Dr. Dean Ornish Says Pot Grows Your Brain

Dr. Dean Ornish is a clinical professor at UCSF and founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute. He's a leading expert on fighting illness -- particularly heart disease with dietary and lifestyle changes. Ornish shares new research that shows how adopting healthy lifestyle habits can affect a person at a genetic level. For instance, he says, when you live healthier, eat better, exercise, and love more, your brain cells actually increase.

Increasing the size of your brain has been proven to improve health and energy. Dr. Ornish lists several sources available to grow your brain and live longer. Dr. Ornish is a world renowned authority on fighting diseases with lifestyle and dietary changes. As clinical professor at University of California, San Francisco he has undeniable credentials and brain capacity to have his words taken seriously. Corrupted genes cause cancer. 

According to Dr. Dean Ornish: “when you eat healthier, manage stress and exercise more, your brain gets more blood flow and more oxygen.” 

Dr. Dean Ornish recommends following to increase brain cells:

• Chocolate
• Tea
• Blueberries
• Moderate intake of Alcohol
• Stress management
• Canabinoids (aka Marijuana)

Dr. Ornish recommends that you stay away from these factors that decrease brain cells:

• Saturated fat
• Sugar
• Nicotine (only smoke marijuana, not tobacco)
• Opiates
• Cocaine
• Large intake of alcohol
• Chronic Stress

For all you potheads out there, it's a DOUBLE gift. On the list of items that grow your brain cells are not only Cannabis, but CHOCOLATE!  Best of all . . . he says it in just three minutes.

SOURCE: Neurologist Explains

Not satisfied with just Dr. Ornish's findings, we decided to find a respected supporting opinion.  We did:

Medical Marijuana & Health Care Economics

Peter Kennedy for Salem-News.com

People have CB1 receptors in the brain. The body makes Anandamide to bond at CB1, and if you smoke marijuana that is where the THC likes to go.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - Everybody needs Cannabinoids to be healthy. When your body does not produce sufficient cannabinoids, you need to supplement with medical marijuana to be healthy. When President Obama stops DEA raids on medical marijuana everything gets better: Health Care Costs, Medicare & Medicaid, PTSD Veterans, Auto Immune, Autism, ADHD & Chronic Pain Conditions. By encouraging scientific research, Obama will allow cannabis nutraceutical products to help everyone (when federal law allows), without the Pharmaceutical Industry or taxes or the VA.

This is ALL True. It is happening right now. Part of the solution to all these issues, exists in medical marijuana states. It is time to connect the dots of medical marijuana and the issues facing America today. We need to live, think & plan sustainably. We must create eco-friendly, economically sustainable solutions because Washington does not have any answers.

READ THE INFORMATIVE ENTIRE STORY.

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Recent Research on Medical Marijuana

Despite the ongoing political debate regarding the legality of medicinal marijuana, clinical investigations of the therapeutic use of cannabinoids are now more prevalent than at any time in history. A search of the National Library of Medicine's PubMed website quantifies this fact. A keyword search using the terms "cannabis, 1996" (the year California voters became the first of 13 states to allow for the drug’s medical use under state law) reveals just 258 scientific journal articles published on the subject during that year. Perform this same search for the year 2008, and one will find over 2,100 published scientific studies.

While much of the renewed interest in cannabinoid therapeutics is a result of the discovery of the endocannabinoid regulatory system, some of this increased attention is also due to the growing body of testimonials from medicinal cannabis patients and their physicians. Nevertheless, despite this influx of anecdotal reports, much of the modern investigation of medicinal cannabis remains limited to preclinical (animal) studies of individual cannabinoids (e.g. THC or cannabidiol) and/or synthetic cannabinoid agonists (e.g., dronabinol or WIN 55,212-2) rather than clinical trial investigations involving whole plant material. Predictably, because of the US government's strong public policy stance against any use of cannabis, the bulk of this modern cannabinoid research is taking place outside the United States.

As clinical research into the therapeutic value of cannabinoids has proliferated – there are now more than 17,000 published papers in the scientific literature analyzing marijuana and its constituents — so too has investigators' understanding of cannabis' remarkable capability to combat disease. Whereas researchers in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s primarily assessed cannabis' ability to temporarily alleviate various disease symptoms — such as the nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy — scientists today are exploring the potential role of cannabinoids to modify disease.

Of particular interest, scientists are investigating cannabinoids' capacity to moderate autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease, as well as their role in the treatment of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a.k.a. Lou Gehrig's disease.)

Investigators are also studying the anti-cancer activities of cannabis, as a growing body of preclinical and clinical data concludes that cannabinoids can reduce the spread of specific cancer cells via apoptosis (programmed cell death) and by the inhibition of angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels). Arguably, these latter trends represent far broader and more significant applications for cannabinoid therapeutics than researchers could have imagined some thirty or even twenty years ago.

THE SAFETY PROFILE OF MEDICAL CANNABIS

Cannabinoids have a remarkable safety record, particularly when compared to other therapeutically active substances. Most significantly, the consumption of marijuana – regardless of quantity or potency -- cannot induce a fatal overdose. According to a 1995 review prepared for the World Health Organization, “There are no recorded cases of overdose fatalities attributed to cannabis, and the estimated lethal dose for humans extrapolated from animal studies is so high that it cannot be achieved by … users.”

In 2008, investigators at McGill University Health Centre and McGill University in Montreal and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver reviewed 23 clinical investigations of medicinal cannabinoid drugs (typically oral THC or liquid cannabis extracts) and eight observational studies conducted between 1966 and 2007. Investigators "did not find a higher incidence rate of serious adverse events associated with medical cannabinoid use" compared to non-using controls over these three decades.

That said, cannabis should not necessarily be viewed as a ‘harmless’ substance. Its active constituents may produce a variety of physiological and euphoric effects. As a result, there may be some populations that are susceptible to increased risks from the use of cannabis, such as adolescents, pregnant or nursing mothers, and patients who have a family history of mental illness. Patients with Hepatitis C, decreased lung function (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), or who have a history of heart disease or stroke may also be at a greater risk of experiencing adverse side effects from marijuana. As with any medication, patients should consult thoroughly with their physician before deciding whether the medicinal use of cannabis is safe and appropriate.

HOW TO USE THIS REPORT

As states continue to approve legislation enabling the physician-supervised use of medicinal marijuana, more patients with varying disease types are exploring the use of therapeutic cannabis. Many of these patients and their physicians are now discussing this issue for the first time, and are seeking guidance on whether the therapeutic use of cannabis may or may not be advisable. This report seeks to provide this guidance by summarizing the most recently published scientific research (2000-2009) on the therapeutic use of cannabis and cannabinoids for 19 clinical indications:

* Alzheimer's disease
* Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
* Chronic Pain
* Diabetes mellitus
* Dystonia
* Fibromyalgia
* Gastrointestinal disorders
* Gliomas
* Hepatitis C
* Human Immunodeficiency Virus
* Hypertension
* Incontinence
* Methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus (MRSA)
* Multiple sclerosis
* Osteoporosis
* Pruritus
* Rheumatoid arthritis
* Sleep apnea
* Tourette's syndrome

In some of these cases, modern science is now affirming longtime anecdotal reports of medicinal cannabis users (e.g., the use of cannabis to alleviate GI disorders). In other cases, this research is highlighting entirely new potential clinical utilities for cannabinoids (e.g., the use of cannabinoids to modify the progression of diabetes.)

The conditions profiled in this report were chosen because patients frequently inquire about the therapeutic use of cannabis to treat these disorders. In addition, many of the indications included in this report may be moderated by cannabis therapy. In several cases, preclinical data and clinical indicates that cannabinoids may halt the progression of these diseases in a more efficacious manner than available pharmaceuticals. In virtually all cases, this report is the most thorough and comprehensive review of the recent scientific literature regarding the therapeutic use of cannabis and cannabinoids.

For patients and their physicians, let this report serve as a primer for those who are considering using or recommending medicinal cannabis. For others, let this report serve as an introduction to the broad range of emerging clinical applications for cannabis and its various compounds.

Paul Armentano
Deputy Director
NORML | NORML Foundation
Washington, DC
January 15, 2009


















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