By Frank G. Shineman
Astounding new experiments with both younger and mature mice have revealed that treatment with cannabis on aging people may be able to extend their brain health. The greatest reason for this, as determined by doctors and other scientists is that cannabis has demonstrated a protective effect on their brains. Though, in these cases, it is the THC compound in marijuana and not CBD as might have been expected.
At the University of Bonn in Germany, experiments showed that a small amount of THC injected into the brains of mice of different ages produced amazing results.These findings were initially reported on in The Journal of Natural Medicine. The first result that was observed was that when small amounts of THC were injected into the brains of older mice, the THC made their brains younger. The scientists found that the cannabis helped older mice retain cognitive abilities. Usually, these are the mental abilities that digress with age. They were also surprised to discover that younger mice brains were made older. These tests were conducted consistently over a period of four weeks. During this testing period, brains of these older mice were shown to have regressed to the mental state of a two month old mouse.
A neuroscientist named Andras Bilkei-Gorzo recently reported these results to the Voice of America (voa.com.) Many of the scientists involved then began to think about how these facts could help reduce the decline of the cognitive abilities in older people. As a result, there were a number of other scientists who began to make valid comments about this astounding research.
Dr. Gary Wenk, Ph.D. in the Department of Psychology at Ohio State University agrees. Dr. Wenk is also a Member of the Governor’s Marijuana Advisory Committee. In a recent interview with Yahoo News, he stated that the results were nothing short of amazing. He stated that the evidence shows great promise regarding the cognitive and neurological benefits for aging brains. Dr. Wenk went on to clearly declare that THC appears to reduce brain inflammation. Therefore THC very positively affects the consequences of normal brain function as people age.
Researchers then examined the brains of the older, treated mice, seeking an explanation of how this might have happened. They discovered that the neurons in the hippocampus (the area critical for learning and memory) had sprouted more synaptic spines. The synaptic spines are the points of contact for communication between neurons.
Mark Ware, a clinical researcher at McGill University in Montreal made the following statement. “To anyone that studies the endocannabinoid system, these findings are not necessarily surprising… The reason I say that is because the system has homeostatic properties everywhere we look.” This means that the results may vary depending on the situation. Ware continued, “the detrimental effects that are seen in younger brains with an abundance of cannabinoids, in older brains may turn out to be beneficial because they have a lack of cannabinoids.”
