Reefer Madness Perhaps Not So Mad After All:
Now I know the stoner-crowd has a rep for being a bunch of hippie-dropouts who will use just about any pseudoscience available to defend their habit.
Because they want their drugs and that’s all there is to it. -Munchies be damned.
Well buckle-up Amanda Bynes, because !SCIENCE! just dropped one of the dankest jams in-favor of THC since the invention of the cannabinoid-receptor 600 million years ago.
(not counting any of the Magnum Opuses by Messrs. Cheech & Chong)…
Believe It Or Not, Pot May Protect Your Brain:
It turns out that compounds from pot, and –Maybe– consumption of it, can help slow or stop some of the worst age-related ravages in your brain.
-Pretty dang contrary to the old Pothead stereotype, eh?
SO: Marijuana has been used as a medicine for several thousand years now. And more recently: for things like chronic pain, epilepsy, and issues related to other very grave ailments.
Well in pursuit of more “other things”, research badasses at The Salk Institute were inspired to look into how Alzheimer’s Disease hurts your brain and if anything can help.
If Sea Urchins Could Smoke, They Would:
So, it turns out that not only did sea-urchin type organisms originally develop the funky mutation of the cannabinoid-receptor,
-But our Brains also have them. -On all of our neurons.
And one of the things Seal Team Salk found out is that Alzheimer’s protein-plaques irritate the HELL out of your brain-cells. So much, they may just plain old KILL them. (similar to some allergy, insomnia & anti-depressant meds, too btw.)
If Advil Makes You Happy…-Then Marijuana Reduces Brain-Inflammation?:
So, they thought, if brain-cells have these Cannabinoid-Receptors on them, regular OTC painkillers make your brain happy, and several people manage Severe Chronic Pain with medical marijuana,
-which has some cannabinoids in it, like TetraHydroCannabinol (or THC),
…What if we put the cannabinoids on the neurons with the cannabinoid-receptors?
(which, btw is a solution any stoner could have come up with, because apparently they excel at divergent-concept-association; because their brains are FREE, MAN!!…)
THC’s Two-Factor Brain-Benefits:
Well they did just that, and the THC promoted both an elimination of inflammation, AND a cellular-level-removal of the Alzheimer’s amyloid-beta plaques that were inflaming the brain-cells in the first place. Just like the brain’s existing cleanup-system.
So yeah, It’s kinda looking like pot cures Alzheimer’s.
(go ahead stoners. rejoice. I’ll wait right here ’till you’re done…)
BUT! -This Is Only Preliminary:
Now these are just preliminary-results. And SCIENCE! still has to get baseline-scans of Alzheimered brains, give them some marijuana & then test them again.
What they also have to do is discover the most effective and healthiest delivery-mechanism, too. -Which may not include smoking pot, bro; it could just be a pill.
It’s also important to note that Exercise also releases similar THC-like chemicals in the brain, too.
In The Meantime, Get Some Exercise, Too:
So that’s another reason to follow Dr. Mike Evans’ advice until then & get some kind of movement in every single day.
But given what we already know about general painkillers reducing emotional pain paired with med-pot’s general uses, this discovery is looking pretty good.
I guess the only question remaining for the researchers is, “Where’s Dave?”
Check out all the groovy details at the Links:
Photo Credits: Modified Vintage ca.1950s Kool Cigarettes Ad by Ben-Hur Baz, via Pinterest
Links:
• Source: Salk Institute
• via: PopSci
• Source Study: Aging & Mech. Disease-Amyloid proteotoxicity initiates an inflammatory response blocked by cannabinoids
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