If Cannabis Can Kill
"Incurable" Brain Cancer, Why Is It Criminalized
December 1st 2018
Cannabis contains a compound that may kill brain cancers that
chemotherapy and radiation can't touch, so why isn't it being used today?
In recent years, we've focused heavily on educating our readers
about the still relatively unknown role that cancer stem cells play in
cancer, both in terms of conventional cancer treatment failure and
the exceptionally promising role that natural interventions play in targeting
these highly malignant cells.
It is encouraging to witness a growing awareness that cancer has been completely misunderstood, and
that in order to make progress against the global epidemic we will have to go
back to the wisdom of the ancients by
using foods and spices instead of toxic chemicals and radiation to fight a
disease that should be classified more as a survival mechanism unmasked than an inexorably lethal,
genetically-driven condition. Even the National Cancer Institute now admits that
it had been wrong for decades about "early stage" breast (DCIS) and prostate (HGPIN)
"cancers," and that they should be reclassified as indolent or benign
lesions of epithelial origin, i.e. not "cancer" at all! Essentially,
therefore, millions were overdiagnosed and
overtreated for cancers they never had. Even now, despite this admission, the
vast majority of conventional doctors have yet to account for,
acknowledge, or integrate this radically different definition of cancer and its
implications for treatment into their "standard of care."
Only last week, we featured a new review on natural therapies that target cancer stem cells,
many of which included common foods and spices. You can view it here. But one
substance conspicuously absent from the list was cannabis, which is the herb we
now turn to to give it a fair representation in the context of this topic.
A recent article published in the Journal Neuroimmune Pharmacology titled,
"The Antitumor
Activity of Plant-Derived Non-Psychoactive Cannabinoids,"
reviewed the therapeutic potential of a non-psychoactive class of
phytochemicals found in cannabis known as cannabinoids.
Unlike THC, cannabinoids do not activate the cannabinoid 1 and cannabinoid 2
receptors in the central nervous system in any significant way, making their
activity less controversial as they do not produce changes in perception and
sensation associated with "recreational" and/or
"psychedelic" drugs. There are actually over 60 cannabinoids in
cannabis, but the second most abundant one, cannabidiol (CBD), has been found
to inhibit and/or kill a wide range of cancers in the animal model, including
gliobastoma (a difficult-to-treat type of brain cancer), breast, lung,
prostate, and colon cancer. There have been a wide range of mechanisms
identified behind these observed anti-tumor activities, including anti-angiogenic (preventing new
blood vessel formation), anti-metastatic, anti-cell viability, but the one we
wish to focus on in this report is its ability to to inhibit the stem-like
potential of cancer cells.
Stem cells are unique within the body as they are capable of
continual self-renewal, theoretically making them immortal relative to regular
body cells (somatic cells), which die after a fixed number or replication
cycles. In their normal state of function they are essential for healing and
bodily regeneration, as they are capable of differentiating into the wide range
of cells that make up the body and need to be regularly replaced when damaged.
This so-called pluripotent property of stem cells is also
observed in tumor formation and maintenance, as cancer stem cells are capable
of producing the entire range of different cells that make up a tumor colony.
Unlike regular tumor cells, cancer stem cells are uniquely tumorigenic
because they are capable of breaking off from an existing lesion or tumor and
forming a new tumor colony of cells. In this sense, they are "mother
cells" at the heart of cancer malignancy, whose ability to colonize other
tissues by producing all the "daughter cells" necessary to form a new
tumor make their existence highly concerning from the perspective of cancer
prevention and treatment. Radiation and chemotherapy, while capable of reducing
the size of a tumor, actually enrich the post-treatment residual lesion or tumor with
higher levels of cancer stem cells, and in some
cases transform non-cancer stem cells into cancer stem cells,
ultimately making the post-treatment state of the treated tissue far worse than
its pre-treatment condition. This is why identifying and using natural, safe,
effective and affordable ways to target cancer stem cells versus the
non-tumorigenic tumor cells in a lesion or tumor is the only rational way to
treat cancer, and should be the primary focus of present day cancer treatment
approaches.
