A recent body of scientific evidence suggests that cannabis may protect old brains from senescence.
We are still a long way from being done with cannabis. In France, Europe’s largest consumer, the government refuses to consider decriminalisation and limits itself to future changes in police sanctions against the less fortunate – or most disadvantaged – users. As for its therapeutic use, it is always improbably prohibited.
At the same time, new scientific perspectives are emerging, promising new medical indications. A possible scientific, medical and pharmaceutical revolution.
Essential endocannabinoid system
However, the January issue of Médecine/Sciences does not fail to surprise. Almost everything happens here in the “endocannabinoid system”. Cannabinoids are a group of chemicals that activate in the human body and in mammals of eponymous receptors. The best known of the cannabinoids is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), one of the psychoactive principles of the cannabis plant.
The endocannabinoid system consists of all the cannabinoid receptors (classified into two categories: CB1, present in the central nervous system and CB2, in different parts of the body), to which specific molecules produced within the body or brought in from outside – in particular cannabis THC – bind.
Beyond this action, the endocannabinoid system seems to be directly involved in many functions essential to the homeostasis of the body as a whole. There is much evidence to suggest that the current data are only fragmentary, foreshadowing a future reading of human life.
Watch this quick documentary to find more!