Smoking marijuana linked to testicular cancer

[Eunuken (imported)]

Dude, It's your junk! Pot linked to testicular cancer.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48969102/ns ... ns_health/#

Some blunt advice for the young, male fans of marijuana: You may want to kill that joint and clutch your crotch -- self-check style, that is.

Scientists at the University of Southern California say they've detected a link between recreational marijuana use and a greater chance among males in their early teens through their mid-30s of contracting a particularly dangerous form of testicular cancer -- non-seminoma tumors, according to a small study published today online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

"The group that is at risk for developing these tumors is overwhelmingly young men. They should be looking and paying attention to changes in their testicles anyway," said Victoria Cortessis, one of the study's authors and an assistant professor of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC in Los Angeles.

Further, the fellas' weed intake "might be something they would want to mention to their usual health-care provider."

Cortessis and her colleagues analyzed the self-reported recreational drug use of 163 young men who had been diagnosed with testicular cancer. Among those patients who acknowledged indulging in pot, just over half (51 percent) told medical researchers they puffed or ingested cannabis more than once per week.

The team then compared the illegal drug histories of those 163 afflicted men with the lifestyle habits of 292 healthy men of the same age and ethnicity. Inside the data, they saw that men who had used marijuana recreationally were twice as likely to develop mixed-germ-cell tumors, including the deadlier non-seminona tumors. (The 292 unaffected men were "sampled" from the same neighborhoods in which the ill men had lived at the time of their diagnoses, Cortessis said.)

"These tumors usually occur in younger men and carry a somewhat worse prognosis" than other types of testicular cancer, the study reported. Moreover, the USC findings confirmed two previous reports in CANCER of an apparent link between marijuana use and cancer of the testicles, the researchers noted.

Still, the rate of such cancers occurring in men is relatively low: There is a lifetime risk of slightly more than 1 percent, Cortessis said.

"The truth is, the vast majority of men who develop testicular germ-cell tumors survive them. There's still a small proportion that don't. Those guys tend to have non-seminonas, unfortunately," Cortessis said. "But also, non-seminomas require more extensive treatment, including radiation and chemotherapy.

"We're not concerned only with preventing non-seminomas so that the malignancy doesn't harm the man, but we're also concerned about the later health effects for men that may be related to the more-aggressive therapy" (such as chemo), she added.

So, why would weed wield such woes for some cojones in some dudes?

The USC scientists are unsure exactly what internal glitches marijuana may trigger that could cause cancer. But they speculate that the process may begin in the body's endocannabinoid system, which is the cellular network that responds to the active ingredient in marijuana. That same system has been shown to be vital in the formation of sperm. The study was was funded by the National Cancer Institute.

The researchers also invested a few words of their report to speak directly to the young men living in the 17 states where medicinal marijuana is legal, stating: "The findings suggest that the potential cancer-causing effects of marijuana on testicular cells should be considered not only in personal decisions regarding recreational drug use, but also when marijuana and its derivatives are used for therapeutic purposes."

At medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington state and California, that stance not surprisingly drew swift retorts.

At the Harborside Health Center in Oakland, the proprietors read the USC study on Friday afternoon, then promptly emailed to NBC News a news link to a recent study in Madrid in which cannabis was found to be a cancer fighter.

"The LA study stands in contrast to several recent studies which have found that cannabis actually has cancer fighting properties," said Steve DeAngelo, co-founder of Harborside. "The LA study is reporting a correlation, as opposed to a causal connection between cannabis use and the cancers. It is a well-established scientific principle that correlation does not equal causality.

"I would also note that the sample size is quite small," DeAngelo added, "and the size of the control group is double that of the cannabis users."

Two states to the north, at Seattle's Northwest Patient Resource Center, chief executive John Davis argued that any person taking therapeutic drugs should know that all of those otherwise beneficial substances carry some health hazards.

"And with a lot of them," Davis said, "the risk is death.

"If you're using (marijuana) medicinally, you should understand the risks and the benefits, just like any other therapy," Davis added. "Marijuana, in general, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances on Earth. Can it have some side effects? Yeah. But compared to pharmaceutical drugs, those side effects are much less."

[moi621 (imported)]

Are these Marijuana smokers more likely to carry their cell phones

in a front pocket?

Remember the Police holding radar guns between their legs and

Testicular Cancer.

Marijuana smokers carrying their cell phones in their front pockets seems

the most likely explanation and proven means.

[fhunter]

Are these Marijuana smokers more likely to carry their cell phones

in a front pocket?

Remember the Police holding radar guns between their legs and

Testicular Cancer.

Marijuana smokers carrying their cell phones in their front pockets seems

the most likely explanation and proven means.

What is wrong with carrying phone in a front pocket? It fits there just fine... (Clamshell kind).

I'd be more worried about laptop put on the knees (wi-fi and heat).

Anyway, 'linked' is not equal to causation, and considering potential controversy/or newsworthiness...

Mix fear for manhood, marijuana controversy, and some fear. Stir well. Write an article.

Just imagine potential headlines. And effect on voters .

[devi (imported)]

A lot of times there are a lot of chemicals used with the growing of and also with attempts to eradicate mj. Plus on the street there can be certain other chemical substances used to spike (or enhance if you will) the effect of mj. This is so that people go back to the same source where they had gotten that stuff before. And they'll boast about how great a score they made too. Unless you were to grow your own then I'd be nervous about even so as much as sharing a joint with your buddies. And of course any type of injested "burned" substances is carcinogenic. Most of them probably smoke cigarettes on top of smoking mj too. Smoking anything, campfires included is not a good idea since you are injesting it into your lungs and taking it directly into your bloodstream bypassing your kidneys. Even eating "burned" substances is in fact also taking in carcinogens although this gets purified by your kidneys before entering the bloodstream. So if you were to eat brownies then you would be safer and better off than if you smoked the stuff. However the "high" would not be so immediate and therefore gratifying.

[moi621 (imported)]

What is wrong with carrying phone in a front pocket? It fits there just fine... (Clamshell kind).

I'd be more worried about laptop put on the knees (wi-fi and heat).

Anyway, 'linked' is not equal to causation, and considering potential controversy/or newsworthiness...

Mix fear for manhood, marijuana controversy, and some fear. Stir well. Write an article.

Just imagine potential headlines. And effect on voters .

We know from the cops no longer

holding radar guns between their legs,

Radio frequency exposure causes testicular cancer.

Your cell phone when it is "on", it in radio frequency contact with the server.

Not to mention my belief, substantiated by reports from Finland -- home of Nokia,

Cell phone use causes an increased likelihood in brain cancer.

Pediatric EEG's are altered after cell phone use.

That is why you should not carry your cell phone in a front pocket like all those Marijuana smokers do disproportionately. <ta-da>



Nice to see you around fhunter.

[nullorchis (imported)]

From the same people who told us, if you masturbate ( ___________________) (( fill in the blank......they told so many versions on this, such as go mad, get pimples, your penis will fall off, etc. etc. ).