Smoke marijuana...get smarter
 

Marijuana might cause new cell growth in the brain - from New Scientist.

A synthetic chemical similar to the active ingredient in marijuana makes new cells grow in rat brains. What is more, in rats this cell growth appears to be linked with reducing anxiety and depression. The results suggest that marijuana, or its derivatives, could actually be good for the brain.

In mammals, new nerve cells are constantly being produced in a part of the brain called the hippocampus, which is associated with learning, memory, anxiety and depression. Other recreational drugs, such as alcohol, nicotine and cocaine, have been shown to suppress this new growth. Xia Zhang of the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, and colleagues decided to see what effects a synthetic cannabinoid called HU210 had on rats' brains.

They found that giving rats high doses of HU210 twice a day for 10 days increased the rate of nerve cell formation, or neurogenesis, in the hippocampus by about 40%.

A previous study showed that the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac) also increases new cell growth, and the results indicated that it was this cell growth that caused Prozac’s anti-anxiety effect. Zhang wondered whether this was also the case for the cannabinoid, and so he tested the rats for behavioural changes.

When the rats who had received the cannabinoid were placed under stress, they showed fewer signs of anxiety and depression than rats who had not had the treatment. When neurogenesis was halted in these rats using X-rays, this effect disappeared, indicating that the new cell growth might be responsible for the behavioural changes.

In another study, Barry Jacobs, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, gave mice the natural cannabinoid found in marijuana, THC (D9-tetrahydrocannabinol)). But he says he detected no neurogenesis, no matter what dose he gave or the length of time he gave it for. He will present his results at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington DC in November.

Jacobs says it could be that HU210 and THC do not have the same effect on cell growth. It could also be the case that cannabinoids behave differently in different rodent species - which leaves open the question of how they behave in humans.

Zhang says more research is needed before it is clear whether cannabinoids could some day be used to treat depression in humans.

Journal reference: Journal of Clinical Investigation (DOI:10.1172/JCI25509)

i smoke all the time and i'm super brainy!!

whats this thread about again?

well you ALL know that I have been saying this shit for years, not to mention that herb therapy will soon become the popular cure for cancer and MS. do your homework people, cannabis is not just for getting stoned anymore.

Praise Jah!

Rastafari, Selassie I

ha ha ha ha ha ha....

I don't think it helps people get smarter, maybe healthier but not smarter, people who are dumb will always remain dumb.

funny science, cause and effect are quite hard to determine

sure, lower anxiety will lead to improved learning and memory, but you can achieve the same with, say, meditation, and exercise, and a good diet.

now if someone can explain to me why potheads don't shower, we could try some experiments.

Kegmama is probably the person best placed to comment on this, seeing as her cannabis use is medicinal. Although I do sometimes get the impression that she enjoys her medicine quite a bit ;)

very interesting subject to me ,
and ive love to get in there and dig around .
weed creates insane anxiety in me for days after smoking , even if i have not smoked in months .
and i want to know why there have been such extreme findings one way or the other .

About Time! See its good for you!
Bring on medical weed in the UK! I have enough aches and pains to easily qualify for some of the good stuff.

Great now I have an excuse for using it.

Hey, I shower.

I think it's pretty obvious that weed can help with depression.

Stoner Girls are cute! Yet another good reason to smoke weed!

If getting smarter is equivalent to spending all day sitting on the couch watching lame mtv reality shows and playing grand theft auto, then yes, smoking excess amounts of weed definitely makes you smarter.

i was about to answer otherwise, but now that you think about it, all the stoners i have known are just dumb on their own, but for others, it does seem like they use marijuana as an excuse to act dumb

im extremely intellegent tonight thats why im switching off pc probably and watching series 5 of family guy before bed!!!!

I am so doing this for my Biology current event :D
Thanks <3

i don't know. i was a depressive for a long time and weed didn't help me at all. it just enrusted my depressive outlook even more, in the form of philosophical cynicism and hopelessness. psychotherapy, on the other hand, had great results for me once i was able to find the right shrink. a little zoloft and a little paxil while working out my issues and then i was home free.

I am of the opinion that psychotherapy is kind of like religion.
That is, it works if you believe in it.

well, no, in my experience there is a lot of bullshit in the business, i once even had a priest in shrink's robes, so to speak, trying to push christ on me-- fuck that. but it's not a "religion" per se.

however, i can attest from my own experience, shrinkology can help you unbury hidden traumas & teach you how to deal with life's crap more effectively. yes, it's a bit of an art, not so much a science, but knowing yourself & dealing with that knowledge in constructive ways is a good thing.

you know it's kinda like being stuck in the mud and pressing on the gas pedal uselessly. then comes a tow truck & pulls you out and you can go your own way again.

I only made that comparison because they both require a certain amount of "faith" and openness to the ideas being presented.

oh i see what you mean. yes, you are right, but it's not so much faith as trust-- in the person you're dealing with. in that sense, the shrink works as a substitute parent.

it's all a very imprecise thing, and it took me quite a sampling of shrinks until i found one that a) i could trust, b) i could argue with.

my own experience was that my "cure" was not found by listening to a preacher, but by arguing constructively with a trusted and wiser friend. if i had just "believed" i would just have gone from one disease to another one (like people who seek gurus).

but each experience is individual, one can't generalize this. in group therapy, for example (which i tried but hated), the group is supposed to provide you with a "family" of sorts-- but to me it was like the blind leading the blind.

I get your point in this sense. Psychological doctors help improve a patient's mental health largely when the patient is able to observe themselves more objectively while under the guidance of the physician. The sessions create an accountability to the doctor. This also is a principle which allows for brainwashing in organized religions and of course even more so in cults or sects. In that case the devotee becomes responsible and accountable to a group mindthink with a corresponding more vanilla outlook on life. The guidance is of the spiritual (too often based on fear, however) variety as opposed to the scientific variety. The devotee's membership is reinforced constantly. This is why many Baptist fundamentalist preachers will address their congregation members directly during services. It's also why your local cult down at the Holiday Inn conference room every Sunday or whatever will instantly name tag you and make sure you meet everyone in the room before you get out of said room.
Where I personally differ from what you express in the comment is that, in my view, there's nothing to "buy into" with psychology because true psychology, contrary to what some still believe, is not a pseudo-science, it is an actually proven art and science. Treatment that allows the greatest likelihood for sustained success most often depends on who your actual psychologist or psychoanalyst is more than anything else.
Psychologists allow the patient to unburden themselves through active listening. The progress comes from the patient themselves when they are ready to affect change in their behaviors. This allows the patient to have an opportunity to learn through self-knowledge and all the while being guided by sound principles by a person with a (hopefully) professional scientific background. However, far too often in my view, a psychologist will prescribe SSRI medications to alter a patient's brainchemistry. Unfortunately, the science behind the action of these agents is not really known. So, the doctor has to resort to trial-and-error concoctions to hopefully aid the patient. In the case of State or governmental agencies, which are there to help the ones in our society that cannot afford proper healthcare, this practice is rampant as a choice for treatment due to pressure to please the pharmaceutical lobbies. More often than not, the traditional role of the psychologist falls to the social worker who has little to no training and the likelihood of successful treatment dwindles accordingly. This is what most people unfortunatley know as psychology and it's not psychology performed on a truly professional level, so maybe that's part of the "buy into" you meant.