Thursday, May 11, 2017

Marijuana May Boost, Rather Than Dull, the Elderly Brain - Science

Ithaka presented the original article from Science Daily some days ago but here's the downtown version from SciAm.


Credit: Christina Hempfling Getty Images

The picture shows us we're dealing with real stoners rather than fakes since we're tired of naive neos posting pictures of marijuana leaves as if anyone had smoked the leaf in, oh, twenty years.  The bud is what we like and that's quite a nice one in the pic.

That bud is probably about 2-3 cm (about an inch) but there's enough stonage in that li'l love bubble to keep you blasted all day and all night.

Ed:  I can smoke that in a few hours!

Amateur

You disrespect the bud.


Picture the stereotypical pot smoker: young, dazed and confused. Marijuana has long been known for its psychoactive effects, which can include cognitive impairment. But new research published this week in Nature Medicine suggests the drug might affect older users very differently than young ones—at least in mice. Instead of impairing learning and memory as it does in young people, the drug appears to reverse age-related declines in the cognitive performance of elderly mice.


To ensure scientific accuracy, it's important to recognize the stereotype for all young people is dazed and confused.  I think someone wrote about that once.




Scientific American:  Marijuana May Boost, Rather Than Dull, the Elderly Brain


Older adults looking to medical cannabis to relieve chronic pain and other ailments are concerned about its side effects, Ware says. “They want to know: Does this cause damage to my brain? Will it impair my memory? If this data holds up in humans…it may suggest that [THC] isn’t likely to have a negative impact if you’re using the right dose. Now the challenge is thrown down to clinical researchers to study that in people,” Ware says.

- SA

Although the interested student is invited to peruse the originating article, there is an easier way.

Ed:  what's that?

Ask the Silas.  I'm sixty-six; I've been stonin' since 1965, almost continuously; I smoke more now than at any time in my life.

Ed:  why?

Because I can and no-one can give me any shit about it.

Ed:  but it's illegal in Texas!

And?  It's been illegal everywhere I've been since 1965.  So were speeding and cheating on taxes but that never stopped anyone.  What's your point?

Ed:  and you spend much of your time browsing science articles for inspiration

Yep

I'm not at this time worrying about the brain fever.

Ref:  "Huckleberry Finn" by Monica Crowley

Ed:  she didn't write that!

Well, she really didn't write anything, did she.


In some ways, Hendrix browsed science for inspiration as well since he was a huge fan of sci fi.  There's yer stoner fantasy for this morning, li'l cherubs, smoke a bowl of that fine bud and then consider the conversation with Hendrix about sci fi.

See y'all in the dreams

Ed:  or senility!

Not me, amigo; I don't drink.

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