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Cannabis Chemical 'Helps Heart'
A chemical in cannabis can help ward off strokes and heart disease, scientists believe.
BBC News | 04/06/2005

Swiss researchers found THC, one of 60 cannabinoids in the drug, helped stop the narrowing of arteries to the brain and heart in a study of mice.

But the team, from Geneva University Hospital, said smoking cannabis did not produce the same effect.

However UK experts warned more research was needed before firm conclusions could be drawn.

Deaths

Blocked arteries - a condition known as atherosclerosis - are estimated to be responsible for up to 50% stroke and heart disease deaths in developing countries each year.

In the study, published in the Nature journal, mice were fed a high cholesterol diet to make them develop atherosclerosis and then given THC, which causes the high during cannabis use.

The Swiss researchers found THC stopped inflammation of blood vessels, which is largely responsible for blocking arteries.

The chemical worked by suppressing the immune system's response to a protein which is responsible for inflammation.

Lead researcher Francois Mach said while drugs such as statins which lower blood pressure and cholesterol had proved extremely effective the findings were still of "great medical interest".

And he added: "The dose [used] is lower than the dose usually associated with psychotropic effects of THC."

THC is being tested by GW Pharmaceuticals, the firm granted a UK licence to create cannabis-based drugs, in a number of treatments for pain relief and multiple sclerosis under development.

However, a study published last week in BMC Psychiatry found THC medicines could lead to psychosis.

Health

Professor Jeremy Pearson, associate medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said more work needed to be done in the area.

"Although these results, which use an oral cannabinoid in a pill form, are interesting, we look forward to further research into the area.

"We certainly hasten to advise against people smoking cannabis to protect their heart health - cannabis is usually smoked with tobacco which is highly dangerous for the heart."

And a spokeswoman for the National Heart Forum said: "This study presents interesting findings about the protective effects of active components found in marijuana and suggests scope for further investigation of these compounds."

But she added: "It does not suggest that marijuana smoking is beneficial to the heart. On the contrary, the harmful effects on the heart are well documented."

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RL in IL

More health benefits to cannabinoids is building the case to why people can use marijuana (even smoking it) and not get sick or develop tobacco-related diseases.

The main ingredients are beneficial for the heart, and the lungs. Now if people could just find another way of inhaling its beneficial botanicals without having to endure smoke.

gob

Have you heard of Vaporizers???????? No combusted vegatable material, it heats the herb to the point where only the thc is vaporized, it tastes a little different but it still gets you high.

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End Prohibition

Mamabudz

Cannabis Compound Slows Artery Disease in Mice

Wed Apr 6, 1:02 PM ET Health - Reuters


By Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - An active ingredient in cannabis can ease inflammation and slow the progression of coronary artery disease in mice, and possibly humans, researchers said on Wednesday.


Daily low doses of the ingredient, THC, prevented atherosclerosis, a primary cause of heart disease and stroke in western countries, without producing the associated high.


"We have proven that very low doses of cannabis therapy will have an anti-inflammatory effect that will slow the progression of atherosclerosis in mice," said Dr Francois Mach, of Geneva University Hospital in Switzerland.


He and his team do not know whether TCH, or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, will have the same effect in humans. But they believe the discovery will help find compounds that produce the same effect in humans without side effects such as raised blood pressure or euphoria.


"The goal now is to find new molecules, new compounds, that will act only on this anti-inflammatory effect," Mach told Reuters. Atherosclerosis is a common disorder of the arteries. Fatty materials build up and eventually block the arteries and interfere with blood flow.


THC and similar molecules are known as cannabinoids. Cannabis, which contains more than 60 different cannabinoids, and hashish have been used for centuries for medicinal purposes.


Mach and his team gave mice which were genetically engineered to be prone to atherosclerosis very low oral doses of THC with food each day. The dose was about 10 times less than that from smoking cannabis.


"It is the first study showing any beneficial effect of cannabis therapy on atherosclerosis," said Mach.


Cannabis creates a high when it binds to receptors called CB1 on the surface of cells in the brain. In the mouse study, another receptor, CB2, which is found on immune system cells and has nothing to do with euphoria, was affected. The dose given to the mice was too low to create a sense of euphoria.


Mice given THC had a slower progression of the disease than other mice not given the compound. The scientists are now studying whether THC can prevent the illness in the rodents.


"We are planning to look in more detail into how cannabis interferes with inflammation," said Mach.


"What we have proven in mice is that acting on this receptor 2 ... has an anti-inflammatory effect that is very beneficial against the development of atherosclerosis."


In a commentary on the research in Nature magazine, Michael Roth, of the University of California in Los Angeles, described the findings as striking.


"But they should not be taken to mean that smoking marijuana is beneficial for the heart," he said.


On the contrary it increases the pulse rate and causes sharp rises and then falls in blood pressure upon standing and walking.


The Netherlands was the world's first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug for cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis (MS). In the United States it is used to treat weight loss in AIDS patients and nausea and vomiting in cancer sufferers.


In Britain, GW Pharmaceuticals Plc has been pioneering cannabis-based medicine.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._cannabis_dc_1

RL in IL

Good idea! Now that you mention it. I have heard and used the best, and, the 'taste different' you mention I would change to say "tastes better" because the full flavor comes out whereas with smoking you are burning a lot of the flavor.

I don't think commercial marijuana (like B.C. Bud, or any other 'generic' named type of marijuana) is really medicinal quality enough to be anything other than mildly recreational.

I also have some evidence for, and enough evidence for me to believe, that the marijuana that they're using in this study contains cannabinoidal ingredients that might not be available in other types of marijuana.

So the type of marijuana used in this study which has ingredients that help the heart may not be available in quite the same quantity in other types of marijuana, such as your "commercial grade" recreational marijuana, or schwagg.

GW Pharmaceuticals and the other cannabis drug companies usually mention that they are studying a very particular type of marijuana which was partially engineered by them and may not be available out of Amsterdam or in the "commercial" marijuana market, or even through a U.S. medical marijuana co-op if only GW Pharm owns the rights to this particular type of heart-healthy marijuana.