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A Plant with Potential: Cannabis

Cannabis can be a very controversial topic when discussed in most western countries. It is classified as a class 1 illegal substance in most and some people consider it to be degrading to society and hold it to the same standard as any illegal drug such as heroin, ecstasy, etc. . Resulting in the socially acknowledged supersticion of the harmful nature of cannabis.

Cannabis, unlike other well known illegal drugs, was a very common crop grown for medicine, recreational use, and for hemp which is still used to make certain fabrics. There are very famous historical figures, such as US President George Washington, that used to grow their own cannabis. And maybe  you would think that it became illegal due to its toxic properties?

Wrong! Unlike other known hard drugs, the neural interactions with THC (active component that gets people ‘high’) are no different than neural interactions with our own neuro-active chemicals. Whereas other hard drugs have the potential of permanently harming the neuroreceptors, causing irreversible damage. The other most known cannabis produced chemical is CBD which does not even result in a so called ‘high’. Its only affects are stress reduction and pain relief without any other side affects.

Or maybe people were overdosing too much due to cannabis?

Wrong again! The amount of cannabis that would need to be consumed by an adult to die of over consumption of its products was calculated. One would need to consume 1500 kg of cannabis flowers, or buds, within 15 minutes. Not only is this a physical impossibility, but it is easier die of water over consumption than of cannabis. So how this “drug” has become considered worse than alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and prescription drugs such as painkillers remains a mystery to me.

The large variety of medicinally relevant products this plant produces is astounding. The legality issue, however, prevents most universities and laboratories from studying this interesting plant. It has so much to offer and could lead to helping thousands of people that suffer from neural or muscular conditions.

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Advancing Science through Brewing

The production of beer dates back to the Babylonians. During this time period, most of the brewing process was still unknown to brewers, and it almost seemed as if the transformation from a sweet, sugary liquid to an alcoholic carbonated beverage was magical. Later on, Louis Pasteur (the father of modern biochemistry) figured out that brewing is mixture of biochemical reactions, controlled by microorganism that metabolize grain sugars. Ever since the ground breaking discoveries of Louis Pasteur, science has contributed significantly to the quality and growth of the brewing industry. And to the same degree, studies related to brewing have contributed to the fields of microbiology, biochemistry, and genetics.

A modern day brewery looks more like a biotechnology lab than anything else. Using large stainless steel fermenters connected to pressure gauges and even computers, and micro-pipettes, etc. modern brewing techniques are based on highly scientific methods to study all of beer’s raw ingredients. Newly developed methods used for compound analysis of oils and esters found in hops (which create a variety of fruity, floral, and spicy aromas and flavors in beer) can now also be used on other plants, leading to multiple discoveries of many more compounds that could have uses in today’s society. The study on enzymatic activity within the malted grains created the basis for all other enzymatic studies to follow. These enzymatic studies have laid the entire foundation for modern medicine. Gene expression and control within eukaryotic organisms (Humans are eukaryotic organisms) was first studied in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as baker’s yeast or beer yeast and now serves as a model for basic human gene expression and control. And by the reintroduced art of making spontaneously fermented beers such as belgian lambic beers, new organisms are consistently being discovered. Many of these contain previously unknown biochemical properties that might prove to be useful in different fields for the years to come.

The future for all biochemistry based sciences is promising. The new significant contributions made by the brewing industry every year push the entire field closer to its potential.

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Fighting Fibromyalgia through Dieting

Considering that everything in our body was build from something we ate, once upon time, means that we can control everything that will happen to our bodies by merely taking full control over what we ingest. This implies that whether you want to lose weight, or improve the health of your skin, it can all be tweaked and manipulated to get the results you desire. Within certain boundaries of course.  

This forms the base on which professor Silvia Lattanzio’s suggested treatment for the remission of Fibromyalgia symptoms is based on. In her paper “Fibromyalgia Syndrome: A Metabolic Approach Grounded in Biochemistry for the Remission of Symptoms” she discusses the theory that all symptoms related to this chronic illness come down to low production levels of serotonin across different tissues. This suggests that the problem lies with the uptake of all molecular building blocks to make serotonin. She stipulates that due to the significant correlation between Fibromyalgia symptoms and fructose malabsorption, that a build-up of this strongly reducing sugar, fructose, prevents the essential amino acid tryptophan (the single building block of serotonin) from being absorbed in their blood streams in sufficient amounts.

A reaction named the Maillard reaction occurs between a high concentration of fructose and tryptophan in the small intestine. This will keep tryptophan away from it’s transporters while it remains dissolved in a chemical complex with these sugars. And because people that suffer from fructose malabsorption can’t absorb any free fructose due to a mutation in their fructose transporter proteins, even small amounts of fructose will build up over time and cause this reaction.

This is why she suggest a fructose-free diet, and a high tryptophan intake to push the disturbed equilibrium towards a higher absorption rate of tryptophan, which will then be followed by a higher production of serotonin and the remission of symptoms. I truly believe that by merely understanding these processes better regarding all diseases and illnesses these types of treatments will be the future of healing, because they are simple, non-invasive, and relatively cheap compared to their pharmaceutical counterparts.