Cancer
Appetite of terminal cancer patients restored by marijuana: study
By: PAUL TAYLOR, Globe and Mail
The active ingredient in marijuana can restore the appetite of terminal cancer patients who have lost their taste for food, according to new Canadian research.
The study involved 21 patients. Some of them were given pills containing THC – or delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive cannabis compound that makes people feel “high.” The rest were given look-a-like dummy pills. (The dosing was timed so that the psychoactive effects peeked while the volunteers were asleep, minimizing the chances they would be able to guess if they had been given the real thing.) Read more »
Magic mushrooms may ease anxiety of cancer: Study
By Julie Steenhuysen, ReutersCHICAGO - The hallucinogen psilocybin — known by the street name magic mushrooms — may help ease the anxiety that often accompanies late-stage cancer, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
Cancer patients given a moderate dose of psilocybin — a hallucinogen with effects similar to LSD — were measurably less depressed six months after a single dose compared with a placebo. Patients seemed somewhat less anxious, they reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
The pilot study of 12 cancer patients was designed to prove that hallucinogenic drugs could be studied safely as a way to relieve the distress of advanced cancer.
Eight great things about cancer
It’s hard to describe what it feels like when you’re told you have cancer and probably won’t make it. I’ve heard some people with cancer say they were flooded with feelings of disbelief and fear. But for me it felt more like I’d been ejected from an airplane, one that was carrying everyone I knew, including my nine-day-old baby. At the time, being diagnosed with bone cancer of the maxilla (think Terry Fox with cancer of the face instead of leg) seemed like the worst thing that could ever have happened to me or my family. It meant I’d need extensive surgery on my face and chemotherapy (if I survived surgery, that is). It meant I’d have to spend lots of time in the hospital instead of in the yard with my baby and other children (I have four altogether, including two step-daughters). I’d lose my ability to breastfeed. I’d lose my hair. And I’d have to walk around with a question mark over my head for the rest of my life. Is today “my time?” Tomorrow? Next month? Next year?
But today, 17 months after surgery and 11 months since my last of six rounds of butt-kicking chemo, I look back and see that getting cancer has definitely had its perks. Here’s how:
Scientists test medicinal marijuana against MS, inflammation and cancer
By Nathan Seppa, Science NewsIn science’s struggle to keep up with life on the streets, smoking cannabis for medical purposes stands as Exhibit A.
Medical use of cannabis has taken on momentum of its own, surging ahead of scientists’ ability to measure the drug’s benefits. The pace has been a little too quick for some, who see medicinal joints as a punch line, a ruse to free up access to a recreational drug.
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