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Gotta love how this article was written!

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32131240/french-dassault-fighter-jet-joyride/

French Fighter Jet Joy Ride Goes Très, Très Wrong

A French defense contractor riding in a Dassault fighter learned the hard way that the grab bar next to his seat was actually the ejection handle.

41ae8341-8802-4712-8725-4d9623ba3b67_155
BY EZRA DYER
APR 13, 2020
 
Dassault Rafale B of the French Air Force.
GERT KROMHOUT/STOCKTREK IMAGESGETTY IMAGES
 
  • A French defense-industry employee about to retire was gifted something he was extremely reluctant to accept: a ride in a Dassault fighter jet.
  • The 64-year-old was not correctly instructed, to say the least, in passenger etiquette, and to make a long story short, he self-ejected midflight.
  • He's okay, according to the government's incident report, but the chance of this gentleman ever repeating the stunt is definitely zero.

Imagine: You work hard your whole life in the French defense industry, and when it's time to retire, your co-workers want to give you something more memorable than a gold watch or a set of golf clubs. So they set up a coveted back-seat ride in a Dassault Rafale B fighter jet, the kind of perk that requires serious connections.

Just one problem: nobody asked one particular 64-year-old civilian whether he ever wanted such a ride, or showed him much about what to expect. Next thing you know, the French Investigation Bureau for State Aviation Safety (BEA-E) is issuing a report explaining how Monsieur Newbie came to experience not only the Dassault, but also its Martin-Baker MK16 ejection seat.

 
 

Well, mistakes were made. Lots of them. Since this treat was to be a surprise, the recipient didn't get much of a briefing on what to expect. His g-suit pants weren't on correctly, his seat harness wasn't tight, and his helmet—and oxygen mask—were unbuckled as the plane taxied to the runway at Saint-Dizier 113 air base. He was so nervous that his heartbeat was around 140 beats per minute just from climbing into the plane. Our reluctant Goose did get medical clearance from a doctor, but only four hours before the flight, and with an important stipulation: no negative g's. The way the rest of this was unfolding, do you want to guess whether there were negative g's? Mais oui.

 

French government incident report on fighter jet

 

FROM THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT’S INCIDENT REPORT.

 FRENCH BUREAU ENQUÊTES ACCIDENTS

The fighter pilot, being a fighter pilot, probably thought he was taking it easy as he pulled into a 47-degree climb and generated a 3.7-g load. (Which, incidentally, was also beyond the doctor-ordered limit of 3 g's.) On the climb, both pilot and passenger were crushed down into the seat. But when the plane started to level off, things got real panicky in the rear seat, as a negative 0.67-g load caused the ill-buckled passenger to feel like he was about to fly out of the cockpit. Which, shortly thereafter, he did.

Apparently the quick and dirty safety briefing failed to properly emphasize the fact that the black-and-yellow striped loop in the middle of the seat, between his legs, was not a grab handle but the trigger for the ejection seat. The good doctor's g-load recommendations were surely exceeded as pyrotechnics blasted a hole in the canopy and rocket motors fired the seat and its terrified denizen out into the slipstream high above the French countryside.

Around about the time our hero took to the skies in his very own chairplane, the unbuckled helmet parted ways with the miserable noggin it was pledged to protect.

In a growing cascade of colossal fails, the next one was actually fortuitous: the pilot's own ejection seat malfunctioned. When either the fore or aft seat in a Rafale is triggered, the second one is supposed to follow automatically, on the theory that if one crew member makes an unscheduled departure, there's probably a good reason for the other to promptly join the exodus. And indeed, after the world's unhappiest retiree bid adieu, pyrotechnics blew a hole in the pilot's canopy. But the first ejection damaged the front seat, such that it didn't eject, and the pilot was actually able to land his now al fresco fighter jet. At which point the pilot beat feet away from the aircraft, for fear that the dud seat would, like so many flights, take off late. In fact, nobody was allowed near the plane for 24 hours after it landed, just in case the pilot's seat decided to go all Colonel Stapp and fire the rockets.

As for our unfortunate co-pilot, he made it to the ground with minor injuries and likely a keen desire to never hang out with his old co-workers ever again. Because, as the report notes, he didn't want to ride in a fighter jet in the first place. According to the BEA-E, the passenger "never expressed a desire to carry out this type of flight, and in particular on Rafale," but his cohorts offered him no chance to bail. Ultimately, he did anyway.

