Biochemist Dennis Hill, who cured his stage 3 prostate cancer with Cannabis oil, explains how it works

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How Cannabinoids Kill Cancer – Dennis Hill

Update from Dennis Hill (2.28.13):

• My progress is good. Asked my doctor the meaning of my last three PSAs. He said: The PSA has not risen over 2.4 in nine months, we can presume the cancer is in remission. Music to my ears. Cannabinoid extract wins again. Huzzah!

Previous update (12.8.12):

• After six months using cannabis extract, a prostate biopsy confirmed the cancer was gone, in February 2010. Twenty months later, biopsy showed cancer had returned. I have reinstated cannabis extract and PSA is declining. I expect the cancer to be gone soon, just as it did previously.

On the need to decarboxylate medicine:

• “My co-op hash oil had not been decarboxylated. THCA does not fit the CB-1 receptor that is required to send seramide to the work of apoptosis.” (This is why the cancer made a reappearance)
  How to decarboxylate

Retrospective on Cannabis and Cancer – Dennis Hill

Three years ago, after a prostate biopsy, I was given the diagnosis of aggressive Stage III adenocarcinoma. I didn’t know what to do. The urologist made appointments for me to start radiation, and maybe chemo. Then a friend told me cannabis cures cancer. It just so happened that the first human trials of cannabis treatment of astrocytomas (inoperable brain cancer), were published with encouraging results. So I decided; rather than die from the medical treatment, I would do the cannabis cure. Now… where to get some. There was no dispensary in the area, but a friend made me cannabis butter, so I took that, up to tolerance. In three months the primary cancer was gone, only minor metastatic lesions were left. At that point I found a supplier for Rick Simpson oil and killed off the metastases in the next three months. Now I just take a maintenance dose of locally produced hash oil that is 1:1 THC:CBD with about a 30% potency. This will certainly keep me clear of cancer, anywhere, for ever.

My point in telling this story is the fact that in the face of advanced aggressive cancer, all I had was very weak cannabutter, but it was enough to eliminate the primary tumor. Now there are strains of 95% THC. But is this necessary? If you have cancer and want to pursue the cannabis treatment, any at all will be good. More important than extreme potency, is balance between THC and CBD. If you can get high potency, great. If not, common potencies will work perfectly.

Finally, if you choose cannabinoid treatment, start small, then increase dosage as rapidly as tolerable. To kill cancer you have to hit it hard, be conscientious about your treatment. Cannabis does no harm to the body, it is a metabolic support for the immune system.

Summary:

Here are the basics, based on my own experience with cancer and cannabis oil extract.

• Get Rick Simpson formula oil; including the important decarboxylation step to convert THCA to THC.
• If possible, use 1:1 THC:CBD, as THC kills the cancer, CBD kills the cancer’s ability to metastasize.
• Take as much as possible; the way to kill cancer is to hit it very hard. Start very small to acclimate to the oil properties, then keep increasing the dose as tolerable.
• Take a large dose before bed, then a lighter dose during the day, to keep the pressure on the cancer.

