Deans' stroke musings: Marijuana Chokes Alzheimer's-Related Brain Regions

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Marijuana Chokes Alzheimer's-Related Brain Regions

I wouldn't trust anything here. Due to the use of SPECT scans by Dr. Amen they have a reputation as only being used to deceive. Do you really think neuropsychiatric patients would have normal brains? The selection of patients for this research shows its bias from the start.

My 13 reasons for marijuana use post-stroke.

Don't follow me, I'm not medically trained and I don't have a Dr. in front of my name.

Marijuana Chokes Alzheimer's-Related Brain Regions

PREVENTION & THERAPY NEWS:
In a big study of 26,000 people, the hippocampus "choked" on marijuana. (The hippocampus is the brain's memory and learning center.) Marijuana lowered blood flow to levels unseen in any other group. Find out why this strongly suggests higher vulnerability to Alzheimer’s.

As the U.S. races to legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational use, a large scale brain imaging study gives reason for caution. Published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), a sophisticated imaging study that evaluates blood flow and activity patterns, demonstrated abnormally low blood flow in virtually every area of the brain, in nearly 1,000 marijuana users compared to healthy controls.

Marijuana, Alzheimer's & the Hippocampus

The marijuana users' low blood flow patterns included areas known to be affected by Alzheimer’s pathology such as the hippocampus.

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IMAGE LEGEND: Example of a volume rendered brain SPECT image (top down view) of a healthy control compared to an 18-year old daily user of marijuana. While the control subject has symmetric activity, the marijuana user shows overall decreased perfusion.

All data were obtained for analysis from a large multi-site database, involving 26,268 patients who came for evaluation of complex, treatment resistant issues to one of nine outpatient neuropsychiatric clinics across the United States (Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Fairfield, and Brisbane, CA, Tacoma and Bellevue, WA, Reston, VA, Atlanta, GA and New York, NY) between 1995-2015. Of these, 982 current or former marijuana users had brain SPECT at rest and during a mental concentration task compared to almost 100 healthy controls. Predictive analytics with discriminant analysis was done to determine if brain SPECT regions can distinguish marijuana user brains from controls brain.

Low Blood Flow

Low blood flow in the hippocampus in marijuana users reliably distinguished marijuana users from controls. The right hippocampus during a concentration task was the single most predictive region in distinguishing marijuana users from their normal counterparts. Marijuana use is thought to interfere with memory formation by inhibiting activity in this part of the brain.

According to one of the co-authors on the study Elisabeth Jorandby, M.D., “As a physician who routinely sees marijuana users, what struck me was not only the global reduction in blood flow in the marijuana users brains, but that the hippocampus was the most affected region due to its role in memory and Alzheimer’s disease."

May Be Harbingers of Brain Damage

She continued, "Our research has proven that marijuana users have lower cerebral blood flow than non-users. Second, the most predictive region separating these two groups is low blood flow in the hippocampus on concentration brain SPECT imaging. This work suggests that marijuana use has damaging influences in the brain – particularly regions important in memory and learning and known to be affected by Alzheimer’s.”

Dr. George Perry, Editor in Chief of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease said, “Open use of marijuana, through legalization, will reveal the wide range of marijuana’s benefits and threats to human health. This study indicates troubling effects on the hippocampus that may be the harbingers of brain damage.”

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MORE INFORMATION:

Amen DG, Darmal B, Raji CA, Bao W, Jorandby L, Meysami S, Raghavendra CS (2017) Discriminative Properties of Hippocampal Hypoperfusion in Marijuana Users Compared to Healthy Controls: Implications for Marijuana Administration in Alzheimer’s Dementia. J Alzheimers Dis, doi: 10.3233/JAD-160833.
Figure legend: Example of a volume rendered brain SPECT image (top down view) of a healthy control compared to an 18-year old daily user of marijuana. While the control subject has symmetric activity, the marijuana user shows overall decreased perfusion.

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