Tag Archives: CBD

Modesto, Calif. dad turns to medical marijuana to save son

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“Jason David from Modesto chronicles the ups and downs with his 6-year-old son Jayden, who was diagnosed with Dravet syndrome, on a Facebook page called Jason and Jayden’s Journey.” https://www.facebook.com/jasonandjaydensjourney

“Jayden was diagnosed with Dravet, a rare form of epilepsy, when he was a baby. Since then, he has had seizures preventing him from walking, playing and living life.

“At one point Jayden had seizures 24 hours a day lasting an hour and a half,” David said. “I went to my doctor and said, ‘I don’t think Jayden is going to last, he can’t sleep, can’t eat, he hasn’t used the restroom, he can’t do anything.'” 

David said his son has been taken away in an ambulance more than 40 times. He’s also taken 22 pills a day — 12 different kinds and none of them worked.

David said it got so bad that he wanted to kill himself and put a gun to his head.

But now, those thoughts are long gone.

As a last resort, David turned to medical marijuana. Specifically, a liquid form that contains a component known as CBD.

Jayden’s pediatrician prescribes it to Jayden and says the liquid form maintains medicinal qualities, while giving less of a high.

Jayden has been getting a few drops a day for the past two years and David said it’s been a remarkable difference.

Jayden is the most independent he’s ever been. He plays well, can walk and give his dad high fives, David said.

“(The) first day I gave him medical marijuana, thank God. (It was) the first day he went seizure free in his life,”he said.

David said he wants to share his story to help other parents in the same situation.

He says parents need to educate themselves and do what’s right for their own children.

The father and son have been featured in numerous articles and television shows. Jason and Jayden will be featured as a small piece in a special about medical marijuana with Dr. Sanjay Gupta that airs Sunday on CNN.

Jayden’s pediatrician said he is seeing more children with autism and seizures who are benefiting from medical marijuana.

The doctor admits not a lot of studies have been done on medicinal marijuana, which is why doctors across the board may have differing opinions.

However, doctors at the University of California-San Francisco are now studying the affects the CBD component in medical marijuana has on epileptic children.”

http://www.kcra.com/news/modesto-calif-dad-turns-to-medical-marijuana-to-save-son/-/11797728/21403126/-/item/0/-/12mmupr/-/index.html

Dad says marijuana saved his 6-year-old son’s life – msn

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“”Miraculous” stories from people who say medical marijuana helped them when all else failed keep rolling in.”

Still of father and son who were saved by THC - via KCRA, http://aka.ms/dope-cure

“The latest? A 6-year-old boy from Modesto, Calif., named Jayden David. Just like a young girl in Colorado, he suffers from a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome. The disorder gave Jayden seizures so severe and frequent, he couldn’t walk, play or do much of anything. He often had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Doctors prescribed as many as 22 pills a day. Nothing worked. “At one point Jayden had seizures 24 hours a day lasting an hour and a half,” his father, Jason David, told local station KCRA. “I went to my doctor and said, ‘I don’t think Jayden is going to last. He can’t sleep, can’t eat. He hasn’t used the restroom. He cant do anything.'”

With no alternate options, the doctor prescribed a liquid form of cannabis called CBD, which gives less of a high. It was the first day of his entire life that Jayden went seizure-free. In the two years since, he’s taken CBD daily and now walks, plays and laughs happily. Jason credits medical marijuana with saving his son’s life — and says he’s speaking out now to help other parents with children in Jayden’s situation. “How can I not tell people, ‘Hey, save your children’s lives?'” he asks.”

http://now.msn.com/jayden-david-6-was-saved-by-medical-marijuana-dad-says

Killing bacteria with cannabis

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“Pharmacists and chemists have found another use for the multipurpose cannabis as a source of antibacterial chemicals for multidrug resistant bacteria.”