This is how I managed my prostate cancer to have a successful resolution. ~ Dennis Hill (4.11.13)

~~~

From Cannabis Nation Radio

• Read Dennis Hill’s Curing Cancer With Cannabis Extract: a Journal
• Learn to make Cannabis Oil
• Notes: Cannabis and Marijuana oil/extract are terms used interchangeably to refer to Rick Simpson’s “Hemp Oil” (“RSO”). In Canada, where Rick is from, Hemp refers to cannabis. In the US, Hemp refers to the non-THC bearing plant used for textiles etc.; “Hemp Seed Oil” is sold legally, but is not the same as Rick’s high-THC “Hemp Oil”.

From Cannabis Nation Radio Biochemist Dennis Hill graduated from the University of Houston and did his Graduate Work at Baylor Medical School. Dennis worked as a Cancer Researcher at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. When Dennis was diagnosed with advanced stage prostate cancer, which had metastasized to other parts of his body, he started researching. Since Dennis has a family history of prostate cancer, and he often witnessed ineffective results while working in cancer research, he felt a new approach was in order.

After researching possible alternatives Dennis ran across information about Rick Simpson using cannabis concentrate, which is an extract of the essential oil which is extracted from marijuana and contains cannabinoids. Simpson was using the oil to treat a wide variety of illness, including cancer. The more Dennis researched, the more he understood how cannabis worked on cancer. He has included 2 papers for the review of anyone interested that go into the science of how cannabis kills cancer. He was determined to give it a try, and decided to tell his doctor that he would be using cannabis concentrate alone for his treatment. He did not want to risk more damage to his body from chemo, so he chose to start the cannabis oil regime without any other treatment.

Dennis is educated, with a sound background in science, and a background in the cancer industry. He stated that the Cannabis Oil killed the cancer, and he is now cancer free. He never underwent any of the standard treatment ie chemo, or radiation. He maintained a healthy diet, and exercise as part of his healing and after care. Dennis worked two jobs while he was treating himself, and never experienced any of the side effects typically associated with standard cancer treatments. He administered 1 tiny dose of the cannabis oil in the AM, and 1 tiny dose of the cannabis oil in the pm, just as Rick Simpson suggests.

Here, Dennis Hill explains the inner workings of cancer death-by-Cannabinoids:

Cannabinoids and cancer

Cancer-specific Cytotoxicity of Cannabinoids

By Dennis Hill (reprinted with permission)

First let’s look at what keeps cancer cells alive, then we will come back and examine how the cannabinoids CBD (cannabidiol) and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) unravels cancer’s aliveness.

In every cell there is a family of interconvertible sphingolipids that specifically manage the life and death of that cell. This profile of factors is called the “Sphingolipid Rheostat.” If ceramide (a signaling metabolite of sphingosine-1-phosphate) is high, then cell death (apoptosis) is imminent. If ceramide is low, the cell will be strong in its vitality.

Very simply, when THC connects to the CB1 or CB2 cannabinoid receptor site on the cancer cell, it causes an increase in ceramide synthesis which drives cell death. A normal healthy cell does not produce ceramide in the presence of THC, thus is not affected by the cannabinoid.

The cancer cell dies, not because of cytotoxic chemicals, but because of a tiny little shift in the mitochondria. Within most cells there is a cell nucleus, numerous mitochondria (hundreds to thousands), and various other organelles in the cytoplasm. The purpose of the mitochondria is to produce energy (ATP) for cell use. As ceramide starts to accumulate, turning up the Sphingolipid Rheostat, it increases the mitochondrial membrane pore permeability to cytochrome c, a critical protein in energy synthesis. Cytochrome c is pushed out of the mitochondria, killing the source of energy for the cell.

Ceramide also causes genotoxic stress in the cancer cell nucleus generating a protein called p53, whose job it is to disrupt calcium metabolism in the mitochondria. If this weren’t enough, ceramide disrupts the cellular lysosome, the cell’s digestive system that provides nutrients for all cell functions. Ceramide, and other sphingolipids, actively inhibit pro-survival pathways in the cell leaving no possibility at all of cancer cell survival.

The key to this process is the accumulation of ceramide in the system. This means taking therapeutic amounts of cannabinoid extract, steadily, over a period of time, keeping metabolic pressure on this cancer cell death pathway.