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https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211013-an-underwater-mystery-on-canadas-coast

An underwater mystery on Canada's coast

 

Tens of thousands of wooden stakes poking up from British Columbia's shoreline have smashed a long-held stereotype of Canada's First Nation people.
A

At the lowest tides, Canada's Comox estuary exposes a nearly forgotten story: the nubs of more than 150,000 wooden stakes are spread out across the intertidal zone, forming the remnants of hundreds of ancient fish traps. At peak use, it's believed the industrial-level installation provided food security for an estimated 10,000-12,000 K'ómoks People, the traditional inhabitants of the bountiful, mountain-fringed Comox Valley, located on the east side of Vancouver Island on the edge of the Salish Sea.

Until recently, the sophisticated technology had been overlooked by Western science. Even though the stakes, which are thumb-sized in diameter in the shallows and increase to the size of small tree trunks in deeper water, are visible from busy shore-side roads, no-one thought much about them. For Cory Frank, manager of the K'ómoks Guardian Watchmen, a role that oversees all aspects of environmental stewardship for the coastal Nation, the stakes were just something he grew up with, playing and fishing among them at low tide.

When he asked elders about them, they didn't have much information.

Frank says this began to change almost two decades ago. In 2002, Nancy Greene, then an undergraduate anthropology student, began researching the stakes for her senior thesis. Greene (now a research archaeologist) wanted to know what they were for. So, working with a team of volunteers, she began heading out at low tide and spent months recording the locations of 13,602 exposed tips of Douglas fir and western red cedar stakes. At the same time, she began asking the K'ómoks elders what she was looking at.

 
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When she plotted them out, taking into account the oral history, the results were astounding. The stakes formed a constellation outlining one of the most extensive and sophisticated Indigenous fishing operations ever found.

 
 

Since 2014, members of W̱SÁNEĆ Nations have been restoring two clam gardens in partnership with the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve (Credit: Ian Reid)

Since 2014, members of W̱SÁNEĆ Nations have been restoring two clam gardens in partnership with the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve (Credit: Ian Reid)

Greene realised that the 150,000 to 200,000 stakes, representing more than 300 fish traps, filled the shallow wetland. Radiocarbon dating placed the ages to range from 1,300 to just more than 100 years old. For Frank, the most impressive thing about the system is the precision of the designs. "My ancestors were amazing engineers," he said.

He explained that once he started studying how it all worked, he realised the traps are based on a deep knowledge of fish behaviour and the region's large tidal ranges. Laid out in two styles – one heart shaped and one chevron shaped – the traps were lined with removable woven-wood panels that let water through but not the fish. During a rising tide, the fish followed the centreline of the trap, which mimicked the shoreline they'd naturally follow, through an entrance and into the enclosure. When the tide receded; the fish inside the trap were stranded in shallow pools.

Depending on the trap style and season, the stewards of the traps could target either herring or salmon, and manage how many salmon went on to spawn in the local creek systems. By doing this they were able to ensure they only took enough fish to meet community and trade needs. If a fish run looked weak, they could opt not to fish it at all.

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• Switzerland's gravity-defying solution
• Canada's forgotten Hawaiian islands
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Answering the question about how such an elegant and sustainable fishing technology fell into forgotten disuse requires an understanding of some of the darkest parts of Canadian history. In what's now known as British Columbia, dozens of coastal nations thrived for thousands of years. But with the arrival of explorers, traders and settlers, disease and law were used to forcibly separate Indigenous people from their culture and land.

"When 80 to 90% of the population died, they lost their knowledge holders and the intricate skills and protocols that made these technologies work," said Anne Salomon, an applied marine ecologist who has been working alongside coastal Indigenous communities for 15 years.

Over thousands of years, they'd developed complex food production systems requiring the understanding of ecology, oceanography and geomorphology

Salomon explained that the Indian Act of 1876 forcibly removed people to reserves and cultural practices were outlawed. People lost physical access to their fish traps and sea gardens. "Over thousands of years they'd developed complex food production systems requiring the understanding of ecology, oceanography and geomorphology," she said. "When they lost agency over their land, they lost part of their identity."

