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Green Sunday Homeostasis: Get Cannabinoids in Medical School

11/29/2014

The Cannabis Papers by Publius (2011)

The Cannabis Papers: A citizen’s guide to cannabinoids (2011)
By Publius

Green Sunday

Publius’ Green Sunday edition highlights three 2014 PubMed articles on the cannabinoid system (CS) modulating homeostasis. Today’s line-up links to CS PubMed articles discussing: skin homeostasis and cannabinoid lipids, cancer angiogenesis with radiotherapy and CBD/THC, and cannabinoids for neuropathic pain.

One finds some disheartening numbers in the Survey of the Endocannabinoid System in Medical School (July 2014):

“Not one of the medical schools surveyed had a department of endocannabinoid science or an ECS director. None of them taught the endocannabinoid science as an organized course. Only 21 of the 157 schools surveyed had the ECS mentioned in any course. 21/157 = 13.3% In the United States of America, only 13% of the medical schools surveyed teach the endocannabinoid science to our future doctors.”

The good side to such numbers is they can only improve: CS Medical School and we’ll all do better!

I. Skin Homeostasis (Transient Receptor Potential) and Cannabinoids
“In the skin, cannabinoid lipids, whether of endogenous or exogenous origin, are capable of regulating numerous sensory, homeostatic, and inflammatory events. Although many of these effects are mediated by metabotropic cannabinoid receptors, a growing body of evidence has revealed that multiple members of the transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channel family can act as "ionotropic cannabinoid receptors". Furthermore, many of these same TRP channels are intimately involved in cutaneous processes that include the initiation of pain, temperature, and itch perception, the maintenance of epidermal homeostasis, the regulation of hair follicles and sebaceous glands, and the modulation of dermatitis. Ionotropic cannabinoid receptors therefore represent potentially attractive targets for the therapeutic use of cannabinoids to treat sensory and dermatological diseases. Furthermore, the interactions between neurons and other cell types that are mediated by cutaneous ionotropic cannabinoid receptors are likely to be recapitulated during physiological and pathophysiological processes in the central nervous system and elsewhere, making the skin an ideal setting in which to dissect general complexities of cannabinoid signaling.”
TRP Channel Cannabinoid Receptors in Skin Sensation, Homeostasis, and Inflammation.
Caterina MJ.
ACS Chem Neurosci. 2014 Nov 19;5(11):1107-16. doi: 10.1021/cn5000919. Epub 2014 Jun 17.
PMID: 24915599 [PubMed - in process]
Related citations

II. Cancer (Glioma) Angiogenesis and the CS (THC and CBD)
“High-grade glioma is one of the most aggressive cancers in adult humans and long-term survival rates are very low as standard treatments for glioma remain largely unsuccessful. Cannabinoids have been shown to specifically inhibit glioma growth as well as neutralize oncogenic processes such as angiogenesis. In an attempt to improve treatment outcome, we have investigated the effect of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) both alone and in combination with radiotherapy in a number of glioma cell lines (T98G, U87MG, and GL261). … Taken together, our data highlight the possibility that these cannabinoids can prime glioma cells to respond better to ionizing radiation, and suggest a potential clinical benefit for glioma patients by using these two treatment modalities.”
The Combination of Cannabidiol and Δ9-Tetrahydrocannabinol Enhances the Anticancer Effects of Radiation in an Orthotopic Murine Glioma Model.
Scott KA, Dalgleish AG, Liu WM.
Mol Cancer Ther. 2014 Nov 14. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 25398831 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Related citations

III. Homeostasis: Neuropathic Pain and the CS
“Treatment options for neuropathic pain have limited efficacy and use is fraught with dose-limiting adverse effects. The endocannabinoid system has been elucidated over the last several years, demonstrating a significant interface with pain homeostasis. Exogenous cannabinoids have been demonstrated to be effective in a range of experimental neuropathic pain models, and there is mounting evidence for therapeutic use in human neuropathic pain conditions. This article reviews the history, pharmacologic development, clinical trials results, and the future potential of nonsmoked, orally bioavailable, nonpsychoactive cannabinoids in the management of neuropathic pain.”
Cannabinoids for neuropathic pain.
Fine PG, Rosenfeld MJ.
Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2014 Oct;18(10):451. doi: 10.1007/s11916-014-0451-2.
PMID: 25160710 [PubMed - in process]
Related citations

Video: HOW and WHY does Cannabis Cure Cancer - Scientific Explanation

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Crossroad: There are no Pilgrims on the US Supreme Court ~ A Reprise

11/26/2014

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Graceless' Wilderness (2014)

Thanksgiving 2014

Graceless’ Crossroad

For Thanksgiving 2013, the lack of a Protestant justice on the US Supreme Court, which is a court absent the Protestant Reformation, was noted via John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678), an English Christian classic.

