Why Cannabis is the Future of Medicine

Why Cannabis is the Future of Medicine

Posted Dec 17th 2019 Written By: Sayer Ji, Founder This article is copyrighted by GreenMedInfo LLC, 2019

The future of medicine rests on the fundamental right we all have to use things that spring from the Earth naturally as healing agents. Why should cannabis, used for at least 10000 years by humankind to alleviate suffering, be excluded from this inexorable mandate?

The politics of cannabis are exceedingly complex, and yet the truth is simple: this freely growing plant heals the human body - not to mention provides food, fuel, clothing and shelter, if only we will let it perform its birthright. In a previous article, we investigated the strange fact that the human body is in many ways pre-designed, or as it were, pre-loaded with a receptiveness to cannabis' active compounds -- cannabinoids -- thanks to its well documented endocannabinoid system. But the medical-industrial complex in the U.S. does not want you to use these freely growing compounds. They threaten its very business model and existence. Which is why it synergizes so naturally with the burgeoning privatized prison sector, which now has the dubious title of having the highest incarceration rate in the world. The statistics don't lie:

"far surpassing any other nation. For every 100,000 Americans, 743 citizens sit behind bars. Presently, the prison population in America consists of more than six million people, a number exceeding the amount of prisoners held in the gulags of the former Soviet Union at any point in its history."   According to an Al-Jeezera editorial, "One explanation for the boom in the prison population is the mandatory sentencing imposed for drug offences and the "tough on crime" attitude that has prevailed since the 1980s."  Cannabis/marijuana is presently on the DEA's Schedule 1 list.  Since 1972, cannabis has been listed on the Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the most tightly restricted category reserved for drugs which have "no currently accepted medical use". Opioids, stimulants, psychedelics and a few antidepressants now populate this list of substances that can put you in jail for possessing without a prescription.  The notion that marijuana has no 'medicinal benefits' is preposterous, actually. Since time immemorial it has been used as a panacea ('cure-all'). In fact, as far back as 2727 B.C., cannabis was recorded in the Chinese pharmacopoeia as an effective medicine, and evidence for its use as a food, textile and presumably as a healing agent stretch back even further, to 12,000 BC.[1]

When it comes to cannabis' medical applications, cannabis' 'healing properties' is a loaded term. In fact, it is extremely dangerous, as far as the medical industrial complex goes, who has the FDA/FTC to enforce it's mandate: anything that prevents, diagnoses, treats or cures a disease must be an FDA approved drug by law, i.e. pharmaceutical agents which often have 75 or more adverse effects for each marketed and approved "therapeutic" effect. 

Indeed, the dominant, drug-based medical system does not even acknowledge the body's healing abilities, opting for a view that looks at most bodily suffering as fatalistic, primarily genetically based, and resulting from dysfunction in the mechanical design of a highly entropic 'bag of enzymes and proteins' destined to suffer along the trajectory of time.

And so, an at least two trillion dollar a year industry stands between you and access to the disease alleviating properties of this humble plant.

As Emerson said, "a weed is an herb whose virtues have yet to be discovered," and yet, by this definition, cannabis is not a weed, but given that is has been extensively researched and used for thousands of years for a wide range of health conditions, it should be considered and respected as a medicinal herb and food. Sadly, the fact that the whole herb is non-patentable is the main reason why it is still struggling to gain approval from the powers that be.

Let's look at the actual, vetted, published and peer-reviewed research - bullet proof, if we are to subscribe to the 'evidence-based' model of medicine - which includes over 100 proven therapeutic actions of this amazing plant, featuring the following:

• Multiple Sclerosis
• Tourette Syndrome
• Pain
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Brachial Plexus Neuropathies
• Insomnia
• Multiple Splasticity
• Memory Disorders
• Social Anxiety Disorders
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Cancer
• Opiate Addiction
• Anorexia
• Bladder Dysfunction
• Bronchial Asthma
• Chemotherapy-induced Harm
• Constipation
• Crack Addiction
• Dementia
• Fibromyalgia
• Glaucoma
• Heroin Addiction
• Lymphoma
• Nausea
• Neuropathy
• Obesity
• Phantom Limb
• Spinal Cord Injuries
• Endotoxemia
• Myocardia Infarction (Heart Attack)
• Oxidative Stress
• Diabetes: Cataract
• Tremor
• Cardiac Arrhythmias
• Fatigue
• Fulminant Liver Failure
• Low Immune Function
• Aging
• Alcohol Toxicity
• Allodynia
• Arthritis: Rheumatoid
• Ascites
• Atherosclerosis
• Diabetes Type 1
• High Cholesterol
• Liver Damage
• Menopausal Syndrome
• Morphine Dependence
• Appetite Disorders
• Auditory Disease
• Dystonia
• Epstein-Barr infections
• Gynecomasia
• Hepatitis
• Intestinal permeability
• Leukemia
• Liver Fibrosis
• Migraine Disorders
• Oncoviruses
• Psoriasis
• Thymoma

