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Cannabis-based drugs might relieve bowel disease
Yahoo ^

Posted on 08/13/2005 12:00:36 PM PDT by traumer

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Derivatives of the active compound in cannabis -- cannabinoids -- may have the potential for treating inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, UK researchers report.

"The system that responds to cannabis in the brain is present and functioning in the lining of the gut," lead researcher Dr. Karen Wright, of the University of Bath, explained to Reuters Health. "There is an increased presence of one component of this system during inflammatory bowel diseases," she explained.

Wright and her colleagues established the location of cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 in human colon tissue, and used human colon cell lines to investigate the binding of cannabinoid compounds and in wound-healing experiments. They report their findings in the journal Gastroenterology

The team found that CB2 was increased in colonic tissue characteristic of inflammatory bowel disease. Cannabinoids enhanced surface wound closure via CB1-related mechanisms.

"Cannabinoids, which we make ourselves, as well as synthetic cannabinoids, can promote wound healing in the gut, which is extremely interesting given that inflammatory bowel disease involves damaged gut linings," Wright said.

Although results are available yet, she added, relevant studies of the use of cannabinoids are taking place in the UK and a clinical trial is being conducted in Germany.


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: health; medicine; thatsmrleroytoyou; wodlist
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To: nmh

Do you have proof that the research will not bear it out for this application? The article seems to indicate that the research is not yet complete.

Or are you generalizing based on previous, unrelated studies for different applications?


21 posted on 08/13/2005 12:23:40 PM PDT by highball ("I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have." -- Thomas Jefferson)
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To: ActionNewsBill
Or ask them why the federal government needed a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol, but need no such amendments to ban pot.

The WOD is a state's rights issue. Get the feds out of it. If states want to wage their own drug wars, let them.

Letting the government take power it shouldn't have because you like to make fun of "stoners and potheads" is worse than any stoner or pothead out there. You're enabling the wholesale abuse of the constitution...and then you moan when they piss on the constitution when it comes taking YOUR constitutional rights.
22 posted on 08/13/2005 12:26:17 PM PDT by flashbunny (Always remember to bring a towel!)
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To: balch3
"Plus there's an element of class warfare here. Replacing commercial drugs that pharmaceutical companies worked hard to develop, with something that's cheap and unpatented."

Are you trying to say that if someone finds a cheap inexpensive unpatented cure for a disease it shouldn't be allowed because it would discriminate against the rich pharmaceutical companies ?
23 posted on 08/13/2005 12:26:56 PM PDT by grjr21
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To: traumer

My next door neighbor and his 5 yr old son both have severe
Crohns..

If this stuff were to aid in their suffering I am all for it
inspite of being a fundamentalist Christian

Once upon a time medical doctors swore and oath to 'first do no harm' to their patients this includes denying them pain relief that our asinie war on drugs has precluded them often from being able to do..

Meanwhile illegal alien drug mules who also do farm and food processing are making sure that rural midwestern school kids
are introduced to the wonderful medicinal benefits of Mexican 'Red' Methamphetamine...

Thanks to the OBL...and BayouBush

imo


24 posted on 08/13/2005 12:30:44 PM PDT by joesnuffy (Save the whales. Redeem them for valuable prizes.)
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To: nmh
'Good' bacteria helps ease pain of colitis

A mixture of bacteria developed in part by University of Alberta researchers has been proven highly effective in treating people suffering from ulcerative colitis.

The findings, published in the July, 2005 issue of American Journal of Gastroenterology showed that the majority of patients taking a probiotic mixture of 8 bacteria (VSL#3) for 6 weeks improved their ulcerative colitis. Probiotics are preparations of living microbial cells that, when ingested, are thought to positively influence the composition of microbes in the gut and improve the health of the intestine.

While "bad" bacteria have been flagged as potential culprits in the cause of inflammatory diseases of the bowel, in this case, the ingestion of supplemental "good" bacteria (probiotics) to the intestine proved beneficial in treating ulcerative colitis, said Dr. Richard Fedorak, a professor of gastroenterology at the University of Alberta. The joint study included researchers from the University of Bologna in Italy and the University of North Carolina.

In this open label clinical trial, 86 per cent of those treated with probiotic bacteria mixture VSL#3 experienced relief of their mild to moderate ulcerative colitis. The mixture of eight lactic acid bacterial species is believed to be effective by mechanisms that include (1) reducing the number of "bad" bacteria, (2) reducing the amount of inflammation (3) increasing the mucus layer in the gut, and (4) increasing the amount of anti-inflammatory molecules in the intestine.

Ulcerative colitis is an inflammatory bowel disease that affects the large intestine (colon) and causes acute bloody diarrhea, sever stomach pain, urgency, anemia and fatigue. In its most severe form, ulcerative colitis that does not respond to medical treatment will require surgical removal of the colon.

