Marijuana .....An article from Scientific American

[DRAGON SLAYER]

Found an interesting article for Potheads on this Forum....


** The Brain's Own Marijuana

Marijuana is a drug with a mixed history that spans millennia and
continents. It is also something everyone is familiar with, whether
they know it or not. Everyone grows a form of the drug, regardless
of their political leanings or recreational proclivities. That is
because the brain makes its own marijuana, natural compounds
called endocannabinoids (after the plant's formal name, Cannabis
sativa).
http://cl.exct.net/?fe5615717d670274701c-fe2b167073670d78741777

[new-sojourn]

Rastas say it's God's herb.  He musta been growin' it in Edan and he gave us a little stash when we were kicked out.

[snook_man]

I say, "Smoke em if you got em".
I grew up in Jamacia. I know the Rasta religion, their beliefs, and their medicine. True RASTA, which is almost an extinct race, lives of nature. All natural. True Rasta in Jamacia, believe it or not live longer than most other Jamacians.
Now, pass the Chalas!!
And by the way Rev, Bob had foot cancer, that spread through out his body.. He was diagnosed, and refused treatment for it, which caught up with him later. He believed his God would cure him.

[DonL]

So the AASLD study shows daily smokers to be at risk but offers the contraditory finding that "that the impact of marijuana smoking is as a cofactor, and is not responsible for liver fibrosis per se."

The Sci Am study does not mention fibrosis, only that cannabis attaches to certain neural receptors and mimics natural cannabinoid compounds. It offers an explanation for the effects of cannabis, not any associated risks. Interestingly, these receptors seem to be involved in "unlearning" responses to fear and stress.

So once again, if you believe in favor, it is proven. If you believe against, it is proven.

[Califia]

Thank you.   There needs to be far more research in this area, to say the least.   The bottom line is this is one study with a small sampling, with no attention paid to method of  drug delivery,  etc.    That doesn't mean I would dismiss these preliminary findings out of hand, but  they don't send me into a state of alarm, either.   And with regard to HCV folks currently on treatment, if  the addition of cannabis to the home pharmacy makes compliance possible, then I should think that this benefit outweighs any potential but still unproven risk.  

And yes,  about those bananas, impairment of sperm motility _is_ a real problem w/ MJ.

[RiverGal]

There is also a report on a study done by the Harvard Medical Research Team about marijuana use for Hep patients while on tx.  I tried to go back and find it, but I got frustrated and gave up.  (Gotta love the riba)

~River

[BarnGoddess]

I once owned a AQHA registered quarter horse and his  legal name is   "RASTA MAN" . He was a wonderfully smooth ride, very big for a quaterhorse, close to 16.1H and about 1500 lbs.
He LOVED the smell of a big fattie burning. Would gallop across the pasture to get a whiff.

happy Thanksgiving to all !
Barn Goddess
prior aka Tigerpants

[BobK]

Well I would have to agree with the consensus that a small study with only 211 patients is not representative of a population response.  The authors had to go through a lot os statistical manipulations to arrive at their conclusions.  I would also agree that this is not the end-all definitive study on MJ affects on the HCV patient.  

This study was a questionare study with no control over dosages or other substances consumed.  The daily smokers averaged 75 joints per month with the upper range being 107 joints per month....quite a wide range I would say and the lower range is not reported.  With no control of what goes in and what is (has been) used by the patients it makes one wonder what other factors in these peoples lives might also have contributed to fibrosis and were not asked about (and thus revealed)in the questionare.  

In looking at the data (what little there is) you can see that the non-smokers had fibrosis in over 40% of the patients and depending on what age group breakdown you consider in the daily smoking group you find a difference of 18-25% between them and the non-smokers. Now given that each "treatment arm" only contains between 68-107 people in it the statistical power contained within this study is virtually nil.  There simply are not enough subjects to draw any definitive conclusions.  How would you feel about a interferon study drawing conclusions based on this limited number of subjects and principally consisting of male subjects?  To understand the response in a population of patients you need thousands of subjects across the treatment comparisons.  You also need better control of what the patients are using and what frequency they are dosing themselves.

This is not to say the MJ is safe or a good thing for HCV patients  only that the data is quite insufficient to draw any conclusions unless you have your mind made up about the benefits or dangers of said substance.  It is interesting that a study on substance abusers taking INF tx that Mj use was positively correlated with SVR rates.

regards,
BobK

[Califia]

I believe that study came out of U.C. Med.

[BobK]

yes the study was conducted by Diane Sylvester at UC SF med center and reported in one of the Tx Reporters on the projectsinknowledge website.

Here is a quote from one of the liver disease experts:

"marijuana users had a SVR rate of 52% which is probably due at least in part to higher adherence rates, but an additional biologic effect at the cannibinoid receptors on B cells and macrophages can not be ruled out"

regards,
BobK