Moreover, this plant's therapeutic properties have been subdivided into the following 40+ pharmacological actions:

• Analgesic (Pain Killing)
• Neuroprotective
• Antispasmodic
• Anxiolytic
• Tumor necrosis factor inhibitor
• Anti-inflammatory
• Antiproliferative
• Apoptotic
• Chempreventive
• Antidepressive
• Antiemetic
• Bronchodilator
• Anti-metastatic
• Anti-neoplastic
• Antioxidant
• Cardioprotective
• Hepatoprotective
• Anti-tumor
• Enzyme inhibitor
• Immunomodulatory
• Anti-angiogenic
• Autophagy up-regulation
• Acetylocholinesterase inhibitor
• Anti-platelet
• Calcium channel blocker
• Cell cycle arrest
• Cylooxygenase inhibitor
• Glycine agents
• Immunomodulatory: T-Cell down-regulation
• Intracellular adhesion molecule-1 inducer
• Matrix mettaproteinase-1 inhibitor
• Neuritohgenic
• Platelet Aggregration Inhibito
• Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A inhibitor
• Anti-apoptotic
• Anti-proliferative
• Anti-psychotic
• Antiviral
• Caspase-3 activation
• Chemosensitizer
• Immunosupressive agent
• Interleukin-6 upregulation
• Tumor suppressor protein p53 upregulation

Thanks to modern scientific investigation, it is no longer considered strictly 'theoretical' that cannabis has a role to play in medicine. There is a growing movement to wrench back control from the powers that be, whose primary objectives appear to be the subjection of the human body in order to control the population (political motives) -- what 20th century French philosopher Michel Foucault termed biopower, and not to awaken true healing powers intrinsic within the body of all self-possessed members of society. Even the instinct towards recreational use - think of the etymology: to re-create - should be allowed, as long as those who choose to use cannabis instead of tobacco and alcohol (and prescription drugs) do not cause harm to themselves or others. How many deaths are attributed to cannnabis each year versus these other societally approved recreational agents, not to mention prescription drugs, which are the 3rd leading cause of death in the developed world?

Ultimately, the politics surrounding cannabis access and the truth about its medicinal properties are so heavily a politicized issue that it is doubtful the science itself will prevail against the distorted lens of media characterizations of it as a 'dangerous drug,' and certainly not the iron-clad impasse represented by federal laws against its possession and use. All we can do is to advocate for the fundamental rights we all possess as free men and women, and our inborn right towards self-possession, i.e as long as what we do does not interfere with the choices and rights of others, we should be free to use an herb/food/textile that sprouts freely and grows freely from this earth, as God/Nature as freely made available.

I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?

~ Willie Nelson

"Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn't the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit . . . unnatural?" - Bill Hicks

Originally published 09-01-2014

Too many chemicals in Our Foods

Hyper Palatable Foods that People Can’t Stop Eating

November 16, 2019 Don Porter

Hyper-palatable foods are those made with a mix of ingredients/chemicals that light up people’s brain-reward neural circuitry and overpower mechanisms that are supposed to signal when we’ve had enough to eat. Because these foods essentially enhance their consumption, overweight and obesity can be the result. Of 84,000 chemicals listed only an estimates 30,000 are actually in use 2019. This class of foods which are often processed foods or sweets containing alluring combinations of sugar, fat, sodium and carbohydrates, have been found to be some of the most highly consumed foods in the United States. Food companies have devised formulas for these foods to make them highly palatable and thus enhance their consumption. TOO MANY foods are made to Look good, Smell good, Taste good, Be addictive, and Last a Long time !  All done with use of MANY chemicals !!

While there is no standardized definition for hyper palatable foods, typically descriptive definitions such as “desserts”, “fast foods” and “sweets” will identify these types of foods. However, those words aren’t specific to the actual mechanisms through which the ingredients in a particular food lead to their enhanced palatability. Defining these types of foods has been a substantial limitation.

A team sought to define the criteria for hyper palatable foods through conducting a literature review and then employing nutrition software and applying their definition to over 7,700 food items. They essentially took all the descriptive definitions of these foods from the literature and one by one entered them into the nutrition program to see how it quantifies a food’s ingredients. The software provides in fine grained detail a data set which specifies how many calories, fat, sodium, sugar, carbohydrates and fiber are in the foods. They looked for items that met the criteria established by the literature review as enhancing palatability and specifically when the synergy between key ingredients in a certain food creates an artificially palatable experience which is larger than any key ingredient would produce by itself.

