PTW: August 2014

Aug 2014

Constant Progress:

Welcome to the second year of PTW magazine. We have been very fortunate to have had a

great year publishing our magazines and we hope that you have enjoyed reading our magazines and gained an insight into health with a further understanding of the complex world we live in.

As we look to continue development with our projects in Kenya and India, we are making way to make base in Brazil as we speak. Given the current climate and state of the country, we feel that it is an area where our help can have an impact.

In Melbourne we held another Trivia Night which had a great turn out of over 100 supporters. It was great to see so many enthusiastic and generous supporters give to the cause and we hope that all who attend received something from the night. As always, Project Third World thank the efforts of all our volunteers and the night would not have occurred without the combined efforts of the entire team. The winning team on the night was “Lady Board’s CGS Team” captained by one of Project Third World’s own leaders Elizabeth Board, who won the wonderful prize donated by Jetts Gym Doncaster East. Our raffles were won by Sarah Dinh as well as Ivy Kumar, donated by Your Chemist Pharmacy, St Albans. The night would not have been possible without the generous event sponsorship from Bendigo Bank, Lower Templestowe, and Camberwell Grammar.

In Bendigo we will be hosting a similar trivia night for those who could not make the journey all the way down to Melbourne. Along with our developments in Bendigo, we will be expanding our fitness classes to occur on Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday which will be taken by our volunteers. We also thank the Bendigo team for all the efforts they have put into Project Third World this year and this semester with the fitness fundraisers, stalls and upcom-

ing events.

We have also held our fitness special at the Dandenong Mountain’s Kokoda Memorial Track. The cold and drizzly day did not stop our most committed Melbourne volunteers and even Bendigo volunteers. We thank Alitta Berson for conducting a relaxation and meditation workshop on the day as may of the attendees found it beneficial and calming even within the cold elements. For those who were interested in Alittla’s worskops, please visit “www.enquirewithin.com.au”.

As always, Project Third World strives to improve, develop and expand our reach of help not only to the international community, but also our local community, but no one of this will be possible without the ongoing support and commitment from our volunteers, members and supporters. We hope that you can take an active role in Project Third World and help us as a reader and supporter to promote good health and truthful education to the world around you.

-Project Third World

www.projectthirdworld.org @projectthirdworld www.facebook.com/projectthirdworld Aug 2014

VOL. 2, NO. 1 |2014

4| Cover Story: Ryan Doyle a Free Running and Tricking World Champion. The sport which was once seen as young urban junkies jumping from rooftop to rooftop is now being seen as one of the most dynamic sports around. Ryan shares his story of success and discovery.

supported and sponsored Project Third World this year

11| Free Running: this urban art could be the fitness model you’ve been looking for.

16| Positive Thinking can sometimes be hard even in everyday life, but imagine how difficult that must be for a cancer patient. Sadly our resident wellbeing editor knows that reality. She shows you how she remains positive through dark times and how you can do the same in your lives.

13| Cancer, is one of the most common diseases developing in the world, but how much do you know about it? Find out the basics of the disease and why it is so difficult for science to tackle.

18| Antioxidants have been attributed to cancerpreventing properties for years, but how truthful is this? You will find the research out there is not at clear as you might think.

14| Screening for early stages of cancer is the most effective way of combating cancer at the moment. Find out what’s involved in screening here.

15| We take a minute to thank those who have

18| Medical Marijuana is probably one of the biggest regrowing debates this year and has often ignored the views of medics. We looked at the topic from the views of science and medicine to find less promising results than we are being lead to believe

Aug 2014

Ryan Doyle is a World Champion in the sport of Free Running and Tricking, making him one of the most dynamic and versatile athletes around. Throughout his time as a world champion, he has travelled to every corner of the globe which has given him an equally dynamic and versatile view of it. He took the time to share his inAug 2014 credible story with PTW.

Ryan’s rise to becoming a World Free-Running Champion started very early. In fact, since the time he was born, he was on his way to becoming a champion, but it happened through several different sports and activities first.

“When I was two or three years old, I remember playing in my living room with my parents. I did a front-flip and landed sitting on my right wrist and it broke in 3 places; so I quickly learnt about gravity and its consequences. When my parents used to pick me up from the nursery, they would see thirtyeight kids playing inside the Wendy House, and one kid playing on top- and that was me. I was a bit of a crazy kid. I used to end up in hospital a lot; it was more because I had no fear to throw myself around. I was probably more fearless back then and had more mobility back then. You could say I’m still border-line crazy because I often try never-done-before moves, and I do them outside where, if it goes wrong, you’ll probably really hurt yourself.

I mainly started getting active in the genre back in primary school. I remember watching the Olympic gymnastics and thinking to myself “look at what humans can do!” It was almost like superhuman abilities and was quite beautiful. I then went into the playground at school and started to try throwing some backflips. The school picked up on it and they got me to join the primary school gymnastics team. At the time, it was just a bunch of girls in leotards, but I was enjoying it because I got to jump and climb on stuff. There was one or two other guys; so it wasn’t that bad.

When I hit secondary school at the age of eleven or twelve, I

went to an all-boys-school. This sucked because I was with a bunch of lads that just wanted to play football, because I’m in a football orientated city. I didn’t really ‘hate’ football, I just didn’t like it because football was the thing that took away the cartoons when my father came in. Instead I went to my friend’s house. One time we watched a Jackie Chan movie called Project A. It was one of his earlier movies where he was still in China and they were mixing action with acting, and I thought it was amazing to watch, which made me want to join Martial Arts. Later the movie Karate Kid came out and everyone walked out of the cinemas doing fly-kicks.

I had done jujitsu when I was seven, but I didn’t stick at it for long because it wasn’t that fun at the time. It was when I went to secondary school and watched the Jackie Chan movie that I wanted to start again, and do kicks and

Aug 2014

back-flips. I was looking at Taekwondo because I researched that South Korean’s had the best kick-based Martial Arts. We couldn’t find anything in the area, but we found an equivalent called ‘Kuk Sool Won” which is a traditional Korean Martial Arts.

So for the first few weeks we thought we were doing Taekwondo, but got kicked-up pretty badly, because they don’t like Taekwondo. As far as they were concerned, Taekwondo was just teaching people how to win points in a sparring match. Here, they were doing proper tournament training and teaching how to fight.

I remember learning wrist-locks and asking the Sensei “what if the person is a really big door-man or something?” and the Sensei just said “grab his balls and put your finger in his eye socket”. I walked away thinking “wow, I don’t really want to learn how to kill people, I just want to run up walls and stuff”. I knew I could only learn as much as my teacher could teach me. He didn’t know how to run up walls so I knew I wasn’t going to get it from there. I hate starting something and not finishing, so I stuck with it till college to get my black belt. Around fourteen years old we got a hold of the internet, so we had started to explore different people doing similar moves to what we wanted to do”.

In college I started mixing my martial arts with the gymnastics I had learnt from school. I did research online and found out that there was this thing called ‘tricking’ which was actually a mix between gymnastics and martial arts. We started getting into tricking and by 2006, in my second year at university, I entered into the Watford Open National that had

an extreme tricks battle. At university, I was also given my first camera, and as an extracurricular activity, my friends and I put together a Jackie Chan action fight scene called ‘Sacrifice’. We entered it into the National Student Film Festival, but I couldn’t go, because on the same night was the Watford Open National. I sent my parents down to the Film Festival. In the tricking tournament, I smashed the competition, and was followed by a phone call to tell us that we’d won the National Film Festival as well. It was a great feeling to win two National competitions in the one day. My mum was crying her eyes out as usual.”