 

“All five cannabinoids (THC, CBD, CBG, CBC, and CBN) were potent against bacteria. Notably, they performed well against bacteria that were known to be multidrug resistant, like the strains of MRSA…

CBD and CBG have the most potential for consumer use because they are nonpsychotropic…”

More: http://arstechnica.com/science/2008/08/killing-bacteria-with-cannabis/

“Antibacterial cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa: a structure-activity study.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18681481

Fact: Cannabis Kills MRSA, Disrupts Prion Diseases

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“Marijuana is a potent antibiotic that can kill methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and disrupt the progression of prion diseases such as Mad Cow disease and Creutzfeld-Jakob disease — just don’t expect the federal government to tell you any of this.”

A MRSA lesion

“Scientists from Italy and the United Kingdom reported in the August 2007 issue of the Journal of Natural Products that the main active ingredient in weed, THC, as well as four other pot molecules “showed potent antibacterial activity against six different strains of MRSA of clinical relevance.”

Pot also stops prions,  a type of protein that can cause neurodegenerative diseases that are invariably fatal. Once prions get into a brain they replicate rapidly and shred brain tissue “resulting in a ‘spongiform’ appearance on post-mortem histological examination of neural tissue.”

In 2007, American and French researchers reported that pot molecule cannabidiol “prevents prion accumulation and protects neurons against prion toxicity” in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Cannabidiol inhibited prion accumulation in mouse and sheep prion disease cell cultures and inhibited prion formation in the brain of infected mice given injections of CBD. “The authors conclude that CBD likely represents a new class of anti-prion drugs.””

More: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/LegalizationNation/archives/2013/07/29/fact-cannabis-kills-mrsa-disrupts-prion-diseases

“Antibacterial cannabinoids from Cannabis sativa: a structure-activity study.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18681481

“Nonpsychoactive Cannabidiol Prevents Prion Accumulation and Protects Neurons against Prion Toxicity” http://www.jneurosci.org/content/27/36/9537.full

Cannabidivarin-rich cannabis extracts are anticonvulsant in mouse and rat via a CB1 receptor-independent mechanism.

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“Epilepsy is the most prevalent neurological disease and is characterised by recurrent seizures. Here we investigate: (i) the anticonvulsant profiles of cannabis-derived botanical drug substances (BDS) rich in cannabidivarin (CBDV) and containing cannabidiol (CBD) in acute in vivo seizure models and (ii) the binding of CBDV BDSs and their components at cannabinoid CB1 receptors.

CDBV BDSs exerted significant anticonvulsant effects… 

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS:

CBDV BDSs exerted significant anticonvulsant effects in three models of seizure that were not mediated by the CB1 cannabinoid receptor, and were of comparable efficacy to purified CBDV.

These findings strongly support the further clinical development of CBDV BDSs for treatment of epilepsy.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23902406

“Cannabidivarin is anticonvulsant in mouse and rat… These results indicate that CBDV is an effective anticonvulsant in a broad range of seizure models.”  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22970845

Cannabidiol potentiates pharmacological effects of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol via CB(1) receptor-dependent mechanism.

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“Cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, has been reported to have interactions with Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta(9)-THC)…

In the present study, we investigated whether cannabidiol modulates the pharmacological effects of Delta(9)-THC…

Cannabidiol potentiated pharmacological effects of Delta(9)-THC via CB(1) receptor-dependent mechanism.

These findings may contribute in setting the basis for interaction of cannabinoids and to find a cannabinoid mechanism in central nervous system.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18021759

Marijuana Compounds Possess Synergistic Anti-Cancer Effects, Study Says

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“Marijuana’s active compounds act synergistically to inhibit the growth of cancer cells and induce malignant cell death, according to preclinical trial data published online by the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

Investigators at the University of California, Pacific Medical Center Research Institute assessed whether the administration of the non-psychoactive cannabidiol would enhance the anti-cancer effects of THC on glioblastoma (brain cancer) cells.

Researchers reported that a combination of cannabinoids showed greater anti-cancer activity than the administration of either compound individually. “We discovered that cannabidiol enhanced the ability of THC to inhibit cell proliferation and induce cell cycle arrest and apoptosis (programmed cell death),” authors reported.

