A toke a day keeps memory loss at bay

[Fumesucker]

http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/itsonlyfair/globe00.html

Turns out a few dances with Mary Jane can do wonders for an aging brain.

Yes, a daily toke in later-middle and old age can help slow memory loss, or the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis, a new study suggests.

(...)

Prof. Wenk, who presented the research in Washington, yesterday at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, was motivated to look into the effects of marijuana on aging brains after repeatedly noticing the drug mentioned on the blogs of patients with MS who use it to curb pain. Memory impairment is connected to such chronic brain inflammation.

More at the link.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. I ought to be covered for a couple lifetimes then.

:)

[shadowknows69]

11. You and me both

[dysfunctional press]

2. how about a couple hundred or so tokes a day?

:shrug:

[shadowknows69]

12. There must be a plateau you reach

Otherwise I'd be having other people's memories too lol. Wait, actually. Never mind, probably just schizophrenia.

[reggie the dog]

42. are we talking tokes of schwag, kind or hash????

[dysfunctional press]

51. homegrown...

done right. :hippie:

[reggie the dog]

54. ah, the best

not necessarily the strongest, but the best tasting.


Pretty much all the grass I get here in France comes from friends growing it in their gardens or closets. The hash comes from north Africa.

[madokie]

3. Well its settled then

I'll keep up with my present habit

[rateyes]

4. Somebody must have stolen my stash...

I have CRS. Can't Remember Shit.

[live love laugh]

5. I thought marijuana KILLED brain cells. How can this be? nt

[Lifetimedem]

6. It is a demotivater

I think more than killing brain cells. Old folks do not need to be motivated.

[Fumesucker]

7. Not necessarily..

The list of famous and accomplished people who also toke up is quite long and would be a lot longer if there were no stigma attached to admitting to pot use.

[Ian David]

9. I think NASCAR would be more fun if all the drivers were high.

Right now, I think it's backward, because it's the spectators who are high.

"Oh, wow... another left turn..."

[Fumesucker]

10. Eh, I recall when the Olympic snowboarder was accused of using a "performance enhancing drug"

When he tested positive for pot.

[Ian David]

28. And the Jamaican Bobsled Team. n/t

[Alter Ego]

32. "Car 24, are you all right?"

"The COLORS, dude. THE FUCKING COLORS!"

[reggie the dog]

44. far out man

[Le Taz Hot]

25. OMG! You did NOT say that!

First: Pot does not kill brain cells and you will not be able to find a LEGITIMATE study that states anywhere near that.

Second: There is no evidence that pot is a "demotivator" (not a word, btw). In fact, it helps motivate most people to get through the more mundane tasks in life, like housework or laundry.

Third: What the FUCK does "old folks do not need to be motivated" mean????? At exactly what age should us "old folks" choose to retire to our rocking chair? 35? 40? I got news for you, there, Sparky, the boomers ARE the old folks and we're not going anywhere. We're RE-DEFINING what being old means and it's not playing shuffleboard. Word for you of little mind: "The times they are a-changing" and we're STILL making that change. And you? Oh yeah, you helped elected a president so you can rest now. :eyeroll:

Honey, I've been on DU since 2001 and I've seen some incredibly stupid posts but yours has to be the stupidest.

[Ian David]

29. Pot DOES cause Man-Boobs though.

[Le Taz Hot]

37. . . .

Speak for yourself, girly man. :P

[Fumesucker]

47. The "before" pic was when Ahhnold was toking...

Now he isn't, to the best of my knowledge.

[Rebubula]

33. As someone...

...that smokes every day...it DOES zap motivation. I have to get my housework out of the way before I smoke or nothing gets done - except raiding the pantry and playing Madden 09 all day.

Of course, that is just my anecdotal evidence gleaned from smoking for 30 years. Other's experience may vary.

But...you do get points for being abrasive, arrogant and patronizing in your response.

[Le Taz Hot]

36. And as someone who has smoked pot everyday for

30 years, I managed to get 2 college degrees and VERY good jobs. My guess is that you were a couch potato after smoking pot you would have been a couch potato anyway. Of course, that is just my anecdotal evidence gleaned from smoking for 30 years.

And, LTH "abrasive, arrogant and patronizing?" You're new, aren't you? :evilgrin:

[reggie the dog]

45. 16 years smoking

and I usually smoke BEFORE I do my chores because I can zone out and do them without thinking about it. I am about to do some ironing now and am about to hit up the hash first.

[OnionPatch]

27. That is not true with a whole lot of people.

Sure, there are those who do nothing but lay on the couch with munchies watching re-runs when they smoke but I've actually known more people who say it makes them feel enthusiastic and eager to do something creative. I am in this category. It does not demotivate me. Just the opposite.

[reggie the dog]

43. sativa versus indica

pure sativa grows really tall, think 1O to even 20 feet tall, yest 20 feet tall, so it is hard to grow for mass production because it is so big and so hard to hide and also hard to grow indoors. Indica is smaller, easier to grow inside, and usually harvests earlier than sativa which gererally harvests in the end of November or in December (I know Durban Poison harvests in September but it is an exception.

At any rate sativa is more like a mind racing high when you smoke it makes you want to get up and do something. Great for hiking or biking.

Indica more glues you to the chair you are in and makes you kind of feel like gravity is pulling you down.

In other words Sativa makes you high, indica makes you stoned.

[Richard Steele]

55. As usual, thanks for offering Ronald Reagan's opinion on a given subject.

nm

[shadowknows69]

13. That would be alcohol

I'll put a lifetime smoker up against a lifetime drinker on Jeopardy any day. My money is on the stoner.

[Alpharetta]

15. "wasted" Jeopardy

sounds like must-see TV to me.

The drinker has to down 3 shots per round. The smoker has to do 3 bonghits per round.

compelling drama!

