Marijuana and…menopause?
I was intrigued when a colleague of mine sent me research galleys of a new paper he’s co-authored. The subject matter? Confirmation that marijuana has potentially been used for medicinal purposes for centuries.
The new research, published online in the advanced edition of the Journal of Experimental Botany,* focuses on the contents of a 2700 year old grave found in the Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region in China. The grave reportedly belonged to a shaman of the Gushi clan. The current study expanded on earlier research to confirm the botanical, photochemical and genetic characteristics of the agent, and that it contained psychoactive components, thereby clarifying how it was likely used.
So, why is this important and what does it have to do with menopause anyhow?
Regular readers of this blog know that I am a huge proponent of integrative medicine, i.e. combining the best of western and eastern medicine to come up with an effective therapeutic approach. In fact, I’ve written numerous posts on the value of Chinese medicine to women in menopause who are looking for alternative strategies for their symptoms.
And so, this research lends further proof that herbal medicine has been practiced for centuries and for good reason: it works. Not for everybody (what drug does?) and not all the time and clearly, careful selection of standardized products is essential, as is consulting with a practitioner certified in herbal medicine. I provide links on this site to a few organizations where you can delve deeper into these alternative paths.
Personally, I would be thrilled if researchers discovered that cannabis can be effectively used to treat menopausal symptoms. But in the interim, I am happy to report that it has been shown to be effective in relieving the pain of migraines, reducing involuntary muscle contractions associated with multiple sclerosis and of course, calming nausea in people undergoing chemotherapy.
For critics who say that smoking a drug counteracts all of its potential benefits, I say, take a look at what GW pharmaceuticals is doing with their oral spray, Sativex.
Sativex removes the psychoactive components or cannabinoids and leaves the therapeutic form intact. Thus far, well designed clinical trials have shown it to be effective for pain of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and nerve or neuropathic conditions.
So I salute Dr. Ethan Russo and his Chinese colleagues Hong-En Jiang, Xiao Li and others, for their dedication and hard work and a wonderful paper.
Thank you for furthering proof that there is and has always been a place for alternative strategies.
*Note – this has not yet been posted in the online edition of the journal. Full citation is:
Russo EB, Jiang HE, Li X et al. Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis
from Central Asia. J Experim Bot. doi:10.1093/jxb/ern260.
Abstract:
The Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, Xinjiang-Uighur
Autonomous Region, China have recently been excavated
to reveal the 2700-year-old grave of a Caucasoid
shaman whose accoutrements included a large cache
30 of cannabis, superbly preserved by climatic and burial
conditions. A multidisciplinary international team demonstrated
through botanical examination, phytochemical
investigation, and genetic deoxyribonucleic acid
analysis by polymerase chain reaction that this mate-
35 rial contained tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive
component of cannabis, its oxidative degradation
product, cannabinol, other metabolites, and its synthetic
enzyme, tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase,
as well as a novel genetic variant with two single
40 nucleotide polymorphisms. The cannabis was presumably
employed by this culture as a medicinal or
psychoactive agent, or an aid to divination. To our
knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest
documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically
active agent, and contribute to the medical and 45
archaeological record of this pre-Silk Road culture.
Key words: Archaeology, botany, cannabis, cannabinoids,
archaeobotany, ethnopharmacology,
Vote!
One of the most beautiful things about being a woman in mid-life is that we have seen how a single action can effect change.
Today, I am encouraging you to vote! Our suffragette sisters are depending on us to get out to the polls and touch the screen, pull down the lever or fill in the ballot.
Every action has a reaction. We’re on the precipice of history today!
Read MoreTrick or…
Today’s Halloween! A wonderful day to eat candy, admire costumes, and… bitch about the shaft that women are getting when it comes to healthcare premiums?
Okay, guess that you didn’t have that particular goal in mind today. But I do have a rant so I’m going to go there in the spirit of goblins and witches and spirits, oh my. Because what’s Halloween without a good-spirited spook?
I read an article yesterday describing the large disparities in health insurance payments between the genders. In fact, across the board, women are being forced to pay higher premiums, sometimes as much as a third more than men of the same age. The reason why? Insurers say that women use healthcare more, especially during childbearing years. But the rub? Most of these policies don’t cover maternal care and in fact, charge extra for that coverage.
As we grow older, insurance rates tend to rise. Clearly, the majority of older people require more visits to the doctor, more medications and more procedures. But this means that the disparity only continues to grow, even though theoretically, men and women are both using healthcare services, perhaps in equal numbers.
I am not an expert in this area nor do I have any solutions. But I wonder when the gender gap is going to be bridged?
Any thoughts, suggestions or tricks up your sleeve to solve this problem? BTW…this post is cross-posted on Bitchybetty.org, a great site for supporting your rants and bitches. If you haven’t visited BitchyBetty or another fav, Bitchbuzz, do stop by and support those sites!
Read MorePerfect Sunday…and now for something completely different
Part of the fun of being a blogger is knowing other like-minded souls, like my favorite sister-in-law Blanche. And silly blogger games like “tag.” So, I am writing this in honour of youthful days of yore. (BTW, check out the end of the post for some menopause-related questions.)
Blanche -this one’s for you.
And for you, dear readers who don’t know me personally, here’s a bit of insight into Flashfree.
Instructions:
A) Answer the questions below, do a Google Image search with your answer, take a picture from the first page of results, and do it with minimal words of explanation.
B) Tag 5 other people to do the same once you’ve finished answering every question.
The age you will be on your next birthday
Your favorite place that you want to travel to (I’m interpreting this as my favorite place)
Your favorite Food
Your favorite pet
Your favorite colour combination
Your favorite piece of clothing
First name of your significant other
NA at the moment.
