BORN WITH THE MUNCHIES

Cannabis-like Compounds May Allow Newborn Babies To Thrive

CHEMICALS related to the active ingredient of cannabis might be vital
for our survival. Naturally occurring cannabinoids in newborn mice
trigger feeding, and without them the animals may die within days,
says a biologist in Israel. She believes the chemicals could play a
similar role in people.

Cannabinoids produced in the body are known to be natural painkillers.
They also coordinate the dopamine system, helping to control movement.
But smoking cannabis increases appetite, a property that is sometimes
exploited to help cancer and AIDS patients. Cannabinoids have also
been detected in human and cow's milk, and levels here are at their
highest the day after giving birth. Ester Fride of the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem thought these observations might be a clue
that naturally occurring cannabinoids are important in the early
development of newborns.

To test this, she injected newborn mice with a chemical that blocks
cannabinoids by competing for receptors in the brain. None of the
treated pups fed from their mothers. Some died within a week, and
those that survived developed more slowly, Fride told the meeting.

When Fride and her colleagues treated the pups with the active
component of cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, in a dose
sufficient to swamp the effect of the blocker, the pups fed and grew
normally, confirming that the blocker chemical was not itself toxic.
It seems that the pups are completely unable to ingest food without
endogenous cannabinoids," she says.