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'Unique' cannabis compound reverses brain aging in mice
- hasseio 8y agoPaper: https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.4311 https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.4311 Previous discussions; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14293415 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14293415, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14583668 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14583668
- cannabisceo 8y agoDelta 9 THC is the most common compound in the cannabis plant comprising up to 35% of flower weight. Title is...strange. I was expecting to read about some minor accessory cannabinoid.
- dragonwriter 8y agoYou seem to have confused “unique” with “minor”. Delta 9 THC may be common in cannabis, but it is unique to cannabis. The title isn't weird at all. Also, delta 9 THC may be the most common cannabinoid in cannabis (well, in one of three major chemotypes), but it's not the most common compound in the cannabis plant.
- tzahola 8y agoToo bad it gives me panic attacks.
- pmoriarty 8y agoYou're most likely overdosing -- something that's very easy to accidentally do with the crazy strong pot out there these days. It's even easier to overdose for newbies who have basically no tolerance and often mistakenly think they have to smoke a full joint (or even just a full big puff of some strong pot) to get high. That's probably way, way too much. If you are willing to give it another chance, you could try finding the weakest pot you can find, then smoke the tiniest amount you can. If you feel nothing, wait a couple of days and try again, this time taking a tiny bit more. Repeat as needed until you very slowly and gradually work up to a dose that gets you very mild, positive effects, and no paranoia or other symptoms of overdose.
- tzahola 8y agoThx for the advice, but I haven’t smoke pot since 2012 (was 19 at the time), and I don’t intend to try again. The first few times I did it back then, everything was cool, but then something clicked in my brain that permanently associated pot with extreme anxiety. On one hand I’m kinda thankful that this saved me from turning into a lazy pothead in my teenage years, like some of my friends did, on the other hand it sucked being the weird guy who always passes up the spliff without takin a hit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- Erlich_Bachman 8y agoThe point is that the panic attack is most likely not due to the substance itself, but due to how you used it. The experience of others shows that it's possible to use it and not get panic attacks, even if that was the original reaction.
- farahabdi 8y agoAs someone who is weighing up right this moment whether to buy some weed to break a 37 day streak, I would consider his anxiety attacks a blessing in disguise. Smoking pot under the age of 25 years old is one of the worst habits you can have. Not only are you changing your brain chemistry at a time when it's still developing, ages 18-25 is really a time when you should be focused on developing skills & human capital. With regular pot those years will fly by in an instant with nothing to show for in terms of achievements. I love pot, but I wish I had discovered it when I'm over 30 and settled.
- hutzlibu 8y agoPossible, that his fear helped him, not to turn into a lazy pothead. But I found, pot can help you a lot figuring out what you want and get new ideas what to do - so if you then overcome the stonedness and actually do it, then it can be good around that time... Time can also fly away, working like a log on something you don't love and then you equally wasted your time.
- 8y ago
- lwansbrough 8y agoSmoke less is good advice. But also, if you’re prone to panic attacks, try giving yourself one intentionally (when you’re sober) when you feel you’re in a good environment. Learning to mentally overcome panic attacks is probably one of my greatest accomplishments in life. Now when I feel one onsetting, I can completely come down from it. The key is in remembering two things: you’re actually going to be fine, and you’re in control if you believe you’re in control.
- pmoriarty 8y agoIt sounds like you treated yourself with something like exposure therapy.[1] Using it, therapists gradually get patients used to tolerating situations and feelings they'd usually try to avoid. It's supposed to be a very effective form of treatment -- probably even more effective when done with the help of a trained professional. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_therapy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exposure_therapy
- lawlessone 8y agoHow on earth do you intentionally give yourself a panic attack?
- slfnflctd 8y agoYeah, I raised my eyebrows at that one too. I'm pretty sure I had the first one of my life recently and still am not certain what caused it. I suddenly was getting massively winded with the simplest physical activity. The only reason I didn't think it was a breathing or heart problem was that my S.O. recognized the symptoms and theorized it was anxiety. About 15 minutes after taking a beta blocker those symptoms disappeared, proving the theory correct. No idea how to re-create it and no desire to, it was kinda scary.
- rasjani 8y agoI can’t really describe the process but essentially it’s very similar way of how I learned to cope with constant nightmares which eventually led me to also learn lucid dreaming. When you realize that setting is A, and it’s most likely caused by Z, rationalize that you have dealt with same before and managing the symptoms becomes easier and eventually you don’t even notice them.
- Broken_Hippo 8y agoWith that, it can mean that it isn't right for you if it is the only thing that triggers them. If other things do it, you might be fine with weaker highs so long as you get the underlying anxiety treated and learn to get some control when you notice a panic attack coming on. Similar things happen with other drugs as well. Ibuprofen is pretty safe for most people to take from time to time, for example, but a few folks are allergic to it. Some folks cannot drink with their physical health problems. And perhaps we'll be able to find strains for folks like you once we are better able to research this stuff. I'm pretty sure finding a strain fit for folks like you would be a major benefit to a company selling it for recreational use... assuming legality for recreational use, that is.
