Body's own pain relief 'is best'

[Lunar Loops]

This seems like a bit of none story really and the research hardly seems wide-ranging, applicable or conclusive. Anyway here is the article from the BBC News website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5217200.stm):


Body's own pain relief 'is best'


Cannabis extracts are hard to target

Doctors looking to harness the benefits of cannabis may do better to focus on boosting the body's own pain relief system, scientists suggest.
The human body has its own endocannabinoid system which helps regulate pain, hunger and anxiety.
Experts at the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies meeting in Vienna said using plant cannabinoids would mean less targeted therapies.
They said this meant it was harder to avoid unwanted side-effects.
Experts said this was because it was the drug affected many different areas in the brain, nerves and immune system.
Research was presented to the conference which showed a plant-based cannabinoid, anandamide, could worsen symptoms in rats with an epilepsy-like condition.
However, doctors stress previous studies in animals and humans have shown that multiple sclerosis patients can benefit from cannabinoid medicines.
Professor David Baker, of the Institute of Neurology at University College London, who attended the meeting, said: "There is a benefit of moving from agents from illegal plant based medicines to looking at how we use pharmaceutical medications to target the benefits of cannabinoids, but reduce the well known adverse effects."
The only cannabis-based drug which can be currently be used in the UK is a treatment for MS called Sativex.
It has been granted a special licence meaning it can only be used if the doctor takes responsibility for prescribing it. The drug, produced by GW Pharmaceuticals, is a mouth spray containing two chemicals found in cannabis, THC and cannabidiol. It is made using plant cannabinoids.

[Fantasian]

I think im coming down with MS

[Forthesevenlakes]

swim has never understood why having the classic stoned feeling of marijuana would be considered an 'adverse effect'. swim is guessing this is more of a cultural phobia of altered states of consciousness. granted, these doctors will probably think nothing of having a few drinks after work. perhaps instead of trying to design more specific drugs (which could carry unprecedented side effects all their own), pharmaceutical industries could stick with relatively safe drugs like cannabis which have been proven to be efficacious for centuries. swim himself would still stick to morphine, but he thinks that cannabis would be a boon to a great many people if they were able to utilize it instead of a novel wonder-drug which is given the euphemism of 'using the body's own pain relief'...hm. guess the anandamide and mu-opioid receptors are some kind of artificial invention then...