Israeli scientists are exploring cannabis as a treatment, or even cure, for conditions ranging from cancer to Parkinson’s, asthma, insomnia, PTSD, epilepsy and IBS.
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Cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy, asthma, insomnia, autism, PTSD, inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson’s – the list of conditions that can be improved, and possibly cured, by medical cannabis keeps growing longer.
Already since the 1990s, medical cannabis has been permitted in Israel and currently is dispensed by prescription to about 33,000 people for relief of pain associated with diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and Crohn’s, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Now, academic and corporate research is more intensive than ever. The Israeli government is formulating rules for exporting medical cannabis products such as capsules and oils, and the first government-sponsored international conference on medical cannabis will take place April 23-26 near Tel Aviv.
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IBD and cancer
For research on inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) including Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, Koltai’s lab partnered with Israeli-Canadian PlantEXT, a subsidiary of Israel Plant Sciences.
They’re examining the effect of cannabis extracts and compounds on tissue from colon biopsies provided by Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba and will soon start clinical trials. Next they’ll turn their attention to colon cancer.
“Until now, even with IBD we talked about treating symptoms rather than curing. With cancer, we’re starting to talk about curing. This is revolutionary in relation to medical cannabis,” Koltai reveals.
“I do not want to raise false hopes but we see it as a mission to try and establish cannabis as an anti-cancer treatment. We have exciting results that have to be verified in clinical trials and that can take years,” she adds.
Cannabis will one day be an important tool in curing cancer, agrees Prof. David “Dedi” Meiri, head of the Laboratory of Cancer Biology and Cannabanoid Research at the Technion-Israeli Institute of Technology.
However, a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. Each type of cancer has unique characteristics and cannabis contains 142 known cannabinoids (active components).
Matching the most effective cannabis compounds (possibly a cocktail of them) to specific cancers is a complex process that Meiri’s lab is mapping out on mice
Could medical Cannabis be the solution to the Opioid Crisis?
Of course Israel does not have a "prohibition" mentality when it comes to medical research, nor does it have alcoholic beverage, drug and tobacco lobbies to fight against progress and competition, so of course such benefits for mankind are bound to proliferate in Israel.
True,
In fact, Israelis an amazing leader in innovation-- worldwide. Amazing for such a tiny nation!
Here's a video where two of the most innovative men around (Bill Gates and Warren Buffett) discuss Israel's unique culture of innovation:
I would really like to watch that video, but I cannot open YouTube. Please post the "url" so I can ask someone to convert it to a method I can open.
try this by removing all of the spaces
. b e / f v s-X5JIVCg
YouTube is BANNED in China. There's no way I can get it to work. Free VPNs get blocked immediately and I won't pay for one. There are a couple of members of NT who have converted videos so I can watch them.
You might be able to find it on a Chinese site by searching, using words like "Bill Gates", "Warren Buffett", and "Israel innovation"...?
I seem to remember that SixPick is very good at converting these sorts of media things to forms you can view...???
Yes he can, and if you will just provide the url I will ask him.