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Alzheimer's: Beyond Nicholas Sparks

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Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases in America.  It is commonly known as Type III diabetes due to the prevalence of insulin resistance in most Alzheimer’s patients.  Treating Alzheimer’s disease has been a difficult task for researchers and physicians so far however there does appear to be hope for the future.  Researchers believe to be pin-pointing the causal pathway leading to the onset of Alzheimer’s disease via the PI3-kinase/Akt pathway.
Many teenagers in America have witnessed the effects of Alzheimer’s disease whilst cuddling on a couch in their significant other’s basement watching the famed Nicholas Sparks movie “The Notebook”, and crying along as the emotional roller coaster brought them from sadness to happiness and back to immense sadness.  (FULL DISCLOSURE: I never cried watching the movie though my girlfriend (who forced me to watch it in the first place did.  However I will admit I did enjoy it more than I could ever admit to her.)  The neurodegenerative disease opened a divide between two lovers as one began to forget all about their time together.  Sadly, not everyone in world has the luxury of experiencing the disease through the TV screen, and is able to just turn it off when the credits start to roll.  Others experience it first hand or watch as their loved ones slowly fade away into a shell of their own existence.  What makes the disease so troublesome is that it tends to have a late onset in life and thus there isn’t much of an initiative to put an end to it or prevent it earlier in life.
Alzheimer’s disease occurs from neurodegeneration caused by the build-up of Amyloid Beta (Aβ) plaques in synapses.  This is believed to be caused by an overactive IGF-1R/IR receptor leads to an over activated PI3-kinase/Akt pathway.  This pathway leads to the over-activation of mTOR (a protein kinase that activates other important “effector proteins” via phosphorylation) leading to over phosphorylation of other pathways in the cell, causing cellular distress.  Some current medications in clinical trials are aimed at inhibiting mTOR in an effort to slow down the accumulation of Aβ in intercellular spaces.  Other drugs in trials are inhibiting one of the “effector proteins” (known as: S6K) that mTOR activates.  By inhibiting S6K, less over-phosphorylation will occur within the cell leading to less accumulation of Aβ.  Our neurons depend on well-balanced cellular concentrations of various proteins and signal molecules in order to function correctly.  When these concentrations fall out of their ideal range of operation, pathways can become over-active thus leading to neuronal death.
Currently there is a growing initiative to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s the same way we prevent type II diabetes, a well-balanced diet.  Insulin resistance is common in patients with Alzheimer’s causing changes in cellular concentrations of insulin (commonly involved in neuronal pathways like the PI3-kinase/Akt pathway being studied here).  Diet must be well-monitored and well-balanced throughout life especially in the later stages of our lives.  Reducing our caloric intake later in life using a well-balanced diet can reduce our chances of developing Alzheimer’s.
If this knowledge can lead to more of an understanding of the connection between our diets and our health, maybe we can all save future generations from the wrath of sad love novels driven by neurodegenerative diseases by Nicholas Sparks.
Until Next Time,
Sebastian

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Blazing New Trails: Discovering the Effects of THC on the Body

