Notes From The Innovative: Israeli Researcher Dedi Meiri On Marijuana, Alzheimer’s And Dementia

I just recently listened to a webinar where David (Dedi) Meiri spoke about the marijuana research study in his laboratory at the Technion-Israel Institute of Innovation. Meiri is best understood for his work matching specific elements of cannabis to affect various types of cancer.

On top of what is already understood and dealt with … pain, sleep, epilepsy, stress and anxiety and these kinds of things, I think that one of the things that is still not being treated with marijuana … and I actually, truly think in it, and in my laboratory I have incredible results, is dementia and Alzheimer’s.

There is a large and growing body of anecdotal accounts of the effectiveness of marijuana for dealing with the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The drawbacks and actual dangerous threats associated with basic and often prescribed pharmaceutical treatments for these conditions makes marijuana an especially compelling option– specifically considering its solid safety profile.

In a follow up Zoom call, Dedi discussed his work on this subject:

First Off, cannabis is very helpful in enhancing quality of life: lowering stress and anxiety, enhancing sleep, minimizing violence. We understand it from our work with autistic kids, from dealing with PTSD, and other indicators. We currently understand which strains are achieving this effect and a great deal of them are high CBD strains, with really low or no THC. Autistic kids in Israel are getting a stress extract with an extremely low quantity of THC and it still reduces violence, actually enhances sleep and decreases anxiety.

If we’re speaking about enhancing lifestyle of the Alzheimer’s client and their families … individuals with Alzheimer’s frequently struggle with bursts of anger and sleep disorders. On that scale cannabis is really helpful …

But Meiri likewise points out that for Alzheimer’s illness, like with cancer, cannabis may likewise have a function beyond palliative care. Just as his lab looks at the various chemovars and mixes of cannabinoids that can potentially jail cancer advancement, they are investigating the neuroprotective performance of these compounds too.

With Alzheimer’s, on top of all the palliative treatment on the quality of life, there is a question whether cannabis can also actually combat the dementia or enhance the memory or the pathology of the disease itself. There are currently a few research studies that have actually revealed that cannabis in low doses can be effective. It’s understood that the endocannabinoid system is associated with this procedure and in the development of Alzheimer’s. Reduction of Anandamide and 2AG and other endocannabinoids is in line with the progression of the disease.

Over the last three years, Meiri has been pursuing this line of research study utilizing mouse and other Alzheimer’s disease models.

We screened a great deal of marijuana chemovars and defined a few that are lowering the amyloid plaques in the brain. We also recognized the mechanisms that are triggered in the brain, how this happens, and why they are reducing the plaques. We have very strong results revealing enhancement in the pathology of the illness in mice with rather advanced Alzheimer’s after treatment with particular particles of cannabis. This consists of improvements in the damage from the amyloid plaques in the brain and the nerve cells that were treated with the particular cannabis particles, as well as improvement in their habits as evidenced through different tests.

However, there is a big space between the mice brain and the human brain, so I could not inform you if it will operate in human patients …

To conquer that gap, Meiri and his group are now in the process of getting approvals for a clinical trial to check the results of a complete spectrum cannabis extract on clients.

It’s a scientific trial on around 80 clients who suffer from severe Alzheimer’s illness, with violent behavior, anxiety, anger and sleep conditions. We will treat them with cannabis to see if it can enhance their habits, make them calmer, more unwinded and help them sleep much better. This is cannabis with a very low amount of THC or without THC at all– an entire extract of a high CBD strain. It’s not simply sedation – you do not provide them THC and get them stoned and they’re just lying on the couch. It’s not that. It’s other substances and other results.

We also spoke about the essential subtleties between cannabis cultivars, and the need of looking beyond simply THC and CBD.

We have cultivars that are enhancing an illness dramatically, and we have cultivars that make the illness even worse, even though they have the very same quantity of CBD and THC. It’s real for sleep conditions, several sclerosis, in Alzheimer’s and with a cancer.

If that’s the case, then what about all the marijuana medications that are merely composed of THC and CBD isolates in various ratios?

I guess for specific indications, like pain, for example, it might be enough. In a lot of the indications, it will not be enough. I can inform you that if you take a look at leukemia, what we discover is that if you just treat it with CBD you will get absolutely no reaction. The exact same chooses numerous sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and even breast cancer … I have at least 6 different examples that I currently showed that it’s not the THC/CBD ratios, or it’s inadequate. I can’t state that about whatever, however for sure in these type of indications.

So after eliminating just CBD and THC, I asked him, what does he believe is making the difference?

I am 100%sure it’s not the THC and CBD due to the fact that I currently removed them … however I’m still not actually sure about the rest. I’m believing that the flavonoids might be playing a big role there … Simply a couple of cannabinoids or families of cannabinoids, but generally probably flavonoids and terpenoids – give me a few more months and then I’ll inform you.