They identified these particular synergies with specific values which were applied to three clusters – combinations of sodium and fat (such as bacon and hot dogs), combinations of simple sugars and fats (such as ice cream, cookies, and cake), and combinations of sodium and carbohydrates (such as pretzels, chips and popcorn).

Essentially the team wanted to be able to identify foods that seem to cluster together which what seemed like similar levels of at least two ingredients. That is the theoretical basis for producing the synergistic palatability effect. Through a process using visualization, they were able to see there were essentially three food types that appear to cluster together in relation to their ingredients. Once the team was able to quantify characteristics of hyper palatability, they were able to apply their definition to foods that are cataloged in the U. S. Dep of Agriculture’s FNDDS (Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies). The hope was to discover just how prevalent these types of foods are in the hope was in our diets.

The team discovered that 62% of foods in the FNDDS met the criteria for at least one of the three clusters they had identified. Most of those foods (70%) were high in sodium and fat (such as egg or meat dishes and milk based foods like cheese dips). 25% of the hyper palatable foods were high in sugar and fat and 16% of those foods were also high in sodium and carbohydrates. Less than 10% qualified in more than one cluster.  The most shocking discovery were items labeled as reduced or no fat, salt, sugar or calories represented 5% of hyper palatable foods. Additionally, of all the items that were labeled as low/reduced/no fat, sodium and/or sugar in the FNDDS, 49% met the criteria as a being a hyper palatable food.

·        Palm Oil. ...

·        Shortening. ...

·        White Flour, Rice, Pasta, and Bread. ...

·        High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sugar...

·        Artificial Sweeteners. ...

·        Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Benzoate. ...

·        Butylated Hydroxyanisole (BHA) ...

·        Sodium Nitrates and Sodium Nitrites.

More evidence is needed, however if research starts to support that these hyper palatable foods may be problematic for society, it might warrant food labels saying “this is hyper palatable”. And it might also lead to restriction of certain foods that are available in particular places such as elementary school cafeterias that serve kids whose brains are still developing and might be impacted by these kinds of foods.  The plan is to build on the current work by analyzing how the ubiquity of these hyper palatable foods in the U.S. diet compares to foods in other countries. 

Dr. Mercola endorses Baking Soda to fight Cancer

The Role of Fungus in Cancer

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola   October 23, 2019

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

·                  Research shows fungi can migrate from your gut to your pancreas, where it can contribute to the development of pancreatic cancer. In mouse and human models, pancreatic tumors contain 3,000 times more fungi than normal pancreatic tissue

·                  Pancreatic tumors had far greater amounts of a common fungal genus called Malassezia. Using an antifungal drug was found to be protective, slowing down the progression of the tumor

·                  The fungi trapped in the pancreas appears to drive tumor growth by activating MBL (mannose-binding lectin), a liver protein that triggers an immune mechanism involved in fighting infections

·                  Solid tumors excrete acid and the spread of cancer cells is stimulated by acidic conditions in the surrounding tissues. Acid is a byproduct of glucose metabolism, which ties in with research showing cancer feeds on and is accelerated by a diet high in sugar

·                  Previous research suggests baking soda can be helpful for inhibiting cancer metastasis. It also appears to improve the effectiveness of other cancer treatments

Oftentimes, even the most unlikely-sounding theories can be scientifically validated if you just wait long enough. That certainly rings true for recent headlines declaring fungi and bacteria may be playing a role in the development of certain types of cancer, combined with previous research showing baking soda may be a useful remedy.  In 2011, ScienceBasedMedicine.org shamed Dr. Oz for allowing me on his show,¹ and one of the "reasons" given was that I had at one time published information about a novel hypothesis — the idea that cancer could be caused by common fungi and might be treatable with baking soda.

Two early proponents of this hypothesis were Tullio Simoncini^2,3 and Mark Sircus.⁴ As you might expect, they were unsuccessful in their attempts at getting the conventional medical establishment to take the hypothesis seriously and have been maligned and marginalized for promoting these ideas.  So, mark my surprise when October 3, 2019, The New York Times published an article⁵ titled, "In the Pancreas, Common Fungi May Drive Cancer." The article reported the findings of a study^6,7 published in the October 2019 issue of the prestigious Nature journal. According to this study:⁸

"Bacterial dysbiosis accompanies carcinogenesis in malignancies such as colon and liver cancer, and has recently been implicated in the pathogenesis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). However, the mycobiome has not been clearly implicated in tumorigenesis.  Here we show that fungi migrate from the gut lumen to the pancreas, and that this is implicated in the pathogenesis of PDA. PDA tumors in humans and mouse models of this cancer displayed an increase in fungi of about 3,000-fold compared to normal pancreatic tissue."