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Marijuana has historically been a favorite villain in anti-drug campaigns across the United States. It has been given the status as a Schedule I drug, meaning that it has a high potential for abuse, no accepted medical benefit, and that there is a lack of accepted safety measures for its use. Although marijuana is not nearly as addictive as the majority of other drugs in this Schedule (such as heroin), it must remain in that schedule until information supporting two important areas is discovered: 1) its role as a medicine and 2) its possible potential for abuse. However, recent research and political activity have made the topic of marijuana use one to look into more deeply. There has been much concern and interest associated not only with its safety as a recreational drug but also pertaining to its usefulness as a form of medicine.
The compounds in marijuana responsible for the high it produces are known as cannabinoids; endogenous cannabinoid (or endocannabinoid) receptors found in the body are what enable people to experience this feeling. The existence of these receptors indicates that the body creates its own cannabinoids. This is similar to how receptors for endorphins (endogenous morphine-like compounds, which create the feeling of a runner’s high) allow people to feel the effects of opiates such as morphine. The body’s endocannabinoid system is mainly responsible for regulating many important processes. This wide scope of activity is part of the reason it is so difficult to fully understand the complexity of its specific roles in the body.
There are two known cannabinoid receptors in the body: CB1 and CB2. While CB1 is more often found in the brain than in the rest of the body, CB2 is most present in cells of the immune system. The separate locations of these receptors throughout the body highlight their separate but related functions. THC has a higher affinity for CB1 than for CB2, which makes sense given its brain-related effects. Only two endocannabinoids (AEA and 2-AG) have been identified so far and both have a higher affinity for CB1. Although they will both bind to CB2, they do so weakly. 2-AG, which is more prevalent in the brain than AEA and does a slightly better job of binding to CB2, can induce cell death in some pathways. It has been implicated to have other neuromodulatory functions, but these have yet to be exactly defined. AEA plays a role in pain relief, motor activity, and stimulation of appetite. In addition to the endocannabinoid receptors, AEA can also bind to a vanilloid receptor (TRPV1R). When capsaicin (an actual vanilloid meant to bind here) signals via TRPV1R, it can reduce local inflammation and inflammation-induced pain. This has positive implications for the involvement of AEA (and, similarly, THC) in immune response.
The health claims being currently made about marijuana may seem too good to be true. While it may not treat every ailment it claims to, it is due to the wide-reaching modulatory role of cannnabinoids that THC can be useful in many instances. It is difficult to pinpoint which receptors endocannabinoids may have a hand in regulating (either directly or indirectly) and how they do this, but current research is getting us closer to an answer.

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Current Progress in ALS Research

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The body is the vessel through and by which we experience the world. To be unable to interact with it physically while being mentally aware is arguably the scariest thing about paralysis. ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is a debilitating and aggressive disease involving degeneration of the motor nerves which branch off of the spinal cord and communicate with muscles, leading to their atrophy and later death. The damaged nerve tissue scars and hardens, never to regenerate. This slow, painful atrophy of muscle tissue can cause tremors, rigidity, and paralysis and affects all muscle tissue, including the muscles of the digestive system (making it nearly or completely impossible to eat or digest food) and the muscles that make up the heart (causing it to, eventually, stop beating). Despite much-needed publicity during the summer’s ice bucket challenge, the disease is still nowhere near a definitive cure. This is due mostly to how difficult it has been to isolate exactly what it is that causes degeneration, although there have been a few areas on which recent research has focused.
Glutamate excitotoxicity
The hypothesis which became the focus of our week was that one of the mechanisms causing ALS is excitotoxicity. Glutamate excitotoxicity occurs when an excess of glutamate, a chemical involved with cell signaling, builds up outside the cell and causes a host of chain reactions which ultimately result in cell death. We explored and discussed not only ways by which this event occurs, but also looked more deeply into how the cell is affected internally.
Beyond there simply being an excess of glutamate outside the cell, excitotoxicity is also contributed to when too-perfect conditions allow glutamate’s receptor to become overactive. For example, amino acids glycine or D-serine must simultaneously bind with one of glutamate’s receptors (NMDAR, AMPAR) in addition to glutamate in order for the receptor’s signal to be sent. When more glycine and serine are floating around, more signals can be sent than is normal with a similar amount of glutamate.
The receptor
NMDAR, one of glutamate’s receptors, is also sensitive to the electrical charge inside the nerve cell. Neurons fire when they reach a certain electrical charge (known as an action potential) which comes about as the result of multiple signals that gradually increase the charge in the cell. What it means for NMDAR to be sensitive to the neuron’s charge is that it will only continue to send its signal after the cell has already been brought closer to this action potential. NMDAR sends further signals into the cell by allowing calcium to rush in, bringing the neuron even closer to firing.
Inside the cell
One issue with the overaction of NMDAR is that too much calcium too often can cause detrimental effects within the cell. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a structure in many cells that is mainly responsible for the production and proper folding and transport of proteins. Protein folding is important because if the protein is in the wrong shape it fails to perform its job correctly. The ER also stores extra calcium in the cell, which can either be released or “sponged up” by proteins such as calreticulin in order to prevent damage.
Connections to motor neuron death
But how much damage can calcium really cause? When there is an excess of calcium, the ER can become stressed and fail to do its job properly. This can result in misfolded or unfolded proteins. The unfolded protein response (UPR) attempts to get things back to how they’re supposed to be. If the effects of the UPR do not result in the reestablishment of homeostasis, a series of events result in apoptosis: cell death.
The mitochondrion (better known as “the powerhouse of the cell”) can go through a similar process in which calcium-related stress can lead to death of the cell.
Hope for ALS?
Every day that research is done we get one step closer to finding a cure – or at least a treatment that can improve the lives of people living with and suffering from this disease. Although we may seem too far away for hope, we’re closer than we’ve ever been. A drug called memantine (which blocks some NMDARs) has shown promising results in a mouse model for ALS. It may be soon be used in clinical trials on human patients with ALS to determine its true ability to combat the disease.