The VSL#3 was administered over a six-week period to 30 patients who ranged in age from 18 to 65. Remission of the colitis was achieved in 63 per cent of the patients, while another 23 per cent responded with improvement in their symptoms and with healing of the colon's lining. There were no adverse effects to the medication.

The VSL#3 can be considered an important potential treatment for those patients who don't respond to conventional therapy such as mesalamine or 5ASA, Dr. Fedorak said.

###

For more information on this study, contact:

Bev Betkowski Media Relations Officer University of Alberta 780-492-3808 beverly.betkowski@ualberta.ca

25 posted on 08/13/2005 12:36:57 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Federal creed: If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. If it stops moving subsidize it)
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To: grjr21

They should be allowed to make a fair profit. Is there something wrong with "rich companies?" Why are you bashing them? What's next, a rant against the oil companies for making "too much money?"


26 posted on 08/13/2005 12:38:50 PM PDT by balch3
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To: traumer
Cigarettes have the same affect.
27 posted on 08/13/2005 12:45:46 PM PDT by dila813
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To: traumer
"Hey, man. How's your intestinal tract, man?"

"Healthy, man!"


28 posted on 08/13/2005 12:48:43 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest (check out my posts on Today Show bias at www.newsbusters.org)
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To: balch3
Making a fair even great profit is one thing,
but from your post you seemed to suggest that since they worked hard for it if anything threatened that profit it should be made illegal
29 posted on 08/13/2005 12:49:46 PM PDT by grjr21
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To: mikrofon
Time to change the old recipe from brownies to bran muffins...

no, no, no, think texture

corn bread!!

30 posted on 08/13/2005 12:50:08 PM PDT by KosmicKitty (Well... There you go again!)
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To: nmh
"Yeah, but don't tell the Liberal Christian Fundamentalists in this country that want more government intrusion into our personal lives."

Drug warriors are the right wings answer to gun banners. The great H.L. Mencken labeled them "wowsers," that is, people who bear a divine commission to regulate and improve the rest of us. He described them along the lines of "people who cannot sleep at night knowing that somewhere in America, someone is having fun."

31 posted on 08/13/2005 12:50:33 PM PDT by atomic_dog
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To: traumer

Gives a whole new meaning to "Your a** sucks wind," don't it?


32 posted on 08/13/2005 12:55:48 PM PDT by Old Professer (As darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good; innocence is blind.)
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To: joesnuffy

There is research and genuine testing going on now regarding the use of pigworm larve in the treatment of IBD. I have a relative that is afflicted and they have been looking into the subject. The early numbers are positive. She is hoping the treatment gets approval. Old story from WebMD:

http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/74/89187.htm?pagenumber=1

Parasitic Worms Ease IBD

May Reduce Overactive Immune Response Behind Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis


33 posted on 08/13/2005 12:56:36 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s......you weren't really there.)
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To: highball

Do you have any proof that you won't self-destruct in the next thirty seconds?


34 posted on 08/13/2005 12:56:58 PM PDT by Old Professer (As darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good; innocence is blind.)
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Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

To: atomic_dog
Drug warriors are the right wings answer to gun banners.

You might be surprised at the number of FReepers who are both.

36 posted on 08/13/2005 12:58:48 PM PDT by ActionNewsBill ("In times of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act")
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To: ActionNewsBill
You might be surprised at the number of FReepers who are both.

No, not at all. What did surprise me greatly was the number of FReeeprs who are 100% behind the open border policy. That to me is inexplicable.

37 posted on 08/13/2005 1:01:06 PM PDT by atomic_dog
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To: traumer

A Crohn's patient died in trials of a new drug for Crohn's, Tysabri.

An MS patient died in trial of the same drug.

The drug was found to have the potential to cause a devastating neurological disease, PML.

They pump Crohn's patients full of steroids, and MS patients full of interferons, but heaven forbid that a little marijuana might work for these conditions.

I have MS, and what amazes me is that nobody seems too concerned with the "danger" involved in the interferon I "shoot up" every other day.

But let someone suggest that marijuana might help, and everybody starts talking about the side effects or how dangerous it might be, when in comparison to what is already prescribed for these conditions, marijuana has minimal side effects.


38 posted on 08/13/2005 1:01:56 PM PDT by dawn53
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To: al baby

yuck yuck yuck...

Sounds like a plot from a Three Stooges episode... Well, a hybrid three stooges and Snoop Doggie Dog...


39 posted on 08/13/2005 1:06:17 PM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: coconutt2000
>>>
I dont think that it is the marijuana that relieves the bowel disease, it is the bag-after-bag of Doritos that gives the fiber necessary to relieve the bowel disease.
40 posted on 08/13/2005 1:07:29 PM PDT by keithtoo (Howard Dean's Democratic Party: Traitors, Haters, and Vacillators)
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