cannabisnews.com: New Frontier for Medical Cannabis -- Topical Pot New Frontier for Medical Cannabis -- Topical Pot Posted by CN Staff on June 09, 2007 at 05:58:30 PT By Kavita Mishra, Chronicle Staff Writer Source: San Francisco Chronicle San Francisco, CA -- Skin allergies may be the next reason to use marijuana -- a topical form, at least. Scientists have long suspected that marijuana, used for recreational purposes and to help fight chronic pain, nausea and even some mental disorders like anxiety and depression, also had anti-inflammatory effects in the body. Now they think they know why. In a study published in the current issue of the journal Science, researchers show exactly how they think that works, elucidating how the body's own cannabinoids, compounds that are similar to the ones found in marijuana, reduce inflammation. Mice had a harder time healing from wounds caused by ear tags used to identify them when researchers blocked their internal cannabinoids, said Dr. Meliha Karsak, lead author and scientist in molecular neurobiology at the University of Bonn in Germany. Cannabinoids are involved in many of the body's daily functions, scientists believe, but they're still trying to figure out how. Mice also healed faster from skin allergies with topical THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana and other plants, she said. Dr. Frank Lucido, a Berkeley physician who was not involved in the study but regularly recommends medical marijuana, said the plant's anti-inflammatory effects didn't surprise him. He has had patients who say their psoriasis, an immune disease that affects the skin and joints, and asthma get better when they smoke marijuana. In the 1980s, scientists discovered receptors in the body that respond to active compounds in cannabis, Karsak said. Once activated with THC and other chemicals from marijuana, the receptors had effects downstream, for instance changing a person's mood and perception. Since then, two main receptors have been studied: One is more prevalent in the central nervous system, the other in the periphery. The one in the periphery seems to respond to cannabinoids in inflammation and is found in cells of the immune system, said Dr. Donald Abrams, a San Francisco General Hospital physician who has studied the effects of marijuana use in HIV patients. "Most people have believed for some time that the cannabinoid system is involved in modulating the immune system," he said. Snipped:Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/3b6sx2Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)Author: Kavita Mishra, Chronicle Staff WriterPublished: Saturday, June 9, 2007Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.Contact: letters sfchronicle.comWebsite: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #6 posted by afterburner on June 09, 2007 at 13:53:40 PT Cannabinoids relieve allergic skin reactions Marijuana could help keep skin allergies at bay Posted on Friday, June 08, 2007 (EST) SAWF News (India) http://news.sawf.org/Health/38275.aspx [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Hope on June 09, 2007 at 08:35:27 PT Frog flesh... I would think that frogs had very different flesh and healing systems than humans. It seems odd. What was their purpose in doing this study? Is frog flesh inflammation similar to human flesh inflammation? They did find that it somehow measurably lowered, cooled, the heat...the temperature of the inflammation. Yet we never heard of it. It was buried in obscurity.After their "discovery"... did they want to market a medicine for frog lesions? Ultimately, all that they accomplished, apparently, was cruelty to frogs.Cannabis is truly one of the sweet wonders of the world. It could do so much good if it weren't for the ignorance of the prohibitionists. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Yanxor on June 09, 2007 at 08:22:33 PT poor tortured frogs That's a shame that they did the frog experiment, there could have been other wounds they could have caused rather than hole punching their feet.Aside from that...this is a great new development and adds to the long list of positive medical applications for cannabis. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Hope on June 09, 2007 at 08:08:30 PT Several years ago before we had as much information as we do now, I ran a search through medical journals and such to see if I could find anything.I ran onto a study about frogs and topical cannabis. Of course, being written in medicalese...it was a little torquish to read. After reading several labored long pages, I can give you the gist of it.They used hole punchers...the kind used to cut small round holes in paper...to cut chunks of living flesh from the web between living frogs toes.Some of the frogs they applied a cannabis salve to and some they didn't. The frogs that had their wounds salved with the cannabis concoction showed measurabley less inflammation than the ones who didn't get it.Sounds like something some mean little boys would devise to test something. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by charmed quark on June 09, 2007 at 07:53:34 PT topical pot I saw in west coast dispensaries creams made out of "swag" that they said was very useful for arthritis and other inflammatory disorders. I had wondered how that would work, now I know.Interestingly, it may be the CBD that does most of the work. So ditch weed or hemp might work for this. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Storm Crow on June 09, 2007 at 07:26:14 PT I remember.... Reading, many years ago, about little old Mexican ladies who would soak cannabis in tequila, then use it as a rub on their arthritic hands. Arthritis is another inflammatory disease. You know, it might be easier to list things that cannabis DOESN'T help with- since the list of ailments that it does help with, just keeps growing at an amazingly rapid pace! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment