Sweet Jesus: Study shows 'one toke over the line' helps lower risk of prostate cancer.

But what about Tommy Chong?

By Howard Wolinsky

Beware: The U.S. government still warns about the dangers of marijuana use.

The states take a more relaxed approach to medical and recreational ganja.

A bit of fear of MJ and “Reefer Madness,” the 1930s marijuana scare movie, lives on.

Now researchers from major centers have found that a history of MJ use may prevent or suppress prostate cancer.

I don’t know what the researchers may have been smoking when they did this research.

However, they found that a history of cannabis use helped reduce the prevalence of prostate cancer.

I have heard a lot about pain relief in patients with more advanced prostate and other cancers and diseases.

Researchers from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida evaluated the relationship between cannabis consumption and prostate cancer in a nationally representative cohort of 2,503 participants. 

Investigators reported that subjects between the ages of 50 and 64 who identified as either current or former cannabis consumers had a significantly lower risk of prostate cancer diagnoses. Scientists suggested that this finding provides “biological support for the anti-cancer effects of the constituents of marijuana.”

Check out Brewer & Shipley’s 1971 tune:

NORML, the group that fought a long battle to legalize recreational and medical marijuana, noted that preclinical trials have documented the ability of cannabinoids to inhibit cancer cell growth.

AnCan Foundation points out that Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s herbal database includes cannabis information, including a couple of drug interactions you may want to know about... like Warfarin/Coumadin, Valium, and Sudafed.

Now let’s mention a famed pothead who was very public about his prostate cancer: MJ proponent and comedian Tommy Chong, 86, of the famed Cheech and Chong duo.

Chong announced his diagnosis in 2012. It sounds like he’s a rare celebrity on Active Surveillance willing to go public.

“I’ve got prostate cancer, and I’m treating it with hemp oil, with cannabis,” he told CNN’s Don Lemon. “So (legalizing marijuana) means a lot more to me than just being able to smoke a joint without being arrested.”

Chong described the cancer “as a slow stage one (that I’ve) had for a long time.” He said that he was drug-free for about three years, during which time he began having prostate-related problems.

(Michael Richards, of Seinfeld fame, in his new book, makes Stage 1 seem like being at death’s door and that he had eight months to live. Did Richards hype a low-grade cancer to sell a book? )

But Chong got it right.

He viewed cannabis as the cure not the cause of his cancer.

“So I know it had nothing to do with cannabis,” he said. “Cannabis is a cure.”

Unfortunately, Chong’s story got more complicated in 2015 when he was diagnosed with rectal cancer.

I asked Chong for an interview so maybe we can get down in the weeds on his medical history.

Total eclipse of the heart and prostate: ASPI seminar on June 22

By Howard Wolinsky

Kevin T. McVary, MD, FACS, is a professor of urology and director of the Center of Male Health Stritch School of Medicine, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois, outside Chicago.

McVary is a rare researcher on the heart and prostate gland and related issues.

He will be speaking at an Active Surveillance Patients webinar on Saturday, June 22, 2024, at noon Eastern. The program is entitled “Matters of the Heart—and the Prostate.”

Register here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0rdeGtrDIpEtynJ_U3A1rpWYkiCOHRMagt

Your heart is related to your prostate on many levels

 

Farmington, CT: Lifetime cannabis use is associated with lower rates of prostate cancer, according to observational data published in the journal Biomedicines. 

Researchers affiliated with the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida assessed the relationship between cannabis consumption and prostate cancer in a nationally representative cohort of 2,503 participants. 

Investigators reported that subjects between the ages of 50 and 64 who identified as either current or former cannabis consumers possessed a significantly lower risk of prostate cancer diagnoses. Scientists suggested that this finding provides “biological support for the anti-cancer effects of the constituents of marijuana.” Numerous preclinical trials have documented the ability of cannabinoids to inhibit cancer cell growth. 

The study’s authors reported: “In this cross-sectional study of 2503 participants from the USA using the NSDUH [National Survey on Drug Use and Health] from 2002 to 2020, we observed that individuals who were former marijuana users had a significantly lower rate of self-reports of having PC [prostate cancer]. Additionally, the current marijuana users also trended towards lower self-reports of PC. … Specifically, among participants aged greater than 65 years, former marijuana use was linked to reduced self-reports of PC compared to never using.”

They concluded, “Our findings provide corroborative data from a large national, population-based survey to strengthen the existing body of evidence suggesting a potentially protective role of marijuana against the development of PC … [and] our findings can serve as hypothesis-generating for future prospective studies to further evaluate the role of cannabinoids (using medical marijuana) in PC prevention.”

Separate case-control studies have similarly suggested that a history of cannabis use may provide protection against certain types of cancers, including lung cancer and head and neck cancers. 

Full text of the study, “Marijuana use may be associated with reduced prevalence of prostate cancer: A National Survey on Drug Use and Health study from the United States of America,” appears in Biomedicines. Additional information on cannabis and cancer is available from NORML’s publication, Clinical Applications for Cannabis & Cannabinoids.