After rising high, Ryan and his team felt like taking their passion to others and to another level.

“We thought we had to continue in some way, and we formed a group called Airborn. It has exponentially grown since the time we first started. In the beginning, it was just about hiring a hall and finding somewhere to train. With the six years of martial arts, we had that structure in us, and the eagerness in us to mix tricking and martial arts, lead us to teaching kids.

The following year, we had a team entering into the Watford National, and I smashed it again in 2007. I was on this high of being the national tricking champion two years in a row. At the same time, the

kids in our class moved into freerunning. I looked at it and thought “I used to do that as a kid by climbing walls and trees”. At the time it was just precision-jumping, and then parkour was tricking on different levels.

Even now, I tell my students that you can’t have one without the other.

Parkour is about being efficient in getting from A to B, but how do you know that you’re being efficient if you haven’t explored the body’s full potential first. First find out what your body is fully capable off, and then find out what the best way to get from A to B is for you. If you’re a different shape and different size to somebody else, then you’re obviously going to be moving in a different way. You can’t take someone’s opinion about things as concrete. If someone tells you “this is the best and fastest way”, it’s really just the best and fastest way for them, not necessarily for you. That’s the beauty of how different styles came into it. It was always fun to see the banter online between parkour and free running, but they go hand-inhand.”

Soon Free Running was taking off in Britain, and Ryan was in the centre of it. “It brought about a new urban culture. You had the ‘Goths’, ‘Emos’, BMX’ers and the Skaters. Now you have the ‘Free Runners’. The image of a free-runner is that they are out during the day with a camera doing flips and things. At night-time though, they are all on their missions crawling all over the city. I remember doing online calls to some of them in Liverpool and they were calling me from the top of different towers. They weren’t criminals or anything; if anything, they were keeping watch from above.”

Ryan decided his love passion for tricking would be married well with an extensive education in media. It didn’t happen immediAug 2014

ately for him though; Ryan had to work in many different jobs before he started living his dreams. “In University I was doing media. So I was basically making websites,

editing show reels and doing anything and everything in media possible to promote myself and my academy. I was touring with a Christian Rap Band for money on the side, as well as joining a few agencies and doing a few stunt shows during holiday periods.

Things like ‘Marvel Superheroes Go Live’ with Spiderman, Batman and people. I was Daredevil. I got back from these tours with a lot of new material to work with and learnt to hone my skills because I had to do tricks within really tight confinements. I had other jobs too at university. I had a full-time job working at the bingo. I was there for a year, and was working in a local pub before that; so I did have good experiences working the 9-to -5 jobs too.

By 2007, I edited a show-reel called the free-running school. I then decided to make a video of myself in the playground and ‘smashing’ it with tricks and flips.

I loaded the video online, which got me an invitation to the Red Bull Art Of Motion, which was the

first international free-running competition. I thought to myself “I’ve saved money, I’ve just graduated and ready to start my life, so I should just do it”.

I bought my own flight but they gave me accommodation. I got there, and other athletes came up to me and started shaking my hand and knew my name. I kept thinking “this is weird”.

They told me that they had seen my video and told me that it was one of their favourites, so I felt a lot of pressure soon after arriving. I had come up with a new move that year, so I featured it in the event. At the end of the Art of Motion, the top six athletes with the highest score do a run in the finale. I was the last athlete which meant that I had the highest score till that point. I thought “I’m going to go for a double-cork. I’m sure I’ve seen somebody else do it. I’ve never really done it myself before, but I land on a mat. How hard can it be?” I know there’s two different techniques now.

One is much safer than the other.

I took off and did the unsafe one. I hadn’t done it before and took off without much control for the angle, misjudged the landing, and I missed the landing mat by half a foot, landing on my left leg onto the concrete which snapped right through. My whole upper body landed on the crash mat. I heard a horrible snap and saw my shoe swinging. I thought “**** man, my foot is still in that shoe”. There was blood all on the

side of my pants, so I knew it was compound. It turned out that two of my bones had snapped, with one sticking right out of my leg.

They took me to the hospital in Vienna which was a good place to be because they were used to skiing accidents.

In the hospital the nurses were pinning me down whilst the Dr was trying to realign my leg to stop the blood clot. That was the most painful experience ever. Simple things like focusing on breathing was impossible to do when you’re in that much pain. They took me to the local hospital and the doctor told me that they had to operate

straight away. I was on a cocktail of drugs at the time so I thought “yes, get it done”, not really realising what was going on. I woke up in hospital hoping my foot was Aug 2014

still attached. I looked down and just saw a lot of bandages around my foot and leg. I thought “good, it’s all uphill from here”.

It was quite lonely in the hospital as no-one spoke English. I didn’t have any visitors either, except for the day after I woke up from surgery. The competition officials came in with a trophy and told me I had won first place in the competition. They printed me in the newspaper sitting in a wheelchair in a hospital with a trophy.

In hospital I was visited by an American man who gave me a book on American History. He then spoke to me about starting a Federation and doing an MTV series. My first response was “dude, look at my leg, I’m done.

I’m going to go back and probably just work in Bingo again”. He gave me inspirational words and encouraged me to keep going and told me I would heal. The next day I started doing baby push-ups on the bed.

I hand-chose all the athletes for the MTV series. We were coming up with a team thing, but MTV wanted a competition thing. We didn’t like the competition idea but when you’re given such a big opportunity, you take it. We finished the first pilot which was epic. We made friends and connections and eventually got the green light to do a ten-episode series. We got to live in great apartments and shoot episodes of MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge and come up with crazy jump ideas.

As soon as the last episode finished, I was invited by a movie producer to be part of a movie called “The Free Runner”. I jumped at the idea to be part of a Hollywood feature. Victor, the man who got me into the idea of the MTV series was my manager at the time. I was one of the stunt guys. I spent two months choreographing seventeen stunt scene for the movie. It was a crazy environment. People were getting yelled at, arguing, getting sack and everything. For me it was the first time in that kind of environment, so I just took a step back and learnt from everything. I was told that a lot of movies get made but only a few actually get released. I went home and a year later to my surprise, out came Free Runner. I was happy because it wasn’t seen as ‘my’ movie. I was just the bad-guy in the movie.”

Ryan took a short time off from the high-life in America, before embarking on a different journey across the globe. “After returning home from everything, I made this short film called “Never Left Home”. It was just a reel of places I had been to over five years. Red Bull then approached me to do the “Ryan Doyle Travel Story” by Red Bull. They wanted me to travel to the world wonders and do my own little documentary. It was great to travel, but was a bit lonely when you’re basically travelling by yourself. Not only that but you’re training and filming every

day. After three days of intense training in a row, you’re not getting stronger, you’re breaking down physically. It was quite intense conditions. In Mexico I grabbed a red-hot metal bar that had been heating in the sun all day.

It branded my skin and burnt off all the skin in the palm of my hand. After day one, I had my right hand burnt and left leg was rolled. I thought “here we go”.

We went to the ancient pyramids is South America, and looking into all the theories behind their construction. After Mexico, we went to Rio in Brazil. The world wonder is Christ the Redeemer. The statue is not bad in that he has his hands out wide and looking over the city, but it didn’t have that factor of a ‘wonder’ because we know the story and the statue itself is quite modern. It isn’t the biggest statue of Jesus either. So those factors were why we didn’t do the video around Christ the Redeemer.

