Dennis Hill: How Cannabinoids Kill Cancer

See also: Biochemist Dennis Hill, who cured his stage 4 prostate cancer with Cannabis Oil, explains how it works

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.

~Dennis Hill

How It Works (Abstract)

There is a plentiful supply of research articles and personal testaments that show the efficacy of cannabis effecting cancer remission. However, only a few point to the mechanism by which the cancer cells die. To understand this better we need to know what metabolic processes provide life to the cells.

There are two structures in most cells that sustains life; one is the mitochondria, and the other is the endoplasmic reticulum. The mitochondria primarily produces adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that provides the necessary energy. The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a loosely bound envelope around the cell nucleus that synthesizes metabolites and proteins directed by the nuclear DNA that nourish and sustain the cell.

Let us look first at tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and observe that THC is a natural fit for the CB1 cannabinoid receptor on the cancer cell surface. When THC hits the receptor, the cell generates ceramide that disrupts the mitochondria, closing off energy for the cell.

Disruption of the mitochondria releases cytochrome c and reactive oxygen species into the cytosol, hastening cell death. It is notable that this process is specific to cancer cells. Healthy cells have no reaction to THC at the CB1 receptor. The increase in ceramide also disrupts calcium metabolism in the mitochondria, completing the demise to cell death.

The other cannabinoid we know is effective in killing cancer cells is cannabidiol (CBD). The primary job of CBD in the cancer cell is to disrupt the endoplasmic reticulum through wrecking of the calcium metabolism, pushing calcium into the cytosol. This always results in cell death. Another pathway for CBD to effect cancer cell death is the Caspase Cascade, which breaks down proteins and peptides in the cell. When this happens the cell cannot survive. Again, these processes are specific to cancer cells, no normal cells are affected.

CNN: Dr. Sanja Gupta: Cannabis versus Cancer (Disinfo Alert)

Dr Gupta, cherry-picking the science is not a good way to restore lost credibility.

Note: overall, the news that Sanjay Gupta has come out in favor of cannabis is a giant leap forward for all of us. While I am celebrating this breakthrough, I feel compelled to note certain things along the way. THC’s ability to heal a deadly disease is nothing to whitewash or ignore, so please excuse me if I sound rude, but I won’t be silent about this.

Why Gupta is now spreading more misinformation, in this case by what is not said, is unknown, but one could assume that the eventual goal of demonizing/minimizing the beneficial effects of THC, whilst hailing the “non-psychoactive” CBD, is to sell you pills, rather than allow you to think you can grow your own cancer cure. (If he didn’t apologize for misleading us, and appear to now be on the side of science, he could no longer be used to spread disinformation.)

I cannot believe that Sanjay, after an entire year of research, could have missed stuff like this:

Cristina Sanchez, a young biologist at Complutense University in Madrid, was studying cell metabolism when she noticed something peculiar. She had been screening brain cancer cells because they grow faster than normal cell lines and thus are useful for research purposes. But the cancer cells died each time they were exposed to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive ingredient of marijuana.

Instead of gaining insight into how cells function, Sanchez had stumbled upon the anti-cancer properties of THC. In 1998, she reported in a European biochemistry journal that THC “induces apoptosis [cell death] in C6 glioma cells,” an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Subsequent peer-reviewed studies in several countries would show that THC and other marijuana-derived compounds, known as “cannabinoids,” are effective not only for cancer-symptom management (nausea, pain, loss of appetite, fatigue), they also confer a direct antitumoral effect.

A team of Spanish scientists led by Manuel Guzman conducted the first clinical trial assessing the antitumoral action of THC on human beings. Guzman administered pure THC via a catheter into the tumors of nine hospitalized patients with glioblastoma, who had failed to respond to standard brain-cancer therapies. The results were published in 2006 in the British Journal of Pharmacology: THC treatment was associated with significantly reduced tumor cell proliferation in every test subject.

Around the same time, Harvard University scientists reported that THC slows tumor growth in common lung cancer and “significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread.” What’s more, like a heat-seeking missile, THC selectively targets and destroys tumor cells while leaving healthy cells unscathed. Conventional chemotherapy drugs, by contrast, are highly toxic; they indiscriminately damage the brain and body. SOURCE

Further, there is a subtle demonizing of the euphoric effects of THC, headed by Dr Sanjay Gupta. This is unfounded and more reefer madness. Per Harvard’s Dr Lester Grinspoon:

As for getting high, I am not convinced that the therapeutic benefits of cannabis can always be separated from its psychoactive effects. For example, many patients with multiple sclerosis who use marijuana speak of “feeling better” as well as of the relief from muscle spasms and other symptoms. If cannabis contributes to this mood elevation, should patients be deprived of it?

As Ryan Grimm states, “…this is politics….[Gupta] admits that this is not the result of new science having been created. It’s the result of him, he says, looking at some of the science that had been done.”

