Weed, pot, marijuana, dope, ganja or a joint, whatever you prefer to call it, marijuana has always been the choice of drug for many and in the midst of controversy. While most governments deem marijuana illegal and a gateway drug (one that leads to the further use of other potent drugs), some experts believe that the good the drug does far outweighs the bad. Here are 15 good and bad health effects marijuana has.
But with all this good, comes some bad too. Here are 6 ways marijuana can be bad for you.
1. Make you more prone to mental illness:
While the drug has been known to prevent the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s, it has also been associated with putting you at greater risk of suffering from schizophrenia. According to a study published in the Journal of Schizophrenia Research, people who smoke up are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia. While they emphasize that the long-term use of the drug coupled with smoking up in your adolescent years can lead to permanent cognitive impairment and increase in factors that lead to schizophrenia.
2. Makes you crave chocolate and other foods:
If you have ever smoked up, you must know that dope can make you ravenously hungry and crave especially fatty foods. While you might enjoy this binge, it is not the best thing to do in the long run. Chocolate and other fatty foods make you susceptible to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and a host of other diseases. How it works is that when smoked, marijuana releases serotonin and activates the reward pathway of the brain, which makes you crave for foods like chocolate and fatty foods. It also creates a sense of euphoria that makes you want to experience pleasure like sex and eat fatty foods.
3. It may change the way you react to emotional situations:
Marijuana contains a number of chemicals in it with the most potent one being THC, that is also responsible to its hallucinogenic effect. But different varieties of marijuana contain different amounts of THC, making some more potent than others. When smoked, the drug makes you feel euphoric, which is due to the binding of THC and cannibidiol with receptors in the brain, which may eventually affect your mood and the way you react to emotional situations.
4. Can impair your memory:
Smoked marijuana affects a part of your brain called the hippocampus that alters the way you process information and form memories. Studies have found that you are more likely to suffer from memory loss if you smoke up when the brain is still developing. Marijuana is also known to cause cognitive impairment, blockage of memory formation and quicken age-related brain cell loss.
5. Can lead to depression:
While there is no conclusive scientific evidence to this claim, there is one study that claims that people with a genetic vulnerability to depression who smoke marijuana are more likely to suffer from the condition and other forms of mental illness. Also, the study states that the long-term use of marijuana does tend to make people dependent on the drug and more to depression as it affects the production of serotonin.
While there is no conclusive scientific evidence to this claim, there is one study that claims that people with a genetic vulnerability to depression who smoke marijuana are more likely to suffer from the condition and other forms of mental illness. Also, the study states that the long-term use of marijuana does tend to make people dependent on the drug and more to depression as it affects the production of serotonin.
6. Can kill you if you have heart disease:
A study published in the American Heart Journal found that if you suffer from heart disease then smoking pot can kill you. This is because when you inhale the fumes of marijuana, your heart rate increases, thereby putting immense pressure on the organ, making it more prone to failing.Weed, pot, marijuana, dope, ganja or a joint, whatever you prefer to call it, marijuana has always been the choice of drug for many and in the midst of controversy. While most governments deem marijuana illegal and a gateway drug (one that leads to the further use of other potent drugs), some experts believe that the good the drug does far outweighs the bad. Here are 15 good and bad health effects marijuana has.
1. Marijuana cannot kill you:
The use of drugs is not only unhealthy but often associated with death due to a drug overdose, but marijuana poses no such risk. According to studies, there have been zero deaths due to marijuana overdose. In fact to die of a dope overdose, you would have to smoke or eat over 6803 kilos or 15000 pounds of the drug in 15 minutes.
2. Can stop the progression of cancer:
Marijuana can actually stop the spread of cancer. It contains a chemical called cannabidiol that prevents the spread of cancer through your body. A study done by the California Pacific Medical Centre, San Francisco, found that cannabidiol (a potent component in weed) stops the deactivation of a gene called Id-1 that cancer cells use to spread throughout a person’s body. Cancer cells tend to make more copies of this gene than normal cells, which help them spread. The authors of this study took samples of breast cancer cells that have the highest level of expression of Id-1 and treated them with cannibidiol. They found that the cancerous cells decreased and were less aggressive in their spread. Subsequently, maybe smoking up might not be so bad.
3. It can ease pain associated with multiple sclerosis:
Multiple sclerosis is an extremely painful degenerative disorder that can be debilitating and lead to death. While there are a number of medications that can help control the pain, marijuana has proven to help ease the pain, sans the side effects. In a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal it was found that marijuana actually helps ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, especially the painful contraction of muscles that people with this disease face. Moreover marijuana is the only drug that can help alleviate the pain in patients who did not respond to any other kind of therapy. How it works is that the THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) in the drug bonds to the receptors in nerve endings and muscles, helping relieve pain. Apart from that, the chemical compound also helps control muscle spasms.
Multiple sclerosis is an extremely painful degenerative disorder that can be debilitating and lead to death. While there are a number of medications that can help control the pain, marijuana has proven to help ease the pain, sans the side effects. In a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal it was found that marijuana actually helps ease the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, especially the painful contraction of muscles that people with this disease face. Moreover marijuana is the only drug that can help alleviate the pain in patients who did not respond to any other kind of therapy. How it works is that the THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) in the drug bonds to the receptors in nerve endings and muscles, helping relieve pain. Apart from that, the chemical compound also helps control muscle spasms.
