Tag Archives: medical

Medical Marijuana Looked Like This In The 19th Century

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“Well before the start of Marijuana’s official prohibition (1937!), the bountiful health benefits of Cannabis were apparent to those with any sense. Especially Doctors and Indians and Indian Doctors. Doctors and Indians in the 19th century loved to use weed–and all drugs–as part of their magical cures.”

Weed - Medical Marijuana Looked Like This In The 19th Century

“Based on the images shared by io9, the buds powers has deep roots, it’s one of an assortment of hazardous drugs used as medicine in the pre-Dabistoric days. These ones of “weed” in medical, liquid form stood out as just more, ancient proof that Marijuana is simply Medicine.”

More: http://www.marijuana.com/news/2013/05/medical-marijuana-looked-like-this-in-the-19th-century/

A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover Pilot Trial With Extension Using an Oral Mucosal Cannabinoid Extract for Treatment of Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathic Pain.

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“Neuropathic pain caused by chemotherapy limits dosing and duration of potentially life-saving anti-cancer treatment and impairs quality of life. Chemotherapeutic neuropathy responds poorly to conventional treatments, and there is an urgent medical need for new treatments. Recent preclinical studies demonstrate that cannabinoid agonists suppress established chemotherapy-evoked neuropathy.

This was a pilot trial to begin to investigate a currently available cannabinoid agent, nabiximols (oral mucosal spray containing cannabinoids), in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain.

CONCLUSION:

Chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain is particularly resistant to currently available treatments. This pilot trial found a number needed to treat of five and an average decrease of 2.6 on an 11-point NRS-PI in five “responders” (as compared with a decrease of 0.6 with placebo) and supports that it is worthwhile to study nabiximols in a full randomized, placebo-controlled trial of chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23742737

[From cannabis to selective CB2R agonists: molecules with numerous therapeutical virtues].

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“Originally used in Asia for the treatment of pain, spasms, nausea and insomnia, marijuana is the most consumed psychotropic drug worldwide. The interest of medical cannabis has been reconsidered recently, leading to many scientific researches and commercialization of these drugs.

Natural and synthetic cannabinoids display beneficial antiemetic, anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects in numerous diseases, however accompanied with undesirable effects due to the CB1 receptor. Present researches focus on the design of therapeutical molecules targeting the CB2 receptors, and thus avoiding central side effects and therefore psychotropic effects caused by the CB1 receptor.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23732102

Three out of four doctors recommend marijuana in New England Journal of Medicine poll

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More than three out of four doctors support medical cannabis for a hypothetical breast cancer patient, New England Journal of Medicine reports“More than three out of four doctors support medical cannabis for a hypothetical breast cancer patient, New England Journal of Medicine reports

In a poll by the well-respected New England Journal of Medicine released today, more than three out of four doctors recommended medical cannabis for a hypothetical late-stage breast cancer patient.

“We were surprised by the outcome of polling and comments, with 76% of all votes in favor of the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes — even though marijuana use is illegal in most countries,” Jonathan N. Adler, M.D., and James A. Colbert, M.D. wrote for the NEJOM May 30th.

Marijuana is a federally illegal – schedule one drug – that the U.S. government claims has no medical value and is more dangerous than heroin or LSD. Yet 19 states have legalized cannabis for medical use, given its 10,000 year history as a safe herbal remedy for nausea, pain and insomnia among other conditions.”

More: http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2013/05/30/three-out-of-four-doctors-recommend-marijuana-in-new-england-journal-of-medicine-poll/

Majority Support Medical Pot in New NEJM Poll

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“To recommend, or not to recommend, medicinal marijuana? That’s the question recently posed in a New England Journal of Medicine interactive online poll. To get a feel for physicians’ opinions, NEJM presented readers with a fictional clinical situation. Here’s the scenario:

“Marilyn is a 68-year-old woman with breast cancer metastatic to the lungs and the thoracic and lumbar spine. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy with doxorubicin. She reports having very low energy, minimal appetite, and substantial pain in her thoracic and lumbar spine. For relief of nausea, she has taken ondansetron and prochlorperazine, with minimal success. She has been taking 1000 mg of acetaminophen every 8 hours for the pain. Sometimes at night she takes 5 mg or 10 mg of oxycodone to help provide pain relief. During a visit with her primary care physician she asks about the possibility of using marijuana to help alleviate the nausea, pain, and fatigue. She lives in a state that allows marijuana for personal medicinal use, and she says her family could grow the plants. As her physician, what advice would you offer with regard to the use of marijuana to alleviate her current symptoms? Do you believe that the overall medicinal benefits of marijuana outweigh the risks and potential harms?”

Readers weighed in with a variety of impassioned opinions. And the results, the authors said, were  surprising: 76% of respondents said they would recommend medicinal marijuana. Here’s part of the discussion:

“Physicians in favor of medicinal marijuana often focused on our responsibility as caregivers to alleviate suffering. Many pointed out the known dangers of prescription narcotics, supported patient choice, or described personal experience with patients who benefited from the use of marijuana. Those who opposed the use of medicinal marijuana targeted the lack of evidence, the lack of provenance, inconsistency of dosage, and concern about side effects, including psychosis. Common in this debate was the question of whether marijuana even belongs within the purview of physicians or whether the substance should be legalized and patients allowed to decide for themselves whether to make use of it.”” 

More: http://ripr.org/post/majority-support-medical-pot-new-nejm-poll 

Study claims marijuana tied to lower bladder cancer risk – USA TODAY

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“A new study compared the risk of bladder cancer in more than 83,000 men who smoked cigarettes only, marijuana only, or both substances. New research says smoking pot may be less likely to cause bladder cancer than smoking cigarettes.”

“The finding is potentially valuable, the study authors said, given the ongoing debate over legalizing marijuana for medical purposes.”

More: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/11/study-claims-marijuana-tied-to-lower-bladder-cancer-risk/2153019/

“Association Between Cannabis Use and the Risk of Bladder Cancer: Results From the California Men’s Health Study.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25623697

http://www.thctotalhealthcare.com/category/bladder-cancer/

The Feds Finally Recognize The Anti-Cancer Potential Of Cannabis — 36 Years Too Late!

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3-24-2011: “Scientific trials have for decades documented the anti-cancer properties of cannabis and its constituents. Yet it took until this week for the website of the National Institute of Cancer, a component of the U.S. government’s National Institutes of Health, to finally acknowledged the herb’s therapeutic utility for patients living with disease or suffering from the adverse side-effects of cancer treatment.

In a newly added section to the website, entitled ‘Cannabis and Cannabinoids,’ the Institute states:

Cannabinoids may cause antitumor effects by various mechanisms, including induction of cell death, inhibition of cell growth, and inhibition of tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. Cannabinoids appear to kill tumor cells but do not affect their nontransformed counterparts and may even protect them from cell death.”

…The potential benefits of medicinal cannabis for people living with cancer include antiemetic effects, appetite stimulation, pain relief, and improved sleep. In the practice of integrative oncology, the health care provider may recommend medicinal cannabis not only for symptom management but also for its possible direct antitumor effect.”

It’s a stunning acknowledgment, given that the NIH is a branch of the very same government that presently maintains that the cannabis plant and all of its naturally-derived components have ‘no accepted medical use.’ Yet it also begs the question: Where has the National Institute of Cancer been all these years?

After all, the anti-tumor activity of cannabinoids were initially documented in 1975! That’s right; it’s taken 36 years for the Institute to get with the program.

Hopefully it won’t take them another 36 years to demand that the Feds finally assess whether these preclinical results are replicable in human trials.”

by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director

http://blog.norml.org/2011/03/24/the-feds-finally-recognize-the-anti-cancer-potential-of-cannabis-36-years-too-late/

A Brief History of Medical Marijuana – TIME

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“Should Professors Cheech and Chong ever receive university tenure teaching the medical history of their favorite subject, the course pack would be surprisingly thick.

