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CBD-enriched medical cannabis for intractable pediatric epilepsy: The current Israeli experience.
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By Michael Komorn
http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/grandmother-says-cancer-almost-gone-967552
Grandmother says cancer has almost gone after taking cannabis oil - now she wants the Government to act
She is now calling on the Government to fund trials of cannabis oil on patients waiting for cancer treatment
By Cheryl Hague 07:00, 25 DEC 2017 A grandmother who had a malignant tumour in her breast which measured 33mm says it has now almost gone after taking cannabis oil.
Now Lin Coxon, of Willington, is sharing her story with the Government to see if they will fund a medical trial testing cannabis oil on patients while they are waiting for cancer treatment.
Lin was diagnosed with the disease on June 28 at the Royal Derby Hospital. A scan revealed the size of the lump and found it had also invaded her nearby lymph nodes. She was told her treatment would involve eight rounds of chemotherapy followed by a lumpectomy and the removal of all the lymph nodes. This would then have to be followed by radiotherapy.
But while waiting for her treatment to start in August the 69-year-old read how, in some cases, cannabis oil had been found to help treat cancer so she bought some and began taking it.
Incredibly her last scan revealed the cancer has completely gone from her lymph nodes and the tumour is hardly visible.
Grandmother Lin Coxon told how a cancerous tumour discovered in her breast has shrunk from 33mm to 7mm in just a few weeks purely by taking CANNABIS oil She said doctors at the hospital are fascinated by her case and are continuing to monitor her progress even though she isn’t going ahead with the chemotherapy as they originally suggested.
Lin said: "I feel fantastic and can tell it has almost gone. Before it felt like a hard lump but after a few weeks of taking the oil it had shrunk so much I couldn't feel it. Now it's almost gone and, on the scan, you could see how the density has changed from something that looked solid where now the only bit that is left looks like a tiny bit of smoke.
"I bought cannabis oil from a health shop in Ashbourne and decided to take a few drops - I didn't have anything to lose as I was waiting for my chemotherapy to start so thought I may as well give it a try. I am so glad I did.
"The doctors are still monitoring me and said if it did come back I would have to have chemotherapy and of course I would but I just want to see how it goes now.
"In fact at my last appointment the doctors said the tumour was so small they could to a lumpectomy to get it out - but I said let's just see how the oil works for a bit longer.
"Since I spoke of my initial success with the oil in The Derby Telegraph in October I have been contacted by other people who have had similar positive experiences so I really think there is something in it.
"I cannot say cannabis oil will work for anyone else but my experience would seem to show it is worth trying. I feel people have nothing to lose especially if they are waiting for chemotherapy. It may only help for some cancers - we won't know though until research takes place."
Lin Coxon bought the cannabis oil in Ashbourne Now Lin, who is Southern Derbyshire MP Heather Wheeler's personal assistant, wants the Government to take notice of her case and she has written to Steve Brine MP who is the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and primary care asking about funding a trial in Derby which would allow patients diagnosed with cancer and waiting for treatment to take the oil in the meantime if they wanted to. Then the hospital could scan them before they had treatment to see if taking the oil has had any effect.
She said: "I just think it has to be looked into further as more people could be helped without the need for medical intervention - and, if that is the case, it would also save the NHS a lot of money."
The grandmother-of-ten, said she was inspired to try the cannabis oil after reading in The Derby Telegraph how it had helped Sinfin Asda worker Karen Roberts. She was sent home to die with terminal cancer but took the oil - and now two years later is in remission. Read her story here.
Lin bought the oil, which is legal and sold minus the psychoactive component that causes a high, at a health shop in Ashbourne. It cost a £39 a bottle. She has a few drops each day and a bottle lasts her ten days.
The oil has not yet been approved for use on the NHS - but is readily available to buy online as a food supplement - although it has been widely reported to help other conditions such as arthritis, depression and MS.
Research into the health benefits of taking cannaboids - particularly for cancer - is currently being undertaken at St George's, University of London, and the medical experts there have been in contact with Lin.
Dr Wai Liu, senior research fellow at St George's, University of London, said: “I was very interested to hear of Lin’s case. Cannabidiol, which is just one element of the cannabis plant and one that does not have any psychoactive effect on people, has been shown to target communication signals that are malfunctioning in cancer cells.
“It is thought that, by correcting these signals, we can enable cancer cells to essentially die rather than duplicate. So it may hold the key to understanding how to defeat cancer in some areas.
“We at St George's, University of London, have shown how this can be done. Although our data has mainly been laboratory- based, we have a growing and large collection of testimony from patients using cannabidiol, usually in a cannabis oil type product, who report positive effects on their battle with this dreadful disease.