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Don’t ask what you can do for your cannabis, ask what your cannabis can do for you!

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Cannabinoids and marijuana in particular have been the topic of many political debates and policy in the past decade.  The use of marijuana both recreationally and medicinally have become legalized in several states within the US.  However this is not a new drug by any means, cannabinoids have been used for hundreds of years and now is the most widely used illicit drug in many countries around the world.  In order to better understand how this drug functions, let us examine its neurologic pathway and delve into how it can be used medically.
Endocannabinoids:
When people think of cannabinoids, the first association is almost unanimously to marijuana.  What many people do not know is that there are cannabinoids that are made within the body already, these molecules are thus called endocannabinoids.  Although these endocannabinoids may not have the same psychoactive effects as cannabinoids from marijuana, they still play a key role in the function of many neurological pathways.  Many endocannabinoids are present in the human body, however the two most common ones are AEA and 2-AG.
Anandamide (AEA)

AEA has been found to be a modulator in both the central and autonomic nervous systems.  It has also shown to be present in the function of systems such as the immune system, endocrine system, gastrointestinal tract, and reproductive system.  The physical effects caused by AEA include analgesia, control of motor activity, reduced emesis, and stimulation of appetite.
2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG)

2-AG has been found in many of the same systems as AEA and possesses many of the same characteristics, however both 2-AG and AEA bind with different affinities to the endocannabinoid receptors.  This variance is the cause of different physical responses that have been observed.
Receptors and the Pathway:
There are predominantly two endocannabinoid receptors found in humans, CB1 and CB2.  CB1 receptors are primarily found in lipid rafts in the cortex, hippocampus, basal ganglia, and cerebellum, while CB2 receptors are found primarily in immune cells in the periphery.  Although these receptors are different, both AEA and 2-AG can bind to CB1 and CB2.  The difference lies in the affinity to which the two endocannabinoids bind to the receptors.  AEA binds with a greater affinity to CB2, while 2-AG binds with a greater affinity to CB1.

Recent Discoveries:
While the use of cannabinoids as analgesics, motor depressors, and appetite stimulators have been well documented, recent research has found a correlation between endocannabinoids and cell apoptosis (cell death).  While at first this may seem counterintuitive — cell death being a good thing — many of the cells that are being targeted by endocannabinoids are associated with cancer growth.  The use of endocannabinoids has been observed to cause apoptosis in multiple different cell cancer types including: breast carcinoma cells, prostate cancer cells, pancreatic tumor cells, colon cancer cells, etc.  However the apoptosis caused by these endocannabinoids vary by the type of cancer and the pathway by which apoptosis occurs.  Different responses caused by the signaling of CB1 and CB2 receptors include: inhibition of adenylyl cyclase, ceramide synthesis, calcium influx, etc.
Although there is much controversy in the use of cannabinoids as psychoactive drugs, there are many good things that can come out of endocannabinoid use, which are currently being studied and implemented.  What should be looked at is the good that endocannabinoids can bring to a society and all of the positives that still can be discovered through further research.