Instead we wanted to really show the city of Rio, the mountains and the real culture of Rio which is simply overlooked by the statue.

After that, we had India and Jordan back-to-back. In India we filmed at the Taj Mahal. To get to the Taj Mahal, you drive through the city of Agra. The city is not very “touristy”. The place where the Taj Mahal is situated, and its surrounding streets are not what you would expect at a tourist attraction which has been around for so long. The hotel areas were nice, but near the

Aug 2014

entrance to the Taj Mahal itself, you would see pig carcasses, and quite dirty and smelly sights. It was quite an eye-opener of the reality that these people live in.

In Jordan, we were there on one of the hottest summers on record.

There were no tourists because it was just too hot. Meanwhile I was there to go flipping and jumping through their desert. I actually collapsed twice through shooting. I was downing and downing so much water, but never needed to go to the bathroom because it wasn’t getting to my bladder. It was one of my favourite episodes to film though. I wanted to film with other people in these countries from the Parkour Federation because I don’t inspire myself. I get inspired from watching others do tricks, so it was great to meet with all these connections from around the world.

After Jordan, we went to China. I thought I would really try to live those Jackie Chan days again. I did this Jackie Chan action scene with local guys, and I brought in my personal choreographer, which is my brother Anthony, and my friend Terry Cheung. Unfortunately things were just falling apart and the weather was terrible, so the video was a bit scratchy. During the filming, what looked like a mosquito bite on my leg had now turned into a miscoloured swollen

bruise and scab-looking thing. We went to the doctors in China who had a very worried look. I thought “if the doctors look worried, then surely I should be worried”. They tried treating it with IV drips and injections and things. I tried contacting people on Facebook and email and everything but in China, everything is censored. Eventually I managed to get a hold of Red Bull, who put me on an emergency flight home. It turned out to be MRSA which was quite serious

the competition, which I wasn’t feeling up to given that I had been filming and training and flying every day for a week to do the travel story. They then made me a judge instead but everyone wanted me to enter into the competition. I did a couple of tricks for fun and there was one shot I really wanted on camera. The only way I was going to get that shot was if I entered into the competition and qualified.

my first run. After the run, they announced the winners and stthey announced “Ryan Doyle, 1 ”. I was shocked and my team was shocked because we all knew I had nothing planned for the competition final run. Everyone else had played their game up a bit and took on daring and risky jumps and moves, and didn’t land them quite right. I played it safe with my moves but made them look good with no faults in it what-so-

as it had spread a bit.

We then went back to China and just used local teams to film it, which turned into quite a great film. We then went up onto the Great Wall. I was standing on a guard tower that was four inches wide. On the left was a big drop to death and on the right is the inside of the tower. I did a flash-kick, landed it and jumped off. After watching the footage again, I just thought “how did I do a trick like that”. I have no idea how I did it.

We then decided to go to Santorini in Greece for the Red Bull Art of Motion competition as a final episode. The studio entered me into

I went into the competition, planned my trick for the shot, got the shot and continued on in the competition. I qualified ninth but only the top eight go through to the final. The person who came eighth broke his ankle so I automatically went through to the final. I was stressed because I hadn’t planned a second run. I only prepared for the first one to get the shot. I freestyled all of the second run and I started with a smile on my face because I had no idea what I was about to do. I mixed up everything I had been doing from my tour in Brazil with the capoeira, and my time in Japan, and then landed even better than

ever.”

Ryan has already lived an incredibly adventurous and changing life, but that never stops him from reaching to new heights in whatever he does. “Since then, I’ve also been approached by a film company that wants me to play a paraplegic in the future that gets superhuman abilities through technology and then goes on to do all these things. They want me to come up with new movements. Along with that, Ellen DeGeneres’s company asked me to be Ellen’s stunt double, and the Jimmy Fallon Show wanted me for a stunt, so I was doing these kind of things, but

Aug 2014

back at home, I needed to work on Airborn and the teaching. We got together with two families to get Airborn Academy off the ground and that’s what we’ve been really focusing on. It’s now developed into the largest training gym of its kind and it unites all the urban sports and styles.”

In terms of maintaining and keeping himself in shape, Ryan keeps things as diverse and mixed as possible. “I try to do dancing to keep my ankles conditioned. I try to remain flexible and also go to the Airborn gym everyday possible to climb and swing off the bars. With everything that I’ve been doing it is hard to actually keep a proper training schedule.

So, mostly sit-ups, chin-ups, push -ups, swinging on bars, stretching.

Eating varies. Some days I’m training so much I can afford to eat anything, including McDonalds.

Other days I’ll go healthy. I go through phases where I will only eat fish and veggies. I feel anything is okay as long as it’s in moderation and balances with training. When I’m away I tend to drink a lot of coffee and Red Bull; diet just has to go with the place that you’re in.”

When Ryan travelled the world, he learned that people from around the world have one, yet very often overlooked trait that unites us allthat we are all human. What I’ve noticed amongst people that travel the planet, is that they’ve learnt to read people through body language and through their eyes to have an idea of what’s going on.

Using that as language, you can navigate the world. At the end of the day, we are all human. Life can be simple and you don’t really need a structured form of communication for humans to understand one another. It’s funny, I put the news on and see all these political wars and things. Then I get on a plane and go to these countries, and the people I meet are all happy. I meet with the free-runners in these countries and they all know about the amount of propaganda in the media.

When I travelled the world, I found what I was looking forhome. When you travel the world, you want to find somewhere new and find another place that you want to live. When you see the entire planet, you realise what’s out there and it makes you realise that where you’re from isn’t that bad. People are always complaining about life with the laws and politics at home, but it’s a small price to pay to be able to just go down to the cinema, go to a supermarket, go home, put on a TV, have internet access; the smaller things that quickly go overlooked.”

Despite his earlier injury, Ryan never let it stop him from rising to new heights, and even used it to his advantage. “I had a titanium bar in my leg when I won the competition, but I never felt it held me back. I get a little bit of a weird feeling in my leg, but nothing that is going to stop me. Given the state that I was in at the injury, in comparison to that, I like to think I’ve made a one-hundredper-cent recovery. The injury also added to my style a bit, where I learnt to take off and land on the one leg. My style developed and adapted to that injury.”

In terms of being an icon in his sport, Ryan believes everyone can be as good as him without ever trying to be him. “I like the slogan “be strong to be useful”. You can do it really cool, but now do it for the purpose of manual rather than to be cool. I also think there’s a lot of confusion about what the image of a free-runner is.

A lot of kids get into it because they like the image of it and because it’s “cool”. There’s a lot of different images of freerunners, all with different stories. If they want to be a free-runner I tell them to be themselves and be the best that they can be.

Just because I’m wearing something doesn’t mean you need to. If you copy Aug 2014

me, you’re just going to be a watered down version of me.

You’re never going to look like me or move the same way as me.

You need to look like you and move like you in order to be the best you can be. When you can do that, no one will be able to do it like you. That’s always why it’s hard to actually judge people and their styles in competition. Just because someone wins, doesn’t mean that they are the best. It just means that they are the best suited to that course. If you change the course or the arena, you’re probably going to get a different winner.”

Whilst Ryan has had a very victorious and successful career so young, his focus has always been kept to the reason he started all those years ago, and has been cemented by his journeys. “I have never done all this for the money, the fame or the winning or success. I always did it for the sport and the shot: capturing a picture with the right angle and right image in the moment.

