Cannabis could be the key to fighting and preventing this ever so common problem.
It has long been known that cannabis is an excellent relief for Crohn’s disease. Which is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). It causes inflammation of your digestive tract, which can lead to abdominal pain, severe diarrhea, fatigue, weight loss and malnutrition.
“The immune system is like a car: The two most important features are the accelerator and the brake.” Nagarkartti explains. “Pressing the accelerator triggers inflammation, and use of brakes stops the inflammation. In patients with IBD, the brakes don’t function very well because of which they get chronic inflammation, and THC acts like a brake.”
Most people, especially the young ones, shrug this off as an old mans disease. But dont forget to consider the tragic outcome of Black Panther’s Chadwick Boseman. Who died at age 43 after a heroic battle with colon cancer—despite his otherwise impeccable physique and health.
However, new research suggests that the psychoactive compound in cannabis delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) could help prevent colitis-associated colon cancer in mice.
A team of researchers associated with the University of South Carolina (USC) at Columbia looked at the effects of THC in mouse models to assess the compound’s potential efficacy in preventing colon cancer in humans. The team’s research was published last month in an issue of iScience.
What the research said?
“Our research in the past has shown that THC is a powerful anti-inflammatory agent,” said study lead author Prakash Nagarkatti, Ph.D. “What we found in this study was that THC acts on CB2 receptors that are uniquely expressed on immune cells in the gut and thus prevent them from producing certain cancer-driving cytokines secreted by them such as interleukin. -22 (IL-22). “
The unique properties of cannabinoids are the precise reason why conventional medicine is simply not enough.
As time goes on and research continues to find other areas of our body that respond well to certain compounds found in cannabis, we can rest assured that there will be treatments in the near future directed at preventing these types of disease not just treating them.