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Scooby-Doo and the Medical Marijuana Mystery

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Before I break down the mechanisms behind medical marijuana, I would like to emphasize that I am not affiliating my favorite childhood T.V. show with marijuana usage. However, given the show is set in the late 1960‘s and 1970’s, the gang travels in flowery hippie van, Shaggy’s food consumption is at a much higher level than that of a normal growing teenage boy, and his best friend is a talking dog, it is not too much of a stretch to assert that Shaggy was likely a recreational marijuana user. If you haven’t yet made these associations, I apologize for shattering the illusions of your childhood. However, I would like to use these meddling kids to help describe the pathways involved in medical marijuana usage and how it can be used to treat diseases. 
Your brain naturally has cannabinoid receptors that help regulate many different functions. This does not mean that our brains are hard-wired for marijuana. Endocannabinoids are chemical compounds that occur naturally in the brain that bind to the same receptors as chemicals found in marijuana (such as THC) do. The two endocannabinoids found in the brain are AEA and 2-AG which bind to receptors called cannabinoid receptors. There are two known cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2. CB1 receptors are present in several areas of the brain involved in memory, cognition, movement, pain reception, and appetite. Less is known about CB2, but it may play a role as a messenger in the immune system. AEA primarily binds to CB1 receptors, which helps stimulate appetite, control motor movements, reduce nausea/vomiting, and relieve pain. Cannabinoids found in marijuana, like THC, are chemicals that also bind to CB1 receptors, leading to similar effects like when AEA binds. Cannabinoids can be produced synthetically without using the actual plant in production to mimic the positive actions of THC while eliminating the negative side effects like paranoia. Synthetic is the only form approved for medical marijuana treatment in Minnesota.

Let’s think of Scooby-Doo as our CB1 receptor. Normally, Scooby has access to giant sandwiches (these will represent AEA) which allow him to fulfill his big appetite, be relaxed and not in any pain or distress. However, when a villain (representing diseases like cancer, ALS, or epilepsy) is present, Scooby-Doo becomes disoriented and distressed; he is forced to run and no longer has access to the giant sandwiches he needs. The villain causes Scooby to run with spastic, uncontrolled movements and he cannot function properly.
   
However, Scooby can regain his appetite, concentration, and motor control if he’s given Scooby Snacks. Let’s think of Scooby Snacks as synthetic cannabinoids found in medical marijuana (and no, I’m not suggesting the snacks were spiked in the show). These cannabinoids help stimulate CB1, or in this case, help feed Scooby-Doo. The Scooby Snacks help Scooby’s appetite like a sandwich (AEA) would. The Scooby Snacks also help him calm down and stop spastic movements, side effects caused by the villain’s presence.

All of the diseases approved for medical marijuana treatment in Minnesota involve severe pain, loss of appetite, nausea/vomiting, severe wasting, or spastic movements. These diseases include: cancer associated with severe/chronic pain, nausea/severe vomiting, or severe wasting, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Tourette’s Syndrome, ALS, Crohn’s Disease, seizures (including epileptic seizures), severe and persistent muscle spasms (including those characteristic of MS), and terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than one year if the illness or treatment produces severe/chronic pain, nausea/severe vomiting, or severe wasting. As we can see in our Scooby-Doo example, medical marijuana (the Scooby Snacks) helps the CB1 receptor (Scooby) function more normally in the presence of a disease (villain), which means a regained appetite and control of motor functions, combating common side effects of the disease. Though we have not yet found cures for these horrible diseases, medical marijuana is one way to help those suffering from these diseases to regain control and capture their villains to the best of their ability.
 
 
This post was written by Kayla Tureson in response to an article read in the Neurochemistry class at Concordia College. It is intended to bring awareness regarding the mechanisms involved in medical marijuana.
**”Scooby-Doo and the Medical Marijuana Mystery” is not an actual episode, just an attempt at a clever title**
The article about this topic can be found here:  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1098882313000087
The Minnesota state website regarding the new law can be found here: http://www.health.state.mn.us/topics/cannabis/
Image sources:
Scooby Sandwich image: http://cdn.patch.com/users/315111/2014/09/54066b1cb96cd.jpg
Scooby running from villain image: http://www.blastr.com/sites/blastr/files/images/assets_c/2010/10/Scooby-and-Shaggy-halloween-251158_800_600-thumb-330×247-48792.jpg
Scooby tangled with the gang image:  http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/png/6d536be677b00af57f327c80e431cc53b9f77648_r.png
Scooby and Fred image: http://www.englemed.co.uk/graphics/scooby_doo2.jpg

