The Salk Institute, in La Jolla, California, recently came out with a study in which they found preliminary evidence that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and other compounds found in marijuana can promote the cellular removal of amyloid beta. 

Amyloid beta is a toxic protein associated with Alzheimer’s Disease, and these findings may offer insight into the role of inflammations in Alzheimer’s and could provide clues to developing therapeutic treatment for this disease.

Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia, dementia being a progressive brain disorder where at least two parts of the brain are dying.  Dementia is chronic, progressive, and terminal.  Currently, more than 5 million Americans are living with dementia and, according to the National Institutes of Health, this number is expected to triple in the next 50 years.

We are learning more about the medicinal uses of the cannabis plant every day, and this study suggests one more potentially wonderful benefit!

To read the article published by Salk News, please go to Cannabinoids Remove Plaque-Forming Alzheimer’s Proteins from Brain Cells.

If you would like to read the full scientific manuscript which was published in Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, on June 23, 2016, please visit Amyloid Proteotoxicity Initiates an Inflammatory Response Blocked by Cannabinoids

Cheri Elson, J.D.
Gray Matters Consulting