How did this pathway come to be? Why is it that the body can take a simple plant enzyme and use it for healing in many different physiological systems? This endocannabinoid system exists in all animal life, just waiting for it’s matched exocannabinoid activator.

This is interesting. Our own endocannabinoid system covers all cells and nerves; it is the messenger of information flowing between our immune system and the central nervous system (CNS). It is responsible for neuroprotection, and micro-manages the immune system. This is the primary control system that maintains homeostasis; our well being.

Just out of curiosity, how does the work get done at the cellular level, and where does the body make the endocannabinoids? Here we see that endocannabinoids have their origin in nerve cells right at the synapse. When the body is compromised through illness or injury it calls insistently to the endocannabinoid system and directs the immune system to bring healing. If these homeostatic systems are weakened, it should be no surprise that exocannabinoids perform the same function. It helps the body in the most natural way possible.

To see how this works we visualize the cannabinoid as a three dimensional molecule, where one part of the molecule is configured to fit the nerve or immune cell receptor site just like a key in a lock. There are at least two types of cannabinoid receptor sites, CB1 (CNS) and CB2 (immune). In general CB1 activates the CNS messaging system, and CB2 activates the immune system, but it’s much more complex than this. Both THC and anandamide activate both receptor sites. Other cannabinoids activate one or the other receptor sites.Among the strains of Cannabis, C. sativa tends toward the CB1 receptor, and C. indica tends toward CB2. So sativa is more neuroactive, and indica is more immunoactive. Another factor here is that sativa is dominated by THC cannabinoids, and indica is predominately CBD (cannabidiol).

It is known that THC and CBD are biomimetic to anandamide, that is, the body can use both interchangeably. Thus, when stress, injury, or illness demand more from endogenous anandamide than can be produced by the body, its mimetic exocannabinoids are activated. If the stress is transitory, then the treatment can be transitory. If the demand is sustained, such as in cancer, then treatment needs to provide sustained pressure of the modulating agent on the homeostatic systems.

Typically CBD gravitates to the densely packed CB2 receptors in the spleen, home to the body’s immune system. From there, immune cells seek out and destroy cancer cells. Interestingly, it has been shown that THC and CBD cannabinoids have the ability to kill cancer cells directly without going through immune intermediaries. THC and CBD hijack the lipoxygenase pathway to directly inhibit tumor growth. As a side note, it has been discovered that CBD inhibits anandamide reuptake. Here we see that cannabidiol helps the body preserve its own natural endocannabinoid by inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down anandamide.

In 2006, researchers in Italy showed the specifics of how Cannabidiol (CBD) kills cancer. When CBD pairs with the cancer cell receptor CB-2 it stimulates what is known as the Caspase Cascade, that kills the cancer cell. First, let’s look at the nomenclature, then to how Caspase kills cancer. Caspase in an aggregate term for all cysteine-aspartic proteases. The protease part of this term comes from prote (from protein) and -ase (destroyer). Thus the caspases break down proteins and peptides in the moribund cell. This becomes obvious when we see caspase-3 referred to as the executioner. In the pathway of apoptosis, other caspases are brought in to complete the cascade.⁹

Even when the cascade is done and all the cancer is gone, CBD is still at work healing the body. Its pairing at CB-2 also shuts down the Id-1 gene; a gene that allows metastatic lesions to form. Fundamentally this means that treatment with cannabinoids not only kills cancer through numerous simultaneous pathways, but prevents metastasis. What’s not to like. One researcher says this: CBD represents the first nontoxic exogenous agent that can significantly decrease Id-1 expression in metastatic carcinoma leading to the down-regulation of tumor aggressiveness.¹⁰

This brief survey touches lightly on a few essential concepts. Mostly I would like to leave you with an appreciation that nature has designed the perfect medicine that fits exactly with our own immune system of receptors and signaling metabolites to provide rapid and complete immune response for systemic integrity and metabolic homeostasis.

Bibliography

1. http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/65/5/1635.abstract

Sami Sarfaraz, Farrukh Afaq, Vaqar M. Adhami, and Hasan Mukhtar + Author Affiliations. Department of Dermatology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin

2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/pubmed