This Thanksgiving we find Bunyan’s character Graceless at the beginning of his journey. Graceless is on a pilgrimage from the City of Destruction to Mount Zion and the Celestial City, traveling the path Evangelist showed him, through the wilderness, carrying his burden to the Wicket Gate and the Shining Light. Graceless was just recently pulled from the mire of the Slough of Despond by a nice man named Help; now he meets a stranger – Mr. Worldly Wiseman – who gives advice against Graceless’ way:

Graceless' Crossroad (2014)

By and by he came to a crossroad, and there a stranger met him. The man smiled when he saw Graceless, and spoke to him in a very pleasant manner.

"How now, my good fellow, where are you going?" he said. "And what are you doing with that big burden on your back?"

Graceless told him that he was on his way to the Wicket Gate, and that he hoped when he reached it, to be shown how to get rid of his burden.

"Well," said the stranger, "I have spent many years in study, and my neighbors call me WORLDLY WISEMAN because of my wisdom. Will you listen to me if I give you some advice?"

Graceless listens to Mr. Wiseman who tells him of the town of Morality, of Mr. Legality, and of the ability to ease his burden; Graceless takes the path recommended by Mr. Wiseman, to his despair, and then Evangelist appears again …

"Alas! Alas!" cried Graceless, "I see now my error. I ought not to have listened to that man. I ought not to have turned off from the straight way which leads toward the Shining Light."

"Surely you did very wrong," answered Evangelist, "and you deserve to suffer for your folly."

Then there was a great rumbling in the earth, as though words were coming from it; fire flashed from the crevices in the rocks; and the mountain shook from top to bottom.

The Wicket Gate (1778)

Graceless expected nothing but death. But seeing the gentle face of Evangelist, he took courage.

"Sir," he asked, "is there no hope? Is there no way of escape? May I not be forgiven? And may I not return and go up to the Wicket Gate?"

Evangelist answered him very kindly: "Yes, if you are truly sorry for your error, you may again seek the true way. The man at the gate will receive you, for he has good will for all men."

"Then I will go back," said Graceless.

Evangelist kissed him, gave him one smile, and bade him Godspeed.

And Graceless went on with haste, and spoke to no man by the way.

Protestant pilgrimages are grace-based, as it is the grace of the Good Lord, not acts or deeds, that define John Bunyan’s Graceless character and the Protestant Reformation. Easing a burden with grace is for each individual (soul) … that is, after one reaches the Wicket Gate and enters through the help of Good-Will; that’s when Graceless got his new name ~ Christian.

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Video: Introduction to the Protestant Reformation: Setting the Stage (1 of 4)

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Tool Schism: “I know the pieces fit”

11/23/2014

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The words found in Tool’s Schism provide an opening for Thanksgiving Day’s essay ~ Crossroads: There are no Pilgrims on the US Supreme Court ~ A Reprise.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Robert E. Lee’s Nemesis, the Gallant Fourteenth

11/10/2014

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Gallant Fourteenth by Nancy Niblack Baxter

Gibraltar

To the early people of the Mediterranean Sea, the Rock of Gibraltar was no ordinary landmark: the rock and its beyond were the end of the world.

The 14th Indiana Infantry Regiment was part of the Gibraltar Brigade, earning the name at Antietam’s Bloody Lane in 1862.

The cover shot for Nancy Niblack Baxter’s Gallant Fourteenth: The Story of an Indiana Civil War Regiment (1991) shows some of the Indiana citizens turned soldiers by secession. These guys didn’t answer President Lincoln’s call for help in April 1861 in order to end slavery: they did it out of duty to save the Union ~ and they sure did their part.

Nemesis

The goddess Nemesis was more respected than worshipped by Mediterranean Greek and Roman cultures. We can understand why they did so by viewing Nemesis through her sister goddess Fortuna (fortune). Nemesis played the role of divine balancer to the fortunes of life; basically, Fortuna would give and Nemesis would say that’s enough. The 14th can be seen as Robert E. Lee’s Nemesis: some evidence …

Cheat Mountain 12 September 1861
Lee’s first Civil War battle (skirmish) is called off when 60 soldiers from the 14th disrupt/confuse the 3,000 Confederate infantry Lee had on hand; in the fog, rain and dark, the 60 were mistook for a much larger Union force, and Lee called off the planned assault.

