Benefits of Cannabis for Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's Disease is the disruption of the endocannabinoid receptors in the brain. Nerve cells that produce dopamine are destroyed making the brain to not function in processing messages or muscle function. (Source)

Some studies have shown that the use of Marijuana to relieve Parkinson symptoms can be effective, but physicians warn that it should not be a replacement for prescribed drugs for the condition. Since the Drug Enforement Agency DEA has deemed cannabis as a schedule 1 drug, approval for research into the benefits of cannabis is lacking and conclusive evidence for benefits of Parkinson's is still in progress.(Source) Here are a collection of studies regarding marijuana and Parkinson's Disease:

Movement Disorders Journal with research done by Katerina Venderova in 2004 located in Prague did a study on Parkinson's patients and the results are as follows:

• 45.9% of patients showed mild to major treatment of parkinson's symptoms
• 30.6% showed treatment for rest tremors
• 44.7% showed treatment for bradykinesia ( slowness in movement caused by weakness, tremor or feeling of rigidity).
• 37.7% improvement in muscle rigidity
• 14.1% treatment in L-dopa-induced dyskinesias (disruption in brain signals of movement).
• 4% complained of cannabis worsening symptoms.
• Use of Cannabis for 3 months or more had significant improvement in Parkinson's symptoms

This study was done on less than a 100 patients and the conclusions are that more research needs to be done on a wider population for more concrete findings. (Source)

A theory but not studied enough is that marijuana could benefit Parkinson's Disease since the effects of Parkinson's symptoms are concentrated in the basal ganglia of the brain, which are packed with cannabinoid (THC) receptors that Cannabis main function relates to. (Cb1and Cb2 receptors)(Source)

To ad to the brain function, The British Journal of Pharmacology had a study that showed the following: “Given its antioxidant properties and its ability to activate CB₂ but to block CB₁ receptors, Δ⁹-THCV has a promising pharmacological profile for delaying disease progression in PD and also for ameliorating parkinsonian symptoms.” (Source)

One symptom that Parkinson's Disease has is REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD). The patients studied using Cannabis (CBD) the non psycho-active component of cannabis showed significant improvement. (Source)

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Source:

http://www.parkinson.org/getdoc/6ffea1eb-3439-4e0c-b45e-5da1dc8d7537/default

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24845114

http://www.denverrelief.com/blog/conditions-treated-by-cannabis/parkinsons-disease-and-cannabis-marijuana-therapy/

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1476-5381.2011.01278.x/abstract

http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/06/its-hard-to-study-marijuanas-medical-benefits-when-its-illegal/373603/