Brain’s ‘natural marijuana’ may fight epilepsy, Malta researchers find

Could endocannabinoids be the key to reducing seizures?

Boosting our own natural marijuana – known as endocannabinoids – is safer than using cannabis to block epileptic seizures, a group of University of Malta researchers have found.

Picture:  Professor Giuseppe Di Giovanni (below) researches the body’s own internal cannabinoids and how they affect signals from the brain. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

This discovery could translate into a new antiepileptic drug that rids patients of the side effects of other treatments, such as memory loss.

“Epilepsy is a debilitating disorder, not just for the person but also for the surrounding family and friends.
“There is still no treatment for 40 per cent of people with epilepsy, and that is why we need new anti-epileptic drugs that make use of something we already have in our brain: endocannabinoids,” Giuseppe Di Giovanni, coordinator of the Malta Neuroscience Network Programme and member of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, told this newspaper.
The research results have just been published in the Nature-Springer journal Scientific Reports.

Read full article at epilepsyu.com