Free Running: Urban Culture’s Finest ~Chirag Lodhia There is nothing quite like seeing a human in all its grandeur tackling the environments of the world. By this, I do not mean a CEO with the political and economic proficiency to burn through rainforests in order to churn profits, nor do I mean the muscular man heaving the heavy axe to raze a timeless oak tree to the ground. Rather, I allude to the functional archetype that Tarzan is based upon. The original Man vs Wild. Man with nothing but himself (and his clothes for modesty) overcoming mother nature’s challenges. The human who could raise the pinnacle of his performance and master his surroundings without any damage or destruction to the environment or himself. The human who can lift his own body to the highest height with his bare hands. The human who is one with the environment.

Of course, Tarzan was mythical, however; his bodily abilities are not. In fact in sporting culture, we have seen elements of him on the gymnastic floor and within martial arts. These however are still within the closed environments of sporting arenas. What if we took the untamed Tarzan, and put him into our modern and urban world?

We would probably get a FreeRunner or parkour athlete. You might familiarise with this sport from many Hollywood movies which involves stunt actors jumping from rooftop to rooftop, or jumping from unimaginable heights and then land, somersault and continue unaffected. The type of stunts that involve people back flipping through the top window of a building, rather than just using the door, or climbing from pole to pole outside a building to reach the top floor, rather than just using an elevator or stairs. Yes, those people who look like they are trying to connect to their primate roots are actually athletes tackling the urban environment.

So what exactly is this sport of Free Running? Well, it is said to have spawned in France as early as the 1900s as a skill for the French military, after a naval officer saw the skills being applied by locals in the French Caribbean. He was said to have been inspired by the level of agility that the people had, and their ability to navigate through any environment. This supposedly gave rise to Parkour which was the sports-applied version, which subsequently gave rise to the art of Free-Running.

The sport aims to train both the mind and the body, and develop spatial awareness, creativity, humility and collaboration. It tries to teach people how to overcome both physical and mental obstacles as

simply, efficiently and economically as possible.

This means that free-running can be as simple as stepping onto a platform, or as dynamic as running and climbing a 4 metre wall. It can mean running in a straight line from ‘A’ to ‘B’, or jumping, weaving and flipping your way around obstacles to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’ as quickly and as energy-efficiently as possible.

There are many advantages to taking up this sport.

For one, it might help you get the tennis ball stuck on the roof without a ladder, and also to look impressive to your friends. It is designed to develop and condition your body without needing to lift weights and can develop your strength, agility, coordination, balance and more from head to toe. The philosophy of the sport also aims to keep the body from receiving any damage or injuries regardless of the impressive movements tackled, and teaches you a new way of looking at the world around you, and help develop your mind to focus, stay calm and tackle any obstacle that the world offers; and yes, it might help you obtain that Tarzan physique if all the above isn’t good enough. The great thing is that practicing won’t require equipment or a partner or specific environment, making it a great no-excuse sport.

Despite all these great advantages, it is also incredibly dangerous if not learnt properly. Luckily, parkour and free-running federations around the world offer classes and training sessions for people of all ages and abilities. All you have to do is type ‘parkour’ and the name of your city or country into google and you will be given a list of great options.

Whether you want to do the sport for the thrills and experience, or just want to master your own body, mind and environment, parkour and free running may be your answer.

Aug 2014

Cancer is probably the biggest battle in our age of medicine.

With the prevalence of cancer increasing, media talking about cancer more, and health claims surrounding cancer, we thought we would look at cancer and help you get a better and truthful understanding of the horrific disease.

Aug 2014

Cancer: Regulation Gone Wrong

~Chirag Lodhia

If I was to ask anyone what the defining health issue of our age is, there’s a good chance the response would be ‘cancer’. Whilst they have battled for decades to combat cancer and find a cure, scientists are still struggling to gain the upper hand on this torturous and often fatal disease.

Cancer’s prevalence seems to be increasing, funding for cancer research is increasing and unfortunately almost every person today will know a person with cancer, or heard a personal story of a person with cancer, or tragically, have cancer themselves.

Despite this, we still don’t have a full understanding for cancer, which is partially why it has been such a struggle to find therapy to cure or even effectively manage cancer. Let us look at what we do know: Cells make up our entire body. Everything from our hair, to our tongue, skin, heart, bone and brain are made up of cells. There are over 100 trillion cells that make up the human body, and cancer can originate in just one of these cells.

Cancer is not simply a defect in a cell, but rather, in the DNA within that cell. DNA is a double-helix structure inside the nucleus of every cell that is like a blueprint for the factory workings of the body.

Groups of DNA make genes. Every cell contains a copy of this blueprint. Different parts of DNA will result in different products to be created and code for different processes to occur. It is DNA that encodes for whether you are a male, female, tall, short and can even code for certain health conditions to arise.

Whilst we might remain oblivious to it, the cells in our body are constantly ‘dying’ and being replaced with new and healthy cells. Trauma and infection can cause cell death, but natural cell death is always occurring and it is actually DNA that ensures that old, damaged or unhealthy cells are destroyed to allow healthy and new cells to take their place. The new and healthier cells actually form because cells replicate themselves. Again, it is DNA that allows for this process to occur. In a simple explanation, the replicated cell copy lives on whilst the older ones eventually die. This process of cell replication and programmed cell death is normally well controlled and regulated by DNA. Now, cancer occurs as a result of mutations to the DNA that normally controls cell replication or programmed cell death. These mutations to these parts of the DNA promote excess cell replication and growth, or removes the mechanisms which cause natural cell death. Either way, the combination of these two mutations in a cell results in cells replicating rap-

idly and uncontrollably. With the cells in our body replicating uncontrollably, it results in serious health issues including organ damage or complete loss of function in organs. Left unchecked, these cells which are replicating and not dying can spread and grow over larger areas of the body and as a result, start causing the same issue in other organs.

Whilst cancer might arise in this manner, it can have very different characteristics depending on the cell and organ in which is originates. This is why skin cancer is very different to breast cancer which is very different to pancreatic cancer, and so-on.

Even at a basic level, it isn’t hard to imagine just how hard it must be to form therapies to cure cancer.

Firstly, if every cancer is different in some way, then that means we need different medications for all the different types of cancer. Secondly, when the issue is at DNA level, it is not as simple as blocking an enzyme in our body or increasing a compound in our body.

The most major difficulty in the fight against cancer is also what makes cancer so terrifying– cancer cells are almost an identical copy of our own cells. That means that almost all the medications or chemicals we use to kill or destroy the cancer cells will probably do the same to our own cells, and this is a component of why chemotherapy and radiation have so many side-effects. Even though we try to target cancer cells, it unfortunately causes the same result to our healthy cells and can often be self-destructive in the hope that the cancer cells will receive more damage than our healthy cells.

It is also very hard to “cure” cancer. Even if we remove a part of an organ infected with cancer or destroy an entire area of the body containing cancer cells, it only takes one cancer cell to live on or reappear and start the whole terrible cycle again.

Whilst cancer is a ruthless and difficult disease to fight against, screening and checking your body regularly for signs of cancer can give a seriously higher chance of winning the fight against cancer. Cancer often remains undetectable until it is at large within our body, but new screening tools are being developed and refined to help us detect cancer cells in our body at the earliest stages. All different cancers will have different signs and screening methods, and so it is always important to learn the different signs from your doctor or cancer foundations, as well as visiting the doctor or screening locations every couple of years. What may seem like an unnecessary trip to the doctor could very much save your life.

