- Drugs derived from cannabis plants could help to relieve
symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease, according to research published
today.
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- Researchers examined anecdotal evidence that cannabis
eases the unpleasant symptoms associated with the disease. Their findings,
published in the journal Gastroenterology, will give hope for sufferers
of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, forms of IBD which affect up
to 180,000 people in Britain.
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- The disease causes recurrent bouts of severe abdominal
pain, diarrhoea, fever and weight loss, and puts sufferers at a greater
risk of bowel cancer.
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- Patients are usually treated with steroids to reduce
the inflammation and surgery is sometimes required to remove damaged parts
of the intestine, but there is currently no cure for Crohn's disease or
ulcerative colitis.
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- Dr Karen Wright, of the department of pharmacy and pharmacology
at the University of Bath, who led the study, said that using cannabinoids,
a cannabis extract, helped the body recover from some effects of the diseases
and heal the gut lining.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2005.
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