CAN CANNABIS CURE MALARIA?

CAN CANNABIS CURE MALARIA?

THE RISK OF MALARIA

The infection, parasitemia and fever associated with malaria may lead to alterations in behaviour, hallucinations, and changes in consciousness even leading to coma, hypoglycaemia and convulsions.

As with most pharmaceutical drugs we do not have to look far to notice that cancer treatments cause more cancer, anti-epileptic drugs cause more seizures and anti-psychotic drugs ultimately cause more psychosis, osteoporosis drugs cause more fractures… So we should not be surprised that most antimalarial medications can actually induce most of the symptoms of the disease. For instance Chloroquine, Quinine and Mefloquine (Larium) can induce convulsions and this is because quinine induces hypoglycaemia which we already know may present as coma.

It is unfortunate that these medications can produce aggravating adverse neurological effects like insomnia, vivid dreams, dizziness, mental clouding, anxiety, and coordination problems. There are many testimonies online telling the story of the psychotic side effects of antimalarial medications.

 

According to the World Health Organisation, reviewed in April 2015, about 3.2 billion people are at risk of contracting malaria. That’s almost half the world’s population and it has been written before that malaria has already killed half of all the people who have lived ever.

In 2010 there were 660 000 deaths from malaria and in 2013 of the 198 million reported cases, there were almost 1 million deaths by malaria where 90% of these deaths occurred in Africa, mostly among children under the age of 5 years. So people living in the poorest countries are the most at risk. Every 30 seconds in sub Saharan Africa someone dies from malaria and personally ii also believe that these statistics are inaccurate because so many cases are not even reported.

It seems odd that there is still no vaccine since around 1880 when parasites were first discovered in the blood of patients suffering with malaria. Before this discovery it was always known that malaria parasites developed in the liver before entering the blood stream. So malaria is an ancient disease from as far back as 2700 BC and it was only in modern day 1800’s that scientists realised that malaria was also transmitted by mosquitoes. So clearly we can see that mosquitoes do not cause malaria and are really just unfortunate carriers because the Anopheles female is immune to plasmodium. A bit later on ii will speak about the liver again.

Chinese herbalists have used the leaves of the Artemisia annua, or sweet wormwood shrub, to treat malaria for more than 1,500 years. Only in the 1960s, was Artemisinin identified as the active anti-malarial ingredient. So despite being used successfully for one and a half millennia, conventional medicine has only accepted this natural remedy for just over 40 years.

The ‘short supply’ of Artemisia annua has resulted in illusive ‘innovative’ drugs containing little or no Artemisinin. Producing drugs with smaller doses just doesn’t work as effectively as the herbal remedy and some of these fake drugs have even caused deaths. Drugs which contain lower amounts of the active ingredient, creates drug resistance and this is why drugs like Chloroquine are already ineffective in many affected areas.

According to The Guardian with the $53 million contribution from the Gates Foundation Amyris Biotech, after 9 years of research have managed to develop a synthetic version of Artemisinin which is grown in a barrel of bioengineered or genetically modified yeast. This is awfully attractive to the pharmaceutical industry because now they no longer have to be bothered with sourcing plant material from thousands of poor farmers in Africa and Asia. In this way the people of the poor communities of the world are robbed of their income and ironically live in the areas where malaria is most affected.

There is no logical reason why we needed to develop synthetic products when farmers are easily able to produce enough plant material to produce the medication for malaria and numerous other medical conditions. The only reason which is illogical when you look at what is at stake is again the gluttonous greed for profit.

 

HOW DOES MALARIA AFFECT THE HUMAN BODY?

Malaria affects both humans and animals but we do know that human malaria does not spread to animals and only some animals like monkeys can pass malaria on to humans but it is not fatal for the human or the monkey. So as you can see this is a disease exclusive to mosquitoes so for example a mosquito biting a person or animal infected with malaria will automatically pick up the virus with the meal and carry it forward.

This is a quote from National Geographic.

“Anopheles Mosquito

The female Anopheles mosquito is the only insect capable of carrying the human malaria parasite.”

 

So typically malaria causes death by one of five natural progressions of this disease as follows:

1. Cerebral Malaria

Malaria causes red blood cells to rupture into the bloodstream which releases haemoglobin directly into the blood and urine which can lead to liver and/or kidney failure.

When swelling of the brain occurs due to small blood vessels to the brain being blocked by ruptured red blood cells brain damage occurs and often leads to coma.