Aug 2014

Detection Is Our Best Defence Did you know that cancer is one of the major causes of death in Australia? By the age of 85, 1 in 2 Australian men and 1 in 3 Australian women will be diagnosed with cancer. Whilst the highest cancer rate for men and women internationally is in Denmark, followed by France, Australia is third highest.

Although, these statistics are alarming and concerning, the survival rate for many common cancers in Australia has increased by 30% in the past two decades, and more than 60% of people diagnosed with cancer in Australia will survive more than five years after their diagnosis. One of the main reasons for this improvement is due to the high quality of cancer screening and tests available in Australia, as well as strong records of early diagnosis.

Cancer screening involves conducting a test on an individual for signs of the disease, ideally before it causes symptoms. Tests are offered to people who may have an increased risk of a particular disease because of their age, gender or other factors.

It’s important to remember that a screening test cannot diagnose cancer. To make a cancer diagnosis, further investigations are necessary to confirm the findings of a screening test. I’ll go through just some of the most common and highly recommended tests: Breast Cancer Screening: BreastScreen Australia is the national breast cancer screening program. It provides free mammogram screening every two years for women aged 50-69.

Women aged 40-49 and 70 years and older, who have no breast cancer symptoms or signs, are also eligible for free screening mammograms. Your local GP can provide breast cancer screening service recommendations.

Cervical Cancer Screening: All women over 18 who have ever had sex are advised to have a Pap smear every two years, even if they no longer have sex. Your local GP should provide this service.

There are two costs involved in having a Pap smear: the consultation with the GP or nurse; and the Pap smear pathology test. Many GP’s, clinics, health centres and pathology providers ‘bulk bill’ which means there is no cost to you for the Pap smear and/or the consultation.

~Rebecca Meldrum

Bowel Cancer Screening: Bowl cancer screening involves a test for bowel cancer in people who do not have any obvious symptoms of the disease. The National Bowel Cancer Screening Program in Australia provides free at-home tests to people aged 50, 55, 60 and 65 years. However, screening is recommended every two years for those aged over 50 years.

Skin Cancer Screening: Skin cancer screening can be conducted by your GP or by a specialist. It is recommended that you check your own skin regularly (roughly every three months), and that you see your GP every year for a skin check. There may be costs associated with skin cancer screening which may include the consultation with the GP or nurse and/or the consultation from a specialist.

Prostate Cancer Screening: Unlike cancers of the bowel, breast and cervix, there is insufficient evidence to support the benefits of populationbased screening for prostate cancer. It is very common for men over 50 to experience symptoms related to changes in urinary flow, urgency or control. These changes are often caused by the slight enlargement of the prostate, which is non-cancerous. Regardless, it is still recommended that a GP is consulted if any changes are noticed. Two easily run and very common tests for prostate cancer are the PSA test and a digital rectal examination.

There are many different types of cancers and each type of cancer is very different. This means that each cancer has a very different test. It is important to talk to your doctor to see if a general screening for any cancer is recommended. You may also request a screening test from your doctor, even if they do not feel you are at risk. Unfortunately, a general trend amongst cancers is that they are silent until it is too late. Just because you are healthy, does not mean that you shouldn’t get a regular check-up. Apart from potentially saving your life, it is a little discomfort for a big peace of mind.

Aug 2014

Bendigo Bank Templestowe Village has been an ongoing supporter and sponsor for Project Third World. They continue to demonstrate their will to help the community and the world through their sponsorship, and have most recently funded our Melbourne Trivia Night. Project Third World thanks Bendigo bank for their generosity and philosophy of helping the community.

Coles has helped Project Third World in several aspects throughout the years through their various branches. Coles Kangaroo Flats sponsored our 2013 Bendigo Trivia Night whilst Coles Bendigo sponsored our 2014 Bendigo Trivia Night and health-food stall. We thank Coles for their contributions to helping promote healthy eating and living.

Camberwell Grammar has been an ongoing supporter and sponsor of Project Third World. They have been central to Project Third World management and development as well as promoting Project Third World and hosting many Project Third World events. We thank Camberwell Grammar for their universal support to Project Third World.

The Bendigo Students Association have supported all Project Third World activities in Bendigo including the fitness fundraisers, trivia nights, health promotion days and student stalls. We thank the BSA for their instrumental role in developing and supporting Project Third World and its volunteers and members.

Bendiweb have supported Project Third World’s online interface. By providing and supporting a website and email account, as well as ongoing advice and help, bendiweb have contributed significantly towards Project Third World’s ability to reach out to the world and share our vision.

Your Chemist have been an ongoing supporter and sponsor for Project Third World. Through continuously donating products and information regarding health, they have demonstrated a belief in making the world a better place through supporting health and education for all.

Health Foods Foundation in Bendigo have been generous in supporting our Project Third World: World Cup by donating a gift towards the winners. We thank Health Foods Foundation for supporting Project Third World and promoting health and active lifestyles.

Sportsco in Bendigo have been generous in supporting our Project Third World: World Cup by donating a gift towards the winners. We thank Sportsco for supporting Project Third World and promoting health and active lifestyles.

Jetts Gym in Doncaster East have been generous in supporting our Project Third World Melbourne Trivia Night by donating a gift towards the winners. We thank Jetts Gym for supporting Project Third World and promoting health and active lifestyles.

Aug 2014

It is very difficult to remain positive all the time throughout life, especially when you have a life threatening and debilitating illness. I’ll show you how I stay positive despite negative times. ~Regena Margaret I am not going to talk about what it is like to have cancer. It is awful, and as 1 in 3 people are diagnosed with some form of cancer throughout their lives, it is hard to find someone who is not educated in the side-effects of cancer treatments of chemotherapy and radiation. Instead I am going to take you through how I have found the positivity, energy, motivation and courage to get through this extremely trying time in my life. Most of my methods are conventional, some are not, but I hope that whoever is reading this finds some useful tips in dealing with their own, or family members, diagnosis. Some of these techniques are not specific to cancer either, and can help promote general positivity in anyone. One thing we have to remember is that although we cannot “cure” cancer, we sure as heck can beat it with a holistic approach which incorporates a multitude of techniques and methods from the medical model to alternative paradigms.

The absolute most important piece of advice I can offer you is this: Don’t be hard on yourself. Your body is going through massive trauma, it is fighting and it is struggling and if you are still alive, even if you cannot get out of bed, then you are winning.

Don’t ever start thinking that the cancer will beat you. At the same time, allow yourself to feel down emotionally if that is what is happening inside you.

Don’t push yourself for anything either. At this particular time you need to accept all the help from others that you can, and most importantly, you need to surround yourself with positive people who will not let you give up, even when you are throwing up through your tears and a bloody nose at 3am. Supportive people and a positive outlook are your best weapons against cancer; if your intent is not there, then no amount of drugs or juice will be able to help.

Whilst this method of thinking helps in cancer, it can also help the everyday person remain positive. Here are a few more ways which you can try, some as a cancer patient, but many for just general people, who want to feel more positive and good about life:

for me to maintain my body’s needs, even whilst not being able to eat solids or keep liquids down. Juicing involves extracting the nutrients from the pulp and skin of the vegetable or fruit you choose, and aims to ease digestion within the body. I have found Juicing vegetables and fruits is the easiest and most delicious way of preserving my body’s health throughout this difficult time. I have known a few women who have had cervical cancer and other types of cancer, and these women tragically became wraiths of their former selves. With the aide of juicing I have managed to keep my weight loss to less than 15kg and I strongly feel juicing helps this. To find more information, visit The Gerson Foundation which is looking at the potential benefits of fighting cancer with juicing.