As early as 2737 B.C., the mystical Emperor Shen Neng of China was prescribing marijuana tea for the treatment of gout, rheumatism, malaria and, oddly enough, poor memory. The drug’s popularity as a medicine spread throughout Asia, the Middle East and down the eastern coast of Africa, and certain Hindu sects in India used marijuana for religious purposes and stress relief. Ancient physicians prescribed marijuana for everything from pain relief to earache to childbirth…

By the late 18th century, early editions of American medical journals recommend hemp seeds and roots for the treatment of inflamed skin, incontinence and venereal disease. Irish doctor William O’Shaughnessy first popularized marijuana’s medical use in England and America. As a physician with the British East India Company, he found marijuana eased the pain of rheumatism and was helpful against discomfort and nausea in cases of rabies, cholera and tetanus.”

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1931247,00.html

THC Can Prevent Brain Damage – Study

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“Marijuana became popular as a recreational drug and as its legalization movement became more popular, studies were conducted on its therapeutic properties. Medical cannabis is often used by sufferers of chronic ailments, including cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder, to combat pain, insomnia, lack of appetite, and other symptoms. But self-reported milder symptoms often claim that only marijuana helps…

Prof. Yosef Sarne in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Tel Aviv University says that the drug can go beyond symptoms – it also has neuroprotective qualities. He has found that extremely low doses of THC — the psychoactive component of marijuana — protects the brain from long-term cognitive damage in the wake of injury from hypoxia (lack of oxygen), seizures, or toxic drugs…

The use of THC can prevent long-term cognitive damage that results from brain injury, the researchers conclude…

According to Sarne, there are several practical benefits to this treatment plan. Due to the long therapeutic time window, this treatment can be used not only to treat injury after the fact, but also to prevent injury that might occur in the future. For example, cardiopulmonary heart-lung machines used in open heart surgery carry the risk of interrupting the blood supply to the brain, and the drug can be delivered beforehand as a preventive measure. In addition, the low dosage makes it safe for regular use in patients at constant risk of brain injury, such as epileptics or people at a high risk of heart attack.

Sarne is now working with Prof. Edith Hochhauser of the Rabin Medical Center to test the ability of low doses of THC to prevent damage to the heart. Preliminary results indicate that they will find the same protective phenomenon in relation to cardiac ischemia, in which the heart muscle receives insufficient blood flow.”

More: http://www.science20.com/news_articles/thc_can_prevent_brain_damage_study-113512

Marijuana component can halt brain damage

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“Extremely low doses of THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana, protects the brain from long-term cognitive damage in case of injury from hypoxia (lack of oxygen), seizures, or toxic drugs, a new study has claimed.

Medical cannabis is often used by sufferers of chronic ailments, including cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder, to combat pain, insomnia, lack of appetite, and other symptoms.

Now, Professor Yosef Sarne of Tel Aviv University’s Adelson Center for the Biology of Addictive Diseases at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in US found the drug has neuroprotective qualities as well.

Previous studies focused on injecting high doses of THC within a very short time frame approximately 30 minutes before or after injury.

Sarne’s current research, published in the journals Behavioural Brain Research and Experimental Brain Research, demonstrates that even extremely low doses of THC around 1,000 to 10,000 times less than that in a conventional marijuana cigarette administered over a wide window of 1 to 7 days before or 1 to 3 days after injury can jump start biochemical processes which protect brain cells and preserve cognitive function over time.

This treatment, especially in light of the long time frame for administration and the low dosage, could be applicable to many cases of brain injury and be safer over time, Sarne said.

While performing experiments on the biology of cannabis, researchers found that low doses of the drug had a big impact on cell signalling, preventing cell death and promoting growth factors.

This finding led to a series of experiments designed to test the neuroprotective ability of THC in response to various brain injuries.

In the lab, the researchers injected mice with a single low dose of THC either before or after exposing them to brain trauma. A control group of mice sustained brain injury but did not receive the THC treatment.”

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/marijuana-component-can-halt-brain-damage/1123274/