"Lin's story is one that adds to this growing list and we wish her all the best in her treatment which should always be under the supervision of her doctors.”
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By Michael Komorn
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/cannabis-extract-marijuana-psychosis-treatment-mental-health-cbd-thc-cannabidiol-kcl-a8111386.html
Psychosis is a mental health diagnosis characterised by hallucinated voices or visions, or delusions where patients have strong and unfounded beliefs, for example feeling there is a conspiracy to harm them.
Antipsychotic drugs have been used in treating it for 60 years, but they have limited effectiveness and can have serious side-effects.
Professor Philip McGuire, from King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, was the lead author of the study.
He said conventional drugs acted by blocking biological receptors for mood-altering chemical dopamine.
“However, dopamine is not the only neurotransmitter whose function is altered in psychosis, and in some patients dopamine function may be relatively normal,” he added.
“We need new classes of treatment that target different neurotransmitter systems.”
This trial found that patients given a CBD treatment saw statistically significant improvements in their psychosis symptoms relative to a group given a placebo.
The 83 patients, from the UK, Romania and Poland, also saw significant improvements in their health and severity of their illness as measured by their therapists.
There were signs of better cognitive performance as well, but this was not statistically significant.
While all the improvements were modest, the patients were still using their antipsychotic medication so it shows CBD treatments can offer additional benefits over and above conventional treatment.
The results are published in the American Journal of Psychiatry today. The paper says: “This is, to our knowledge, the first placebo-controlled trial of CBD in schizophrenia.
“The data indicate that six weeks of treatment adjunctive to antipsychotic medication was associated with significant effects both on positive psychotic symptoms and on the treating clinicians’ impressions of improvement and illness severity.”
Professor McGuire added that larger trials were now needed to confirm these findings in other patient groups.
“Although it is still unclear exactly how CBD works, it acts in a different way to antipsychotic medication, and thus could represent a new class of treatment.
“Moreover, CBD was not associated with significant side effects. This is also potentially important, as patients may be reluctant to take antipsychotic medication because of concerns about side effects.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29241357
Read the study here.
Professor McGuire was singing a different tune about this same study last year.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/862312
Lead investigator Philip McGuire, MD, PhD, Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London, United Kingdom, who presented the findings, acknowledged that the improvements with cannabidiol were not dramatic.
However, he told Medscape Medical News: "The way I would look at it is that it's quite hard to see an effect in people who are already being treated with something else.
Dr Philip McGuire
"I would guess that if you didn't have them on antipsychotics, the scope for an improvement would be even greater, because the baseline symptoms would be higher, so it should be easier to show a bigger change."
Noting the lengthy discussion of the data that followed his talk, Dr McGuire said: "Somebody in the audience pointed out that there was a previous trial which compared cannabidiol on its own with an antipsychotic and showed that cannabidiol had the same magnitude of effect as an antipsychotic. That shows that the [effect with] monotherapy is at least as big as an antipsychotic."
The patients were randomly assigned in a double-blind fashion to cannabidiol 1000 mg/day oral solution, 500 mg twice daily, or matched placebo for 6 weeks and were assessed on intention-to- treat analysis.
1 gram CBD per day.
http://alert.psychnews.org/2017/12/cannabidiol-may-be-effective-adjunct-to.html
CBD was well tolerated, and rates of adverse events were similar between the CBD and placebo groups.
Please always know where your CBD comes from. Have your CBD tested for purity and accurate dosage / strength.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2661569
There is growing consumer demand for cannabidiol (CBD), a constituent of the cannabis plant, due to its purported medicinal benefits for myriad health conditions. Viscous plant derived extracts, suspended in oil, alcohol (tincture), or vaporization liquid, represent most of the retail market for CBD. Discrepancies between federal and state cannabis laws have resulted in inadequate regulation and oversight, leading to inaccurate labeling of some products. To maximize sampling and ensure representativeness of available products, we examined the label accuracy of CBD products sold online, including identification of present but unlabeled cannabinoids.
Read the study here.
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By trix
Israel -- Scientists in Israel are exploring another medical use for marijuana: Their research indicates that a compound in the plant helps heal bone fractures.
The new study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, found that broken bones healed faster and stronger when the patient received the non-psychoactive compound cannabidiol, or CBD.
Read More...
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By trix
Cannabis Planet.TV
http://vimeo.com/83094404
<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/83094404" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/83094404">Dr. Christina Sanchez</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user15519688">Cannabis Planet</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
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By trix
FDA Moves Forward With Marijuana-Based Drug To Fight Childhood Epilepsy
The Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation for a cannabis-based drug developed to treat childhood-onset epilepsy, GW Pharmaceuticals announced last week.