J Neuroimmunol. 2007 Mar;184(1-2):127-35. Epub 2006 Dec 28.

Immune control by endocannabinoids – new mechanisms of neuroprotection? Ullrich O, Merker K, Timm J, Tauber S.

Institute of Immunology, Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany. oliver.ullrich@medizine.uni-magdeburg.de

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system

Endocannabinoid synthesis & release.

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoids

Cannabinoid receptor type 1.

5. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121381780/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Journal of Neurochemistry, Volume 104 Issue 4, Pages 1091 – 1100

Published Online: 18 Aug 2008

6. http://leavesofgrass.info/info/Non-Psychoactive-Cannabinoids.pdf

Non-psychotropic plant cannabinoids: new therapeutic opportunities from an ancient herb.

Angelo A. Izzo, Francesca Borrelli, Raffaele Capasso, Vincenzo Di Marzo, and Raphael Mechoulam. Department of Experimental Pharmacology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy. Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry, National Research Council, Pozzuoli (NA), Italy. Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products, Hebrew University Medical Faculty, Jerusalem, Israel, Endocannabinoid Research Group, Italy

7. http://sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/59872/title/Not_just_a_high

Scientists test medicinal marijuana against MS, inflammation and cancer

By Nathan Seppa June 19th, 2010; Vol.177 #13 (p. 16)

8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1766198/

NIH Public Access:

A house divided: ceramide, sphingosine, and sphingosine-1-phosphate in programmed cell death

Tarek A. Taha, Thomas D. Mullen, and Lina M. Obeid

Division of General Internal Medicine, Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Administration Hospital, Charleston, South Carolina 29401; and Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina 29425

Corresponding author: Lina M. Obeid, M.D., Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, 114 Doughty St., P.O.Box 250779, Charleston, South Carolina 29425. E-mail: obeidl@musc.edu

9. P. Massi, A. Vaccani, S. Bianchessi, B. Costa, P. Macchi, D. Parolaro

Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences CMLS

September 2006, Volume 63, Issue 17, pp 2057-2066

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00018-006-6156-x?LI=true

10. Mol Cancer Ther. 2007 Nov;6(11):2921-7.

Cannabidiol as a novel inhibitor of Id-1 gene expression in aggressive breast cancer cells.

McAllister SD, Christian RT, Horowitz MP, Garcia A, Desprez PY.

California Pacific Medical Center, Research Institute, 475 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. mcallis@cpmcri.org

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18025276

The Human Endocannabinoid System Meets the Inflammatory Cytokine Cascade

By: Dennis Hill
The Endocannabinoid System (ECS) started revealing itself to researchers in the 1940s and by the late ’60s the basic structure and functionality had been laid out. Today we know the ECS is a comprehensive system of biochemical modulators that maintain homeostasis in all body systems including the central and peripheral nervous systems, all organ systems, somatic tissues, and all metabolic biochemical systems, including the immune system.

This homeostatic matrix is not a recent evolutionary twist just for humans; we Find the Endo cannabinoid System in every chordate creature for the last 500 million years. It is a fully mature biochemical technology that has maintained health and metabolic balance for most of the history of life itself.

The two major interactive systems within the ECS are (1) the cannabinoid receptors that we find on all cell surfaces and neurological junctions and (2) the endocannabinoids that hit the receptors to trigger various metabolic processes. Looking at a cannabinoid receptor distribution map we see that CB1 receptors, that are most sensitive to anandamide, are found in the brain, spinal nerves, and peripheral nerves. CB2 receptors preferred by 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) are found largely in the immune system, primarily the spleen. A mix of CB1 and CB2 receptors are found throughout the rest of the body including the skeletal system. And yes, 2-AG or CBD will grow new trabecular bone.1 It is also useful to note that both anandamide and 2-AG can activate either CB1 or CB2 receptors.