Relaxation is something that we all need on a daily basis, however when your body is fighting a battle, you will need much more than you would consider normal. Being on bed-rest is essential for the recovery of the body and immunity, and for people like me who like to be up and about, it can be torturous lying down day after day, not knowing when you will next be able to run across a beach or feel the wind in your hair on a rollercoaster or even just have visitors for over two hours without falling asleep. To help, I came up with a multitude of things to keep me entertained whilst in bed; my body is out of commission for the moment but my head is not and so I decided to keep exercising it with small activities

The most useful method I have so far found for assisting my body to retain nutrients has been juicing.

Juicing, although not a medical approach, is one of the best complimentary techniques that has worked Aug 2014

that are fun, easy and able to do from bed:

Word Searches: Sure, Crosswords may be better for long-term memory assistance, however when you are on chemotherapy your brain does not work as clearly as it usually does, answers do not come as quickly, and a feeling of frustration becomes present as you throw the crossword across the room, panicked that normal brain function will not return. Enter- my mother with a word find book and a case of coloured pencils! I have done 58 of the word finds and still have over 40 to go. It is light fun with a slight educational twist and it really helped me feel productive, even as I lay in bed.

Drawing: allowing your creativity to flow through your hands onto a piece of paper is beautiful. If you feel up to it you may even look up an Art Therapy Technique to complete. I began drawing a few days before my diagnosis, when I was confused and unsure of what was happening. I ended up creating a 60 page colouring book which my mother helped me with.

We printed and sold it, giving the profits to a local food shelter.

Self-Discovery: I have been on an existential search since I was 6 years old, so as soon as I was told to “take time out” I began a personal research task into “Who Am I?” I have done quizzes online, done the Briggs-Meyer personality test, taken Oprah’s “Who Are You Meant To Be” challenge, drawn Mandala’s, played with Caroline Myss’s “Archetype Cards” and been through a cornucopia of Art Therapy, Hypnotherapy and Holistic Counselling techniques to not only figure out who I am, but also how I felt about my current situation. Even if introspection is not something you enjoy in your spare time, you should at minimum seek professional services from a counsellor as a diagnosis like this is huge and can affect many to all aspects of your life. Counselling services are offered by many hospitals and different oncologists prefer different counsellors. There are cancer support groups found at http://www.cancervic.org.au/ how-we-can-help/find-a-support-group and also

many telephone counselling services. Self-discovery can be achieved from bed.

Other activities that can help in a general setting include: Reading; Why not catch up on that big pile of “To Read” books that you’ve been ignoring!

Knitting; if you are not too sore, knit a scarf or blanket for a family member, friend or even to donate.

Catch up on your favourite show:; My partner has been picking up one season per week of my favourite shows and I am almost up to date which is very exciting!

There are further relaxation methods I use which cannot be achieved from bed, so if you are having a relatively good day and feel up to trying something why not visit Hot Springs. With natural hot spring water being pumped directly from the earth to the pools, these baths are full of minerals which are great for the skin, the ambience is relaxed, they offer massages which I personally found very helpful with my aches and pains, and they also do fresh juicing at their Dreaming Centre Café, taking away the stress of “what am I going to eat” and allows thoughts such as “shall I nap in the relaxation room or visit the pool with a 360 degree view of the valley instead?” to enter your mind.

Aug 2014

Antioxidants: Friend or Foe?

~Sonia Kaurah

Antioxidants were brought to our attention and plastered across our screens and papers in the early 1900’s when scientists discovered their ability to neutralise free radical damage that was involved in the progression of cancers and other chronic ailments. Antioxidant’s come in a variety of forms; with the most commonly being Vitamin A, E and C which are found in their highest doses in colourful fruits and vegetables. In science terms, it was thought that these vitamins could stop the chain reaction of free radical formation by donating an electron and neutralising molecules and therefore suppressing growth- basically, stop cancer growths from occurring.

Nowadays people will spend hundreds of dollars a year on antioxidant supplements as they are claimed to be the complete health saviour, preventing cancers and other diseases; which is true for tests performed in laboratories and

the theory of the chemical reaction when put on paper; however, how much did we know about the effects of antioxidant’s in living people? Not enough research was performed to allow prescribed high doses of antioxidants to COPD or cancer patients.

Free radicals contribute to chronic diseases; from cancer to heart disease to dementia, however this doesn’t automatically mean that substances with antioxidant properties will solve the problem, especially not when they are taken out of the simplified laboratory and put into the far more complex human body.

A recent study performed by Swedish scientists has shown the opposite of this hype, and have taken antioxidants off their pedestal.

They found that two particular antioxidants can actually fuel the growth of lung cancers in mice.

Martin Bergo’s team at the University of Gothenburg showed that not

Aug 2014

only do antioxidants neutralize reactive oxygen species in tumours it also does so in healthy cells. Furthermore they found that they were helping the tumour reduce radicals that would otherwise block its growth, therefore with the lack of suppression the tumour is free to speed up its growth. In other words, it showed that when cancer is present, antioxidants just helped the cancers grow.

This research is particularly important for patients who are treating illnesses through an increased dosage of antioxidants such as patients with COPD who are prescribed large amounts of Nacetylcysteine to relieve the build up of mucus in their airways; however we have to decide if this temporary relief outweighs the potentially lasting damage caused.

Few studies have delved into the reasons for these paradoxical effects; however enough studies have been published to promote cause for concern. The results from the Swedish scientists fit with results from a long line of human clinical trials, in which antioxidants failed to prevent disease or worse, promote tumours. The original study published as early as 1994 demonstrated that male smokers who took beta-carotene supplements were more likely to develop and die of lung cancer than those who did not take any supplements. The Cochrane Collaboration in 2012 analysed the results of 78 previous trials and concluded that individuals who took antioxidant supplements were more likely to die prematurely than those who did not take any. Other trials found similar results with some even stopping

trials early due to the results and ethical complications.

Even though Martin Bergo’s team focused on mice in this particular study, they still found the same mechanisms at work in human cells. Furthermore they used mice with the same genetic defects as those that cause human lung cancers, and whose tumours looked microscopically identical to the human cells. Bergo’s team is now performing similar experiments in melanomas, leukaemias, and gastrointestinal tumours to investigate whether the same mechanisms hold true for other types of cancer.

In saying this, the studies as a whole are inconclusive and in general don’t provide strong evidence that antioxidant supplements have a substantial impact on disease. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the trials conducted to date have had fundamental limitations due to their short duration and having been conducted on individuals with existing diseases.

Even though the picture still remains inconclusive, there is enough research conducted to provide reason for caution. Therefore I will always reiterate the theory of everything in moderation. Do not cut out fruits and vegetables from your diet because they contain antioxidants; by doing this you are removing other important vitamins and nutrients that these fruits and vegetables contain. As for their antioxidant properties, eating in moderation and not focusing on a high intake is a safe idea, as is with any foods.

Heat Up The Winter Chills With A Heathly Dose Of Indian Spice Dahl is typically found in the staple Indian diet. Indian culture traditionally includes being vegetarian. As such, traditional Dahl recipes have always been a good source of protein for vegetarians, and is a healthy alternative many other Indian dishes fried or cooked in high amounts of ghee and butter. Our friends at Wholefoods Monash gave us a simple and easy Dahl recipe that you can try at home.