The Town in Which you Live
Bad Habit
Worst Fear
What you’d like to do before you die
I’m breaking the rules. Because I always do. So, I’m only tagging Amy.
This exercise, albeit a bit silly, got me thinking. What are the big questions that would spark some change in ourselves?
1) Thing that disappoints me?
2) Thing that most feeds my soul?
3) One person in the world I know that I can always depend on?
4) One thing I’d do the change the world?
5) Thing that challenges me the most?
Read MoreLadies of the world, flashers, sweat-ers, mood swingers…
Lend me your ears….you have your own DAY! In the U.S. we give you a month. But the world gives you a day!
If you don’t know what I’m yammering on about, yesterday was World Menopause Day. I posted this rant over at BitchBuzz after Editor Cate Sevilla sent me a link to a press release announcing that Waterstone Books was carrying the Hot Flush Diary.
Last month was National Menopause Month in the U.S. Now, the ‘world of women in menopause’ actually has a day. I swear if it weren’t abundantly clear that the initiative was likely being driven by national medicine societies and pharmaceutical companies, I’d suspect that Hallmark and PaperHouse had conspired to sell more cards.
Here’s the challenge issued by the International Menopause Society (IMS):
“The World Menopause Day challenge therefore calls on every woman age 45 and older to return to her physician and speak about her individual health history, her risks for diseases, the benefits and risks of available treatments for disease prevention, and steps she can take now to take charge of her health.”
President Hermann Schneider of the IMS also says:
“Due to the recent publications on the risks of long-term use of hormone therapy, many women suffering from menopausal complaints have either dropped out of therapy or haven’t started therapy at all.”
Okay. I truly believe that it’s a great idea to take charge of one’s health and examine some of the natural changes that occur, not only with menopause, but also with aging. But by lumping them all together in a single pot, well, I cry “foul.”
Did you know that many diseases that the medical community has long associated with menopause are, in fact, due to the aging process? You may recall that I recently wrote about a new study published in the Journal of Hypertension clearly demonstrates that differences in heart disease risk between pre- and post-menopausal women with similar risk profiles existed only when age, NOT ESTROGEN LEVELS, were accounted for. This may be why hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has not been proven to prevent heart disease.
So, until they sort some of these bits out, do we really want to fault women for refusing hormone replacement? Moreover, how many women wish to make a pact with the devil to further the medicalization of menopause? Not I!
Here’s what I propose:
- To the IMS and other medical societies – stop medicalizing what is a natural transition in our mid-lives. Hey, here’s a nifty idea: why not review your data, read alternative medicine peer-reviewed journals and educate yourselves about effective alternative therapies for your patients who have been scared off by the negative findings surrounding HRT and antidepressants and other pharmaceuticals? What’s more, what if you made a greater effort to embrace multidisciplinary collaboration and invite educated and credentialed alternative practitioners into your fold, practitioners who might be able to offer you and your patients important solutions when Western ways fail or are simply, impractical?
- To the World Health Organization – please stop telling us to celebrate the menopause. Trust me – when women are flashing in the middle of a meeting, sweat pouring down their faces as their colleagues look on, or are sleeping on soaking wet sheets because of night sweats, well, they don’t really feel like having a cocktail and a “WOOT,” ain’t life grand”-sort of celebration. Maybe, instead, think about devoting some of that hard research cash toward studies that focus first on women and last on profit.
- To leading women’s health expert and Council Member of the British Menopause Society, Mr. Nick Panay, a Hot Flush Diary is the last thing I want to keep on my nightstand. In fact, the idea of taking notes on all of my hot flashes and night sweats and when/why/how they occur and how they make feel gets me pretty hot under the collar. Tell you what: the next time you have to pee for the zillionth time in the middle of the night, turn on the light and write in your BPH journal how you feel. I would guess that that’s not going to happen, right?
Want to “make this hot woman cool?” Stop making me feel as though menopause is a disease and not a natural transition that all women go through. Stop telling me that I should embrace this part of my life without fighting it every step of the way. And please, stop treating my body as if it’s disconnected from my mind.
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Irritable Male Syndrome
[Marianna Schmidt, Angry Man, 1986]
We now interrupt our regularly scheduled program to….
Turns out that your angry male partner/friend/husband is not in male menopause afterall. At least according to psychotherapist Jed Diamond, whose book, ‘Male Menopause’ caused quite a stir when it was first published in 1998.
So, is your guy suffering from IMS?
IMS is a term used to describe a state in which men of any age become hypersensitive and angry, theoretically as a result of biochemical changes, hormone fluctuations (namely testosterone), stress, and sense of loss of male identity. With regards to hormone fluctuations specifically, Dr. Diamond explains in an interview featured on WebMD, that:
- testosterone levels can increase and decrease as many as five times an hour
- testosterone levels are higher in the morning and lower at night
- men have monthly cycles that vary from man to man but are trackable using mood changes as a guide
- between the ages of 40 and 55, men go through male andropause syndrome, with declining androgen levels that affect sexual desire, function and overall quality of health. Notably, some research suggests that this is debatable).
IMS evidently rears its head as depression or worse, anger, hostility and violence directed towards another person. And Dr. Diamond says that until men overcome their denial and attributing their feelings to outside causes, they can’t overcome the problem.
I did a quick search on PubMed to see if any of Dr. Diamond’s research has been published. I didn’t find anything. However, I did stumble across his website, where he encourages guys to take a quiz to determine if they’re suffering from IMS, and women, to sign up for an interactive program called “AliveGuide.”
IMS…is it real? Or simply another way to sell books? What’s more, what can your guy do about it? Dr. Diamond recommends recognition and communication, among other self-help steps.
What do you think? Men – are you suffering from IMS or know someone who is? What steps are you taking to help yourself? Women – does your guy/friend/partner have IMS?
I’d love to hear more!
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