Related articles

• CNN’s Gupta: I was wrong about marijuana (sacbee.com)
• Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s pot confessional gets global headlines (cnn.com)

Medicinal Cannabis Used To Prevent Cancer Growth

Mario Lap, President of DrugText Foundation, an international information facility on substance use, talks about his work and experiences with medicinal cannabis. Lap has worked with cannabis extract (oil) to treat himself and many others of cancer and various diseases. He tells us the success stories he has had and the measures they are taking to have medicinal cannabis legalized so people can have the affordable and effective treatment that they are in need of.

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Katie Couric Show On Marijuana Moms (with Sanjay Gupta)

Disinfo alert:

Sanjay Gupta: “There are two main chemicals in marijuana: THC, which is the psychoactive, gets you high… and CBD. CBD is probably the substance that can have significant medical benefit when it comes to things like, the pain, seizures for example, a lot of these things… and you can now create strains of marijuana that are much higher in CBD and much lower in THC (to alleviate the psychoactive effect)”

So, Gupta is insinuating CBD is more beneficial than THC – contrary to the medical literature and a preponderance of studies – and that pain or seizure relief is about as good as it gets for medical marijuana.

Sanjay: CANNABIS HEALS CANCER. THC is a major reason for that. THC alone can kill cancer cells, but it works in conjunction with CBD not only in healing cancer, but a host of other problems not the least of which are mental in nature. CBD balances the effects of THC, and enhances them. It allows the THC to remain for longer periods in the body, along with its healing effects. CBD is also shown to kill cancer cells on its own, including a very rare, aggressive breast cancer called “triple negative”.

From Waking Times:

The data is very strong and there’s no toxicity associated with A compound found in cannabis could halt the spread of many forms of aggressive cancer, scientists say.

LA City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl “Medical marijuana saved my life”, cancer in remission

Study: Frequent marijuana use tied to reduced bladder cancer risk

More frequent marijuana use — smoking pot more than 500 times — was associated with greater risk reduction than infrequent marijuana use — smoking once or twice, the researchers found.

“The theory is that there are receptors in the bladder that are affected by cannabis,” he said. The cannabinoids 1/8compounds3/8 in the marijuana may link with the cannabinoid receptors in the bladder and somehow protect against cell changes that can lead to cancer” From USA Today

Study: Frequent marijuana use tied to reduced bladder cancer risk (via Raw Story )

In findings presented last week at the American Urological Association’s annual conference, researchers announced that the conclusion of an 11-year study has found a strong association between frequent marijuana use and a significantly reduced bladder cancer risk, USA Today reported Saturday.

The study, which has not yet undergone peer-review and was not published in any established journal, looked at the cancer risk of more than 83,000 men who smoke cigarettes, marijuana or both.

They found that men who smoke cigarettes multiply their risk of bladder cancer, while men who smoke only marijuana actually lower their risk. Men who smoke both still had an elevated risk of bladder cancer, but it was lower than those who just smoked tobacco.

“Cannabis use only was associated with a 45 percent reduction in bladder cancer incidence, and tobacco use only was associated with a 52 percent increase in bladder cancer,” study author Dr. Anil A. Thomas told the paper.

More amazing still: study participants who used marijuana more than 500 times a year saw even lower bladder cancer risks than those who only used marijuana occasionally. A total of 41 percent of the men studied said they smoked marijuana, while 57 percent smoked tobacco and 27 percent smoked both.

Critics pointed out that the study could have been more thorough if it included a control group of non-smokers and filtered for other lifestyle habits.

The link between lower cancer risks and higher marijuana usage rates is still unexplained, but Thomas speculated that human bladders may have cannabinoid receptors that react to the non-psychoactive components of marijuana, protecting cells against dangerous mutations that can cause cancer.

Although another recent study found that men who used marijuana in their adolescence and then quit experience a slightly higher risk of testicular cancer, those who continued using the substance into adulthood did not show that same risk. Less recently, a 2007 study in the scientific journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics found that a compound in marijuana called CBD can actually slow down and stop gene activity related to breast cancer.

For these and many other reasons, the American Medical Association voted in 2009 to recommend that lawmakers reclassify marijuana to allow for more scientific research into its potential medical uses. Congress, the White House and the courts, however, have refused to act.

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Tommy Chong Prostate Cancer-Free, Comedian Reports

Congratulations, Tommy!
From SF Gate

Activist and comedian Tommy Chong claims he is cancer-free [May 6] on website Celebstoner.com.

“I brought my PSA numbers down drastically and eliminated the cancer threat… That’s right, I kicked cancer’s ass! So the magic plant does cure cancer with the right diet and supplements. I’m due for another blood test, MRI, etc., but I feel the best I’ve felt in years.”