Ingredients: 2 cups red lentils Water ¼ tsp turmeric ½ tsp coriander powder ½ tsp cumin powder ¼ tsp garam masala Rice or Flat Bread Method: Wash the lentils, place in a pot and add water to approximately 10cm above the lentils.

Add the turmeric and cook on medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring regularly so that it does not catch on the bottom. Towards the end of the cooking period, add the salt.

In a frying pan, heat small amounts of oil and add the coriander, cumin and garam masala.

Combine with the cooked dahl. Garnish with coriander leave and enjoy with rice or flat bread.

Aug 2014

Editorial: Medical Marijuana is one

of the most heated debates between politicians, activists and the media. The debate involves very serious claims of “safe medicine”, and “cancer curing properties” but what does the general consensus of medicine and scientists around the world have to say? We look at the debate from science’s position.

Aug 2014

Plants tend not to cause controversy. They generally remain where they are and keep to themselves; but one plant has managed to find its way into the bad books and become the source of alluring headlines in the media, and even major topics in political houses.

This notorious plant, as ancient as the Greek and Roman Empires, is marijuana. Marijuana is probably the most controversial plant of all time and has lured political activists, freedom fighters, politicians, journalists and the general public to dive into the very murky and opaque waters of medical science. Such people who dive into these waters often come out with profound claims for its use including “the best pain cure”, “cancer-curing properties”, “government and pharmaceutical company conspiracies” and “revolutionary medicine”. Some doctors and scientists have even put their hand in and claimed that the cannabinoid system is “the human body’s most important system”. If this is the case, then why hasn’t it been legalised worldwide and why is it not being prescribed by doctors? It sounds like something everyone should be taking. Given that university degrees based on the combination of chemistry and therapy never mentioned the cannabinoid system to be the most important system in the body, I thought I’d better research the topic. I don’t know much about marijuana, but like everyone else, I thought I might talk a little about it, only this time, I won’t go based upon one or two people’s experience, or one or two doctors, nor the media; instead, I will turn to the large consensus of medical professionals and scientists.

Let’s start with the very basics. What is marijuana (also known as cannabis)? Marijuana is a mixture of various dried leaves, shredded leaves, stems, seeds and flowers from the Cannabis Sativa plant. These

various constituents of the plant contain a huge variety of chemicals including phytocannabinoids, terpenoids, hydrocarbons, nitrogen-containing compounds, carbohydrates, flavonoids, fatty acids, noncannabinoid phenols, simple alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, acids, esters, lactones, vitamin K, and several elements including sodium, potassium, mercury, copper and manganese (Brenneisen, 2007). In other words, marijuana contains a huge pleather of chemicals.

For the moment, let’s ignore the 400-plus compounds found in this plant that are inhaled or eaten when taking marijuana, and just focus on the one compound which marijuana is famous for: Δ-9tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly known as ‘THC’. THC is the main compound in marijuana that activates cannabinoid receptors in the body (Costa, 2007). Activation of the cannabinoid receptors have been shown to induce analgesia (reduced pain perception) along with other effects in the body. There are also other neuropharmacological mechanisms through which cannabinoids produce effects that are not fully understood (Gilman, 2014). Marijuana is usually smoked in order to feel the effects.

Whilst cannabis contains a cannabinoid-receptoragonist, the term ‘cannabinoid’ refers to the entire range of cannabinoid agonists, whether that be from the plant or from synthetic products. Pharmaceutical companies have researched and developed synthetic chemicals which also activate cannabinoid receptors, just like marijuana. This includes the medications nabixamol, nabilone and dronabinol. These medical products replicate the THC part of marijuana to get the possible therapeutic benefits without the inconsistency, unreliability and unwanted compounds

Aug 2014

that the full plant may have. The major downside is that these synthetic versions don’t have the other compounds that might have an effect on the therapy, and are very expensive medications, meaning that many people won’t be able to afford them.

So where do we stand with this plant? In America, the states of Colorado and Washington have legalised marijuana for recreational use. Very recently New York legalised it. 20 states have medical cannabis legalised whereby people can go into medical centres to buy cannabis for medical use and smoke or eat it for their medical condition. In areas of America, it is approved for medical use in nausea and vomiting for cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy and to stimulate appetite in patients with AIDS and chronic wasting-away diseases. In the UK it is approved for chronic neuropathic pain and muscle spaciscity in Multiple Sclerosis. Uruguay have taken things one step further by legalising the growth, selling and use of marijuana. In Australia, marijuana is illegal without certain permits and requirements.

With America relaxing their laws for marijuana use, there has been a reduction in criminalisation and imprisonment. There has also been an increasing rise in hospital admissions due to cannabisrelated issues and there is also an

increase in people seeking treatment for problems caused by marijuana. Meanwhile, cannabis use across the globe has dropped overall, particularly in Europe.

Now that we have a very general sense of what cannabis and marijuana is, let’s go over the health claims. Current claims are that cannabinoids such as marijuana have abilities to increase weight by increasing appetite, and also reduce vomiting.

This makes theoretical sense, but cannabinoid studies show much more modest effects than being claimed and the studies on use in HIV for appetite stimulation are ambiguous and questionable and lacks significant efficacy and safety profiles (Lutge, 2012).

The argument for it was over a decade ago when the proposal for marijuana use was first sparked.

Since then, medications to stop nausea and vomiting have developed significantly. Michael Farrell, Director of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre in Australia explained to us “It appears that the benefits from some of the more effective antinausea medication today are indicated for first-line therapy rather than cannabinoids. With the new generation of antiretroviral medications, this issue of wasting disease in HIV isn’t as large an issue as it once was.” This has now Aug 2014

made the use of cannabis much less significant in HIV and AIDS. There might be a use for cannabinoids in these areas as an additional medication with other medications, but would never be used as the first-choice or on its own.

Professor Michael Farrell, found that use in Multiple Sclerosis for muscle spasticity or neuropathic pain seems to be an area of promise. Unfortunately he also states the current evidence is also quite modest and there is no strong effect in the main studies and so further studies need to be done before it can be confirmed to have a safe and strong use (Farrell, 2014).

In America, marijuana is also indicated for epilepsy in some states.

Whilst animal studies show it has anti-epileptic effects, there are no validated trials involved that test this in human patients with epilepsy (Gloss, 2012). From the research that has been conducted, there is no reliable data that can be used to determine its effective use in epilepsy. Safety of its use also needs to be accounted for, especially in long-term use.

There is also some theoretical rationale for the use of cannabinoids in dementia- particularly Alzheimer’s disease. Again, several papers were published on the topic, and unfortunately there is no evidence to support this theory, and similar to everything so far, they generally do not show evidence for use in dementia (Krishnan, 2009).

Another suggested use is for schizophrenia, and again, it is not possible to say if cannabis will help improve the disease state, or rather, cause deterioration of mental health in people with schizophrenia (Dornan, 2011).

The biggest area of interest in the media is the use of cannabinoids for nausea and vomiting in cancer patients who are receiving chemotherapy. To be blunt, this area has very little reliable data or evidence that can show marijuana to be useful or even safe for use in cancer (Todaro, 2012); and anecdotal websites, newsfeeds, blogs, newspaper articles, current-affair shows and posts written by general

people in society do not constitute reliable as far as science is concerned, let alone medicine. One study some time ago showed that they may have use as a moodenhancing adjuvant in chemotherapy, but have shown to have potentially serious adverse effects even when taken short term (Tramér, 2001).

