![\"Cannabis-cancer-healing\"](\"https:\/\/d2v4vjmuxdiocn.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/Cannabis-cancer-healing.jpg\")
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The cannabis\u00a0plant (also known as the hemp plant) has been used in just about every culture for centuries. In fact, cannabis is included in the 50 fundamental herbs within the cornucopia of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It has been cited in ancient texts as having a healing effect on over 100 ailments. In recent years in the United States, the collective mood is changing in regards to cannabis\/hemp (aka \u201cmarijuana\u201d).<\/p>\n
Personally, I prefer to use the term \u201chemp\u201d or\u00a0\u201ccannabis\u201d since those are proper names for the plant, and the truth is that the term \u201cmarijuana\u201d (derived from the Mexican slang\u00a0\u201cmarihuana\u201d) was popularized in the early 1930s by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (which later became the DEA) in order to make this amazing plant sound sinister and to\u00a0elude the public\u2019s existing familiarity and comfort level with the plant\u00a0and the medical application of cannabis\/hemp tinctures. \u201cMarijuana\u201d was\u00a0not<\/strong>\u00a0a commonly smoked recreational drug at the time.<\/p>\n Currently there are 25 states where it is legal for patients to use \u201cmarijuana\u201d for medical purposes.\u00a0Pending federal legislation may open up opportunities for federally-funded medical research, including human clinical trials. This will further prove cannabis\u2019 track-record when it comes to healing a number of disease conditions \u2212 including cancer.<\/p>\n In the mid-1990s, renowned Israeli researcher Dr. Ralph Mechaoulam, professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, made an exciting discovery that would forever change how we look at our biological relationship to plant medicine. Dr. Mechaoulam discovered\u00a0a subtle system within the body that seemed to have a balancing effect on every other system<\/strong>. He called it the\u00a0Endocannabinoid (EC) System<\/em>\u00a0and it can be found in all mammals, including humans.<\/p>\n The EC system consists of a series of molecular receptors that are designed to receive cannabinoids. In particular this includes cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as well as other related substances such as cannabigerol (CBG) and cannabinol (CBN).<\/p>\n Prior research in the 1980s led Mechaoulam and others to pinpoint two main receptors for cannabinoids \u2212 cannabinoid 1 (CB1) and cannabinoid 2 (CB2). Researchers at the time also defined the natural substances called\u00a0endocannabinoids<\/em>, which our body produces on its own in a similar way it produces endorphins.\u00a0Phytocannabinoids<\/em>\u00a0(namely THC, CBD, and their variants), on the other hand, come directly from the cannabis\u00a0plant.<\/p>\n Cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 are designed by the body to be specific targets for THC, while our natural endocannabinoids help to synthesize it. The process of THC-cannabinoid receptor binding and what this does for the body is what researchers have been studying for over two decades. They are doing this in order to find out exactly how cannabis works in healing cancer.<\/p>\n Microbiologist Dr. Christine Sanchez of Compultense Univeristy in Madrid, Spain has been studying cannabinoids and cancer since the early 2000s. She was the first to discover\u00a0the antitumor effects of cannabinoids<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe now know that the endocannabinoid system regulates a lot of biological functions such as appetite, food intake, motor function, reproduction and many others and that is why the plant has such a wide therapeutic potential,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0says Dr. Sanchez in a video interview for the web-based cable channel\u00a0Cannabis Planet.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe observed that when we treated [astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor] cells with cannabinoids, the THC\u2026was killing the cells in our Petri dishes,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Dr. Sanchez says.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2026decided to analyze these components in animal models of breast and brain tumors. The results we are obtaining are telling us that cannabinoids may be useful for the treatment of Breast Cancer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Sanchez and other researchers have confirmed that the most potent effects against tumor growth occur when THC and CBD are combined.<\/strong><\/p>\n Cannabidiol, or CBD, which does not have a psychoactive effect, has long been known as a potent anti-cancer agent. This is because of its ability to interfere with cellular communication in tumors as well as in its ability to instigate apoptosis, or programmed cancer cell death. Some research studies, including\u00a0in vitro<\/em>\u00a0and animal-based trials conducted by San Francisco-based researchers at the California Pacific Medical Center, have also shown that CBD may affect genes involved in aggressive metastasis. It does this by helping to shut down cellular growth receptors.<\/p>\n \u03949-Tetrahydrocannabinol (i.e. THC), the psychoactive counterpart to CBD, has been shown to reduce tumor growth as well. It has also shown to\u00a0have an effect on the rate of metastasis, including for non-small cell lung cancer\u00a0<\/strong>\u2212 the leading cause of cancer deaths globally. A 2007 study on THC and highly-aggressive epidermal growth factor receptor-overexpressing (EGF-expressing)\u00a0lung cancer<\/a>\u00a0conducted by Harvard Medical School found that certain EGF lung cancer cells express CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors. They found that the presence of THC effected metastasis of these cells by reducing the\u00a0\u201cfocal adhesion complex,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0which plays a vital role in cancer migration.<\/p>\n Studies have also been conducted on the combined effect of CBD and THC on lung,\u00a0prostate<\/a>, colon, pancreatic, liver, bladder, cervical, blood-based, brain, and other forms of cancer.\u00a0These studies lend increasing evidence to the fact that cannabinoids are not only antioxidant phytonutrients but powerful \u201cherbal chemo\u201d agents.<\/strong><\/p>\n Says Dr. Sanchez:\u00a0\u201cOne of the advantages of cannabinoid-based medicines would be that they target specifically tumor cells. They don\u2019t have any toxic effect on normal non-tumoral cells. This is an advantage with respect to standard chemotherapy that targets basically everything.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Because cannabinoid therapy is relatively new in the mainstream, a current challenge for patients regarding its use is lack of regulation. This may change, however, with the possible passing of the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States (CARERS) Act, which has the support of 37 members of Congress.<\/p>\n CARERS would remove \u201cmarijuana\u201d from the Controlled Substances Act Schedule I drug category, where it has been since 1970 \u2212 on par with heroin and cocaine. This classification is ridiculous\u00a0since, by definition,\u00a0Schedule I drugs have \u201cno currently accepted\u00a0medical uses<\/strong><\/em>\u201d and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) holds a patent\u00a0(U.S. Patent 6630507) on cannabis oil for\u00a0medical use<\/strong>!<\/p>\n Think about it. How can HHS hold a\u00a0medical use<\/strong>\u00a0patent for cannabis oil if there are\u00a0no medical uses\u00a0<\/strong>for cannabis? OK, enough of the logic lesson. Let\u2019s just say that there are some serious logic deficiencies in these laws.<\/p>\n If \u201cmarijuana\u201d is rightfully removed from a Schedule I drug, this would open the door for more targeted, federally-funded research as well as increased patient access to this amazing healing plant.<\/p>\n In the meantime, if you are on a cancer-healing path and are considering using cannabinoids, here are some general guidelines that experts agree are worth considering:<\/strong><\/p>\n Retrieved from: https:\/\/thetruthaboutcancer.com\/cannabis-and-cancer\/<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cannabis and Cancer: How \u201cMarijuana\u201d Helps the Body Heal By Ty Bollinger The cannabis\u00a0plant (also known as the hemp plant) has been used in just about every culture for centuries. In fact, cannabis is included in the 50 fundamental herbs within the cornucopia of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It has been …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannabis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cannabis\u00a0and The Endocannabinoid System<\/h2>\n
Cannabis and\u00a0Cancer Tumor Growth<\/h2>\n
If You Use Cannabis\u00a0for Cancer, Do it Right<\/h2>\n
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