We already now know that Cannabis has serious neuro-protective properties and there are a lot of studies which suggest that Cannabis may be effective in protecting and even ‘rescuing’ essential brain function in those who have suffered cerebral malaria. These are potent findings and honestly ii can tell you from the teachings of my elders that this is truth.

“Most ‘drugs of abuse’ suppress neurogenesis.  Only Cannabis promotes neurogenesis” – Dr Xia Zhang (Canadian researcher)

 

 

The Endocannabinoid Research Group stated that their results suggest that the Cannabinoid known as CBC (Cannabichromenes) which is non psycho- active, can help the growth and survival of NPSCs and their scientists have found that CBC is related to higher concentrations of NPSCs. Forgive me but this is such exciting research which is emerging!

So Neural Progenitor Stem Cell (NPSCs), are the stem cells of the brain and are therefore vital to brain functioning.  NPSCs are the precursors to the three types of brain cells, being neurons, oligondendrocytes and astrocytes, and because they are able to create any of these cells, they are now being investigated to help regenerate brain cells.  CBC also seems to inhibit the creation of proteins that cause the NPSCs to convert to other brain cells and this suggests that CBC may interact with this process and also take on the characteristics of being able to decide what brain cells are being developed and when they are being developed at cellular level.

This is when you start to become aware of the intricacies of this truly remarkable and renowned plant.

The journal Neuroscience, published some new research in March 2015 involving lab mice and remember mice also have EC systems.

So this study revealed that the mice that were not treated with the Cannabinoid known as CBD (Cannabidiol) following infection with malaria, suffered from memory dysfunction, increased anxiety as well as inflammation in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of the brain.

The mice treated with CBD showed no memory deficits, an increase in a brain chemical which protects neurons (brain cells) and also a definite decrease of inflammation of the brain.

This study also revealed that the mice infected with malaria and were treated with CBD actually lived longer and regained full cognitive functionality, not like the mice who did not receive CBD, so for me personally this study is pretty conclusive.

“Our results indicate that CBD exhibits neuro-protective effects…and might be useful as an adjunctive therapy to prevent neurological symptoms following this disease (malaria).”

 



 

1. Breathing and Suffocation issues

As fluid often accumulates in the lungs breathing becomes difficult even impossible and in a lot of ways this phase of malaria is very similar to pneumonia as ii have seen people die of both. Cannabis has been successfully used over the ages in the treatment of various lung diseases including asthma, pneumonia and tuberculosis.  Both pneumonia and TB are terrible breathing conditions where a patient is able to take deep breaths in but is not able to exhale so easily ii have seen grown men cry with this problem.

2. Organ failure

Malaria can cause a patient’s kidneys or liver to fail and can also cause the spleen to rupture. 

There is currently a new school of thought to which ii subscribe that in fact malaria really is a liver disease, in fact equivalent to a ‘filthy liver’ according to the research scientists who make these claims. As ii mentioned earlier malaria is an ancient disease and has always been known to originate from parasites in the liver.

Dr Emmanuel K. Asenso is an internationally known naturopath with many years of experience in the practice of conventional medicine.

He is also an International Nutritional Consultant and with a doctorate degree in Traditional Naturopathy from Clayton College of Natural Health in Birmingham Alabama and a detoxification specialist.

In his book “The Natural Steps for Curing Malaria-Malaria is Filth in the liver”, he claims that “malaria is simply a liver disease synonymous to a filthy liver”.  Personally ii could not agree more as ii have always said that all disease including mental disease stems from the gut and ii most certainly consider the liver part of the digestive tract and for me personally the fact that coconut oil is absorbed via the liver and not the stomach is proof enough for me.

According to Dr Emmanuel K. Asenso in order to contract malaria the condition of the liver must be ripe, in other words “full of filth or loaded with internal toxins that the plasmodia and other microbes produced by the liver can feed on to start the natural disease symptoms associated with malaria in the human body.”

So it seems logical that if you can remove the filth from the liver then you can rid the body of the malaria.

3. Anaemia

One can only imagine a disease which causes the red blood cells to rupture into the bloodstream will also be capable of causing severe anaemia. So the rapid drop in haemoglobin during severe infection and the failure of the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells is what causes anaemia. The biggest problem with this disease is that it takes out uninfected red blood cells as well as this at a rate of 10 to 1 so for every infected cell this disease takes 10 uninfected red blood cells along.

Anaemia means ‘shortage of blood’ … well specifically it is the shortage of haemoglobin, the pigment in the red blood cell which carries the oxygen. Shortage of blood or oxygen will make the patient feel short of breath and constantly feeling exhausted and indeed blood shortage will eventually lead to heart failure.