 

Beaches with lots of shell fragments or white shell middens are signs of nearby clam / sea gardens (Credit: Diane Selkirk)

Beaches with lots of shell fragments or white shell middens are signs of nearby clam / sea gardens (Credit: Diane Selkirk)

While the scientific community has been expressing surprise over the extensive nature of traditional coastal mariculture (information that's smashed the long-held stereotype that this was a population of unsophisticated hunter-gathers), Nicole Norris, a knowledge holder for the Hul'q'umi'num Nation and an aquaculture specialist, says the communities themselves had never forgotten. "These were our grocery stores," she said.

What has surprised Norris over the years she's spent exploring the British Columbia coast is how the technologies differ from nation to nation yet are perfectly adapted to each location. While the K'ómoks People used stakes with lattice fences to manage and sustain what was once one of the region's most productive fish runs, in her own territory around the Gulf Islands, the Hul'q'umi'num and W̱SÁNEĆ People stacked rocks "like Tetris" to build low walls running parallel to the shore. These walls were designed to trap silt, which changed the slope of the beach to create "sea gardens" – large, flat inter-tidal areas that, once cleared of large rocks, were carefully tended to create the ideal habitat for clams, crab, sea cucumbers, rockfish, octopus, whelks and other marine life.

In the winding inlets and islets of the Broughton Archipelago Provincial Park, the technology changes again. Here, the Kwakwaka'wakw People built monumental rock walls, large enough to be seen from space, to create the ideal water depth to encourage clam growth in the shallow bays. Norris says they also built the rock walls into spiral-shaped gardens that created flattened areas that could take advantage of the region’s unique swirling currents.

Still further north, in the inner waterways and islands that make up part of Heiltsuk territory, Haíɫzaqv archaeologist Q̓íx̌itasu, also known as Elroy White, says his ancestors built stone-walled sea/clam gardens (called λápac̓i) and a wide variety of stone fish traps (called Ckvá) that were specifically designed depending on if they were "on a tidal flat, or in a creek or at the mouth of a river".

"They were built so solidly that they wouldn't fall apart by actions of a river, or by the tide or if a canoe hit it," he said.

For his thesis, "Heiltsuk Stone Fish Traps", White combined archaeology with oral history to gradually unravel the interconnection of rock-walled fish traps and his ancestors' relationship to salmon. He explained that when he began visiting the sites, he saw how the ancient fish trap technology and resource management system didn't just shape the tidal landscape, they shaped his culture and heritage.

 

A Haida Gwaii sea garden has two rock mounds in its centre that attracted octopus and made it easy for Indigenous people to collect dinner (Credit: Diane Selkirk)

A Haida Gwaii sea garden has two rock mounds in its centre that attracted octopus and made it easy for Indigenous people to collect dinner (Credit: Diane Selkirk)

"I noticed a difference between archaeological and Heiltsuk views of the trap sites," he wrote in his thesis. He says traditional scientific research emphasised empirical data such as length, width and height and missed the human element; "the important relationships my ancestors had with the environment, with salmon and with the fishing technology designed to capture them."

The idea that you can't separate Indigenous culture from the lands that shaped them has been slowly taking hold in the scientific community on British Columbia's coast. Norris says that for a long time her people had no access to part of their lands because "an arbitrary line was drawn making it a national park". But after several rock walls were spotted at low tide in the Gulf Island National Park Reserve (GINPR) and the decision was made in 2014 to restore a couple of the gardens, Norris says that Parks Canada did something profound: "They asked for guidance from the First Nations."

In our tradition when you are learning something, you start with the oldest way possible

The abundance of even long-abandoned gardens found on British Columbia's coast is staggering. Research shows that the terraced gardens, which Indigenous people have been building for at least 3,500 years, are 150 to 300% more productive than wild beaches in producing littleneck and butter clams, as well as other marine organisms. Erin Slade, a marine ecologist with the GINPR's sea garden restoration project, says this indicates that the techniques once used to steward the gardens have a lot to teach us. While national park scientists, like Slade, could have attempted to reverse-engineer the sea gardens through science alone, they opted to reinstate traditional management and stewardship practices by inviting the W̱SÁNEĆ and Hul'q'umi'num Nations back to their lands.

"In our tradition when you are learning something, you start with the oldest way possible," said Norris. So on the first gathering at a clam garden just off of Salt Spring Island, she told everyone to put their science away, asked for guidance from the ancestors and started at the beginning: "This is how far you put your rake in. This is how wind or salinity or time of year affects the clams."

