Research Suggests Marijuana as a Cure for Brain Aging

Researchers at the University of Bonn have restored the performance of mice at the juvenile stage. Memory performances get worse with age. The brain also gets old. Cognitive ability decreases as one gets older. When treatments containing cannabis were used, old mice improved to the state of a two-month-old mouse. This has proven that marijuana can be highly efficient in treating dementia.

The results were presented in the journal Nature Medicine. But when mice do not have any active receptor for THC, it was revealed that their brain aged faster. Marijuana products do not accumulate at the receptor and THC copies the effects of cannabinoids that are produced in the body to carry out vital roles in the brain. Professor Zimmer revealed that as one gets older, the quantity of cannabinoids in the brain reduces. When cannabinoids in the brain decrease, the brain ages.

Researches have attempted to decrease the aging of the brain for a long time. Researchers at the University of Bonn and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel have now achieved this in mice. Mice have a short life expectancy and they experience brain aging at the age of one year. THC was given to young mice over a period of one month.

It was necessary to give them a little dose so as not to get the mice intoxicated. Marijuana products are useful as pain relievers and for use in other ways. The plant seems to hold many different medical properties and many people choose to grow their own medicine from cannabis seeds.

The researchers were trying to determine if THC can boost cognitive functions and reverse brain aging. The mitochondria located in the brain maintain proper cell function because they are powerhouses that produce energy. Cannabinoids always boost the mitochondria.

These news are very encouraging and the researchers will get to the following level and conduct clinical trials in order to investigate if THC also reverses aging processes in the brain in humans.