By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
Smoking pot kills brain cells and makes you dumb. It’s a common cliché that stems from the way people can behave while under cannabis’ psychoactive effects; but the idea’s validity has been up for debate. The plant has many medicinal uses, though the idea of using it for cognitive improvement hasn’t been one of the more common ones. People have long spoken about being able to focus better after smoking marijuana, but until recent years, there has not been a great deal of hard information on the subject. We are entering a new era of cannabis legalization, and real scientific studies are starting to debunk, support, or elaborate on current conclusions that are based solely on anecdotal evidence. While peoples’ real experiences and personal accounts have merit, reviewable data from documented research by qualified professionals with access to modern facilities is invaluable. Scientific results have a greater potential to influence public opinion and marijuana law reform.
Early this month, researchers at the University of Bonn in western Germany, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem released the results of a collaborative study that shows that small doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) could have cognitive benefits for the elderly. Data from the study also suggests that the cannabinoid may not be beneficial for younger brains.
Researchers separated mice into young (two months), mature/middle-aged (12 months), and elderly (18 months) age groups. After the administration of low doses of THC, researchers tested the mice to see how fast they could navigate a water maze puzzle and recognize familiar objects. THC hindered the performance of the younger mice in the study, but the same dosage in the older mice improved their cognitive function. As a mouse ages, the amount of genetic activity in its brain will change. After being given THC for four weeks, genes in the brains of the older rodents returned to activity levels of those seen in two-month-old mice. Contrarily-wise, when researchers administered THC to the two-month-old mice, the genes behaved like those of the untreated elderly mice.
Study leader, Dr. Andras Bilkei-Gorzo explains that “Giving THC artificially activates the system in the old [mice]. It can restore signaling to a normal level. If you do the very same treatment, with the same dosage, to young mice, you overdrive the whole system, as it’s at a much higher level than it should be.”
THC and its anti-inflammatory properties may be partly responsible for the mental improvement in the elderly mice as well. Inflammation is one the body’s injury response methods where it deploys white blood cells (macrophages, leukocytes) and cytokines (signaling proteins) in an attempt to fight off an infection from a foreign invader. THC is an anti-inflammatory cannabinoid that uses a process called apoptosis, which suppresses cytokine production. While it is a necessary function of the human immune system, prolonged inflammation can cause tissue damage. There is increasing evidence that neuroinflammation has a positive association with neurodegeneration, impaired neurogenesis, and increased risk of dementia.
While researchers say that they need to conduct more trials, they are encouraged by the results of the new study and hope that they can find a treatment for dementia in cannabis. They write in the journal that, “These results reveal a profound, long-lasting improvement of cognitive performance resulting from a low dose of THC treatment in mature and old animals.” The research group is now looking at conducting a small-scale study later this year involving human test subjects who are between 60 and 70 years of age.