Investigators concluded: “Individually, THC and cannabidiol can activate distinct pathways in glioblastoma cells that ultimately culminate in inhibition of cancer cell growth and invasion as well as induction of cell death. We hypothesized that, if the individual agents were combined, a convergence on shared pathways may ensue, leading to an enhanced ability of the combination treatment to inhibit certain cancer cell phenotypes. We found this to be true in this investigation.”

A 2008 scientific review published in the journal Cancer Research reported that the cannabinioids inhibit cell proliferation in a wide range of cancers, including brain cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, pancreatic cancer, and lymphoma.”

http://norml.org/news/2010/01/21/marijuana-compounds-possess-synergistic-anti-cancer-effects-study-says

Cannabidiol enhances the inhibitory effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on human glioblastoma cell proliferation and survival

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Molecular Cancer Therapeutics

“Δ9-THC and other cannabinoids can act as direct anticancer agents in multiple types of cancer in culture and in vivo. 

Individually, Δ9-THC and CBD can activate distinct pathways in glioblastoma cells that ultimately culminate in inhibition of cancer cell growth and invasion as well as induction of cell death.

We hypothesized that, if the individual agents were combined, a convergence on shared pathways may ensue leading to an enhanced ability of the combination treatment to inhibit certain cancer cell phenotypes.

We found this to be true in this investigation.

CBD enhances the inhibitory effects of Δ9-THC on glioblastoma cell growth.

Cannabidiol significantly improved the inhibitory effects of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol on glioblastoma cell proliferation and survival.

The Combination Treatment of Δ9-THC and Cannabidiol Inhibits Cell Cycle and Induces Apoptosis.

Our results suggest that the addition of CBD to Δ9-THC may improve the overall effectiveness of Δ9-THC in the treatment of glioblastoma in cancer patients.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2806496/

http://mct.aacrjournals.org/content/9/1/180.full

“CBD Enhances the Anticancer Effects of THC”  https://www.scribd.com/document/50154001/CBD-Enhances-the-Anticancer-Effects-of-THC-Journal-MCT-Marcu

Cannabinoids Decrease the Th17 Inflammatory Autoimmune Phenotype.

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“Cannabinoids, the Cannabis constituents, are known to possess anti-inflammatory properties but the mechanisms involved are not understood. Here we show that the main psychoactive cannabinoid, Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and the main nonpsychoactive cannabinoid, cannabidiol (CBD), markedly reduce the Th17 phenotype which is known to be increased in inflammatory autoimmune pathologies such as Multiple Sclerosis…

Pretreatment with CBD also resulted in increased levels of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Interestingly, CBD and THC did not affect the levels of TNFα and IFNγ. The downregulation of IL-17 secretion by these cannabinoids does not seem to involve the CB1, CB2, PPARγ, 5-HT1A or TRPV1 receptors…

In conclusion, the results show a unique cannabinoid modulation of the autoimmune cytokine milieu combining suppression of the pathogenic IL-17 and IL-6 cytokines along with boosting the expression of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23892791

Cannabidiol Normalizes Caspase 3, Synaptophysin, and Mitochondrial Fission Protein DNM1L Expression Levels in Rats with Brain Iron Overload: Implications for Neuroprotection.

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“We have recently shown that chronic treatment with cannabidiol (CBD) was able to recover memory deficits induced by brain iron loading in a dose-dependent manner in rats.

 Brain iron accumulation is implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and has been related to cognitive deficits in animals and human subjects.

…we have analyzed the expression level of brain proteins involved with mitochondrial fusion and fission mechanisms (DNM1L and OPA1), the main integral transmembrane protein of synaptic vesicles (synaptophysin), and caspase 3, an apoptosis-related protein, to gain a better understanding of the potential of CBD in restoring the damage caused by iron loading in rats.

We found that CBD rescued iron-induced effects…

Our results suggest that iron affects mitochondrial dynamics, possibly trigging synaptic loss and apoptotic cell death and indicate that CBD should be considered as a potential molecule with memory-rescuing and neuroprotective properties to be used in the treatment of cognitive deficits observed in neurodegenerative disorders.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23893294