It seems that a compound found in cannabis (the scientific name for marijuana), CBD, has been shown (in the lab) to stop the human gene Id-1 from directing cancer cells to multiply and spread. California Pacific Senior researcher Pierre-Yves Desprez, in an interview with HealthDay News, noted that the Id-1 genes “are very bad. They push the cells to behave like embryonic cells and grow. They go crazy, they proliferate, they migrate. We need to be able to turn them off.”
While studies are still very much in the preliminary stages, it’s interesting to think that a plant that has been used medicinally for nearly 5,000 years may in the future be a key element in controlling cancer. As recently as 1937 (when it was outlawed in the U.S.), marijuana (“cannabis sativa”) was being touted as an analgesic, anti-emetic, narcotic, and sedative.
“it’s interesting to think that a plant that
Desprez and fellow researcher Sean D. has been used medicinally for nearly McAllister joined forces just two years 5,000 years may in the future be a key ago. Desprez had been studying the Id-1 element in controlling cancer” gene for 12 years; McAllister was a cannabis expert, but not involved in cancer Parke-Davis, once America’s oldest and research. Together they found that Id-1 is the “orlargest drug manufacturer (and now a divichestra conductor” that directs breast cancer sion of drug giant Pfizer), offered “Fluid cells to grow and spread. And that CBD inhibits Extract Cannabis” via catalogs. Until the invention of aspirin in the mid-1800s, Id-1; it turns it off, puts it to sleep, pick your cannabis was the civilized world’s main pain metaphor. Bottom line, it neutralizes it. And the reliever. Now it’s illegal. Here’s hoping that cancer stops spreading. someday soon cannabis returns, this time as Both researchers pointed out that CBD is nona successful treatment for metastatic breast cancer. toxic and non-psychoactive. In other words, patients wouldn’t get high taking it. And its non-toxicity is an important attribute; Desprez and McAllister predict that, to be effective, patients might have to take CBD for several years. They also cautioned that smoking marijuana isn’t going to cure metastatic breast cancer; the level of CBD necessary to inhibit Id-1 simply can’t be obtained that way.
visit www.mybreastcancernetwork.com SPLIFF February 2011 23