts suggest that cannabis could play a role in the treatment of Crohn’s and other inflammatory bowel diseases by regulating intestinal hyperactivity, inflammation and pain.
Marijuana’s medical properties come directly from compounds known as cannabinoids, including the well-known tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) molecule. Interestingly, the cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant have been shown to mimic the activity of endocannabinoids – cannabinoids that are produced naturally by the human body.
Similarly, studies have identified a variety of digestive functions that can be modulated by cannabinoid activity, especially in inflammatory disease states.
Although the findings of the current study provide considerable support for the use of marijuana as a Crohn’s disease treatment, the authors call for more studies to “look into the role of cannabinoids in controlling inflammation and symptoms in inflammatory bowel disease.”
Indeed, larger studies may be able to provide stronger confirmation or perhaps refute the findings of the newest study, which failed to demonstrate complete remission of Crohn’s in the majority of the treatment group.
Still, the authors concluded their research by stating, “a short course of THC-rich cannabis produced significant clinical, steroid-free benefits to 11 patients with active Crohn’s disease, compared to placebo, without side effects.””
“Marijuana – scientific name “cannabis” – performed like a champ in the first-ever placebo-controlled trial of the drug to treat Crohn’s Disease, also known as inflammatory bowel disease.”
“The disease of the digestive tract afflicts 400,000 – 600,000 people in North America alone causing abdominal pain, diarrhea (which can be bloody), severe vomiting, weight loss, as well as secondary skin rashes, arthritis, inflammation of the eye, tiredness, and lack of concentration.
Smoking pot caused a “complete remission” of Crohn’s disease compared to placebo in half the patients who lit up for eight weeks, according to clinical trial data to be published the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Researchers at Israel’s Meir Medical Center took 21 people with intractable, severe Crohn’s disease and gave 11 of them two joints a day for eight weeks. “The standardized cannabis cigarettes” contained 23 percent THC and 0.5 percent CBD (cannabidiol). (Such marijuana is available on dispensary shelves in San Francisco, Oakland, and other cities that have regulated access to the drug.) The other ten subjects smoked placebo cigarettes containing no active cannabinoids.
Investigators reported that smoking weed caused a “complete remission” of Crohn’s Disease in five of the 11 subjects. Another five of the eleven test subjects saw their Crohn’s Disease symptoms cut in half. Furthermore, “subjects receiving cannabis reported improved appetite and sleep, with no significant side effects.”
The study is the first placebo-controlled clinical trial to assess the consumption of cannabis for the treatment of Crohn’s, notes NORML. All of the patients had intractable forms of the disease and did not respond to conventional treatments. Still, the United States government claims that marijuana is as dangerous as heroin and has no medical use. U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag is waging a war on safe access to medical cannabis in the Bay Area.”
I feel compelled to share now, although I don’t really want to, because a new study has proven smoked marijuana has a near 100% success rate in putting Crohn’s Disease into remission. I am sick of everyone making jokes about my involvement in the marijuana legalization movement; I’m sick of having to stay quiet about what I do around family or in public for fear or upsetting someone’s delicate sensibilities about “drugs” like marijuana. Let me tell you a thing or two about drugs, marijuana and Crohn’s Disease. It’s not a joke and it is not about “getting high” for me.”
Read More: http://www.ladybud.com/marijuana-put-my-crohns-disease-into-remission-and-its-not-a-joke/
http://now.msn.com/marijuana-reduces-crohns-disease-symptoms-in-meir-medical-center-study#scpshrjp2
“Smoking cannabis may be key in treating Crohn’s disease, research suggest.
In a recent trial marijuana was shown to induce ‘complete remission’ for patients suffering from the condition, which is also known as inflammatory bowel disease.
Scientists at Meir Medical Center, Israel, studied 21 people with severe Crohn’s disease who did not respond to various therapies.
They split the patients into two groups: 11 were given a joint to smoke twice a day for eight weeks, while 10 were given a placebo cigarette which contained no trace of cannabinoids.
A ‘complete remission’ of Crohn’s disease was recorded in 5/11 (45%) of the cannabis group and 1/10 in the placebo group.
A total of 10/11 patients in the cannabis group responded to the clinical trial with Crohn’s symptoms (which include pain, diarrhoea, tiredness and weight loss) significantly reduced.
In addition, study authors wrote: “Subjects receiving cannabis reported improved appetite and sleep, with no significant side effects.”
“Further studies, with larger patient groups and a non-smoking mode of intake, are warranted,” they added.”
Please Note: The title of this article has been changed to “Could Cannabis Cure Crohn’s Disease?”