The nature of the endocannabinoids are functionally much like neurotransmitters, but structurally are eicosanoids in the family of signaling sphingolipids. These signaling cannabinoids keep track of metabolic systems all over the body. This information is shared with the nervous system and the immune system so that any imbalance is attended to. If the body is in chronic disease or emotional stress, the immune system can fall behind and lose control of compromised systems. It is here that phytocannabinoids can pitch in to support the stressed body in a return to health. The cannabis plant provides analogues of the body’s primary signaling cannabinoids. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is mimetic to anandamide, and cannabidiol (CBD) is mimetic to 2-AG, and has the same affinity to CB1 and CB2 receptors; providing the body with additional support for the immune and endocannabinoid systems.

Phytocannabinoids supercharge the body’s own Endocannabinoid System by amping up the response to demand from the immune signaling system in two modes of intervention: one, of course, is in bonding with the cannabinoid receptors; the other is in regulation of innumerable physiological processes, such as cannabinoid’s powerful neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory actions, quite apart from the receptor system. It is interesting to note here that the phytocannabinoids and related endocannabinoids are functionally similar, but structurally different. As noted above, anandamide and 2-AG are eicosanoids while THC and CBD are tricyclic terpenes.

Let us look more closely at the two primary therapeutic cannabinoids, THC and CBD. The National Institutes of Health tell us that THC is the best known because of its signature psycho- tropic effect. This government report shows THC to be effective as an anti-cancer treatment, an appetite stimulant, analgesic, antiemetic, anxiolytic, and sedative.2

CBD (cannabidiol) is a metabolic sibling of THC, in that they are alike in many ways but are also different in important properties. First we see that CBD has no psychotropic effects and there are few CB2 receptors in the brain and peripheral nerves. There appears to be a broader therapeutic profile associated with CBD, which is listed here:

One of the most important health benefits of cannabinoids is their anti-inflammatory property. In this, they are strong modulators of the inflammatory cytokine cascade. Numerous disease states arise out of chronic inflammation; such as, depression, dementias including Alzheimer’s, cancer, arthritis and other autoimmune disorders, viral infection, HIV, brain injury, etc.

Inflammatory cytokines can be activated by oxidative stress and disease states. Cannabinoids, being immunomodulators interrupt the cytokine inflammatory cascade so that local inflammation does not result in tissue pathology. Thus we are spared morbid or terminal illnesses.4
If our own endocannabinoid system can maintain metabolic homeostasis and even cure serious disease, why are we plagued by illness? We know that the body produces only small amounts of anandamide and 2-AG; enough to maintain the body but not enough to overcome chronic stress, illness, injury, or malnutrition. Cannabis is the only plant we know of that produces phyto- cannabinoids that mimic our own endocannabinoids. One of the great benefits of this mimetic medicine is that cannabinoids are essentially natural to our biology and do no harm to our tissues and systems.

It is well known that most diseases of aging are inflammatory in origin, thus making cannabis the best anti-aging supplement we could take to avoid arthritis, dementia, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, and cancer. This is our key to good health and long life.

Since it is such an important attribute, as well as being independent of the cannabinoid receptor system, let’s look a little deeper into the ability of cannabinoids to inhibit the inflammatory cytokine cascade. Inflammation is good for us, a little here, a little there; it brings T-cells and macrophages to infection sites. This is good. However, chronic inflammation can cause serious illness and death. How do phytocannabinoids rescue us from dreaded infirmities? When the call comes in to the immune system to send troops, the First thing to happen is that the immune system signals glial cells to produce cytokines. Once this cat is out of the bag, the process can go one of two ways.

A) Killer cells clean up the infection and all is well.

B) Cytokines can stimulate more cytokine production and cause many more cytokine receptors to awaken. Unchecked, this becomes a cytokine storm showing symptoms of swelling, redness, fatigue, and nausea; even death.

Phytocannabinoids have the ability to suppress this inflammatory cytokine cascade by inhibiting glial cell production of the cytokines interferon or interleukin. Here we see the seeds of chronic inflammation dissolved by the modulation process of cannabinoids bringing homeostasis to systems out of balance. This is a good example of how cannabinoids normalize biological processes all throughout the body and allows us to keep that glow of well-being through a long and happy lifetime. (Bibliography)

–Dennis Hill

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