4. Hypoglycaemia

Low Blood Sugar or hypoglycaemia ii have written extensively about and both malaria and a popular drug to treat it, quinine, can result in extremely low blood sugar, which in turn can lead to coma or death.

 

 

 

WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT CANNABIS?

As we move into an age where Cannabis is becoming more available for medicinal purposes we are already starting to see more and more ‘false freedom’ and more and more system control in terms of the growing and producing of synthetic and herbal Cannabis Medicine. It is also interesting to note that certain synthetic Cannabis medications for example Marinol (Dronabinol) has already been recalled off the shelves and one of the reasons for this is because they induce suicidal thoughts.

People who are still opposed to full herbal Cannabis often argue that it may contribute to depression and suicidal tendencies which doesn’t really make any sense because if this were a scientific fact then surely a product like Marinol would not have been approved in the first place. So fortunately for us there is enough evidence to prove that in places where Cannabis laws have been relaxed rates of suicide have actually decreased.

Cannabis is only for the healing it simply does not do any harm and all the harm the anti-Cannabis people claim is never backed up with any scientific evidence. But we do see hundreds of thousands of Cannabis success stories from all around the world proving that Cannabis quite possibly is the single most useful herbal remedy in the treatment of the widest range of human diseases and medical disorders. We do firmly believe that Cannabis is the extremely vital element of preventative healthcare, and the natural source of an adaptive support and defence mechanism in our ever increasing toxic environment.

Cannabis has been used medicinally by the Chinese for over 5000 years and there are also records of treating malaria with Cannabis. The Pen T’sao Ching (the Chinese herbal pharmacological book) states that Cannabis ‘clears blood and cools temperature’ which is a reference to the ability of Cannabis to reduce fever. The diaphoretic (perspiration-inducing) and diuretic properties of Cannabis are still considered effective in reducing fever by many traditional healers.

In Cambodia, people infected with malaria were traditionally treated with Cannabis and such use continues to this day, in some regions. It is reported that the smoke from one kilogram of male and female plants is inhaled twice daily until the fever has passed. Personally ii have witnessed traditional healing ceremonies of this nature in the cure of asthma, tick bite fever and fevers associated with tuberculosis.

There are also reports from India from the 1800’s where Cannabis was used against malaria. And in 1957 Doctors IC Chopra and RN Chopra published an in depth report on the use of Cannabis in traditional Indian medicine as being effective against malaria.

And in Africa Cannabis is still used by traditional healers as a natural remedy for malaria as well as for Black water fever, an often fatal complication of malaria. Black water fever is when the red blood cells rupture into the bloodstream allowing the release of haemoglobin directly into the blood and urine which can lead to renal and liver failure. Patients with Black water fever will have dark red or black urine and this can be fatal.

There is not much modern Cannabis research for the treatment of malaria but one study published in 2007 in the Indian Journal of Medical Research highlighted the effectiveness of Cannabis sativa and Aloe barbadensis in killing the larvae of the Anopheles stephensi mosquito species. While this herbal combination may not provide a cure for malaria it should at least be seen as an important step in preventing transmission of this devastating disease.

Scientists around the world are now seriously investigating the anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and neuro-protective properties of Cannabis in the fight against malaria around the world. The increase in drug resistance has now created an urgent need for new and effective antimicrobial agents.

You would think that when millions of children under the age of five are dying of malaria every year throughout Africa, that funding would surely be made available for research and development, but this is not the case. In the US between 1998 and 2002 the FDA’s approval of new antibacterial agents decreased by 56% compared to 1983 to 1987, one can only ask why? Also ii find it really strange that only 6 of the 506 drugs disclosed in the developmental programs of some of the biggest pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around today are in fact anti-bacterial agents…wow…with our global figures of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria…

 

 

 THE CANNABIS COCONUT CONNECTION

There is a lot of evidence to indicate that coconut oil is toxic to the Anopheles stephensi larvae proving that coconut oil has the potential to be used as a larvicide in the treatment of malaria. This is why in Cannabis culture we are pursuing our research in developing the Cannabis Coconut Connection because no matter what condition we are treating this is the best natural combination in the treatment of a variety of diseases.

