TRUTH - help out!

[birdgirl73]

The only cell within the brain THC kills is called the glioma cell, which is the only cell in the brain to turn cancerous and is also not used by the brain for anything.

LIP, man, you know I respect and like the heck outta you, but you keep making the statement above about glial cells being the only cells in the brain to turn cancerous, and that's completely untrue. Among the other types of cancers that are found in the brain, all named after the cells they originate from, are neurofibromatomas, ependymomas, meningiomas, adenomas, astrocytomas, oligodendroglial tumors, medulloblastomas, pineocytomas, parenchymal tumors, craniopharyngomas, germ cell cancers, and several others. Annoying as I may be, I can't help but jump in and set the record straight so you don't put the study of neuro-anatomy back 100 yearsâ??or provide falsely reassuring information to someone who may someday get a brain tumor.

The fact is that THC has been shown to inhibit glial cell growth (and hence, we can assume, gliomas, the tumors that originate from those cells) in rat studies. That's as far as the research has gone for now. The hope is that it would do the same thingâ??and even kill those tumor cellsâ??in humans. But that's not been studied or proven yet. I hope it will be studied someday soon. Gliomas are very deadly brain cancers. People who get them rarely live longer than three years; usually glioma patients die within 12 months or less.

Glial cells, by the way, have enormously important function in the brain and are heavily relied upon. Without the support and nutrition of glial cells, the brain couldn't send signals among neurons and synapses. We'd all quickly become vegetables and then die without our glial cells.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glia

[Storm Crow]

"Myth: Marijuana does not make you cooler." Why yes indeed it does! It lowers body temperature! (lol) http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?p=c...icp=1&.intl=us
And Shrooms, here's one for you--"Marijuana use and Mortality" http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/87/4/585

For every prohibitionist lie, there is a truth to counter it! It's up to us to find the truth and let people know! This thread could be the start of something important!

[Reefer Rogue]

It's impossible to OD, you don't get hangovers, you don't lose brain cells, you don't get violent... I love you Mary Jane for you wonderful bounty of brilliance.

[Shrooms]

LIP and birdgirl can you both clear that up? so i was told that glioma cells were the main type of cell that was killed, or stunted in growth, and that these glioma cells are the cells most prone to cancer in the brian. is that correct? i want to make sure this fact is especially correct, as it is an important one.

[BongZoola]

Smoking weed is GREAT!

[Shrooms]

daily factoid: The U.S. government's own statistics show that over 75 percent of all Americans who use marijuana never use harder drugs.

[sensi skier]

"The largest study of smoking ever conducted with the financial backing of the federal National Intstitute on Drug Abuse has confirmed that tobacco use causes cancer and, to the researchers' surprise, marijuana smoking did not. 'We hypothesised that there would be a positive assosiation between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,' Priciple investigator Dr. Donald Tashkin said in a may presentation at the American Thoracic Society. He suggested that, in addition to perported carcinogens, cannabis smoke contains THC that may kill aging cells and keep them from becoming cancerous. 'What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.'"
-Heads Magazine

Doesn't cause lung cancer? Can it get any better?

[psychocat]

On the downside : Cannabis when smoked releases more tar than tobacco Fact.

On the upside : Cannabis has been shown to help MS sufferers

It's about benefits v downside.

[birdgirl73]

LIP and birdgirl can you both clear that up? so i was told that glioma cells were the main type of cell that was killed, or stunted in growth, and that these glioma cells are the cells most prone to cancer in the brian. is that correct? i want to make sure this fact is especially correct, as it is an important one.

Hey, Shrooms. I looked this up and then confirmed it with my neuroanatomy professor by email. Glial-cell originating cancers account for only about half of all brain cancers. Of that 50% figure, about 85% of those are glio-astrocytomas, which form in the astrocytes, which are star-shaped glial cells. One particular type of glio-astrocytoma is the most deadly, and that's called a glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The GBM is the deadliest and fastest growing brain cancer.

What we know about cannabinoids (there are about 60 of these types of chemicals contained in weed; THC is one of these) is fairly limited right now. Lots of people here on these boards who can't really translate what the research is telling them--or who have just heard something that sounds positive and distorted it--have gone off the deep end and concluded that marijuana cures brain cancer. That is categorically untrue. We simply don't know that yet.

We do know that cannabinoids seem to have some beneficial anti-inflammatory effects on glial cells in vitro (meaning in lab studies in a test tube). And we also know that, in immuno-suppressed rats, THC and other cannabinoids led to a significant regression of malignant gliomas. No one yet knows why this is. But again, this was in rats, not humans. It now needs to be studied in humans, and somewhere we can hope that's being done. The problem is that most humans with malignant gliomas aren't alive long enough to be studied conclusively.

I'll post a good link below about the cannabinoid-glial connection, but I'm afraid it's written in very heavy medical language. I'm happy to help you translate if you need me to. I'm only a first-year med student, but I've got a husband who's a full-fledged doctor and a whole bunch of professors and books at my disposal. There are lots of other hopeful indicators about cannabis having beneficial neurological effects, but right now they're just indicators and not absolute conclusions. I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble, but accuracy in this sort of information if vital if we're ever to get this substance or its users taken seriously.
http://cannabismd.org/reports/carter3.php

[Th3 Chr0nic]

thanks birdgirl u are right being correct in this matter is what is important. who will take any of us seriously if we arent even giving then the correct info