Alzheimer’s affects one in eight people over 65, and there have been few successes at treating or preventing it. Check out this study that suggest activating the brain’s cannabinoid receptors may slow brain degradation and dementia.
Findings: Cannabidiol (CBD), marijuana’s primary non-psychoactive cannabinoid, may also block the formation of the plaques in the brain believed to bring on Alzheimer’s.
Study: Cannabidiol: A Promising Drug for Neurodegenerative Disorders? (2009)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-5949.2008.00065.x/full
Location: University of Naples, Naples, Italy.
This review summarized growing evidence indicating an emerging role for CBD in the prevention and management of many main neurodegenerative disorders. CBD, in fact, resulted in being able to protect neuronal and nonneural cells against several detrimental insults, such as β-amyloid or 6-hydroxydopamine and glutamate, which are considered to be the basis of degenerative disorders.
The protective effects of CBD have been evidenced in several animal models of neurodegeneration, and very interestingly, important clinical trials have confirmed the potential pharmacological activity of CBD in the management of clinical symptoms and the slow-down of the progression of a variety of pathologies, including AD, MS, PD, and ASL.
Unfortunately, despite CBD promising therapeutic value, the actual mechanism responsible for its action remains elusive. Although its antioxidant structure is evident, it would be limited to restrict all CBD actions to a simple antioxidant mechanism, since CBD has revealed to possess not only an effectiveness higher than that of the classical antioxidant compounds but also some special activity unfamiliar to them. In fact, in almost all the clinical studies performed, CBD has strongly enhanced the effects of THC, underlining that at least some biological and clinical action is stoutly linked to the enhancement of endocannabinoid and endovanilloid signaling system.
Nevertheless, among Cannabis compounds, cannabidiol – which lacks any unwanted psychotropic effect – may represent a very promising agent with the highest prospect for therapeutic use.
