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Aug. 4, 2000 -- Should you smoke a "joint" to help your joints? Does a "doobie" a day keep arthritis at bay? According to preliminary research, mice with rheumatoid arthritis who were treated with a component of marijuana called cannabidiol had significantly less tissue damage and inflammation in their joints than untreated animals.
The study, along with a cautionary editorial, appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Rheumatoid arthritis is a devastating, progressive disease characterized by pain, inflammation, swelling, and destruction of the joints -- particularly of the hands, feet, and neck. It occurs when the body for some reason starts to recognize its own tissue as foreign and produces destructive antibodies to kill off joint tissue, called an auto-immune response. Current therapies all slow the auto-immune process, in a variety of ways.
Unlike THC, the active component that makes pot smokers feel "high," cannabidiol has no effect on the mood or the mind. It does, however, seem to interfere with auto-immune responses.
The research team, led by Marc Feldmann, MD, PhD, either gave mice with rheumatoid arthritis daily injections of cannabidiol or fed them the drug mixed with olive oil. As a comparison group, other mice with arthritis were given injections of harmless saline or were fed plain olive oil.
After several weeks, the researchers saw that the cartilage and bone in the hind paws of mice treated with the marijuana component were significantly less damaged than those of the other mice. The treatment also reduced the levels of inflammation that is usually produced in arthritic joints, says researcher Percy F. Sumariwalla, PhD. And additional laboratory work showed that cannabidiol could thwart the immune responses that cause the pain and swelling of arthritis, he tells WebMD.
Both Feldmann and Sumariwalla are with the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, a division of the Imperial College School of Medicine in London.
But in an editorial published with the findings, Stephen E. Straus, MD, with the National Institutes of Health's Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Bethesda, Md., voices concern about claims that the use of marijuana can treat or manage a variety of diseases.
According to Straus, although some medical reports have indicated smoking marijuana can reduce eye pressure in glaucoma patients or ease pain, nausea, and other debilitating conditions, large, controlled trials have not been conducted to support these claims. Further, he says, better, safer treatments exist for virtually every ailment.
"I think what he's trying to say is that people should not respond to this paper by smoking more dope," Feldmann, a professor of immunology, tells WebMD, "and we would agree with him. This was an experimental study, and should not be taken as encouraging people to smoke marijuana on the belief that it will do their arthritis good."
This study shows that cannabidiol is a potential candidate for arthritis therapy, Feldmann says. But while mouse studies are helpful in telling whether a drug is effective, they are not much good at determining what dosages are safe.
"What's needed next is tests in human patients," he tells WebMD, "but obviously there are no guarantees that we can find a dose that is both safe and beneficial in people."
No one at the Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine was available to comment.
For more information from WebMD, see our Diseases & Conditions page on Arthritis.
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