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Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

news.cuanschutz.edu

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Re: Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

#41

Post by jstanley »

aurareturn wrote: post #29
emsign wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you can't remember anything? You didn't read the article but instead rely on your bias alone. Life long moderate cannabis use improves memory function. That's the main takeaway from the research.

Life long moderate cannabis use improves memory function. That's the main takeaway from the research. It took me years to get back my memory ability after quitting moderate use.

Having memory issues after quitting cannabis is not inconsistent with having good memory while using cannabis.

Re: Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

#42

Post by FeteCommuniste »

scotty79 wrote: post #20
vga42 wrote: post #15

If only it was legal, I'd happily replace my alcohol use with cannabis, and I don't think I'm alone in my age group. Not a big surprise that that yields improved brain health.

Imagine you could replace with just existing. That said, when I walked through the main street of my city after dark, I thought replacing all the drunks with stoned would have been a major improvement.

Yeah if I were navigating a crowd of people and had to choose a substance for them to be zonked out on, marijuana would be near the top. Or MDMA, haha.

Re: Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

#43

Post by padjo »

FeteCommuniste wrote: post #42
scotty79 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine you could replace with just existing. That said, when I walked through the main street of my city after dark, I thought replacing all the drunks with stoned would have been a major improvement.

Yeah if I were navigating a crowd of people and had to choose a substance for them to be zonked out on, marijuana would be near the top. Or MDMA, haha.

Dunno if I could handle everyone hugging me and telling me how much they loved me.

Re: Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

#44

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

iLoveOncall wrote: post #38

How can a study like this be reliably conducted in the UK where it's illegal? > In the UK Biobank, people were asked to estimate how many times they’d used cannabis over their lifetime, choosing from a set of ranges. We ended up grouping people into no use, moderate use, and high use, based on the number of times they'd used cannabis. And of course that's an imperfect way to group people, but it did allow us to appro…

It's "illegal", but certain places have a semi-permanent funk hanging in the air. It's almost as if it's decriminalised, but I'd expect police to grudgingly act if you're overly blatant when smoking it in the street.

It really should be legalised so that we can earn a bit of tax from its sale and reduce the amount of cash that criminals make from it (not so much the seller to the public, but all the criminal organisations that grow and smuggle it).

Re: Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

#45

Post by aurareturn »

jstanley wrote: post #41
aurareturn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life long moderate cannabis use improves memory function. That's the main takeaway from the research. It took me years to get back my memory ability after quitting moderate use.

Having memory issues after quitting cannabis is not inconsistent with having good memory while using cannabis.

People have better memory while using cannabis? News to me.

Re: Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

#47

Post by jstanley »

aurareturn wrote: post #45
jstanley wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having memory issues after quitting cannabis is not inconsistent with having good memory while using cannabis.

People have better memory while using cannabis? News to me.

The post you replied to stated:

> Life long moderate cannabis use improves memory function. That's the main takeaway from the research.

Had you forgotten already? :)

(I don't actually know if it's true; I have no idea. I was just pointing out that if "lifelong" cannabis use improves memory function, and your observation is that your memory got worse after you quit cannabis... that is not a contradiction).

Re: Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

#48

Post by palata »

vga42 wrote: post #17
palata wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read the article, I believe it is more of a "we are studying it and there is a lot to do" than "drugs are good". I think a very important part is: > For example, I’m interested in the effects of THC versus CBD. We don't have any of that information in the UK Biobank. Most people in this study were using cannabis quite a while ago, and cannabis at that time looked very different from what’s available today. Tha…

That's kind of an odd thing to point out. If my buds are stronger, I use less of them. It's like having a bottle of beer vs bottle of whiskey. I don't exactly imbibe them in the same way, do I?

> That's kind of an odd thing to point out.

The researcher pretty much says "it is very complex, many things are difficult to control, so we should take all this with a grain of salt".

Your answer: "What a weird thing to say, they should just ask me; I know."

Re: Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

#49

Post by Simulacra »

Cannabis is a difficult thing I think for people to talk about. There are people who think it's great, there are people who don't care, and there are people think it's awful. Each will latch onto news like this and use it for what they want. I think it's great, I'm not a regular user, and really don't see it as any better or worse than any other drug, from alcohol, to food, and beyond, that people are using. Most things are fine in moderation. I don't think we need to twist ourselves over whether it's going to make us smarter, dumber, or whatever, unless we can divorce it from our personal opinions on the substance. That has been IMHO the hardest part

Re: Study: Older Cannabis Users Have Larger Brains, Better Cognition

#50

Post by suby »

jstanley wrote: post #47
aurareturn wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have better memory while using cannabis? News to me.

The post you replied to stated: > Life long moderate cannabis use improves memory function. That's the main takeaway from the research. Had you forgotten already? :) (I don't actually know if it's true; I have no idea. I was just pointing out that if "lifelong" cannabis use improves memory function, and your observation is that your memory got worse after you quit cannabis... that is not a contradiction).

I would have a very hard time accepting it to be true. They don't even strongly make the claim that it is true, they are correlating areas of the brain associated with memory as growing larger, and they are associating a larger brain area with better cognition, but later in the article indicate that there are some areas of the brain which are associated with memory which actually shrink.

I think we should question research which is overwhelmingly against our common experience of life. My memory is absolutely shot when I am consuming weed regularly. It's not particularly subtle, it is noticeably worse. I suppose there is room for a situation in which it is worse while I am heavily using, but if I were to cease maybe it will rebound and settle at a point which is better than it would have been had I not consumed any cannabis... but I don't see any reason to believe this.

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