Cannabinoids Combat Brain Inflammation
Smoking Marijuana Prevention of Alzheimer Disease. One thing marijuana isnāt known to do is improve your memory. But thereās another reason why scientists believe it could fight Alzheimerās disease.
Gary Wenk, PhD, professor of neuroscience, immunology and medical genetics at Ohio State University, has studied how to combat brain inflammation for over 25 years.Ā His research has led him to a class of compounds known as cannabinoids, which includes many of the common ingredients in marijuana.
He says, throughout all of his research, cannabinoids have been the only class of drugs heās found to work. Whatās more, he believes early intervention may be the best way of fighting Alzheimerās.Ā Dr. Wenk doesnāt see cannabinoids ā or anything else ā as a cure. But he took the time to discuss with us how marijuana might prevent the disorder from developing.
Q: Whatās so important about brain inflammation?
A. Over the past few years, thereās been a focus on inflammation in the brain as causing a lot more than Alzheimerās. We now know it plays a role in ALS, Parkinsonās disease, AIDS, dementia, multiple sclerosis, autism, schizophrenia, etc.
Weāre beginning to see that inflammation in the brain, if it lasts too long, can be quite detrimental.Ā And if you do anything, such as smoke a bunch of marijuana in your 20s and 30s, you may wipe out all of the inflammation in your brain and then things start over again. And you simply die of old age before inflammation becomes an issue for you.
Q: Does this apply to other anti-inflammatories?
A. Another analogy would be, if youāre lucky enough to get arthritis by the age of 40, and you start taking a lot of anti-inflammatories, whatever it might be, your chances of getting Alzheimerās disease are very low because youāve been treating yourself day after day with these anti-inflammatories in high doses.
So the epidemiology has been sort of tapped to say, ālook, inflammation is behind a lot of diseases and anything people do ā that is, consume a drug, take a nutrient, or eat something that is anti-inflammatory ā is beneficial.ā
Q: Thereās some evidence that marijuana can improve symptoms. Why is that, considering its effect on memory?
A. One of our findings is almost any low dose of cannabinoids in a young brain produces an impairment. What we found was that the same very, very low dose in an old brain didnāt impair our animals. So as our brain ages, how it responds to any drug, including cannabinoids, changes. And that may be beneficial in the case of cannabinoids.
Still, the evidence usually involves transgenic mice. Iāve never found those mice, that they love to call Alzheimerās models, are very good models.Ā So Iām not willing to say cannabinoids, from that data, could treat Alzheimerās. But the evidence thus far, that it has properties that would slow the onset, I think is far more compelling.
Q: Whatās the conclusion then?
A. I think all we can say safely so far is using low doses of marijuana for prolonged periods of time at some point in your life, possibly when youāre middle-aged to late middle-aged, is probably going to slow the onset or development of dementia, to the point where youāll most likely die of old age before you get Alzheimerās.
We believe Alzheimerās begins when youāre born. Thatās actually where most of us are going with our research. In truth, we donāt think weāll ever cure it ā too much has gone wrong with the brain.
But if we can intervene with enough people, then we can slow the development and keep them out of nursing homes. That saves the government and families an awful lot of money. So most companies are just hoping, if we can delay the entry of Alzheimerās patients into a nursing home by just a year, youāre saving hundreds of millions of dollars.
Now we believe Alzheimerās begins when youāre born. This is why we think by age 30 we can diagnose it. A cure is what we tell, you know, the popular press. The reality is weāre just hoping to slow it down.
Article from:Ā Leaf Science, Alzheimers, Health,Ā JAN 30, 2014