Antietam 17 September 1862
Lee’s string of summer victories are ended in Maryland; the 14th hold their position in front of the Bloody Lane as Lee commits his final reserves. Union reinforcements arrive and the lane is taken: the 14th (and other regiments) earned the name “Gibraltar Brigade” for their efforts on 17 September at Bloody Lane.

Chancellorsville 2 May 1863
Lee’s order to surprise the Union army by dividing his forces works: Confederate forces route the Union’s XI Corp. The 14th is part of the effort to stop the route, which they do. That night, reckoning the new battlefront and in the vicinity of the 14th, Stonewall Jackson is mistakenly mortally wounded by his own soldiers. The loss meant many things: for one, in 60 days there’d be no Jackson at Gettysburg. (The 14th – they were there.)

Antietam's Bloody Lane

Nemesis and Fortuna, as goddesses, didn’t do much: in fact, it was humans who did things, the goddesses just playing along, giving and balancing to the endeavors.

Combat veterans know these two goddesses, although not by their traditional names perhaps, and, like the ancients, know not to worship Nemesis … though, showing some respect for divine balance is always already expected.

A Divine Veterans Day All.

~
Next Up: Thanksgiving Day with John Bunyan and a Pilgrim’s Court.

Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Veterans Day: American Dissent and Muhammad Ali ~ An Abens Review

11/9/2014

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Muhammad Ali in 1967

Dissenting

The movie Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight (HBO 2013) is the story of Ali’s legal battle, Clay v United States, with the American draft during the Vietnam War.

Born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. in 1942, he earned a gold medal in Rome during the 1960 Olympics and returned an 18 year-old hero to the US. From there on he fought his way up to beat Sonny Liston in 1964 – stunning the boxing world again – and becoming the World Heavyweight (WH) Champion.

At some point (around 1964) he began to refuse to answer to the name “Clay” and newspapers, sportswriters and pundits in general debated his right to change his name. For several months, to years and more for some segments of the population, his chosen name was refused honor. This just added to the publicity he garnered when he rhetorically and poetically began to berate his opponents (because they’d call him Clay) before and during bouts. The unexpected thing was that Ali ended up backing up his words with wins. He was well-known for his footwork ~ “float like a butterfly” ~ and his jabs ~ “sting like a bee” ~ and Ali had to endure not only racial but professional prejudice; they called him the “Louisville Lip” (a big mouth); but he fooled them all with one of the best professional boxing records ever, and is considered the greatest boxer of the 20th Century, if not of all time.

An example of Ali’s sophisticated linguistic articulations can be observed in a quote of his before the 1964 Sonny Liston fight, at 22 years of age … when he was a 7 to 1 underdog:

“Sonny is nothing. The man can’t talk. The man can’t fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he’s going to fight me, he needs falling lessons.”

In 1967 Ali was drafted and claimed Conscientious Objector (CO) status, which was refused by his local draft board. He was immediately stripped of his WH title and, for many Americans, was considered a pariah and a draft dodger, especially considering his work as a professional boxer. For four years, until the decision was handed down in June of 1971, he lectured all over the US and became a counter-culture hero ~ a voice of dissent.

The Supreme Court decision in Ali’s favor was actually based on an earlier exemption to the draft granted to Jehovah’s Witnesses. While the Supreme Court was pontificating on their decision to announce a denial of Ali's claim to CO status, law clerks found an earlier decision on the Jehovah’s Witnesses and pointed out to the Justices that the local draft board had not articulated exactly why his claim was denied at that level. The Supreme Court, when confronted with this fact, came around to agree with Ali’s claim and he was vindicated; he had been facing five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, and had already suffered loss of income (and status) while his religious freedom battle was being fought. At the end of it all, Ali was quoted as saying he felt no animosity toward the Supreme Court or the United States: they had their job to do and he had his.

In 1974 he fought George Foreman in Kinshasa Zaire; this wasn’t his first fight since his CO troubles, but the first fight again for the WH championship. He told interviewer David Frost: “If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait ‘til I whup Foreman’s behind!”

He did.

William Abens, author
~
*Tomorrow, 11 November, Ew Publishing’s Veterans Day Run wraps-up with Robert E. Lee’s Nemesis, the Gallant Fourteenth.
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Publius’ PTSD Re-Homeostasis ~ A Veterans Day Update

11/8/2014

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The Cannabis Papers by Publius (2011)

The Cannabis Papers: A citizen’s guide to cannabinoids (2011)
By Publius

Keith Marker / PTSD Edition

Publius’ Veterans Day cannabinoid science PTSD edition notes four 2014 PubMed articles on the cannabinoid system (CS) modulating re-homeostasis, our ability to heal. Today’s Re-Homeostatic line-up links to CS PubMed articles discussing: brain injury combined with depression, diet and PTSD cues, facilitating fear extinction (and its recall), and a music therapist for World War I Shell Shock, Paula Lind Ayers.