The new review discussed the way that cannabidiol targets and/or
inhibits the cancer stem cell subpopulation in cancers such as the highly
treatment-resistant form of brain cancer known as glioblastoma, which is widely
considered by conventional medicine as "incurable." A 2013 study,1mentioned in the review, found that
patient-derived glioblastoma cells when exposed to cannabidiol saw a
significant down-regulation of the genetic tumor marker Id-1, which has been
closely correlated with brain cancer cell invasiveness. They also found that
cannabidiol was capable of inhibiting neurosphere formation (a sign of cancer
stem cell tumor formation), as well as was capable of inhibiting glioblastoma
tumor invasiveness in an animal model.
The results of this preclinical study were so compelling that
the researchers concluded cannibidiol might make an ideal adjunct
treatment:
With its lack of systemic toxicity and psychoactivity, cannabidiol is
an ideal candidate agent in this regard and may prove useful in combination
with front-line agents for the treatment of patients with aggressive and
high-grade glioblastoma tumors.
Integrative approaches often focus on using natural
interventions as "adjuncts" to conventional, inherently toxic
approaches like chemotherapy and radiation, we believe that another possibility
exists, namely, that cannabidiol in combination with a wide range of other
natural substances studied for targeting glioblastoma is more effective (and
certainly far safer) than a combination approach. To view other
anti-glioblastoma substances, view our database on the subject.
Another highly relevant study published in 2007 titled,
"Cannabinoids induce glioma stem-like cell differentiation and inhibit
gliomagenesis,"2 found that
cannabinoids target the stem-like properties of glioma cells, encouraging their
differentiation into functioning, non-tumorigenic cells, and inhibiting the
dysregulated increased production of glioma cells.
A more recent 2015 study,3 found
that glioblastoma cells treated with cannabidiol inhibited their self-renewal
by down-regulating "critical stem cell maintenance and growth
regulators."
Another study, published last month, found that cannabidiol
inhibits glioma stem-like proliferation by inducing autophagy, a natural form
of programmed cell death.4
Consider, finally, that the cancer stem cell targeting and
killing properties of cannabidiol are only one of a wide range of potential
mechanisms through which cannabis as a whole plant, comprised of hundreds of
different phytochemicals and phytonutrients, can treat cancer. We have indexed
hundreds of studies on cannabis' therapeutic properties, a good subset
concerning its ability to prevent, kill, or regress a wide range of different
cancer types. You can view them all on our cannabis
research database.
Research on cannabis and brain cancer has only just begun, but
considering the abject failure if not also sheer violence of conventional
approaches, waiting for sufficient quantities of Pharma or government capital
to flow in the direction of a non-patentable substance already
saddled with archaic laws in some cases criminalizing its possession is a no
win proposition. Anecdotes of healing with cannabis are not uncommon. One such
report can be viewed on our colleague Dr. Jeffrey Dach's website, titled, "Cannabis Oil Brain Tumor Remission,"
demonstrating just how powerful cannabis and its cannabinoids may be for
accomplishing what conventional approaches can not. Last year, we reported
on a similar case of temporary
remission in childhood leukemia using cannabis extract.
Also, consider reports like this one, where a woman clearly being victimized by
conventional medicine was able to replace 40 different medications through using raw cannabis juice.
The short of it is that the future of medicine, if it is
to continue to advertise itself to be concerned with alleviating human
suffering and being guided by "evidence," must incorporate this safe,
time-tested, affordable and effective healing agent into its standard of care.
Failing to do so will not de-validate cannabis, rather, but the medical system
itself. One might ask, if cannabis can treat "incurable" brain
cancers, and is safer and more effective than chemotherapy and radiation,
shouldn't withholding it or information about its healing properties be
considered criminal? Instead we still live in a time and age where
simply possessing it or using it is in some jurisdictions classified as a
criminal offense of dire if not irreparable consequence to our civil liberties.
Perhaps we are at a critical turning point now and the aforementioned research
will lead us all forward to a more enlightened medical ethos that
respects the right of a patient to choose his or her treatment as long as it
does no harm to others.
Get access to the upcoming
documentary on the healing properties of medicinal cannabis starting on Dec.
12th, 2018. Save Your Spot.
Sayer Ji is
founder of Greenmedinfo.com, a reviewer at the International
Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Co-founder and CEO of Systome Biomed, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, Steering Committee Member of the Global Non-GMO Foundation.
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