4. Can help treat inflammatory bowel diseases:
Marijuana is also known to help keep your digestive tract in proper working condition. This is especially true for people suffering from conditions like ulcerative colitis and Chron’s disease where their intestinal wall, that is supposed to keep organisms from the gut from entering a person’s blood stream, is weak and allows the flow of bacteria into the body. A study published by the British Pharmacological Society{3} found that the THC and cannabidiol present in marijuana helps control gut function and makes the intestinal walls less permeable, successfully treating severe conditions like Chrone’s disease.
5. It is better for your lungs than tobacco:
Smoking pot does not damage your lungs as smoking tobacco does. According to a study published by the American Medical Association smoking marijuana does not harm the lungs as much as tobacco smoking. While both have the same amount of tar and released the same amount of carbon monoxide, the bronchodialatory effect of marijuana helped improve lung function probably because of the presence of THC and cannibidiol. But the study also stated ‘the occasional use of marijuana was not associated with adverse effects on pulmonary function’. Therefore, if smoked too often or in large quantities it has the same effect as tobacco smoking.
6. Helps keep glaucoma at bay:
When one smokes marijuana, it helps relax the muscles of the body and reduces pressure within the eyes. Also known as intraocular pressure, an increase in this pressure is a known cause of glaucoma. According to a study published in the European Journal of Neuroscience{5}, all humans contain central cannabinoid receptor (CB1) mRNA and protein in the human ciliary body (a part of the human eye) that when combined with CB1 receptor antagonist — namely cannibidiol found in marijuana helps reduce intraocular pressure, thereby preventing glaucoma.
7. Can help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s:
Alzheimer’s is a debilitating disease that is caused due to the formation of amyloid plaques in the brain that alter the way it functions and this is where marijuana comes in handy. Due to its high content of active chemical THC, it helps block the enzyme that creates amyloid plaques, thereby preventing the onset of Alzheimer’s. A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience{6} found that the cannibidiol receptors in marijuana were very useful in stopping the progression of the disease and prevent the neuro-degenrative process of Alzheimer’s.
8. Is not a ‘gateway drug’ as most think:
According to the Drug Policy Alliance, marijuana users do not progress to the use of other drugs. According to the alliance, most marijuana users do not progress to using other illegal drugs, and those who do, most often do not get addicted to them as people who do not smoke pot. The opine that for a large majority of marijuana users is ‘terminus drug’ rather than a ‘gateway-drug’ and most users often smoke it as a way to give up a stronger and more harmful drug habit.
But with all this good, comes some bad too. Here are 6 ways marijuana can be bad for you.
1. Make you more prone to mental illness:
While the drug has been known to prevent the onset and progression of Alzheimer’s, it has also been associated with putting you at greater risk of suffering from schizophrenia. According to a study published in the Journal of Schizophrenia Research{7}, people who smoke up are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia. While they emphasize that the long-term use of the drug coupled with smoking up in your adolescent years can lead to permanent cognitive impairment and increase in factors that lead to schizophrenia.
2. Makes you crave chocolate and other foods:
If you have ever smoked up, you must know that dope can make you ravenously hungry and crave especially fatty foods. While you might enjoy this binge, it is not the best thing to do in the long run. Chocolate and other fatty foods make you susceptible to heart disease, obesity, diabetes and a host of other diseases. How it works is that when smoked, marijuana releases serotonin and activates the reward pathway of the brain, which makes you crave for foods like chocolate and fatty foods. It also creates a sense of euphoria that makes you want to experience pleasure like sex and eat fatty foods.
3. It may change the way you react to emotional situations:
Marijuana contains a number of chemicals in it with the most potent one being THC, that is also responsible to its hallucinogenic effect. But different varieties of marijuana contain different amounts of THC, making some more potent than others. When smoked, the drug makes you feel euphoric, which is due to the binding of THC and cannibidiol with receptors in the brain, which may eventually affect your mood and the way you react to emotional situations.
4. Can impair your memory:
Smoked marijuana affects a part of your brain called the hippocampus that alters the way you process information and form memories. Studies have found that you are more likely to suffer from memory loss if you smoke up when the brain is still developing. Marijuana is also known to cause cognitive impairment, blockage of memory formation and quicken age-related brain cell loss.
5. Can lead to depression:
While there is no conclusive scientific evidence to this claim, there is one study that claims that people with a genetic vulnerability to depression who smoke marijuana are more likely to suffer from the condition and other forms of mental illness. Also, the study states that the long-term use of marijuana does tend to make people dependent on the drug and more to depression as it affects the production of serotonin.
While there is no conclusive scientific evidence to this claim, there is one study that claims that people with a genetic vulnerability to depression who smoke marijuana are more likely to suffer from the condition and other forms of mental illness. Also, the study states that the long-term use of marijuana does tend to make people dependent on the drug and more to depression as it affects the production of serotonin.
6. Can kill you if you have heart disease:
A study published in the American Heart Journal{8} found that if you suffer from heart disease then smoking pot can kill you. This is because when you inhale the fumes of marijuana, your heart rate increases, thereby putting immense pressure on the organ, making it more prone to failing.
A study published in the American Heart Journal{8} found that if you suffer from heart disease then smoking pot can kill you. This is because when you inhale the fumes of marijuana, your heart rate increases, thereby putting immense pressure on the organ, making it more prone to failing.
No comments:
Post a Comment