Daily Dose of Cannabis May Protect and Heal the Brain from Effects Of Aging
By Janet Burns ‘Forbes Magazine’ 8 th May 2017
Despite your average Shaggy and Scooby-
style stereotypes, researchers believe that
cannabis could actually help to sharpen our
minds later in life.
daily regimen of THC over the course of a
month.
The mice were then tested on their abilities to
recognise familiar objects, and to navigate a
water maze in known and new configurations.
As has been similarly observed with humans,
younger animals excelled at the tests when
'sober' but tended to struggle significantly
under the influence of THC. "Mature" and
"old" mice, on the other hand, struggled with
tasks as consistent with their brain ages at
first, but saw a huge increase in performance
with THC infusions that raised their skill level
up to young-mouse (drug free) standards and
continued for weeks afterward.
Researchers at the University of Bonn and
Hebrew University have discovered that low,
regular doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),
one of the main active ingredients or
cannabinoids found in marijuana, may help to
keep our brains from 'slowing down' as we get
older.
Published in the journal Nature Medicine, the
German study revealed that while younger
mice suffered a performance drop under the
influence of THC, the psychoactive chemical
gave older mice a considerable performance
boost, even putting them on par with younger
mice who'd abstained.
To test the chemical's effect on brains of
different ages, researchers put mice that were
two months, one year, and 18 months old on a
Meanwhile, The Guardian reported, "None of
the mice displayed the strange effects one
might expect from doses of THC."
Overall, the results seem to support
researchers' belief that the benefits for older
mice are a result of stimulating the brain's
endocannabinoid system, a biochemical
pathway in both mice and human that grows
less active over time.
The scientists noted, "Together, these results
reveal a profound, long-lasting improvement
of cognitive performance resulting from a low
dose of THC treatment in mature and old
animals."
The team plans to explore the potential impact
of THC on older human brains with a clinical
trial later this year, being one of few to focus
on more aged subjects so far.
Previous research with mice by the
Universities of Bonn and Mainz also
suggested that the brain's main cannabis
receptor and neural pathways are closely
related to brain health in later life, and seem
to play a role in preventing brain degeneration
when active.