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Endocannabinoids & the Frontier of Cancer Treatment

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 Marijuana has been ingrained in American popular culture since the 1970’s. Most Americans know about pot, weed, Mary Jane, and the like but what most people don’t know is that we all have cannabis-like molecules all over in our bodies. Endocannabinoids, while they don’t produce the high of THC, they are involved in many chemical pathways throughout the body. Researchers now believe that these pathways may be involved in anti-cancer functions. Because these molecules are already present in the body, they could be one way the human body fights cancer on its own. This revelation has led many people to suggest that the use of medical marijuana can be a critical step to the treatment and cure of cancer.
The way most of these anti-cancer pathways work is by promoting programmed cell death, or apoptosis, in cancerous cells. One of the foggy parts of this story is how endocannabinoids target cancer cells specifically and leave healthy cells alone. This is a crucial question that needs to be answered before mainstream cancer treatment with endocannabinoids can be viable. The knowledge we have today will serve as a great starting point for more discovery of endocannabinoid’s cancer-fighting potential but is not yet sufficient.
The stigma around marijuana use is still greatly accepted by mainstream America and this will also slow down the acceptance of this new, radical treatment. With medical marijuana bills passing in several states and Colorado legalizing marijuana outright recently, the tides of public opinion seem to be changing. This will go a long way to not only making marijuana treatment more socially acceptable, but pushing scientists to study its effects in an effort to fill in some of the glaring blanks still left in our current understanding of endocannabinoids.  

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Marijuana and a Change of Mind

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From day one, kids are taught that drugs are wrong. Drugs will destroy your life, and you will hurt your loved ones. In my lifetime, medical marijuana has been legalized and now states are legalizing recreational marijuana. If you would have asked me at the beginning of this class if I thought marijuana was okay, I would have said no. After reading this article, my mind has started to change. While I don’t like the idea of using recreationally, I think that there is value in using it medically.
Marijuana has been used recreationally for hundreds of years. The main component of this drug is THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). This is what causes the psychoactive effects that we know like hallucinations and paranoia. Scientists figured that if marijuana was causing neurological responses, there must be receptors in the body for it. They eventually discovered the endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS). This system consists of two different receptors called CB1 and CB2. While these receptors bind components of marijuana they also bind neurotransmitters that are created in the body called endocannabinoids. While there are many details concerning the ECS, the most important thing is that this system takes part in the control of cell functions. If this system experiences changes, cell death is a possibility.

While the recreational use of marijuana hasn’t been accepted by the whole of society, medical marijuana has started to be condoned in some states. Minnesota recently passed a law that would allows certain patients to use it. The drug itself has to be in pill or vapor form, and there are many limitations on how it will be administered and distributed. Medical marijuana can be used to treat pain, severe nausea, anorexia in HIV/AIDS patients, and muscle spasms in MS. Research on medical marijuana has shown some some promising results for different diseases. There is evidence that it could be used to actually stop the spread and or kill cancer cells. There are studies that show it stopping seizures in patients with epilepsy. Research even shows that it could help with the effects of Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. That is just a sample of the amazing research that’s happening right now.
Learning about these different uses for medical marijuana has made me more open to the idea of its legalization. I’m still hesitant about legalizing all forms of marijuana, but that comes from the fear of not knowing what would happen. We are conducting the best social experiment right now in Colorado and the state of Washington. So far things have gone smoothly. Crime is down and tax revenue is high. I don’t know if that’s enough to convince me that it should be legal, but it does make me curious. The most important thing that we can do right now is to study and learn about marijuana and the ECS because it might just change your mind.
 
https://moodle.cord.edu/pluginfile.php/390911/mod_resource/content/0/endocannabinoids.pdf
http://skunkskool.com/index.php/topic/4466-understanding-cannabinoids/

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Marijuana and Cancer Treatment: What is he smoking?

