In one study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, marijuana isn’t shown to harm the lungs unless you also smoke tobacco. It even increases lung capacity, even if you don’t smoke cheap weed. During 20 years, researchers tested 5,115 young adults’ lung functions for heart disease risk factors. Pot smokers showed greater lung capacity than smokers of tobacco over time.
Inhaling the drug and taking deep breaths may increase lung capacity instead of a therapeutic chemical in the drug itself. According to a new survey of people who smoked pot daily for up to 20 years, smoking pot did not cause lung damage to those who just smoke cheap weed it a few times a month. According to the study, cannabidiol inhibits a gene known as Id-1, which stops cancer. This gene helps cancer cells spread through the body by making more copies than non-cancerous cells.
Studying breast cancer cells with high levels of Id-1, the researchers treated them with cannabidiol in the lab. The cells reduced their Id-1 expression after treatment and were less aggressive spreaders. However, these studies were performed on lab-grown cancer cells, not on actual cancer patients. More research is needed to determine the right dose of THC and CBD for aggressive brain tumours in mice or cell cultures.
According to a study published in Molecular Pharmaceutics in 2006, THC, the active chemical in marijuana, blocks the brain enzyme responsible for creating amyloid plaques, thereby slowing their formation. A synthetic mixture of CBD and THC seems to preserve memory in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease by killing brain cells and possibly causing dementia.
The same study found that the THC-based prescription drug dronabinol reduced behaviour disturbances in dementia patients in population-based studies. There is also evidence that marijuana effectively treats other forms of muscle spasms. For example, a teenager named Chaz used marijuana to control diaphragm spasms, which were unreachable by other, more powerful, medications.