The moment Indigenous people returned to their sea gardens and fish traps was the moment the technology stopped being about the past and became about the future. In Heiltsuk territory, the fish traps are starting to support local tourism as a stop on virtual and in person cultural tours and there are plans to integrate more traditional fishing methods into community life. Today, Haíɫzaqv visit the sites as a sacred reminder of their grandparents and great grandparents' strong connection to the land and sea and all it has to teach them.

In the GINPR, Slade says other communities have begun using their research to reestablish their own gardens – an ecological boost not just for the beaches being managed, but for the overall abundance of sea life on the coast that the biomass in the gardens can support. Slade says the expected increase in marine life is important, but the most significant part of restoring sea gardens has been in reinvigorating the teaching relationships between elders and youth. "This knowledge has been generated over millennia of stewarding these places; it's something that was always meant to be passed on generation through generation."

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An interesting case study, not aviation, worthy of discussion...

https://casereports.bmj.com/content/14/10/e244195

Lung cancer patient who had declined conventional cancer treatment: could the self-administration of ‘CBD oil’ be contributing to the observed tumour regression?
 FREE
 
  1. Kah Ling Liew1, 
  2. Ermanno Capuano2 and 
  3. Bernard Yung3
  1. Correspondence to Dr Kah Ling Liew; kahling.liew1@nhs.net
 

Abstract

Conventional lung cancer treatments include surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy; however, these treatments are often poorly tolerated by patients. Cannabinoids have been studied for use as a primary cancer treatment. Cannabinoids, which are chemically similar to our own body’s endocannabinoids, can interact with signalling pathways to control the fate of cells, including cancer cells. We present a patient who declined conventional lung cancer treatment. Without the knowledge of her clinicians, she chose to self-administer ‘cannabidiol (CBD) oil’ orally 2–3 times daily. Serial imaging shows that her cancer reduced in size progressively from 41 mm to 10 mm over a period of 2.5 years. Previous studies have failed to agree on the usefulness of cannabinoids as a cancer treatment. This case appears to demonstrate a possible benefit of ‘CBD oil’ intake that may have resulted in the observed tumour regression. The use of cannabinoids as a potential cancer treatment justifies further research.

 
 
 
 
 

Background

Lung cancer remains the second most common cancer in the UK. Despite advances in current treatment options, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted cancer drugs, survival rates remain low at around 15% at 5 years from diagnosis.1 Some patients opt for symptom control and even then, the median survival rate without treatment is 7.15 months.2

We report a case of non-small cell lung cancer that was amenable to conventional treatment options. The patient had extensive discussions with the clinicians regarding the potential treatment options and she declined all treatment options offered, so was placed under ‘watch and wait’ surveillance. The patient then chose a non-conventional and unlicensed treatment that appears to have had a positive effect on her disease.

Case presentation

A woman in her 80s first presented to her general practitioner in February 2018 with a cough that had persisted for a few months. A chest radiograph was normal and she was treated with a course of oral antibiotics. Despite this, the cough persisted and a repeat chest radiograph in June 2018 showed a new lesion in the right mid zone of the lung. The differential diagnoses at this point include consolidation, primary lung malignancy or lung metastasis from an unknown primary.

The patient has a background of mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (forced expiratory volume in one second: 81% predicted), osteoarthritis and hypertension. She is a current 68 pack-year smoker with no history of alcohol consumption. The patient’s medications are: tiotropium, budesonide/formoterol fumarate and salbutamol inhalers, ramipril, bendroflumethiazide, atorvastatin, aspirin, amlodipine, amitriptyline, lansoprazole and co-codamol.

There was no significant family history of any medical conditions. The results of her general examination were unremarkable with her only being slightly restricted by highly strenous activity, having a World Health Organisation (WHO) performance status grade of 1.

Investigations

The patient underwent a CT scan of the chest in June 2018, which showed a lesion in the right middle lobe of her lung measuring 41 mm at its longest axial diameter. A subsequent positron emission tomography (PET) scan carried out in July 2018 showed this lesion to be avid with a standardised uptake value (SUV) max of 10.5 and a non-specific increased uptake in the head of the right femur. She subsequently underwent a CT-guided lung biopsy and was diagnosed with non-small cell lung carcinoma, not otherwise specified, with a tumour, node and metastases (TNM) staging of T2bN0Mx. Gene mutation testing for anaplastic lymphoma kinase gene and epidermal growth factor receptor gene was negative with<1% of tumour cells expressing programmed death-ligand 1.

