According to researchers at the University of Texas in Houston chemicals in marijuana could be a potential cure in the treatment of colon cancer. Don't think lighting up a joint will help though, it's all a chemical process.
The key receptors for
cannabinoids are turned off in the human body when it's attacked by most kinds of colon cancer. Those receptors are also found in marijuana.
Using test mice scientists turned off the receptor and found that tumors quickly developed.
"When we knocked out the receptor, the number of tumors went up dramatically," says researcher Raymond DuBois. Alternatively, when mice with normal CB1 receptors were treated with a cannabinoid compound, their tumours shrank.
The researchers are advising a two step method to treat colon cancer.
Step One is to turn the CB1 receptor back on and then activate it with drugs that mimic marijuana. The drug decitibine is already approved and does help in making the receptor. Already the second step has not been worked out Dubuis believes that using drugs that mimic marijuana will shrunk tumors.
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