New Study Shows That Marijuana May Stop The Spread Of HIV
Category: Health Matters
It is not a secret that marijuana has long been used to effectively
treat symptoms associated with HIV, such as chronic pain and weight
loss, but a new research suggests the plant may be able to stop the
spread of the disease itself.
These findings are being confirmed by the Louisiana State University
study recently published in the journal AIDS Research and Human
Retroviruses.
Within the period of seventeen months scientists were administering a
daily dose of THC, an active ingredient in cannabis, to monkeys
infected with an animal form of the virus.
As a result, damage to immune tissue in the primates’ stomachs, one
of the most common areas in the body for HIV infection to spread,
decreased.
Dr. Patricia Molina, the study’s lead author wrote that the mentioned
findings reveal completely new mechanisms, which may potentially
contribute to cannabinoid-mediated disease modulation.
It has been explained in the report that while HIV spreads by
infecting and killing off immune cells, the monkeys that received the
daily THC treatments maintained higher levels of healthy cells.
Similar research spearheaded by Molina in 2011 found that infected
monkeys treated with THC had a better chance of surviving. And a report
published in 2012 pointed to evidence that marijuana-like compounds can
fight HIV in late-stage AIDS patients.
Last year, an oncologist from the United Kingdom found that marijuana
compounds can kill cancer cells in leukemia patients, and scientists at
California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco have conducted
research that suggests those compounds can also effectively combat other
forms of aggressive cancer.
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