Strange News Stories

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Can Marijuana Stop Dementia?

Dementia is a typical problem of the brain where memory of the person gets affected and is unable to recollect or remember anything. This condition is characterized by loss of memory, difficulty in communication and most importantly trouble in performing daily activities. Dementia mainly occurs due to inflammation in part of brain cells. This inflammation or brain cells destruction can occur due to sudden stroke, brain tumor or even head injury. Dementia can be the result of natural process of aging or due to damage of cells because of Alzheimer’s disease. Several research studies indicate that inflammation in brain may accelerate dementia.

A new research study suggests that parts of marijuana have proved to be beneficial in treating memory loss. It has been seen that some constituents of marijuana has anti-inflammatory properties and it is this characteristic of marijuana that can help in treating inflammation in brain cells. Inflammation of brain cells is a part of aging but there can be situations when inflammation goes out of control and that results in deadly diseases such as dementia or even Alzheimer.

In an experiment by a group of scientists, synthetic drug with components similar to marijuana were administered to a group of rats. The result showed that both young and old rats exhibited considerable improvement in memory with even reduced inflammation of brain cells in some old rats. There were other experiments as well that showed drug acted on parts of brain that was responsible for appetite, memory, mood and even pain.

Research studies from Ohio State University conclude that a synthetic drug similar to marijuana triggers production of brain cells and neurons and help cut inflammation. The most important component of marijuana is the chemical tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Medicines based on this chemical compound have been in use to keep dementia at bay, and this is proven and widely accepted.

There are also evidences that suggest people who smoked marijuana in 1960s and 1970s rarely developed memory loss or Alzheimer’s disease. However use of marijuana cannot be recommended because of its psychoactive properties. The challenge is to find a drug or a synthetic substitute to marijuana without its negative impact that is without making the patients feel dizzy and high as in the case of smoking marijuana. So the need is to find a compound that will help treat neurogenesis and inflammation in an efficient way to produce best results.

However, the focus as of now is to find a pill or pills that will reduce brain inflammation without adverse effects of marijuana.

5 Responses to “Can Marijuana Stop Dementia?”

Taylor Says:

Dizzy from Marijuana…..LOL….find some marijuana that makes me feel dizzy…..I want that. Who ever wrote this article doesn’t have a clue. Marijuana might give you the munchies, make you creative, help you get a good nights rest, but dizzy, what planet are you on. I want some stuff that makes me feel dizzy, besides that rotton alcohol.

rebs Says:

there ARE no bad side effects. the dizzy/high is part of the pain relief process

Brian Berryhill Says:

Who wrote this article? My 5 year old grandson has better grammar skills.

I am a child of the 60’s and myself and many contemporaries indulged in pot use as young people. I don’t think the psychoactive properties of pot are powerfull enough to worry about. In fact, they may even enhance the anti-inflammatory effects. Considering the high rates of depression in seniors this could even be a ray of sunshine in an otherwise gloomy existance.

Wha The Says:

Look throughout the entire history of the planet. How many people have lost their lives due to overdosing on Marijuana, or murdered for possession of the substance, or killed by a vehicle or individual because they were under the “influence” of the drug and it caused them to drive poorly/recklessly or make them go crazy from the THC and just kill someone because the “drug” told them to?

More people die from drunk drivers in American in one month compared to how many people die from anything related to Marijuana all year, if not longer. The US government was the one who first came out in the 1930’s (1931, or earlier, I can’t recall exactly when) to make it illegal with all these reasons like insanity and stupidity, but upon ANY research into the substance known as THC, medical doctors and scientists have yet to find this natural plantform-produced substance to cause any harm other than low sperm-count and a limitation on short-term memory.

The Government is completely full of lies, even when the bill was overturned in the 1950’s (I can’t remember when it was overturned, but Marijuana was legal in this country for like less than a year half a century ago), they again illegalized it with hollow and untrue reasons.

Legalize it and stop Income Tax, which is another US Government lie, and Americans will be in a Free Country again. Of course, Bush would never approve, but neither would Clinton, and Obama is taking the same stance. More lies, their true reasoning behind keeping it illegal is very simple: they make too much money policing it.

Stop the lies.

Bill68 Says:

Hey, man, what adverse effects of …..of…..what was the subject again?

Leave a Reply