Stoner News; Cannabis And Blindness
There are many illnesses that cannabis assists with and even cures. With new studies being introduced every day that prove the healing benefits of the plant, it’s hard to deny the healing capabilities it provides. Recently, it has been discovered that cannabis consumption may actually assist with blindness. The reason that the plant helps to prevent blindness in patients is directly related to tetrahydrocannabinol consumption, which has the ability to slow down the advancement of a genetic eye condition that leads to loss of vision, sometimes completely.
This new information comes from a study published by researchers at the University of Alicante, located in Spain. The study’s finding resulted in the discovery that THC specifically has the potential to fight the disease mentioned above, the name of which is retinitis pigmentosa. Affecting one out of every 4,000 citizens in the United States (according to the US National Library of Medicine), this disease causes the degeneration of the cells in the retina, causing the sufferer to experience extreme issues with their eyesight and sometimes even causing permanent blindness.
Retinitis pigmentosa has no cure as of right now but due to the finding of the researchers at the University, they are saying that THC might be a valid treatment for those who are dealing with this retinal degeneration. The study included injecting rats who had been infected with the disease with a synthetic THC compound. Within 90 days of the start of the treatment, Dr. Nicolas Cuenca said that his team found that the rats who had been injected with the synthetic THC had 40% more photoreceptors then rats that didn’t receive the same injections. Dr. Cuenca went on to say that the data they acquired definitely suggests that cannabinoids can be used to postpone the advancement of retinitis pigmentosa, hopefully saving some people their vision when dealing with this disease. More studies must be done of course, before cannabis can be proven to fight this affliction.