If Cannabis Can Kill “Incurable” Brain Cancer, Why Is It Criminalized
By
Arjun Walia
from Collective Evolution
Arjun Walia
from Collective Evolution In Brief
- The Facts:Cannabis
contains a compound that may kill brain cancers that chemotherapy and
radiation can't touch. This is outlined by the research below.
- Reflect On:Why has it been such a struggle for patients interested in medical marijuana to actually find it? Why, with all its medicinal potential, is this the case?
This article was written by Sayer Ji, Founder of Greenmedinfo.com. His work is reproduced and distributed here with permission.
advertisement - learn more
In recent years, we’ve focused heavily on educating our readers about the still relatively unknown role that cancer stem cells play in cancer, both in terms of conventional cancer treatment failure and the exceptionally promising role that natural interventions play in targeting these highly malignant cells.
It is encouraging to witness a growing awareness that cancer has been completely misunderstood, and that in order to make progress against the global epidemic we will have to go back to the wisdom of the ancients by using foods and spices instead of toxic chemicals and radiation to fight a disease that should be classified more as a survival mechanism unmasked than an inexorably lethal, genetically-driven condition. Even the National Cancer Institute now admits that it had been wrong for decades about “early stage” breast (DCIS)
and prostate (HGPIN) “cancers,” and that they should be reclassified as
indolent or benign lesions of epithelial origin, i.e. not “cancer” at
all! Essentially, therefore, millions were overdiagnosed and
overtreated for cancers they never had. Even now, despite this
admission, the vast majority of conventional doctors have yet to account
for, acknowledge, or integrate this radically different definition of
cancer and its implications for treatment into their “standard of care.”
Only last week, we featured a new review on natural therapies that target cancer stem cells,
many of which included common foods and spices. You can view it here.
But one substance conspicuously absent from the list was cannabis, which is the herb we now turn to to give it a fair representation in the context of this topic.
A recent article published in the Journal Neuroimmune Pharmacology titled, “The Antitumor Activity of Plant-Derived Non-Psychoactive Cannabinoids,” reviewed the therapeutic potential of a non-psychoactive class of phytochemicals found in cannabis known as cannabinoids.
Unlike THC, cannabinoids do not activate the cannabinoid 1 and
cannabinoid 2 receptors in the central nervous system in any significant
way, making their activity less controversial as they do not produce
changes in perception and sensation associated with “recreational”
and/or “psychedelic” drugs. There are actually over 60 cannabinoids in
cannabis, but the second most abundant one, cannabidiol (CBD), has been
found to inhibit and/or kill a wide range of cancers in the animal
model, including gliobastoma (a difficult-to-treat type of brain
cancer), breast, lung, prostate, and colon cancer. There have been a
wide range of mechanisms identified behind these observed anti-tumor
activities, including anti-angiogenic (preventing
new blood vessel formation), anti-metastatic, anti-cell viability, but
the one we wish to focus on in this report is its ability to to inhibit
the stem-like potential of cancer cells.
Stem cells are unique within
the body as they are capable of continual self-renewal, theoretically
making them immortal relative to regular body cells (somatic cells),
which die after a fixed number or replication cycles. In their normal
state of function they are essential for healing and bodily
regeneration, as they are capable of differentiating into the wide range
of cells that make up the body and need to be regularly replaced when
damaged.
advertisement - learn more
This so-called pluripotent
property of stem cells is also observed in tumor formation and
maintenance, as cancer stem cells are capable of producing the entire
range of different cells that make up a tumor colony. Unlike regular
tumor cells, cancer stem cells are uniquely tumorigenic because they are
capable of breaking off from an existing lesion or tumor and forming a
new tumor colony of cells. In this sense, they are “mother cells” at the
heart of cancer malignancy, whose ability to colonize other tissues by
producing all the “daughter cells” necessary to form a new tumor make
their existence highly concerning from the perspective of cancer
prevention and treatment. Radiation and chemotherapy, while capable of
reducing the size of a tumor, actually enrich the post-treatment residual lesion or tumor with higher levels of cancer stem cells, and in some cases transform non-cancer stem cells into cancer stem cells,
ultimately making the post-treatment state of the treated tissue far
worse than its pre-treatment condition. This is why identifying and
using natural, safe, effective and affordable ways to target cancer stem
cells versus the non-tumorigenic tumor cells in a lesion or tumor is
the only rational way to treat cancer, and should be the primary focus
of present day cancer treatment approaches.