CANNABIS	COCONUT
Anti-tumor (anti-cancer)	Anti-tumor (anti-cancer)
Immune Boosting	Immune Boosting
Anti-fungal	Anti-fungal
Anti-bacterial	Anti-bacterial
Anti-microbial	Anti-microbial
Regulation of metabolism (weight control)	Regulation of metabolism (weight control)
Anti-oxidant	Anti-oxidant
Skin care	Skin care
Osteoporosis treatment	Osteoporosis treatment
Fat soluble	Over 90% Saturated fat
No negative side effects no deaths	No negative side effects no deaths
Components found in human breast milk	Components found in human breast milk
Regulate circulation	Regulate circulation
Used for over 5000 years as medicine	Used for over 5000 years as medicine
At the forefront of medical research and breakthroughs	At the forefront of medical research and breakthroughs
Criminalized since 1930’s	Condemned for over 60 years
Controls regulation of fat	Controls regulation of fat
Raw plant has no psychedelic high	Raw plant has no psychedelic high
Aides nutrient absorption	Aides nutrient absorption
diaphoretic (perspiration-inducing)	diaphoretic (perspiration-inducing)
Anti-malarial	Anti-malarial

 

MEDICAL BENEFITS OF CANNABIS AND COCONUT

Contrary to popular belief coconut oil actually promotes a healthy cardiovascular system because medium chain fatty acids do not contribute to arterial plague and this is because of the way they are absorbed by the body i.e. via the liver and not the stomach. It also regulates metabolism and controls appetite and therefore weight gain, making coconut oil a valuable remedy in the fight against diabetes and obesity.

The medium chain fatty acids cause the body to store fat as an expendable energy in the liver instead of as fatty cells in the tissues which is exactly what long chain fatty acids do. Coconut oil is also known to support proper functioning of the thyroid gland which makes it a suitable natural anti-obesity remedy. Cannabis has already proven to play an important role in metabolic regulation as well as thyroid function and there are many studies underway around the world investigating the role of Cannabis in obesity and diabetes.

In my paper Can Cannabis Cure Depression? ii wrote about the positioning of the EC system in relation to the Endocrine system which controls our hormone system, so considering that the EC System is responsible for the well- being of the nervous, immune and endocrine systems, perhaps in lay man’s terms this indicates that both the EC system and Cannabis indeed have a most profound effect on the human body and mind and ii do believe that we are only starting to realize the powerful benefits of the Cannabis plant.

Coconut oil is a very important immune system booster because of its anti-viral, anti-fungal, anti-microbial and anti-bacterial properties and we now know that Cannabis shares the exact same properties. Please refer to table above for the similarities in the healing properties of Cannabis and coconut.

Numerous studies have proven that coconut oil is proving helpful in preventing and curing liver disease, kidney disease, Crohn’s disease, cancer and many infectious illness such as the flu, herpes, bladder infections, candida and even ringworm and aluminium poisoning.

Scientists are now realising the powerful combination of Cannabis and Coconut oil and this is because of the similarity in healing properties and the ability of both plants to fight free radicals. Because coconut oil is directly absorbed by the liver it is the perfect delivery system allowing easy access of Cannabinoids into the liver.

Dr Weston A Price wrote a book called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration wherein he noted that people who consumed traditional local foods did not suffer from insect borne diseases such as coconuts for instance.

In May 2010 a Canadian report of Hinterland communities was published where such communities were being targeted for training in the use of coconuts as the latest weapon against malaria. The idea behind this study is that coconut water had been found to be a perfect environment for growing bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI) which is a microorganism identified in Israel in 1976, which kills the anopheles larvae but does not harm other living species or the environment.

Dr Palmira Ventosilla of the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Cayetano Heredia University of Lima is credited with developing Bti with the use of coconuts after a series of experiments in Peru.

Dr Ventosilla explains that Bti technology is actually fairly simple where a small amount of Bti is introduced into the coconut through a hole that is then plugged with cotton and sealed with candle wax. The incubating bacillus is protected by the hard shell and the milk inside contains the necessary amino acids and carbohydrates for its reproduction. After a few days of fermenting the coconuts are then taken to the mosquito infested swamps and thrown into the stagnant water pools.  The contents of one coconut can kill mosquito larvae within one hundred square feet so three coconuts are enough to then cover a typical pond.

Her experiments prove that this quantity can kill all the larvae contained in a pond and further that it keeps on working for around 45 days.

Published 28 March 2014 is a fascinating report by the Department of Life Sciences, Shikmim in Israel which claims that Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis is the first Bacillus thuringiensis to be found and used as an effective biological control agent against larvae of many mosquito and black fly species around the world. So you can clearly see that there is a definite link between Cannabis Coconut and malaria.

 

DEALING WITH THE SYMPTOMS OF MALARIA…NATURALLY

Symptoms of malaria may manifest as fevers, shaking chills, headaches, loss of appetite, general body weakness, nausea and vomiting, diarrhoea or constipation, heat in the abdomen, wild dreams, feelings of death or impending doom, painful joints and concentrated urination.

