Can cannabis cure cancer? Evidence shows it might help the fight

Have a can of cannabis and cure your cancer. Sounds far fetched doesn’t it?

And yet there’s some evidence that the controversial plant has cancer curative properties. And it can be consumed in a liquid form and without the “high” associated with the psychoactive plant.

Read on…

Researchers found that the compound, called cannabidiol, has the capability to turn off the gene responsible for metastasis in an aggressive form of breast cancer. Incidently the cannabidiol does not produce the psychoactive properties of the cannabis plant. Meaning: You can’t get high from it.

Five years ago, a team from the California Pacific Medical Center, in San Francisco, discovered it stopped the growth of human breast cancer cells in the lab. The team said the cannabis compound CBD could provide a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy for cancer treatments. Previous research shows the compound can block human brain cancers, and 2007 lab experiments have showed it can also block breast cancer.

A separate team led by Madrid-based Dr Manuel Guzmon attempted to prevent a form of cancer (glioblastoma multiforme) from growing by stopping its blood supply. Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the hardest cancers to treat. It rarely responds medical therapies, especially conventional methods which kill cells through radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.

Cannabis compounds can be used to fight cancer

Mice were given cancer similar to human brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme). The rodents were then treated with cannabinoids and their genes were examined. Genes associated with blood vessel growth in tumors via the production of a chemical called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) had their activity reduced.

Cannabinoids stop VEGF production by creating Ceramide, which controls cell death.
Guzmon said: “This is the first report showing that ceramide depresses VEGF pathway by interfering with VEGF production.”

Researchers decided to test the process on humans. They worked with two patients who had glioblastoma multiforme and failed to respond to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. Samples were taken from them before and after treating them with a cannabinoids solution by injecting it into the tumor. Both patients experienced reduced VEGF levels in the tumor.

CBD (Cannabidiol), one of the main constituents of the cannabis plant has been proven medically as therapies for many diseases including the inhibition of cancer cell growth. Cannabinoids can prevent cancer, reduce heart attacks by 66% and insulin dependent diabetes by 58%.

Drink your cannabis

Cannabis clinician Dr. William Courtney recommends drinking 4 – 8 ounces of raw flower and leaf juice from any Hemp plant, 5 mg of Cannabidiol (CBD) per kg of body weight, a salad of Hemp seed sprouts and 50 mg of THC taken in 5 daily doses.

“If you heat the plant, you will decarboxylate THC-acid and you will get high, you’ll get your 10 mg. If you don’t heat it, you can go up to five or six hundred milligrams and use it as a Dietary Cannabis…and push it up to the anti-oxidant and neuro-protective levels which come into play at hundreds of milligrams,” said Courtney.

The Endocannabinoid System (ECS) maintains our biological systems by regulating each cell tissue. It uses Arachadonic acid/Omega 6 to make Endo-Cannabinoids: fatty molecules that communicate harm between cells. Dietary Cannabis mimics the ECS by providing Cannabinoids when there is an Arachadonic acid deficiency or Clinical Cannabinoid Deficiency. Patients suffering from end stage Cancer need to eat buds whole.