[shadowknows69]

17. I'd tune in

Except the alcohol industry would never allow it. Every third contestant would probably end up drinking themselves right into a hospital or morgue. Bad PR.

[trotsky]

20. Nonsense.

Cliff Claven put it best:

"Well ya see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

"In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first.

"In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

;-)

[shadowknows69]

22. In that case, I used to have genius level hangovers.

[wildbilln864]

34. actually it causes braincell growth!

Here's a study that found it did.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8155
and
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/21/thread21191.shtml
:smoke:

[Ian David]

8. Their paper was originally rejected for publication because of the chocolate stains. n/t

[Ganja Ninja]

14. If one toke can do all that imagine what smoking a half dozen joints

a day will do. :smoke:

[Uben]

16. I can remember stuff I never knew!

Wow! Now that is some good smoke!

[HamdenRice]

18. Actually, it just makes you forget that you were supposed to remember stuff

or not give a shit.

[tom_paine]

19. Seems like only part of the story.

I am not qualified to judge the veracity of the research...I haven't read the research paper.

But, even if I read and agreed with the paper's conclusions, thinking it was a likely-true hypothesis, the idea that pot doesn't screw with memory PRIOR to middle- and old-age is missing from the dialogue (it doesn't belong in the research paper, but in our asnalysis of it and how it relates to the bigger picture).

Again, this is not to dismiss the research. If it is verifiable, repeatable, and is properly designed, then at least twice reconfirmed, it is valid. But I imagine it is only a small part of the picture of how marijuana affects memory and brain function overall.

[Fumesucker]

21. Pot will effect your short term memory while you are actually stoned..

But I know quite a few long time stoners with excellent long term memories.

Keep in mind that the DFH contingent has been almost completely right about the direction our country has been heading in for forty years or more and the ones who hate the DFH contingent worse than anyone have been almost totally wrong.

You don't rack up a record of being almost totally correct by having poor long term memory, or poor reasoning skills.

[tom_paine]

24. Well, you'll notice I didn't say anything like what you ascribe to me.

Plus, with all due respect, your final statement is a logical fallacy, and "appeal to authority".

If I didn't buy that fallacy from the Bushies, I can't buy that from anyone else, either.

All I said was that this is one small portion of a larger story. I'm not condemning pot, either, not even close. It is not in a class with the other, hard, drugs. It is in a class with beer, closer to.

So, I am not arguing that matijuana is evil or anything. But I think to wave this study around and suggest that it's overall GOOD for brain functions (I don't believe that research has been established that might shed more light on the Big Picture of marijuana-brain interactions yet) is premature and the kind of weak-minded incident-based thinking (as opposed to scientific-thinking) that we excoriate the Freepers for, and correctly so.

Peace. We mostly agree.

[Fumesucker]

26. Where did I "ascribe" anything to you?

Quotes please..

And pot and alcohol aren't even remotely comparable, heroin is a far more benign drug of abuse than alcohol in a situation where both are pure and legal.

I appealed to no authority either, I just pointed out that the DFH contingent has been almost entirely correct and those that hate them have been almost entirely incorrect, no authority involved at all.

[tom_paine]

39. Quote, though perhaps upon further reflection I am bandying semantics:

Pot will effect your short term memory while you are actually stoned..
But I know quite a few long time stoners with excellent long term memories.

Yes, perhaps I was bandying semantics in a mostly irrelevant way when I thought that I never mentioned long-term vs. short-term memory.

And yes, your comment about DFH is a logical fallacy of the Appeal to Authority, whether you like it or not.

http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/appeal-to-authority.html

In this case, DFH is the "authority" you are appealing to.

They were correct before, therefore they must be correct now.

Actually, now that I look at it, it is a fusion of fallacies, combining Appeal to Authority and one of the others that more closely encapsulates the second italicized comment, which I can't remember which of them it is off the top of my head.

look, I don't want to fight with you. I mostly agree with you.

I also stand by my contention that this research, if it is valid, is only one piece of a much larger Big Picture regarding marijuana-brain interaction. I also agree with you that alcohol is in many ways more addictive and trouble-causing than marijuana, overall. I was merely pointing out the similarity that millions of people enjoy both social-levels of use of marijuana and beer without wrecking their lives.

I doubt the same could be said for millions doing coke, crack, and heroin, using at social levels and not destroting their lives. That's all I meant.

Peace.

[Fumesucker]

46. You misunderstood my argument..

My argument is not that DFHs are correct about pot, my argument is that DFHs have remembered history more accurately and used better logic in the past than have their opponents, therefore it is hard to believe that their memory and logical faculties are greatly impaired by pot.

We have certainly repeated history to a big extent and as Santayana said, those who do not remember the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.

[undeterred]

23. But I want to forget the Bush administration

as quickly as possible.

[EnviroBat]

30. Who is casting asparagus?

Wait, I forgot what this story is about.

[Alter Ego]

31. I thought it was the other way around--I know my college roommates

suddenly forgot everything around them after rolling a joint.

[retread]

35. Uh. What was the question? n/t

[wildbilln864]

38. related...

http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=765
"COLUMBUS, Ohio – The more research they do, the more evidence Ohio State University scientists find that specific elements of marijuana can be good for the aging brain by reducing inflammation there and possibly even stimulating the formation of new brain cells."

[Gidney N Cloyd]

40. Damn, I keep clicking on this same thread...

[seemslikeadream]

41. Thank God

now where did I leave that baggie

[Uncle Joe]

48. Works for me. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

49. Works for me. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

50. Works for me. n/t

[dysfunctional press]

52. then why can't i find my @#!*ing KEYS!?!?

:banghead:

[3dogday]

53. I can't find my pipe n/t

[machI]

56. Marijuana exercises the brain, a little a day will keep a person sharp