Roll one up... Marijuana may help stave off Alzheimer’s

SuzannePjam

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15145917/#storyContinued

Marijuana may help stave off Alzheimer’s
Active ingredient in pot may help preserve brain function

Updated: 4:31 p.m. ET Oct 5, 2006

WASHINGTON - Good news for aging hippies: smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer’s disease.

New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the progression of the disease by preserving levels of an important neurotransmitter that allows the brain to function.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana’s active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down more effectively than commercially marketed drugs.

THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimer’s patients, the researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.

The researchers said their discovery could lead to more effective drug treatment for Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia among the elderly.
Those afflicted with Alzheimer’s suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills. The ultimate cause of the disease is unknown, though it is believed to be hereditary.
Marijuana is used to relieve glaucoma and can help reduce side effects from cancer and AIDS treatment.

jlew24asu

this should be legal and cigarettes should be banned. shit is worse then crack

robbie

jlew24asu wrote:

this should be legal and cigarettes should be banned. shit is worse then crack

i agree with you!!!!! what are the chances? well, almost, i cant get on board with banning cigaretts, if you want to kill yourself with smokes, have at it. im never for the government banning what we do with our own bodies, but i do see your point.

Meatwagon

Damn...So smoking some pot will give you a loss of short term memory, but help keep Alzheimers at bay???? What the hell, I'm lighting up either way:)

addvs

Sweet! I just did my part to keep me from getting Alzheimer's!

decides2dream

The researchers said their discovery could lead to more effective drug treatment for Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia among the elderly.
Those afflicted with Alzheimer’s suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills. The ultimate cause of the disease is unknown, though it is believed to be hereditary.
Marijuana is used to relieve glaucoma and can help reduce side effects from cancer and AIDS treatment.




guess i should take it back up again then, b/c it is believed at the end of his life my father most probably suffered from alzheimer's....and one of his brothers, most definitely.

of course, i already knew of the possible hereditary connection...but yea, it's a scary disease.

reeferchief

decides2dream wrote:

The researchers said their discovery could lead to more effective drug treatment for Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia among the elderly.
Those afflicted with Alzheimer’s suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills. The ultimate cause of the disease is unknown, though it is believed to be hereditary.
Marijuana is used to relieve glaucoma and can help reduce side effects from cancer and AIDS treatment.




guess i should take it back up again then, b/c it is believed at the end of his life my father most probably suffered from alzheimer's....and one of his brothers, most definitely.

of course, i already knew of the possible hereditary connection...but yea, it's a scary disease.

Damn thats a good excuse to start smoking the weed again if ever I heard one.:)

London Calling

a similar study came out a few years back claiming tobacco smoking reduces chances of alzheimers. Problem is you are more likely to die of smoking related diseases before you have a chance to develop alzheimers. Also smoking pot is more carcinognic than tobacco smoking and increases your chances of developing schizophrenia.

Jeanwah

Meatwagon wrote:

Damn...So smoking some pot will give you a loss of short term memory, but help keep Alzheimers at bay????

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. How can pot really help if it adds to memory loss?

paisley

there's also a component which helps treat depression...

but of course, people would rather take man-made chemicals than that evil, natural pot!

paisley

Meatwagon wrote:

Damn...So smoking some pot will give you a loss of short term memory, but help keep Alzheimers at bay???? What the hell, I'm lighting up either way:)

I don't believe that memory loss bullshit. Some people are just stupid. I've known regular smokers who have no problems remembering things.

prytocorduroy

If that's the case why has my memory been shot since I started. Or maybe I was always slow.

rebornFixer

London Calling has a point ... Smoking pot for years might help to prevent dementia, but damn, your lungs aren't going to look too good.

wendy1976

i have mariuahna on docters prescription.....for helping me deal with the pain i have.....i asked her about the memory loss and if that was going to be really bad....she gave me an answer....but i just cannot remember it;)

no she said that memory loss only is accuring if someone uses 4 or more compleet joints every day....i have a smal glass pipe and i use it onc or twice a day with a really litle amount in it...works fantastic.Better then al those morfine like pills that made me a totally different and unplesant person.

rebornFixer

chiefojibwa wrote:

apples and oranges, people.

Yep ... Pot can interfere with some memory functions, true .. Especially working memory. But it also (apparently) affects neurotransmitter levels that are related to Alzeimers. Not the same thing. Alzeimers is a specific disease that happens to involve memory loss as a cardinal symptom.

rebornFixer

wendy1976 wrote:

no she said that memory loss only is accuring if someone uses 4 or more compleet joints every day....i have a smal glass pipe and i use it onc or twice a day with a really litle amount in it...works fantastic.Better then al those morfine like pills that made me a totally different and unplesant person.

Yes, it apparently takes very heavy usage over long periods of time to produce permanent memory deficits.

London Calling

chiefojibwa wrote:

huh? shizophrenia? where did you get that?

you can also use a vaporizer, which greatly reduces the amount of smoke you take in. or, you can eat it and take no smoke in.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?itool=abstractplus&db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=abstractplus&list_uids=15363608

Recent research has clarified a number of important questions concerning adverse effects of cannabis on health. A causal role of acute cannabis intoxication in motor vehicle and other accidents has now been shown by the presence of measurable levels of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in the blood of injured drivers in the absence of alcohol or other drugs, by surveys of driving under the influence of cannabis, and by significantly higher accident culpability risk of drivers using cannabis. Chronic inflammatory and precancerous changes in the airways have been demonstrated in cannabis smokers, and the most recent case-control study shows an increased risk of airways cancer that is proportional to the amount of cannabis use. Several different studies indicate that the epidemiological link between cannabis use and schizophrenia probably represents a causal role of cannabis in precipitating the onset or relapse of schizophrenia. A weaker but significant link between cannabis and depression has been found in various cohort studies, but the nature of the link is not yet clear. A large body of evidence now demonstrates that cannabis dependence, both behavioral and physical, does occur in about 7-10% of regular users, and that early onset of use, and especially of weekly or daily use, is a strong predictor of future dependence. Cognitive impairments of various types are readily demonstrable during acute cannabis intoxication, but there is no suitable evidence yet available to permit a decision as to whether long-lasting or permanent functional losses can result from chronic heavy use in adults. However, a small but growing body of evidence indicates subtle but apparently permanent effects on memory, information processing, and executive functions, in the offspring of women who used cannabis during pregnancy. In total, the evidence indicates that regular heavy use of cannabis carries significant risks for the individual user and for the health care system.

given2fly78

The thought of walking my Grandma's house and seeing her smoking a doob just cracks me up. She suffers from Alzheimers, so far it's progressing **fairly* slowly but she's 86.

Marijuana should be decriminalized IMO. We can hope......

kenny olav

I'd say my chances of gettng Alzheimer's are pretty much nil.

kenny olav

wendy1976 wrote:

i have mariuahna on docters prescription.....for helping me deal with the pain i have.....i asked her about the memory loss and if that was going to be really bad....she gave me an answer....but i just cannot remember it;)

no she said that memory loss only is accuring if someone uses 4 or more compleet joints every day....i have a smal glass pipe and i use it onc or twice a day with a really litle amount in it...works fantastic.Better then al those morfine like pills that made me a totally different and unplesant person.

alright then... it'll be smoke only 1 joint in the morning, and smoke two joints at night.


seriously though, that's good to know. i can't imagine even smoking close to 4 complete joints in one day... who has that kind of cash??

rigneyclan

marijuana is fucking stupid.