Although not full FDA approval -- its maker still must demonstrate the efficacy of the drug in clinical trials -- the orphan drug designation represents a tremendous step forward for cannabis-based medicine.
The drug, called Epidiolex, contains a highly purified, plant-derived form of cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound found in marijuana that doesn't produce the "high" sensation associated with THC, the plant's main psychoactive ingredient. CBD has long been used as a treatment for Dravet syndrome, a rare and severe form of epilepsy in children, and GW Pharmaceuticals sees Epidiolex as useful in treating both Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS), another rare form of childhood epilepsy.
The FDA grants the orphan drug designation to drugs intended to treat rare disorders. It qualifies the maker of the drug for certain tax incentives related to clinical testing as well as an exclusive marketing period for the drug.
Currently, the federal government classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance, but its compounds, like CBD and THC, can be reclassified at a lower level of risk if approved for medical use by the FDA. The agency's approval of the synthetic THC-based drug Marinol in 1985, for example, resulted in THC becoming a Schedule III substance.
The classification of marijuana as Schedule I puts the plant into "the most dangerous" category of illegal substances "with no currently accepted medical use." The Schedule I status is why the Obama administration continues to raid medical marijuana dispensaries and prosecute their owners and workers. It's also part of the problem scientists have in obtaining cannabis, and funding, to conduct legal research on the drug in the U.S.
If marijuana were reclassified as Schedule III -- like THC -- it would be officially recognized as having an accepted medical use and presenting less potential for abuse. Universities and labs that receive federal funding would find it much easier to conduct research on its potential benefits.
According to the National Institutes of Health, Dravet syndrome typically appears in children within their first year of life. Along with frequent seizures, those affected often exhibit poor language development, hyperactivity and difficulty relating to others.
Seizures for children affected by Lennox-Gastaut syndrome usually begin before the age of four. The majority of children with the syndrome also experience some degree of impaired intellectual functioning or information processing as well as behavioral disturbances, according to NIH.
Currently, there is no cure for either disorder, and FDA-approved medications to treat epilepsy can cause children to become nauseated and develop rashes or, in some cases, depression or hyperactivity. Those drugs may not even effectively treat the seizures the children suffer from.
"We are now in active discussions with the FDA regarding the US regulatory pathway for Epidiolex and believe that this medicine has the potential to meet the significant unmet need of children suffering with severe seizures where all options to control those seizures have been exhausted," GW Pharmaceuticals CEO Justin Gover said in a statement after the orphan drug announcement. "GW is responding to this need with the goal of providing an FDA-approved prescription CBD medicine that physicians have confidence in prescribing and parents can trust for quality, consistency and access."
Marijuana has a long history of effectively treating seizures. In 1843, British Army doctor William O'Shaughnessy documented his use of cannabis oil to stop an infant's near-constant convulsions. Today, in the 20 U.S. states with legal medical marijuana, many families have been experimenting with a high-CBD, low-THC strain of cannabis to help treat their children who have debilitating seizures.
The popular "Charlotte's Web" strain, named after 7-year-old Charlotte Figi and developed by non-profit medical marijuana group Realm of Caring, is being used to treat more than 300 patients suffering from epilepsy in Colorado. Charlotte, who used to suffer from hundreds of seizures a week, was the first child in Colorado to be legally treated with cannabis since medical marijuana was legalized. Her recovery has been miraculous, her mother, Paige Figi, told The Huffington Post. "She is getting a re-do of all the years she was robbed by epilepsy," Figi said.
Charlotte's Web and similar medical strains are administered in liquid or capsule form and, according to doctors, produce little to no side effects. Because of the low THC count, users don't experience the high associated with traditional marijuana.
In recent years, a number of studies have shown the medical promise of marijuana. Purified forms of cannabis can be effective at attacking some forms of aggressive cancer and may help slow the spread of HIV. Legalization of the plant for medical purposes may even lead to lower suicide rates.
Although marijuana appears to be helping many people, some doctors remain cautious.
“I worry that we just don’t know enough about it,” Dr. Sharon Levy, of the Boston Children’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School, told NBC News. “I think they’re putting their child at risk of long-term consequences of marijuana use that we don’t fully understand.”
Down the road, FDA approval of Epidiolex may produce a cannabis-based drug that skeptical doctors would be comfortable prescribing to their patients.
This isn't GW Pharmaceuticals' first foray into marijuana-derived drugs. The company has been developing and testing multiple cannabinoid drugs, including the world's first cannabis plant-derived prescription drug, Sativex, which is used for the treatment of spasticity due to multiple sclerosis in 25 countries. Sativex is not approved by the FDA but is in clinical trials in the U.S.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_4906832.html
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