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From: http://mjnewsnetwork.com/legal/medical-marijuana/medical-marijuana-id-card-applications-top-2000/

Medical marijuana is a topic that has received much attention, both positive and negative, in recent years. With many states legalizing the drug’s medicinal use and others legalizing its recreational use, the topic deserves some much needed scientific attention. A previous blog discussing medical marijuana and its alternatives from ssvendse (link: http://cobbersonthebrain.areavoices.com/2014/10/06/if-you-want-to-party-with-mary-jane-just-say-so/) does not give the full picture when it comes to the potential use of medical marijuana.
How do the cannabinoids like THC and cannabidiol, the active ingredients in marijuana, work? As my neurochemistry class found out last week from an article, the body contains receptors on the cells called cannabinoid receptors. These receptors are found in the brain as well as in other parts of the body like the immune system. The cannabinoid receptors are activated by substances called endocannabinoids which are naturally made by the body. The two most researched of these are AEA and 2-AG. THC and other cannabinoids act like these naturally made substances and activate the cannabinoid receptors.
Cannabinoid receptors, called CB1 and CB2 receptors, in turn cause things to happen in the cell that eventually results in the halting of cell growth and sometimes cell death. These receptors are more common in cells such as cancer cells and immune system cells. Thus, cannabinoids such as AEA and THC are currently being researched for their potential use in treatments of cancer. Other lesser known cannabinoids such as cannabidiol, like ssvendse mentions, have been researched for this purpose as well.
THC has been shown to treat some cancers in mice, since the drug will preferentially go to cancer cells due to their higher amounts of cannabinoid receptors. Of course, one downside is that the immune system cells are also targeted by cannabinoids. Medical marijuana which contains helpful cannabinoids such as THC and cannabidiol may therefore prove effective at treatment of certain cancers. Some downsides include that cannabinoids attack the immune system as well as the cancer and marijuana in high concentrations can cause psychoactive effects.
Though ssvendse purports that only purified cannabidiol should be considered the valid form of medicinal cannabinoid and that marijuana in its natural form is really about people wanting to get high, I propose that society should allow both options as valid medical treatments without assuming people merely want the drug for its euphoric effect. Almost all powerful medical drugs used today have psychoactive effects: morphine (which is an opiate), Vicodin, and anesthetics to name a few. Marajuana falls into a similar category or a drug that has both medicinal and psychoactive effects. This does not mean that every patient who would like these drugs for medicinal purpose just wants to “party with the drug,” it merely means that for these patients, the benefits outweigh the negative side effects.
Sure, a more purified version of cannabidiol is also effective for medicinal purposes, but the recently FDA approved version is the only one of its kind and was thus given an Orphan Drug Designation which gives this drug a cap on the market for seven years. This is usually when new drugs are very expensive. This drug is also only approved for one exclusive type of cancer and is not as much of a miracle drug as ssvendse may have you believe. Medical marijuana should therefore not be discounted due to its economic availability and broader uses in the medical field. A drug cannot be dismissed as a party drug merely due to a “high” feeling that it causes, if that were the case, we would have to put many modern medicines on the shelf for just the people who have ulterior motives than treatment of disease.
 
References:
B.M. Fonseca et al. Prostaglandins & other Lipid Mediators (2013) 102–103:13–30
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/patient/page2
 

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Marijuana: Ever Present, Ever Problematic

