New study shows 'Weed ‘could stop the memory loss caused by old age’
People mostly wouldn’t describe cannabis as being exactly good for your memory – but a new study shows that it can reverse age-related memory loss in mice.
The find could lead to new treatments for dementia – and even lead to old people getting ‘five to ten more years’ of feeling sharp, thanks to daily doses of cannabis.
Tests found that regular, low doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, had an adverse affect on young animals, but helped older animals.
The team behind the research are hoping to launch clinical trials by the end of the year.
Andras Bilkei-Gorzo, from the University of Bonn, said: ‘If we can rejuvenate the brain so that everybody gets five to 10 more years without needing extra care then that is more than we could have imagined.’
Writing in the journal Nature Medicine the scientists reveal they gave a month-long course of daily THC to mice aged two months, one year, and 18 months.
The drugged up animals then had to solve a water maze, and tested about recognised familiar objects such as mice they had met before.
The scientists wrote: These results reveal a profound, long-lasting improvement of cognitive performance resulting from a low dose of THC treatment in mature and old animals.’
Clinical lecturer in psychiatry at University College London Michael Bloomfield said: ‘What is particularly exciting about this research is that it opens up a whole new chemical system, the endocannabinoid system, as a potential target for new avenues of research, which could include illnesses like dementia.’
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