The new review discussed the
way that cannabidiol targets and/or inhibits the cancer stem cell
subpopulation in cancers such as the highly treatment-resistant form of
brain cancer known as glioblastoma, which is widely considered by
conventional medicine as “incurable.” A 2013 study,1mentioned
in the review, found that patient-derived glioblastoma cells when
exposed to cannabidiol saw a significant down-regulation of the genetic
tumor marker Id-1, which has been closely correlated with brain cancer
cell invasiveness. They also found that cannabidiol was capable of
inhibiting neurosphere formation (a sign of cancer stem cell tumor
formation), as well as was capable of inhibiting glioblastoma tumor
invasiveness in an animal model.
The results of this
preclinical study were so compelling that the researchers concluded
cannibidiol might make an ideal adjunct treatment:
With its lack of systemic toxicity and psychoactivity, cannabidiol is an ideal candidate agent in this regard and may prove useful in combination with front-line agents for the treatment of patients with aggressive and high-grade glioblastoma tumors.
Integrative approaches often
focus on using natural interventions as “adjuncts” to conventional,
inherently toxic approaches like chemotherapy and radiation, we believe
that another possibility exists, namely, that cannabidiol in combination
with a wide range of other natural substances studied for targeting
glioblastoma is more effective (and certainly far safer) than a
combination approach. To view other anti-glioblastoma substances, view our database on the subject.
Another highly relevant study
published in 2007 titled, “Cannabinoids induce glioma stem-like cell
differentiation and inhibit gliomagenesis,”2 found that
cannabinoids target the stem-like properties of glioma cells,
encouraging their differentiation into functioning, non-tumorigenic
cells, and inhibiting the dysregulated increased production of glioma
cells.
A more recent 2015 study,3 found
that glioblastoma cells treated with cannabidiol inhibited their
self-renewal by down-regulating “critical stem cell maintenance and
growth regulators.”
Another study, published last
month, found that cannabidiol inhibits glioma stem-like proliferation by
inducing autophagy, a natural form of programmed cell death.4
Consider, finally, that the
cancer stem cell targeting and killing properties of cannabidiol are
only one of a wide range of potential mechanisms through which cannabis
as a whole plant, comprised of hundreds of different phytochemicals and
phytonutrients, can treat cancer. We have indexed hundreds of studies on
cannabis’ therapeutic properties, a good subset concerning its ability
to prevent, kill, or regress a wide range of different cancer types. You
can view them all on our cannabis research database.
Research on cannabis and brain
cancer has only just begun, but considering the abject failure if not
also sheer violence of conventional approaches, waiting for sufficient
quantities of Pharma or government capital to flow in the direction of
a non-patentable substance already
saddled with archaic laws in some cases criminalizing its possession is
a no win proposition. Anecdotes of healing with cannabis are not
uncommon. One such report can be viewed on our colleague Dr. Jeffrey
Dach’s website, titled, “Cannabis Oil Brain Tumor Remission,”
demonstrating just how powerful cannabis and its cannabinoids may be
for accomplishing what conventional approaches can not. Last year,
we reported on a similar case of temporary remission in childhood leukemia using cannabis extract. Also, consider reports like this one, where a woman clearly being victimized by conventional medicine was able to replace 40 different medications through using raw cannabis juice.
The short of it is that the future of medicine,
if it is to continue to advertise itself to be concerned with
alleviating human suffering and being guided by “evidence,” must
incorporate this safe, time-tested, affordable and effective healing
agent into its standard of care. Failing to do so will not de-validate
cannabis, rather, but the medical system itself. One might ask, if
cannabis can treat “incurable” brain cancers, and is safer and more
effective than chemotherapy and radiation, shouldn’t withholding it or
information about its healing properties be considered criminal? Instead
we still live in a time and age where simply possessing it or using it
is in some jurisdictions classified as a criminal offense of dire if not
irreparable consequence to our civil liberties. Perhaps we are at a
critical turning point now and the aforementioned research will lead us
all forward to a more enlightened medical ethos that respects the right of a patient to choose his or her treatment as long as it does no harm to others.
- Get access to the upcoming documentary on the healing properties of medicinal cannabis starting on Dec. 12th, 2018. Save Your Spot.
Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.”
We Need Your Support...
In order to stay truly independent, we need your help. We are not going to put up paywalls on this website, as we want to get our info out far and wide. For as little as $3 a month, you can help keep CE alive!
SUPPORT CE HERE!
No comments:
Post a Comment