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A quick stop over to Billboards website and you just might find “4/20 Songs: 20 Smokin’ Tunes About Weed.” A list that includes songs such as “Because I Got High” – Afro Man,  “Roll Another Number (For the Road)” – Neil Young, “Weed With Willie” – Toby Keith, “Marijuana” – Kid Cudi, “Smoke Two Joints” – Sublime and “Mary Jane” – Rick James to name just a few. Marijuana has been ever present in our culture for quite some time and though some of the songs found on Billboard’s list rave about it, there has all too often been a negative connotation towards it. The topic of discussion in this post is; Is Marijuana really that bad?
Marijuana, also known as Cannabis sativa, has the active ingredient delta nine-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). THC is apart of a class of chemical components called the cannabinoids. Cannabinoids are produced naturally in the brain (at low levels), two most common being Anandamide (AEA), which helps control things such as motor activity and stimulate appetite, and 2-arachidonoylgkycerol (2-AG), which plays a part in being a messenger molecule in different systems such as the immune system. THC, AEA and 2-AG all bind to the same receptors in the brain, CB1 and CB2. The pathways that these three compounds have are very complex and not everything is completely understood about them and how they work, but we know they produce similar effects when bound to their receptors. Though not everything about THC is understood, the last week of class has really made me question if marijuana is really that bad because cannabinoids can do some great things in the body, not just “get you high.”
THC is neuroprotective, it can help treat dementia, obesity, diabetes and epilepsy as well as many others. The most surprising to me is that marijuana has been investigated as a possible treatment for cancer due to THC’s ability to induce apoptosis in cancerous cells. Apoptosis is just a fancy word that means programmed cell death. This is great! I thought, why are we not looking more into this?! Well it turns out that scientists are trying to better understand THC’s pathway in order to synthesize similar compounds that could produce that same positive affects it has without the negatives like hallucinations. Unfortunately, due to the little amount that is known about THC, there is no telling if synthetic drugs or medical use of marijuana will be all good news or if a dark horse will come riding in later. In example of the unknown of medical marijuana in particular is scientists do not know the long-term effects it has. So for example if a child is given medical marijuana to combat their epileptic seizures, we do not know if early use of this will affect them later in their lives.
Recreational marijuana has been legalized in the states of Washington and Colorado with various other states having legalized the medical use of it. So back to the beginning question, is Marijuana really that bad? The answer I think is best for this seemingly simple question is only time will tell. It has positive effects in the medicinal world, it would boost the economy of the US if legalized everywhere, but certain strains of it cause psychoactive affects and overall not much is known about it when compared to the grand scheme of things. Though marijuana is not great enough to be used as an excuse for anything like Afro Man tries to do in his “Because I Got High,” it has the potential to be great to our body if/when science is able to learn more about it.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/list/1558962/420-songs-20-smokin-tunes-about-weed?page=0%2C1

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Venturing into the Unknown Marijuana and You

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Lately Marijuana (Cannabis) has been a hot topic in the news, as it has been heatedly debated on whether or not it should be legalized. Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize its recreational use in 2012. With the legalization of Marijuana in these states many people have looked at the pros and cons to its use. In recent studies Marijuana has been shown to have potential anti-cancer affects, increase insulin sensitivity, and help control the storage of lipids. The active ingredient in Marijuana called delta nine-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is what gives the psychoactive side affects of the drug. So much research is being done in synthesizing a compound  similar to THC. This drug would thus allow utilization of the THC pathway, without its psychoactive affects, to help combat diabetes, cancer, and obesity.
However, not much is known about how exactly these drugs work in the body. There have been many possible biological pathways that have been sketched out, but research has been limited thus far. This uncertainty is what many times separate those who side with the pros of the drug and those who side with the cons. The question becomes then, is the drug worth the relief that its users feel without knowing how it exactly works? In fact, many of the medications that are used today have biological pathways and functions that are not well understood by physicians and scientists. There are also drugs that are medically used as pain relievers that are derivatives of much more controversial drugs. For instance, the very common pain killer morphine is a derivative of the drug heroine. However, most people do not complain of its use.
Thus in the case of knowledge and medicine, is venturing into the unknown worth it? At what point does one decide that the side affects of a drug are worth the relief of some symptoms? For cancer patients, marijuana offers some pain relief, increased appetite, and helps to prevent nausea. For people who become terminally ill, is it not acceptable for them to have some relief in their last days? For these people the drug becomes beneficial. However, some people would argue that  its ambiguity should cause many to think twice before using.
There is still so much to learn about marijuana and how it may affect our bodies. With states legalizing the recreational use of the drug it opens up the possibility for clinical trials and more ways to study the drug and its affects. Although, Marijuana has shown some possible anti-cancer and other health benefits, there is no way of knowing yet how it could possibly play a role in preventative treatment and its side affects should not be overlooked. However, with all science it is worth noting that only research into the drug’s functions and pathways will reveal its destruction as well as its potential.
 
 
https://moodle.cord.edu/pluginfile.php/390911/mod_resource/content/0/endocannabinoids.pdf

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