New Study Shows That Cannabis Improves Memory In Older Mice
Contrary to what many people think, cannabis is actually good for the brain. There are several studies that prove this, and one of the latest shows that THC has been beneficial in improving the memory and learning in animal subjects. Similar studies on human subjects are planned for later in the year.
The findings are significant especially for patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s. Published in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers found that THC, the very compound that makes you feel high, is actually responsible for the memory-saving characteristics of cannabis. The study aimed to analyze how the brain is affected by aging, and the researchers tested the memory of rodents.
Inhaled Marijuana Improves Memory Says New Study from CannabisNet on Vimeo.
The study was led by Andreas Zimmer of the University of Bonn in Germany. Zimmer said he’s also in the process of organizing a small-scale human study involving 100 human volunteers aged between 60 and 70 to see if there are similar results. THC was found to interact with the receptors in the human endocannabinoid system in the brain, since this very system is also involved in many of the body’s most important physiological processes including those that have to do with memory as well as mood, pain, and appetite. There are also other studies in the past that show how important the endocannabinoid system is in age-related cognitive decline.
The mice were administered with low doses of THC to mice throughout 3 life stages: 2 months, 12 months, and 18 months. The last two groups were considered the mature and elderly mice. The researchers then conducted 3 different experiments. In the first, they used a water maze and the mice had to learn and remember how to navigate to the end. The control group revealed that mature mice had poor results compared to the young group. But when they were administered THC, older mice showed improvements in the task while the young mice actually performed worse.
In the next task, the mice were required to find a certain object. The older mice who were given THC performed with the same results as the young mice who weren’t given anything. The third task involving partner recognition also showed that THC was responsible for improvements in memory for the older mice subjects. “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 researchers wrote.
The scientists conducted more research which revealed that THC showed to restore hippocampal gene transcription patterns, which is the same process that is responsible for learning and memory in the brain, in such a way that the older mice showed the same brain state as young mice. The researchers said that they are still unsure if these results would be the same in humans but that it could be significant in the development of new medicine aimed at reducing cognitive decline in elderly people. “Cannabis preparations and THC are used for medicinal purposes,” they said. “They have an excellent safety record and do not produce adverse side effects when administered at a low dose to older individuals. Thus, chronic low-dose treatment with THC or cannabis extracts could be a potential strategy to slow down or even to reverse cognitive decline in the elderly.”
According to Dr. Michael Bloomfield, a clinical lecturer in psychiatry at University College London, “What is particularly exciting about this research is that it opens up a whole new chemical system, called the endocannbinoid system, as a potential target for new avenues of research which could include illnesses like dementia.”
“However, we are still in very early days and further research is needed…the possibility of doctors potentially prescribing, cannabis THC or similar compounds for memory problems in older people in still a long way off.”
These studies are beneficial in breaking the stereotype of the lazy, stupid stoner. Many anti-cannabis groups continue to spread the myth that cannabis is bad for the brain.
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