A fun new development – marijuana is apparently a potent drug in preventing osteoporosis in the elderly. This is exactly what we need. An army of thick-boned pot-smoking senior citizens roaming the alleys, sticking flowers in people’s guns like they did in the 60’s or something. I think it would be a great publicity stunt for whatever company can use that kind of scene in selling its wares, perhaps a denture adhesive company.
The research was conducted at University of Edinburgh, where they also found, to the horror of young people who are, incidentally, much more likely to actually smoke pot, that smoking actually weakens the bones of the young.
The question likely percolating in your mind now is, How did they test this out? Did they pay a control group of 10 old people to smoke pot and then whack their legs with mini-sledgehammers and see what happens? Well, close, but pretty far. They actually just gave mice a compound similar to marijuana, though it would have been much cooler if they gave them tiny little doobies. The technical difficulties involved in teaching mice how to smoke up probably prevented this course of action from being taken.
Here’s the science. Researchers have known that bone development is affected when cannabinoid receptor type 1 (a good name for a robot, incidentally) comes in contact with cannabis. The Edinburgh team has discovered that the effect of this blessed union depends on the age of the user.
In the young mice with the receptor, the compounds increased the rate of bone destruction. With older mice, their bone loss decreased and accumulation of bone fat was prevented.
Stuart Ralston, Professor of Rheumatology at the university, cautioned that while the results were positive, there was still a lot to learn before anything gets prescribed by your local doctor, saying that the ideal way forward would be to develop a cannabis-like drug that did not have the same psychotropic effects, or in other words, get you high.
FA! British rheumatologists. They always take the fun out of medical innovation.
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