Marijuana Medical Benefits ? Marijuana May Hold Key to Cure Some Big Medical Problems
Due to the intoxicating effects marijuana possesses, it has been made illegal in most countries. But this very quality is due to the fact that it marijuana mimics the effects of chemicals that the brain already uses for many important functions. Brain mechanisms use cannabis like compounds called endocannabinoids to regulate some extremely important brain functions that are believed to be involved in conditions such as depression, pain sensation, anxiety, drug dependence (not the drug cannabis but nicotine and others), and even regulating blood pressure. Laws criminalizing cannabis compounds have slowed research into the potential treatments that these compounds may be able to provide. Treatments for many serious medical problems lay in the balance . Medical uses of marijuana like componds will most likely be necessary in the future since they are integrated into our normal brain structure and function (these are called endocannabinoid receptors).
People addicted to smoking who want to stop, could do it in the future with the help of medical use of marijuana based compounds, according to researchers at The University of Nottingham.
Researchers, studying the cannabis-like compounds which exist naturally in our bodies (endocannabinoids), have begun to look in earnest at treating a number of serious medical problems. These includes conditions such as obesity, diabetes, depression and addiction to substances like nicotine.
Endocannabinoids have been known to researchers since the mid-1990s. A large number of researchers looking into the future medical use of marijuana like compounds.
Dr Steve Alexander, Associate Professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences, focused on a number of these projects in editing the first themed podcast for the British Journal of Pharmacology.
Dr Alexander said: “It is clear that there is very realistic potential for cannabinoids as medicines. Scientists are looking at a range of possible applications.”
One of these researchers is Professor David Kendall, a cellular pharmacologist at the University: “The brain is full of cannabinoid receptors. And so, not surprisingly with diseases like depression and anxiety, there’s a great deal of interest in exploiting these receptors and in doing so, developing anti-depressant compounds.”
Addiction is a real target — researchers like Professor Kendall believe the endocannabinoids could be a crucial link to addictive behaviour: “We know that the endocannabinoid system is intimately involved in reward pathways and drug seeking behaviour. So this tends to indicate that that if the link involving endocannabinoids and the reward pathway, using inhibitors, can be interrupted, it could turn down the drive to seek addictive agents like nicotine.”
Because cannabinoids have also been shown to bring down blood pressure, it is hoped that related compounds can be used in patients with conditions like hypertension.
Dr Michael Randall, a cardiovascular pharmacologist at the University has looked at how endocannabinoids cause blood vessels to relax. “This could have many implications,” Dr Randall said. “The endocannabinoids appear to lower blood pressure under certain conditions; states of shock for example. If the endocannabinoids are of physiological importance, this could have real therapeutic possibilities.”
“In terms of getting better medicines the endocannabinoid system has a lot to offer,” said Dr Alexander. “The range of cannabis-related medicines is currently limited, but by increasing our knowledge in this area we can increase our stock.”
Medications related to marijuana and medical treatments that use these compounds will need to be utilized if many of these difficult medical problems are to be solved. If the lawmakers can get up to speed with the scientific knowledge about the fact that criminalization of compounds such as these is not helpful in advancing our research, more rapid progress can be achieved.
ref: http://research.nottingham.ac.uk/NewsReviews/newsDisplay.aspx?id=454