Fungal Microbiome May Play a Role in Pancreatic Cancer

More specifically, the mycobiome (the fungal microbiome) found in pancreatic tumors was distinctly different from the mycobiome found in the gut and in normal pancreases.  According to the researchers, PDA tumors had far greater amounts of a common fungal genus called Malassezia. Killing off the mycobiome with an antifungal drug was found to be protective, slowing down the progression of the tumor. As reported by Medical News Today:⁹

"The team found that treating mice with a strong antifungal drug called amphotericin B reduced tumor weight by 20–40%. The treatment also reduced ductal dysplasia, an early stage in the development of pancreatic cancer, by 20–30%.  Antifungal treatment also boosted the anticancer power of gemcitabine, a standard chemotherapy drug, by 15–25% …"

On the other hand, repopulating the tumor with Malassezia accelerated tumor growth, except when Candida, Saccharomyces or Aspergillus genera were used. This suggests Malassezia is the main culprit in this kind of cancer. When other genera were included, tumor growth was much slower.

"We also discovered that ligation of mannose-binding lectin (MBL), which binds to glycans of the fungal wall to activate the complement cascade, was required for oncogenic progression, whereas deletion of MBL or C3 in the extratumoral compartment … were both protective against tumor growth," the authors note,¹⁰ concluding that:

"Collectively, our work shows that pathogenic fungi promote PDA by driving the complement cascade through the activation of MBL."    In summary, the fungi trapped in the pancreas appears to drive tumor growth by activating MBL (mannose-binding lectin), a liver protein that triggers the complement cascade¹¹ — an immune mechanism involved in fighting infections.    The problem is that this mechanism can also promote the growth of cells after the infection has been resolved.^12,13 When MBL activation was inhibited, tumor growth was also inhibited.¹⁴

Microenvironment Is an Important Consideration

As reported by The New York Times,¹⁵ up until very recently, the pancreas was thought to be a sterile organ, which made these findings all the more surprising. The New York Times goes on to state:

"There is increasing scientific consensus that the factors in a tumor's 'microenvironment' are just as important as the genetic factors driving its growth.  'We have to move from thinking about tumor cells alone to thinking of the whole neighborhood that the tumor lives in,' said Dr. Brian Wolpin, a gastrointestinal cancer researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.   The surrounding healthy tissue, immune cells, collagen and other fibers holding the tumor, as well as the blood vessels feeding it all help support or prevent the growth of the cancer.  Microbes are one more factor to consider in the alphabet soup of factors affecting cancer proliferation. The fungal population in the pancreas may be a good biomarker for who's at risk for developing cancer, as well as a potential target for future treatments.  'This is an enormous opportunity for intervention and prevention, which is something we don't really have for pancreatic cancer,' said Dr. Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue, a pancreatic cancer researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York."  That this research is being taken seriously is evidenced by its widespread media coverage. As reported in an accompanying article in Nature News and Views:¹⁶   "The mycobiome is a historically under-recognized player in human health and disease, but its role in both is essential. Harmless organisms called commensals, including fungi, inhabit mucosal surfaces such as the linings of the gut, nose and mouth, and can activate inflammatory processes as part of the immune system's response to injury or infection …  Moreover, it is becoming apparent that there is a relationship between the gut mycobiome and human cancers, including colorectal and esophageal cancer."

Baking Soda Inhibits Cancer Metastasis

While the featured Nature study did not address the potential use of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), research¹⁷ published in the journal Cancer Research in 2009 did. According to the abstract:¹⁸

"The external pH of solid tumors is acidic as a consequence of increased metabolism of glucose and poor perfusion. Acid pH has been shown to stimulate tumor cell invasion and metastasis in vitro and in cells before tail vein injection in vivo.   The present study investigates whether inhibition of this tumor acidity will reduce the incidence of in vivo metastases. Here, we show that oral NaHCO3 selectively increased the pH of tumors and reduced the formation of spontaneous metastases in mouse models of metastatic breast cancer.  This treatment regimen was shown to significantly increase the extracellular pH, but not the intracellular pH, of tumors … NaHCO3 therapy also reduced the rate of lymph node involvement, yet did not affect the levels of circulating tumor cells, suggesting that reduced organ metastases were not due to increased intravasation.   In contrast, NaHCO3 therapy significantly reduced the formation of hepatic metastases following intrasplenic injection, suggesting that it did inhibit extravasation and colonization."  The authors point out that the extracellular pH of malignant tumors typically ranges between 6.5 and 6.9, whereas normal tissues have an alkaline pH typically ranging between 7.2 and 7.5.    They also cite previous studies showing solid tumors excrete acid and that the spread of cancer cells is stimulated by acidic conditions in the surrounding tissues. The paper also points out that "acid is a byproduct of glucose metabolism," which ties in with research showing cancer feeds on and is accelerated by a diet high in sugar.

