American Friends Tel Aviv University
Though marijuana is a well-known recreational drug, extensive scientific research has been conducted on the therapeutic properties of marijuana in the last decade. Medical cannabis is often used by sufferers of chronic ailments, including cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder, to combat pain, insomnia, lack of appetite, and other symptoms.
Now Prof. Yosef Sarne of Tel Aviv University's Adelson Center for the Biology of Addictive Diseases at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine
says that the drug has neuroprotective qualities as well. He has found
that extremely low doses of THC — the psychoactive component of
marijuana — protects the brain from long-term cognitive damage in the
wake of injury from hypoxia (lack of oxygen), seizures, or toxic drugs.
Brain damage can have consequences ranging from mild cognitive deficits
to severe neurological damage.
Previous studies focused on injecting high doses of
THC within a very short time frame — approximately 30 minutes — before
or after injury. Prof. Sarne's current research, published in the
journals Behavioural Brain Research and Experimental Brain Research,
demonstrates that even extremely low doses of THC — around 1,000 to
10,000 times less than that in a conventional marijuana cigarette —
administered over a wide window of 1 to 7 days before or 1 to 3 days
after injury can jumpstart biochemical processes which protect brain
cells and preserve cognitive function over time.
This treatment, especially in light of the long time
frame for administration and the low dosage, could be applicable to many
cases of brain injury and be safer over time, Prof. Sarne says.
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