OT: Big Pharma Aint Gonna Like This:

[particleswaves]

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15145917/from/ET/

NBC's Robert Bazell reports.
MSNBC

Updated: 4:10 p.m. PT Oct 10, 2006
WASHINGTON - Good news for aging hippies: smoking pot may stave off Alzheimer’s disease.

New research shows that the active ingredient in marijuana may prevent the formation of deposits in the brain associated with the degenerative disease.

Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in California found that marijuana's active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, can prevent an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase from accelerating the formation of "Alzheimer plaques" in the brain more effectively than commercially marketed drugs.

THC is also more effective at blocking clumps of protein that can inhibit memory and cognition in Alzheimer’s patients, the researchers reported in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics.

The researchers said their discovery could lead to more effective drug treatment for Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia among the elderly.

Those afflicted with Alzheimer’s suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills. The ultimate cause of the disease is unknown, though it is believed to be hereditary.

Marijuana is used to relieve glaucoma and can help reduce side effects from cancer and AIDS treatment.

[goldeagle]

Those afflicted with Alzheimer’s suffer from memory loss, impaired decision-making, and diminished language and movement skills. The ultimate cause of the disease is unknown, though it is believed to be hereditary.


Isn't this what happens when you smoke it?? It's the same as Alzheimer's but a whole lot more fun (or so I hear).

GL2A
GE

[johnyglobe]

Looks like I picked a bad day to stop preventative medication!!

Where's that pic of Lloyd Bridges when you need it!

[jbgoodtrader]

So... You are trading off Alzheimer's for Lung Cancer!

And... If this pans out, I'm sure "Big Pharma" will have a pill on the market that's sold at a premium price to you and me!

John Good

[particleswaves]

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101595.html

Little Benefit Seen in Antipsychotics Used in Alzheimer's

By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page A09

Antipsychotic drugs that are widely used to calm agitated patients with Alzheimer's disease help very few of them, and those modest benefits are canceled out by the frequent side effects, a comprehensive government-funded study has found.

The surprising finding is expected to trigger a broad reevaluation of the widespread use of the drugs in patients with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. As many as a quarter of the Alzheimer's patients in nursing homes are prescribed the powerful drugs, even though they have never been formally approved for this purpose.

"I wish I could say the odds are better," said Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the $17 million study. "This paper says most people are not going to be any different on these drugs than they would on placebo."

The researchers did not conclude that the drugs should never be used, and a minority of patients do benefit. But the study suggests that doctors would be well advised to prescribe the drugs sparingly and as a last resort, experts said.

The study is the latest to produce sobering data on the newer, expensive antipsychotics such as Zyprexa, Risperdal and Seroquel, which are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the United States at an annual cost of about $10 billion. Another government-funded study recently showed that the drugs were no better than an older and much cheaper drug called perphenazine in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Taken together, the government-sponsored clinical trials have highlighted two troublesome issues in the regulation and use of psychiatric medications in the United States.

The schizophrenia study showed that the short-term trials that pharmaceutical companies sponsor to gain Food and Drug Administration approval have limited value in telling doctors how patients will fare overall, or whether newer drugs are worth their higher cost.

The Alzheimer's study has revealed a different problem -- the extent to which physicians are prescribing and using medications in the absence of empirical data to guide them. None of the antipsychotic drugs is currently approved for Alzheimer's disease, and several short-term industry-sponsored clinical trials have failed to show a benefit. The FDA has required prominent "black box" warnings on the drugs' labels about side effects in elderly people following cases where the drugs were associated with strokes and death.

"Clearly the drugs cannot be cost-effective, because there is nothing to choose between drugs and placebo," said Lon Schneider, the lead author of the new study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Most patients are not benefiting."

Insel, Schneider and Jason H.T. Karlawish, an Alzheimer's expert at the University of Pennsylvania who wrote a commentary about the new study, said it also underscores the desperate need to develop better treatments for Alzheimer's patients who are agitated or psychotic.

About 5 million Americans suffer from dementias, including Alzheimer's, and large numbers of them experience periods of agitation and psychotic symptoms that are extremely debilitating for them, their caregivers and medical facilities.

"You can't respond to agitation by saying 'Here is some olanzapine,' " said Karlawish, referring to the drug sold under the brand name Zyprexa. "The question is, why is there agitation?"

Such symptoms could be the result of overstimulation, sleep deprivation, untreated pain, moving to a new environment or dehydration, the experts said.

Like young children, patients with dementia can also be set off by a conversation that normal adults brush off or find routine. Karlawish suggested that this could be because dementias affect the frontal lobe of the brain, which plays an important role in judgment and self-control.

"Any good parent knows there are effective and ineffective ways to respond to their 4-year-old," Karlawish said. Similarly, he said, "there are effective and non-effective ways to respond to someone with frontal-lobe damage."

Clinicians and caregivers would do well to deal with such potential triggers of agitation before considering antipsychotic medication, Schneider agreed. The drugs might be useful in patients who continue to have agitation and breaks with reality despite such efforts, but Schneider cautioned that the drugs ought to be prescribed for limited periods and stopped if side effects emerge. Those effects include uncontrolled muscle movements, excessive sedation, worsened mental functioning and confusion.

The manufacturers of the three drugs used in the study all said they do not recommend their products for Alzheimer's patients. Eli Lilly and Co. makes Zyprexa, AstraZeneca makes Seroquel, and Janssen Pharmaceutica makes Risperdal.

The new study found that Risperdal and Zyprexa seemed to help Alzheimer's patients more than Seroquel, but those two medications also had more serious side effects.

[urbanswarrior]

Cheech and Chong should have good memorys when they are in their 90S...

[popodaddy]

If its so good for memory why are there so many people who can't remember the 60's?

Might be worth a try anyway. For medicinal purpouses of course.

popo

[particleswaves]

“Researchers have discovered that
chocolate produces some of the same reactions in the
brain as marijuana...The researchers also discovered other similarities between the two, but can't remember what they are.”

Matt Lauer

[elwood]

johnyglobe said:

Looks like I picked a bad day to stop preventative medication!!

Where's that pic of Lloyd Bridges when you need it!

Here it is.

[jbgoodtrader]

I don't know, but I'm in my 50's and every guy I knew in high school who smoked a lot of dope and still did 20 yrs. later was involved with stained glass or welfare, and is nicknamed "burnout"!

Maybe it's the air up here or something!

John Good

[golden1101]

My personal opinion . . .

People are way too fearful of marijuana. Don't get me wrong . . . I'm not some loadie writing your from a one bedroom apartment with a black light and glowing Led Zeppelin poster either.

Marijuana is a naturally occurring substance that is helpful to some . . . When it comes to creating drugs to treat people, most of it is about ownership and money and has nothing to do really caring about the well being of people. Why do you think "they" have been pushing to ban vitamins and supplements for years, yet tobacco and alchohol products are cruising right along?

Ephedra is a great example . . . A few people died from it over the course of several years, while thousands have died from over the counter medications in one year alone.

Whether it is marijuana or licorice root, ephedra or grape seed extract . . . All herbs/plants/natural remedies can be beneficial to many people out there. Yes, it is a shame that human beings choose to abuse the use of some substances, but the paranoia surrounding certain substances is merely the result of propaganda which is set up to further limit your ability to choose natural substances over drugs.

All things in life have an element of danger . . . Driving, hunting, sports etc . . . We must approach all things with Wisdom in order to understand their true purpose in our life.

All IMHO