In this experiment, mice injected with cancer cells were given either plain drinking water or water with 200 mmol/L bicarbonate. Calculations suggest the equivalent dose in human terms would be 12.5 grams (0.4 ounces) of bicarbonate per day for an individual weighing 154 pounds or 70 kilos. While the bicarbonate therapy had no effect on the rate of growth of the primary tumors, it did significantly reduce the number and size of metastatic tumors in the lungs, intestines and diaphragms, which in turn resulted in improved survival. According to the authors:¹⁹    "In the 30-day experiment, pooled data showed that the bicarbonate-treated mice had a total of 147 metastatic lung lesions, whereas the control group had 326 lung lesions. The average lesion diameters were 4.5 ± 0.12 and 5.2 ± 0.14 mm in the NaHCO3 and control groups, respectively."

Baking Soda Might Not Be as 'Quack' as You Thought

In 2012, Mark "Marty" Pagel Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Arizona, was given a $2 million grant to investigate whether drinking baking soda water might help patients with breast cancer.^20,21   Interestingly, while the use of baking soda in the treatment of cancer has been written off as the worst possible type of quackery by skeptics and critics, the University of Arizona Cancer Center has actually been studying its use for nearly two decades. As reported by Cancer Active in 2017:²²    "… in 2003 (Raghunand) they showed how drinking sodium bicarbonate resulted in the alkalization of the area around cancer tumors resulting in a cessation of new metastases²³ …

Further research has shown that sodium bicarbonate had an effect on breast and prostate cancers but had mixed results with other cancers … 2009, Robey et al showed that drinking sodium bicarbonate caused new metastases to stop, whilst injection of Bicarbonate into tumors caused regression of the cancer²⁴ …   Ed: At CANCERactive we have a simple view that is identical to that of American cancer researcher Ralph Moss. This is research every cancer patient should know about. If drinking sodium bicarbonate can restrict cancer metastases then it should be considered as a part of an Integrated Cancer Treatment Programme, especially if it enhances the action of chemotherapy drugs."   While Pagel's team has published a number of studies since then, including one detailing the ways in which extracellular pH can be assessed inside in vivo tumors,^25,26 they've not yet published anything discussing the use of baking soda as an adjunct to breast cancer treatment.

Baking Soda Found to Improve Cancer Treatment

More recently, a study²⁷ published in 2018 concluded the addition of baking soda can improve the effectiveness of conventional cancer treatments. According to these findings, published in the journal Cell, when tissues are acidic, cancer cells can go dormant, thereby allowing them to hide from the treatment. Lead author Chi Dang told WhyY.org:²⁸   "Many of the therapies we have — chemotherapy, targeted therapy — work in cells that are actively functioning and dividing. When you awaken cells from a resting state into an active state, they become more vulnerable to cancer therapy."   This study also found that when pH is low, it disrupts your circadian clock. "Buffering against acidification or inhibiting lactic acid production fully rescues circadian oscillation," the researchers found.²⁹ Acidification also suppresses mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) signaling, and this too plays a role. According to the authors:   "Restoring mTORC1 signaling and the translation it governs rescues clock oscillation. Our findings thus reveal a model in which acid produced during the cellular metabolic response to hypoxia suppresses the circadian clock through diminished translation of clock constituents."   WhyY.org expounds on the findings:³⁰

"'What we've discovered in this study is that there's a very rapid mechanism by which low pH, or acid itself, turns off a key toggle in the cells that controls the cell's ability to make proteins,' Dang said. In other words, it prevents cells from dividing.  As their processes slow down, the cells go into hibernation, making them invisible to cancer treatments. Dang and his team wanted to see if they could reverse that process, and they came up with a simple solution: neutralizing the acid with baking soda.

They tested their theory by adding baking soda to the drinking water of mice that had been grafted with tumors. 'What we found is that the areas that were acidic, now are no longer acidic, and they become more active,' Dang said.   'So this toggle comes back on, so that cells that are at rest can now be reawakened.' That allows chemotherapy and other treatments to find and destroy cancer cells … "

Source: Cell June 28, 2018; 174(1): 72-87