A new study by Louisiana State University has some promising news about marijuana, and what its active ingredient, THC, could do for the AIDS epidemic. From the Huffington Post:
For 17 months, scientists administered a daily dose of THC, an active ingredient in cannabis, to monkeys infected with an animal form of the virus. Over the course of that period, scientists found that damage to immune tissue in the primates’ stomachs, one of the most common areas in the body for HIV infection to spread, decreased.
Basically, monkeys given THC had healthier bodies than non-THC-treated subjects.
The report goes on to explain that while HIV spreads by infecting and killing off immune cells, the monkeys that received the daily THC treatments maintained higher levels of healthy cells.
Weed. Is there anything it can’t do?
[Joint via Shutterstock]