Keith Marker, Albuquerque, NM, US Military Veteran

With healing in mind, we highlight and honor US veteran Keith Marker; Marker served in Afghanistan, suffered suicidal PTSD upon returning home, and found CS relief via New Mexico’s Medical Cannabis Program.

I. Re-Homeostasis (Brain Injury and PTSD) and the CS
“United States Veterans of the Iraqi (Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)) and Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)) conflicts have frequently returned from deployment after sustaining mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and enduring stressful events resulting in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A large number of returning servicemembers have been diagnosed with both a history of mTBI and current PTSD. … These findings suggest Veterans with mTBI+PTSD perform significantly lower on neuropsychological and psychiatric measures than Veterans with mTBI-o or PTSD-o. The results also raise the possibility of persisting cognitive changes following mTBI sustained during deployment.”
The Effects of Mild TBI, PTSD, and Combined Mild TBI/PTSD on Returning Veterans.
Combs HL, Berry DT, Pape TL, Babcock-Parziale J, Smith B, Schleenbaker R, Shandera-Ochsner A, High WM.
J Neurotrauma. 2014 Oct 28. [Epub ahead of print]
PMID: 25350012 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Related citations

II. Re-Homeostasis (via Diet) and the CS
“The etiology and pathophysiology of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remains poorly understood. The nutritional deficiencies associated with the altered metabolic processes of PTSD have not previously been studied in detail. … The results of this initial study demonstrate that addressing the increased dietary requirements of PTSD can improve symptoms of the disease while eliminating significant side effects. A larger, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial is warranted.”
Administration of an amino Acid-based regimen for the management of autonomic nervous system dysfunction related to combat-induced illness.
Shell WE, Charuvastra M, Breitstein M, Pavlik SL, Charuvastra A, May L, Silver DS.
J Cent Nerv Syst Dis. 2014 Oct 8;6:93-8. doi: 10.4137/JCNSD.S13793. eCollection 2014.
PMID: 25336998 [PubMed] Free PMC Article
Related citations

III. Re-Homeostasis (Anxiety Disorders/Fear) and the CS
“Anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress (PTSD), panic, and phobic disorders, can be conceptualized as a failure to inhibit inappropriate fear responses. … How might the cannabinoid system effect fear extinction? Collectively, translational evidence suggest that enhancing cannabinoid transmission may facilitate extinction learning and its recall, and that the cannabinoid system is a potential pharmacological target for improving the active learning that occurs during exposure-based behavioral treatments prompting future research in terms of mechanisms research, novel treatment approaches ('cognitive enhancers'), and pharmacotherapeutic drug discovery.”
Cannabinoid modulation of fear extinction brain circuits: a novel target to advance anxiety treatment.
Rabinak CA, Phan KL.
Curr Pharm Des. 2014;20(13):2212-7.
PMID: 23829364 [PubMed - in process]
Related citations

IV. Re-Homeostasis (Music Therapy/Shell Shock) and the CS
“Little is known about the therapeutic uses of music during the First World War. This historical study provides a biography of Paula Lind Ayers (1891-1974), a vocalist, actress, and YMCA Entertainer who became known as ‘the girl who could sing away shell shock.’ … Understanding Paula Lind Ayers' contribution to music therapy provides a deeper awareness of past therapeutic uses of music with soldiers who experienced shell shock. Such understanding helps shape the way we view the present conception of music therapy with veterans and how we might answer questions that will affect the future of the field.”
Paula Lind Ayers: "song-physician" for troops with shell shock during World War I.
Reschke-Hernandez AE.
J Music Ther. 2014 Fall;51(3):276-91. doi: 10.1093/jmt/thu022.
PMID: 25316916 [PubMed - in process]
Related citations

*Publius thanks Otto Snow for the science reports on PTSD and, especially, for the Keith Marker story.
~
*Ew Publishing’s Veterans Day Run continues tomorrow (Monday 10 November), with a review of Muhammad Ali’s greatest fight, Cassius Clay v. United States, by William Abens on the BWB Blog.
~
Posted by Bryan W. Brickner

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Green Sunday Homeostasis: Get Cannabinoids in Medical School

Crossroad: There are no Pilgrims on the US Supreme Court ~ A Reprise

Tool Schism: “I know the pieces fit”

Robert E. Lee’s Nemesis, the Gallant Fourteenth

Veterans Day: American Dissent and Muhammad Ali ~ An Abens Review

Publius’ PTSD Re-Homeostasis ~ A Veterans Day Update

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