“Of all the arguments that have been used to demonize marijuana, few have been more powerful than that of the “gateway effect”: the notion that while marijuana itself may not be especially dangerous, it ineluctably leads to harder drugs like heroin and cocaine…”
“The problem here is that correlation isn’t cause. Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang members are probably more 104 times more likely to have ridden a bicycle as a kid than those who don’t become Hell’s Angels, but that doesn’t mean that riding a two-wheeler is a “gateway” to joining a motorcycle gang. It simply means that most people ride bikes and the kind of people who don’t are highly unlikely to ever ride a motorcycle…”
“Scientists long ago abandoned the idea that marijuana causes users to try other drugs: as far back as 1999, in a report commissioned by Congress to look at the possible dangers of medical marijuana, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences wrote:
Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana — usually before they are of legal age.
In the sense that marijuana use typically precedes rather than follows initiation of other illicit drug use, it is indeed a “gateway” drug. But because underage smoking and alcohol use typically precede marijuana use, marijuana is not the most common, and is rarely the first, “gateway” to illicit drug use. There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.”
“Since then, numerous other studies have failed to support the gateway idea…”
Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2010/10/29/marijuna-as-a-gateway-drug-the-myth-that-will-not-die/
“Marijuana is not a “gateway” drug that predicts or eventually leads to substance abuse, suggests a 12-year University of Pittsburgh study. Moreover, the study’s findings call into question the long-held belief that has shaped prevention efforts and governmental policy for six decades and caused many a parent to panic upon discovering a bag of pot in their child’s bedroom.
The Pitt researchers tracked 214 boys beginning at ages 10-12, all of whom eventually used either legal or illegal drugs. When the boys reached age 22, they were categorized into three groups: those who used only alcohol or tobacco, those who started with alcohol and tobacco and then used marijuana (gateway sequence) and those who used marijuana prior to alcohol or tobacco (reverse sequence).
Nearly a quarter of the study population who used both legal and illegal drugs at some point — 28 boys — exhibited the reverse pattern of using marijuana prior to alcohol or tobacco, and those individuals were no more likely to develop a substance use disorder than those who followed the traditional succession of alcohol and tobacco before illegal drugs, according to the study, which appears in this month’s issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
“The gateway progression may be the most common pattern, but it’s certainly not the only order of drug use,” said Ralph E. Tarter, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and lead author of the study. “In fact, the reverse pattern is just as accurate for predicting who might be at risk for developing a drug dependence disorder.”
In addition to determining whether the gateway hypothesis was a better predictor of substance abuse than competing theories, the investigators sought to identify characteristics that distinguished users in the gateway sequence from those who took the reverse path. Out of the 35 variables they examined, only three emerged to be differentiating factors: Reverse pattern users were more likely to have lived in poor physical neighborhood environments, had more exposure to drugs in their neighborhoods and had less parental involvement as young children. Most importantly, a general inclination for deviance from sanctioned behaviors, which can become evident early in childhood, was strongly associated with all illicit drug use, whether it came in the gateway sequence, or the reverse.
While the gateway theory posits that each type of drug is associated with certain specific risk factors that cause the use of subsequent drugs, such as cigarettes or alcohol leading to marijuana, this study’s findings indicate that environmental aspects have stronger influence on which type of substance is used. That is, if it’s easier for a teen to get his hands on marijuana than beer, then he’ll be more likely to smoke pot. This evidence supports what’s known as the common liability model, an emerging theory that states the likelihood that someone will transition to the use of illegal drugs is determined not by the preceding use of a particular drug but instead by the user’s individual tendencies and environmental circumstances.
“The emphasis on the drugs themselves, rather than other, more important factors that shape a person’s behavior, has been detrimental to drug policy and prevention programs,” Dr. Tarter said. “To become more effective in our efforts to fight drug abuse, we should devote more attention to interventions that address these issues, particularly to parenting skills that shape the child’s behavior as well as peer and neighborhood environments.”
Indeed, according to the study, interventions focusing on behavior modification may be more effective prevention tactics than current anti-drug initiatives. For example, providing guidance to parents — particularly those in high-risk neighborhoods — on how to boost their caregiving skills and foster bonding with their children, could have a measurable effect on a child’s likelihood to smoke marijuana. Also, early identification of children who exhibit antisocial tendencies could allow for interventions before drug use even begins.
Although this research has significant implications for drug abuse prevention approaches, Dr. Tarter notes that the study has some limitations. First, as only male behaviors were studied, further investigation should explore if the results apply to women as well. Also, the examination of behaviors in phases beyond alcohol and marijuana consumption in the gateway series will be necessary.
Other study authors include Michael Vanyukov, Ph.D., and Maureen Reynolds, Ph.D., and Levent Kirisci, Ph.D., also of the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy; and Duncan Clark, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061204123422.htm