All of these symptoms represent the natural biologic response from a body of an individual which seeks a natural physiologic balance or is going through the process of detoxification.

Remember that malaria is actually a diseased liver that needs to be cleaned for proper body function. So the fever associated with malaria is a natural and normal fire that the body sets up to burn the filth that has been created in the liver to clean its internal environment

According to Dr Asenso malaria fever can be cured naturally without the use of toxic drugs through the detoxification of the liver which is then the main organ whose biologic response will cause the signs and symptoms of malaria.

When you mix the correct volumes of coconut oil and lime or lemon according to your age and body weight the lime or lemon will begin to loosen the filth in the liver and the coconut oil will then cause the smooth muscles in the liver to contract and supply the bile needed to digest the oil. In turn this physiologic action from the liver will then cause the filth to be removed from the liver into the large intestine resulting in loose stools.

After a few loose stools, all the malaria symptoms will be gone from the body with no nasty or toxic side effects except for physical discomfort from the liver and intestines contracting to rid the body of the toxins from the liver.  This can include nausea, vomiting, general weakness, tummy rumbling and increased salivation, none of which are life threatening and which only last for a few hours.

A WORLD WITHOUT MOSQUITOES

Imagining a world without mosquitoes is an easy dream, however as much as we may enjoy this vision from an ecological point of view we cannot simply just wipe them out without causing serious damage to other life forms within the delicate web of the food chain on earth.

But there are people out there who are serious about this such as the biotech company Oxitec who in 2009 released their genetically modified mosquitoes onto Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean. This experiment was conducted in secret and once the local people found out about it naturally they protested with outrage but as is always the case, innocent people always get ignored in favour of profits. Oxitec went on to release their bugs in Malaysia, Brazil, Panama, India, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, take note in poor countries where the majority of people are generally living in poverty.

At the time of this release The Institute for Science in Society (ISIS) wrote:

 

“…the current release of terminator male mosquitoes on Cayman Island is a risky strategy. To add insult on injury, there has been no warnings issued to tourists, and most residents on the Island do not appear to have given informed consent to be exposed to the GM male mosquitoes, in blatant violation of human rights with regard to human experimentation.

If the strategy has succeeded, as claimed, the islanders may have been granted temporary respite from the insect vector for Dengue; though replacement mosquito vectors are likely to be blown in from neighboring islands almost immediately while GM mosquitoes are spreading to them from Cayman Island.

The UK government appears not to have exercised appropriate jurisdiction over the human experimentation in its territory; while the scientific community should condemn the use of data to justify the experiment from studies that had not passed peer review.”

The biggest concern with genetically modified mosquitoes and artificial malaria medication is the risk of the resistance to Artemisinin and this would represent a global catastrophe. As we can see from history, modern medicine just never seems to be about curing disease, if anything it is always at the suppression of the individual person. As ii have stated before there is no profit in humans being healthy and this is why it is not in the interests of the pharmaceutical companies to find cures, and there is enough proof that through pharmacological repackaging we can create a multitude of disorders and the dangerous and expensive drugs to mask their symptoms with serious side.

And now in 2016 these same genetically modified mosquitoes are the biggest suspect in all those birth defects we are seeing in South America especially Brazil.

So right now we are looking for a natural alternative to completely eliminate malaria.

 

IS THERE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE?

There are over 25 000 published studies in scientific literature that concern Cannabis and its Cannabinoids and almost one third of these studies have been published in the last four years.

It certainly does seem as though modern culture is now catching up on what our ancestors have always known, and it is positive to see that public opinion and a move towards relaxed Cannabis laws are leading the way for more people to use Cannabis Medicine for a wide number of medical conditions.

So truly there has definitely been a strong, positive and growing trend in acceptance that Cannabis does indeed contain some powerful medicinal properties which we really would be silly to overlook when we can clearly see that thousands of people’s lives are being are being saved from a number of life threatening diseases.

 

Be Blessed Be Healthy

SOURCES:

Xhosastyles.blogspot.com

World Health Organisation

The Pen T’sao Ching

Doctors IC Chopra and RN Chopra

The Endocannabinoid Research Group

Neuroscience.com

Dr Emmanuel K. Asenso  - “The Natural Steps for Curing Malaria-Malaria is Filth in the liver”,

Dr Palmira Ventosilla of the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Cayetano Heredia University of Lima

Canada Health

National Geographic

Department of Life Sciences, Shikmim in Israel

The Institute for Science in Society (ISIS) - UK