Her case was reviewed by the local lung multidisciplinary team (MDT). As she was a potential candidate for treatment with curative intent, further investigations were carried out to look for distant metastases. A CT of the head was normal and an endobronchial ultrasound-guided transbronchial needle aspiration of the subcarinal and left lower paratracheal lymph node showed no evidence of metastases. An MRI of her right thigh showed an abnormal signal in the right femoral head. A bone biopsy showed red marrow hyperplasia with no evidence of malignancy. She also underwent a cardiopulmonary exercise test, which showed a mild VQ mismatch but there was no evidence of cardiovascular or ventilatory limitation.

A repeat CT scan of the chest was carried out in September 2018 once full staging investigations had been completed. This showed that the right middle lobe cancer had reduced to 33 mm but there were new bilateral upper lobe nodules now visible measuring 4 mm in the left apex and 6 mm on the right.

Treatment

The patient was referred to the cardiothoracic surgeons for consideration of a lobectomy, but surgery was declined by the patient following discussions with the surgeons. She was then referred to the oncologists and repeat CT and PET scans were carried out. These restaging scans showed that her cancer had reduced in size (CT: 11 mm reduction; PET: 18 mm reduction; figure 1). The left apical nodule previously seen in the September 2018 CT scan had resolved and the right upper lobe nodule had reduced in size. The patient was offered stereotactic ablative radiotherapy, but she declined this treatment as well. The decision was made to ‘watch and wait’ by carrying out regular CT surveillance of the patient.

Figure 1

Graph showing longest axial diameter of the tumour (mm) in serial CT scans and two PET scans, and start of self-treatment with ‘CBD oil’. CBD, cannabidiol.

 

Outcome and follow-up

Regular CT scans were carried out over the following 2.5 years (at intervals of 3–6 months), which showed the lung cancer to be shrinking progressively (figure 2). The initial 41 mm lesion in June 2018 had reduced to 10 mm in February 2021. This reflects an overall 76% reduction in maximum axial diameter, averaging at 2.4% per month over the whole monitoring period.

Figure 2

Serial CT scans showing the tumour in the right middle lobe of the lung. (A) June 2018, (B) September 2018, (C) November 2018, (D) February 2019, (E) June 2019, (F) October 2019, (G) August 2020, (H) February 2021. Red arrow indicates the tumour location.

 

This case was brought to the attention of the local lung MDT meeting in February 2019 when the serial imaging showed a reduction in tumour size despite having received no conventional treatment for her lung cancer. The patient was contacted to discuss her results, at which point she disclosed that she had chosen to take ‘CBD oil’ as an alternative self-treatment for her lung cancer on the advice of a family member since August 2018, shortly after her original diagnosis. The ‘CBD oil’ was sourced from outside the UK. She was consistently taking 0.5 mL of ‘CBD oil’ occasionally two times per day, but normally three times a day, via ingestion. The supplier advised that the main active ingredients of the ‘CBD oil’ used by this patient were Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) at 19.5%, CBD at 20.05% and tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) at 23.8%. The supplier had advised the patient (via her family member) not to take the 'CBD oil' with hot food or drinks as it could result in symptoms of ‘feeling stoned’. The patient reported that she had a reduced appetite since taking ‘CBD oil’ that may or may not be related to the ‘CBD oil’ intake. There were no other changes to her prescribed medications, diet and lifestyle. She was advised to quit smoking, but she declined, and was smoking one pack a week throughout the surveillance period.

Discussion

We report a case of non-small cell lung cancer that was amenable to conventional treatment options. However, after extensive discussions with the patient regarding the potential treatment options, she declined all treatment options offered so was placed on ‘watch and wait’ surveillance. The patient then chose to take ‘CBD oil’ daily that appears to have had a positive effect on her disease.

