Some 35 million people worldwide and 5.5 million in the United States
have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, equating to about 5
percent of people between the ages of 65 and 74 and nearly 50 percent of
people over 85. You may also recall that the numbers appear to be
increasing, and that an estimated 10 to 11 million Americans will have
been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease by 2050.
The
cause of the disease is not known. It has been postulated that a
combination of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors may be
responsible for the changes in the brain that are associated with
Alzheimer’s disease. Early in its course the disease causes difficulty
remembering recent events or recently acquired facts, and mild
confusion. These symptoms usually worsen over time, with additional
symptoms of word-finding difficulty, disorientation, anger, aggression,
agitation, loss of appetite and weight loss, depression, or withdrawal
becoming increasingly likely.
Alzheimer’s disease is
characterized by the loss of nerve cells, or neurons, and the
connections between them, called synapses, which ultimately leads to
atrophy of several areas of the brain. There are no effective treatments
for Alzheimer’s disease, and although several prescription medications
are now available that may reduce the severity of some of the symptoms,
they do not alter the ultimate outcome. However, results of a
ground-breaking study published in the July 7, 1998 Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences by Dr. A. J. Hampson et. al. from the
National Institute of Mental Health showed that the chemical compounds
in cannabis, THC and cannabidiol, protected rat neuron cells from damage
by glutamate, a neurotransmitter that can injure nerve cells at
elevated levels. The authors also found that those substances were more
potent antioxidants than vitamin C or vitamin E, and concluded that “The
antioxidative properties of cannabinoids suggest a therapeutic use as
neuroprotective agents . . .”
A number of subsequent studies
supported their conclusions, and on October 7, 2003 patent number
6630507 was issued to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
under the title “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants.”
In
the abstract of the patent the authors state that the “cannabinoids are
found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example
in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as
stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases,
such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia.”
What
are the implications of these findings? As President Obama has said, it
is urgent that new and innovative treatments be found for Alzheimer’s
disease because the costs of caring for the millions of patients with
Alzheimer’s disease will be astronomical and threaten to overwhelm the
healthcare systems of not only the U.S., but other countries around the
world.
If substances found in cannabis could slow or stop the
progression of the disease or even prevent it, it would completely
change the complexion of the science of disease prevention.
Unfortunately, as many of you know, it is extremely difficult to conduct
the kinds of studies that would be necessary to find out if cannabis
could be beneficial and to develop cannabis-derived medications because
the agencies that approve clinical studies on Schedule 1 substances
routinely refuse to grant permission to study cannabis.
Alan
Shackelford, M.D., graduated from the University of Heidelberg School
of Medicine and trained at major teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical
School in internal medicine, nutritional medicine and hyperalimentation
and behavioral medicine.
