A cannabis-like substance produced by the brain may dampen delusional or psychotic experiences, rather than trigger them. Heavy cannabis use has been linked to psychosis in the past, leading researchers to look for a connection between the brain's natural cannabinoid system and schizophrenia. Sure enough, when Markus Leweke of the University of Cologne, Germany, and Andrea Giuffrida and Danielle Piomelli of the University of California, Irvine, looked at levels of the natural cannabis-like substance anandamide, they were higher in people with schizophrenia than in healthy controls. [continues 393 words]
Think Ecstasy Is Cool? You Couldn't Be More Wrong Ecstasy may hit the people who take it with a potentially fatal double whammynot only generating too much heat but also blocking a crucial way of cooling down. Most research into the effects of ecstasy has focused on heat production. The drug increases the metabolic rate, and people who take it often dance for hours. Both of these factors generate extra heat. "The most dangerous thing is that body temperature climbs so rapidly," says Rod Irvine, a pharmacologist at the University of Adelaide. "The membranes start to break down, and you get renal failure. The brain swells and is basically crushed." [continues 300 words]