Cannabis, Cannabis sativa, is a herbaceous flowering plant that has been used as a natural therapeutic agent since ancient times.3 In 1842, cannabis was introduced into modern medicine for its analgesic, sedative, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic and anticonvulsant effects.4 Cannabinoids are a group of chemicals that are derived from the Cannabis plant, which can directly alter mental state when consumed, which can indirectly lead to physical changes. Of the hundreds of cannabinoids known, the two compounds that have been researched the most are CBD and THC, with THC being a psychoactive compound, whereas CBD is non-psychoactive.

Both of these compounds interact with our body’s endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system is composed of three main parts: the cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2), the endocannabinoids and enzymes. CB1 receptors are found mainly in the brain and central nervous system, and CB2 receptors are found mainly in cells of peripheral organs associated with the immune and haematopoietic system. The endocannabinoids (eg, anandamide and 2-arachidonoylglycerol) are endogenous lipid-based retrograde neurotransmitters that bind to cannabinoid receptors and cannabinoid receptor proteins that are expressed throughout the vertebrate central and peripheral nervous system. The enzymes (eg, fatty acid amide hydrolase and monoacylglycerol acid lipase) are responsible for synthesis and eventual inactivation of the endocannabinoids.5 The endocannabinoid system functions to regulate physiological and cognitive processes, as the endocannabinoids act as neuromodulators. They are involved in a variety of processes, including neuronal function, emotion, feeding and energy metabolism, pain and inflammation, sleep and immune function.6

CBD and THC are chemically similar to our own body’s endocannabinoids. THC has a high affinity to both CB1 and CB2 receptors, whereas CBD has been attributed to work on the enzymes in the endocannabinoid system allowing more endocannabinoids to circulate in the system. These interactions play a role in controlling a cell’s fate by allowing the release of various neurotransmitters, modulating the effects of proteins and nuclear factors that are involved in cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis.6

As a result, the endocannabinoid system has been a focus of many research projects as a potential mechanism for drug treatments. It is widely believed that cannabinoids can provide benefits to people suffering from pain, anxiety and sleep disorders, and their use is well established in palliative care settings. A systematic review in 2015 which looked at 79 trials found evidence that using cannabinoids led to a reduction in chronic pain and an improvement in spasticity in multiple sclerosis or paraplegia. There was also some evidence suggesting that cannabinoids can be used to improve a range of other ailments: nausea caused by chemotherapy, sleep disorders, increasing appetite in HIV infection and Tourette syndrome.7 In the UK, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence provides guidance for the prescription of cannabinoids for patients with intractable nausea and vomiting, chronic pain, spasticity and severe treatment-resistant epilepsy.8

In recent years, research has been undertaken to investigate the potential use of cannabinoids as a direct cancer treatment, but no causative relationship has yet been identified. Studies have shown that cannabinoids have an effect on tumour growth, development, invasion, metastasis and angiogenesis.9 However, various studies have come to conflicting conclusions on the specific effect cannabinoids have on cancer cells. In some cases, CBD has been found to have antiproliferative effects, increase apoptosis in cells and inhibit cancer cell migration, invasion and metastasis.10 These effects were seen when studied on lung cancer cells.11–15 Similarly, THC has been shown in some studies to decrease tumour growth, incidences of benign tumours, invasion of cancer cells and metastatic spread,16–19 but it has also been shown to increase proliferation of cancer cells, including lung cancer cells.20 21 Although there is clearly a potential for cannabinoids to be used as a primary or as an adjunct form of cancer treatment, further research is required to identify exactly which compound works against which specific cancer cell type.

According to the supplier of our patient’s ‘CBD oil’, the active ingredients were roughly equal amounts of THC and CBD. There was also a high amount of THCA, which is the precursor to THC. THCA can be converted into the THC molecule in a process called decarboxylation, which is achieved by using heat. However, our patient was advised by the supplier to not take her 'CBD oil' with a hot drink as it would activate a much higher level of the psychoactive THC compound, so we can assume that the CBD and THC levels stayed roughly equal.

There has previously been a similar case reported, which also showed evidence of tumour reduction after taking ‘CBD oil’, in a patient of a similar demographic with lung cancer (adenocarcinoma).22 However, in this case, the only active component was CBD. In both cases, the patients did not change their lifestyle, medications or diet; and the self-administration of the ‘CBD oil’ seems to be the only explanation for the radiological improvement of their known lung cancer. Due to each case involving a different selection of cannabinoids, it is difficult to conclude if the THC in our case contributed to the lung cancer reduction, or if it was just the CBD component that had a positive effect.