- arpa 8y agoI have been smoking for some ten years, and a few years back i started becoming afraid of getting high. It's no help that my country is ridiculously behind the times - you can get up to eight years in prison just for having cannabis on you, regardless of amount (and hey, we're in the EU, who would have thought!) - but the thing is that it really becomes very easy to go on a very unpleasant tangent, start overthinking, overanalysing, worrying and finally panicking about things - and my "panic pony" is my job. Once I start thinking about it, it's almost always a guarantee of a bad experience. So I started getting "afraid of getting afraid", and significantly cut down my cannabis use to, well, near zero: I still use it socially maybe once a year or two. However, even though I am a very occasional user, I found that anxiolytics such as xanax in small doses offset the paranoia pretty well. Also, edibles are much more mellow in my experience - you are not just "thrown" into the state, but rather edged into it, and it gives you better control. oh and also, as with all psychedelics - set and setting are very, very, very important. well that's my story.
- ssijak 8y agoI just don't like anything with 'stoned' effect. Pot, too much alcohol, ketamine.. I can`t find the point in being stoned or to lower my thinking capabilities. Stronger opiates I would never ever try because there is no point besides running away from some problem that should be confronted. With the help of psychedelics maybe? :)
- manmal 8y agoCannabidiol then? Extracts usually have less than 1% of THC content, and its effects are downright marvelous. I doubt though that the effect on the brain is comparable to the one the OP study observed..
- jackric 8y agoMy experience is not lowered thinking abilities, but different thinking abilities. If you conceptualize thinking as traversing a graph of thoughts, 'uppers' enhance depth-first traversal, THC enhances breadth-first traversal. This can be a useful mode for generating ideas.
- sieabahlpark 8y agoWhat type of mix even is that?
- thecupisblue 8y agoGood one IMO. Well, depends on the strain of the weed. Indica opens up the localhost and I get to explore a lot and introspect. Sativa's focus me on one thing and I roll my brain all around that thing's area and can produce a ton of code. Other uppers get me thinking about something in depth. Uppers and electronic music in a crowd at 3-4 AM get me focused more than anything.
- vlan0 8y ago>Sativa's focus me on one thing and I roll my brain all around that thing's area and can produce a ton of code. I can relate to this. Pure sativa and some sativa leaning hybrids have a very similar effect to adderall when treating my ADD.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- orbifold 8y agoI‘ve only had three experiences with cannabis and one was while in Amsterdam sitting on the side of a canal. I was completely taken by the birds flying overhead, following their flight with unusual concentration. I feel like since then I still have a somewhat milder interest for birds flight.
- eddd 8y agoTo me THC helps to find relations between concepts. I can think of any problem from a completely different angle. But, 1. I have to take notes to be able to go back to the line of reasoning. 2. Almost all of the concepts are garbage, but the remaining ones, are the best I've ever had. So, THC helps to start with an idea, but delivering value from that idea requires being sober.
- utexaspunk 8y agoMy experience is similar- It makes me fascinated by things and creative in a way that I was when I was a child. It's like it turns off a part of my brain which years of experience has taught to filter out many ideas before they even reach my conscious mind. Mostly hare-brained ideas, but interesting ones nonetheless, and in entertaining them sometimes something brilliant comes out.
- Erlich_Bachman 8y agoBTW, you can achieve this permanently with deep spiritual work and most importantly, meditation. Shinzen Young talks about the different experiments they are now starting to perform with deep practitioners of Zen Buddhism (but other schools can likely achieve the same effect). In one of them they are measuring a certain specific response in the brain, which for a normal person happens when they hear a new unexpected stimuli, like a sudden loud bird chirp outside. For a normal person, if this same stimuli is repeated, the "novelty" response in the brain dampens after 2-3 repetitions, and each subsequent chirp is not registering in their brain in the same way. For them it becomes something old. But when they measure a meditating practitioner in the same way - they exhibit the novelty response unlimited number of times, each time a chirp is played. It is like each time it happens - for them it's like a completely new experience.
- YeGoblynQueenne 8y agoIf progress in technology continues at this pace, in a few years we will be able to indefinitely extend the life of mice.
- jobigoud 8y agoSo… The first immortal mice might have already been born. Imagine being a mouse living forever in a small glass box in a longevity museum.
- someguy101010 8y agoSounds horrible to live forever in a glass box
- philbarr 8y agoDepends how stoned you are.
- derEitel 8y agoOne shouldn't linearly extrapolate science.
- mberger 8y agoIndeed. One would exponentially extrapolate science.
- thefounder 8y agoWe still don't have flying cars....so I would't bet that much on the tech progress. Maybe in 100+ years we will get something close but I doubt we will discover immortality any time soon.
- kaybe 8y agoIt's called a helicopter. Turns out it's very impractical and wasteful for everyday use.
- wanderfowl 8y agoIt feels like we're heading into the Hype Cycle [1] with cannabis-derived treatments/products/cures, with waves of legalization serving as the classical 'technology trigger'. I say that mostly because, although this is a solid study with interesting conclusions, 'Cannabis does [amazing thing!]' articles are getting more and more common and mainstream, and I think people are primed to accept them, for want of cures and treatments, for desire to justify existing habits (c.f. the now discredited red wine health studies [2]), and because 'medicine with all these great effects was kept down by the powers!' is a great narrative. Mostly, I'm finding myself mostly curious what, in 15 years, we'll know these compounds are actually good for, and steeling myself for a lot of bullshit and bad science in the meantime. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hype_cycle [2]: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/red-wine-researcher-implicated-misconduct/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/red-wine-research...