A recent study which was published in the “Annals of Oncology”
finds that the primary active ingredient in marijuana –
tetracannabinol, or THC – may help cancer patients improve their
appetites and sleep habits.
Some of the many unpleasant
side-effects of undergoing chemotherapy are appetite suppression, the
inability to enjoy food, and sleeplessness. Dr. Wendy Wismer, who is a
professor at the University of Alberta at Edmonton, lead a team which conducted a study where 21 patients were randomly administered either a THC pill or a placebo.
This was done two times a day for two and a half weeks.
While the overall caloric intake
between subjects in the control and experimental groups did not
significantly vary, many who were given the THC pill reported that they
found the food that they did eat tasted better. They also reported
improved patterns of sleep and relaxation.
These findings are not considered to be
revolutionary, but they may serve to further the cause of individuals
and organizations which advocate the use of medicinal marijuana.
It is also promising for people who
are currently undergoing chemotherapy or will in the future, as the
study suggests that monitored THC consumption can alleviate some of the
discomfort often associated with the treatment.
The largest study of its kind has
unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and
heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.
The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.
“We hypothesized that there would be a
positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that
the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said.
“What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion
of some protective effect.”Earlier work established that marijuana does contain cancer-causing chemicals as potentially harmful as those in tobacco, he said. However, marijuana also contains the chemical THC, which he said may kill aging cells and keep them from becoming cancerous.
Tashkin’s study, funded by the National Institutes of Health‘s National Institute on Drug Abuse, involved 1,200 people in Los Angeles who had lung, neck or head cancer and an additional 1,040 people without cancer matched by age, sex and neighborhood.
They were all asked about their lifetime use of marijuana, tobacco and alcohol. The heaviest marijuana smokers had lighted up more than 22,000 times, while moderately heavy usage was defined as smoking 11,000 to 22,000 marijuana cigarettes. Tashkin found that even the very heavy marijuana smokers showed no increased incidence of the three cancers studied.
“This is the largest case-control study ever done, and everyone had to fill out a very extensive questionnaire about marijuana use,” he said. “Bias can creep into any research, but we controlled for as many confounding factors as we could, and so I believe these results have real meaning.”
Tashkin’s group at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA had hypothesized that marijuana would raise the risk of cancer on the basis of earlier small human studies, lab studies of animals, and the fact that marijuana users inhale more deeply and generally hold smoke in their lungs longer than tobacco smokers — exposing them to the dangerous chemicals for a longer time. In addition, Tashkin said, previous studies found that marijuana tar has 50 percent higher concentrations of chemicals linked to cancer than tobacco cigarette tar.
While no association between marijuana smoking and cancer was found, the study findings, presented to the American Thoracic Society International Conference this week, did find a 20-fold increase in lung cancer among people who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day.
The study was limited to people younger than 60 because those older than that were generally not exposed to marijuana in their youth, when it is most often tried.
Need Money..?
HERE