The specific dosage of ‘CBD oil’ that our patient ingested was not consistent, as she would only take 'CBD oil' when she had another family member present as a safety precaution. This means that on some days, she only took 0.5 mL two times per day rather than three times per day. As well as making our patient’s self-treatment harder to replicate, this also serves to highlight the fact that ‘CBD oil’ as a self-administered medical treatment is still viewed by many people as requiring more caution when using than prescribed medications.

We are aware of the limitations of this case report. We are unable to confirm the full ingredients of the ‘CBD oil’ that the patient was taking or to provide information on which of the ingredient(s) may be contributing to the observed tumour regression. Although there appears to be a relationship between the intake of ‘CBD oil’ and the observed tumour regression, we are unable to conclusively confirm that the tumour regression is due to the patient taking ‘CBD oil’.

Existing cancer treatments could have severe side effects, both physically and mentally. This is why our patient decided on non-conventional self-treatment. The limited number of case reports appear to show that ‘CBD oil’ can have positive effects on tumour reduction. More research is needed to identify the actual mechanism of action, administration pathways, safe dosages, its effects on different types of cancer and any potential adverse side effects when using cannabinoids.

The potential for cannabinoids to be used as an alternative to augment or replace conventional primary cancer treatments definitely justifies further research.

Patient’s perspective

I was not very interested in traditional cancer treatments as I was worried about the risks of surgery, and I saw my late husband suffer through the side effects of radiotherapy. My relative suggested that I should try ‘cannabidiol (CBD) oil’ to treat my cancer, and I have been taking it regularly ever since. I am ‘over the moon’ with my cancer shrinking, which I believe was caused by the ‘CBD oil’. I am tolerating it very well and I intend to take this treatment indefinitely.

Learning points

  • A clinician treating a patient with cancer needs to be aware that the patient may be taking non-conventional and unlicensed treatment without the clinician’s knowledge.

  • It is important to take into account a patient’s choices relating to potential side effects when discussing treatment options, and to keep an open mind of the potential benefits of non-conventional treatments.

  • Both oncologists and patients would welcome a cancer treatment option with minimal side effects to replace or augment the current cancer treatments.

  • Further research is needed to focus on the potential use of cannabinoids as a primary form of cancer treatment.

  • The endocannabinoid system controls a wide range of physiological and neurological processes and, therefore, it can be a challenge to isolate a particular response in the context of primary treatment for a specific disease.

Ethics statements

Patient consent for publication

Consent obtained directly from patient(s).

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That's a lot uglier than I expected.  And shouldn't slower traffic keep right? 

At that speed would a dead engine (200 hp?) fixed prop still be windmilling?

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If you have clear skies Saturday night, keep a look out for northern lights as we will be experiencing a major solar storm!

Geomagnetic Storm Watch is in Effect for 30-31 Oct. | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

GEOMAGNETIC STORM WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR 30-31 OCT.

published: Friday, October 29, 2021 17:43 UTC

A G3 (Strong) Geomagnetic Storm Watch is in effect for 30 – 31 October, 2021, following a significant solar flare and Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) from the sun that occurred around 11:35 a.m. EDT on Oct. 28. Analysis indicated the CME departed the Sun at a speed of 973 km/s and is forecast to arrive at Earth on 30 October, with effects likely continuing into 31 October.

When the CME approaches Earth, NOAA’s DSCOVR satellite will be among the first spacecraft to detect the real time solar wind changes and SWPC forecasters will issue any appropriate warnings.

Impacts to our technology from a G3 storm are generally nominal. However, a G3 storm has the potential to drive the aurora further away from its normal polar residence and if other factors come together, the aurora might be seen over the far Northeast, to the upper Midwest, and over the state of Washington.

For additional information about space weather, geomagnetic stormsaurora and viewing tips, and CMEs – click the terms. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center is the official source for space weather forecasts, watches, warnings and alerts. Visit www.spaceweather.gov for updates. Learn about Solar Cycle 25.

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On 10/28/2021 at 1:58 PM, Specs said:

That's a lot uglier than I expected.  And shouldn't slower traffic keep right? 

At that speed would a dead engine (200 hp?) fixed prop still be windmilling?

that looks like a 140 or 180.

I do not tink the engine was "Dead" I believe his comment was it was not making any power.  It may well idle ok.

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