Are we moving towards a world where cognitive impairment is a thing of the past?

With growing age most people have difficulty in remembering, learning, concentrating and most importantly making decisions. The latest experiment carried out by a team of German scientist under the leadership of Andreas Zimmerman on mice with small dose of THC has brought some new hope in the field of mental health.

THC or tetrahydrocannabinol is found in marijuana plant and it influence the area of brain which controls human thinking, memory, pleasure, concentration and other mental activities. THC has been mostly used as an illicit drug because of its euphoric effect but the medical benefits of THC cannot be denied. Though use of weed in research is not a common practice but the publication of the finding of the German researchers in Natural Medicine has given THC research a much needed boost.

A team of scientist performed an experiment on three age groups of mice by injecting small amount of THC on regular basis for a month. They monitored the activities and behavior of each age group respectively young age (two months), middle age (12 month) and old age (18 month). The result was quite astounding. The mice that weren’t given THC have performed the activities as expected. The young aged mice with the dose were found to be a little confused in their behavior, but the middle and old aged mice with THC dose have performed surprisingly well, their performance at par with the typical young group. So it has been confirmed that cannabinol has stimulated the cell in the hippocampus in old mice which helped them think and behave like young mice, but it has an adverse effect on the young group.

“If we can rejuvenate the brain so that everybody gets five to 10 more years without needing extra care then that is more than we could have imagined,” said Andras Bilkei-Gorzo at the University of Bonn. Though it is too early to come to a conclusion that affect of THC would be same on humans but it has definitely opened a new arena of research and the German group is planning to take the research to the next level soon.