One of the more fundamental uses of marijuana is in pain relief and cannabis certainly has been documented for these effects. Professor Michael Farrell explained that his investigation into this area shows that “Nabixamol looks to meet regulatory requirements that would be the best option for legalised cannabis and tests should be done for its indication and usefulness in pain and chronic pain. It’s really important that we get good quality research on and around this topic. Research on pain is difficult to do because there are different types of pain. There is also almost no good data to compare <different pain relief medications> and I don’t know how easy it will be to compare them either.

There are not many studies on combination therapies in analgesia either. We are doing a study on cannabis use in chronic nonmalignant pain. We also have to be careful when comparing pain in different chronic diseases. There have also been some powerful medications that make cannabis look pretty benign from a safety aspect. We try to stick with the evidence and what we see. There is a strong efficacy group that try to claim greater benefits than what we can see in published results and we need to be careful about

people with very chronic conditions who are really struggling. They are now expecting to be fixed with things <that don’t have evidence>. In some testimonial cases it may occur for individuals but it very much doesn’t occur for

everybody”.

So, things aren’t as straight forward when science and evidence is actually reviewed. Professor Michael Farrell also went into details on the general effects of the drug.

“Immediate effects for these drugs include anxiety, feelings of discomfort, euphoria, tranquillity, difficulty in memory recall as well as well as difficultly in processing thought, altered perception of vision and hearing, dizziness, dry mouth, paraesthesia, weakness, lack of coordination, fatigue and sleepiness, as well as other endocrine effects. These effects are somewhat subjective. To one person, these effects may be seen as very dangerous and very discomforting, but to others who use marijuana, these effects can bring pleasure, and is why they use the drug”.

Obviously long term effects occur too. The main concern is that people may develop habit and dependence on cannabis, as well as men-

Aug 2014

tal health issues associated with cannabis. Those with a family history of mental health issues have a serious risk of developing a psychotic illness from the use of cannabis, which is a very serious complication (Volkow, 2014).

Again, Professor Farrell gave us a good explanation for cannabis addiction. “There is roughly a 1-in10 chance of developing addiction on the drug when introduced strictly from a therapeutic approach. If we look at opioids, which are purely used to reduce pain, the rate-of-dependence of opioid use in therapy is much less than the dependence in the general public”. If marijuana was legalised for social use, it could have a similar trend to opioids where dependence rates increase significantly through society.

Chronic use of cannabis has been highly associated with chronic and serious lung conditions and may also lead to people becoming more prone to infection (Howden, 2011). It is also being looked into for its possible effects in causing lung cancer. If you are not inhaling it or taking it into the lungs, generally you shouldn’t get the same issues regarding lung issues and respiratory issues that would occur if smoked. It is also being investigated for its adverse cardiovascular effects (Thomas, 2014).

Another serious issue regarding medical marijuana is its safety.

There is no such thing as a safe drug, as any drug and be danger-

ous, and cannabinoids such as marijuana are no different. As stated earlier, marijuana contains many chemicals which have different effects. Taking too many of any of these chemicals can result in toxicity, which can lead to serious adverse effects including possible death. As it is, there are groups of people who seem to think that smoking marijuana is the miracle drug, and negate the serious consequences of using the drug. By allowing the recreational use of marijuana, or not having a very strict control of the dosing of marijuana for medical purposes, people may have an even more false impression of the safety of this drug and as TIME reports suggest, may continue to result in an increase in hospitalization from the drug use, or worse consequences.

To summarise the scientific literature on medical marijuana, there appears to be very little to substantiate the various claims for medical marijuana use. Having said this, trials and experiments on marijuana are very difficult to conduct.

Firstly, obtaining and conducting experiments on something that is illegal in most countries is always a logistic and political issue. Secondly, it is hard to find participants who are eligible for research, experiments and trials of cannabis use. Thirdly, conducting long-term trials on the drug is extremely difficult given the legalities as well as the health risks of the participants. Another aspect is the fact that there are over 400 compounds in marijuana, which may change the physiological and mental effects. It is also very difficult to conduct ethical and safe

studies or trials on participants with lifethreatening illnesses such as cancer. These are some of the reasons why medicine has found major difficulties in finding safe uses for marijuana compared to other medi-

cines.

Just looking at the surface, it is seems that medical marijuana wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be the medication of choice even if it were legalised.

Given the fact that pharmaceutical companies can synthesise similar acting compounds designed to be more reliable than the plant, it also makes legalising the cannabis plant more questionable from a medical perspective, as doctors would prescribe the synthetic where appropriate, and not the plant itself. More importantly, other highly useful medications have been developed since its discovery in the various disease states mentioned.

If it is to be legalised, we really need to be far more sensible and far more responsible with its application. On one hand, for somebody that potentially has a short lifespan from a medical condition, the long -term adverse effects of cannabinoids may not be as important to consider compared to people with chronic conditions that donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t affect their lifespan. On the other, society

Aug 2014

as a whole needs to be far more responsible and sensible when it comes to their health. From what we currently know, marijuana along with any other drug has serious dangers with its use and should not be used lightly. The negative effects can also be exacerbated when combined with the use of other drugs including prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, alcohol and nicotine.

Using any drug in a recreational manner, or using a drug without medical supervision would be deemed irresponsible and dangerous; marijuana should be no different. As Professor Michael Farrell states, â&#x20AC;&#x153;It is important for people to have a realistic point for what it can do and to be realistic in understanding that the evidence is not strong for its use. People will nevertheless come with conviction that they believe in its use strongly and will force the use of it in any way possible. The issue arises in the use of marijuana where it is not legally indicated. Another issue is that some people might have bought cannabis for smoking and then believe it helps them and leads them to stay on the drug.

Some people will say that it is a life-saver with regards to its painmanagement effects. Short term, the effects are quite strong, but these effects also wear off quite quickly. At that point it is difficult for doctors and medical professionals to ethically manage this, and decide what action they need to take, especially in regards to the side effects. The one advantage of legalising marijuana from a medical perspective is to make it easi-

er to manage medically and legally. There might be other reasons to legalise marijuana outside of medical reasons. It is uncomfortable to see certain people in criminal justice proceedings simply for trying to get benefit from cannabis. I think finding some sort of compromise by which people in that situation can be protected from the law; it would not be an unreasonable approach. It is much harder to do and practice legislatively than it seems, but it is possible to do these things without legislating it and to do it informally. Many people are not happy with that approach, but sometimes it can be the most practical and most humane approach.”

So what can we do as members of society in regards to the subject? For people currently using marijuana, it may help to let your doctor and health professionals know. Responsible and ethical health professionals put the health of their patients at the highest priority in a nonjudgemental manner. If you would like information specific to you about the benefits or risks of marijuana, would like to stop taking marijuana, would like help managing use of marijuana safely or are worried about the effects it may have on you, your doctor is certainly a good point of contact. In Australia, there are a number of other confidential services that can provide information and guidance including the DirectLine, National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre Helpline and general Drug and Alcohol treatment centre. If you know of anyone using marijuana or thinking of using marijuana, it is important not to be judgemental and instead, help them feel comfortable in talking to their doctor about it or another drug-use-service.

It also helps to be cautious of the media, internet or anyone claiming “science shows” without any clinically-significant evidence, validity or context. Most of the claims around marijuana involve heavy, emotional, stressful and sensitive topics such as cancer, HIV, multiple sclerosis and dementia. It is one thing to say that a drug should be legalised; it is another to spread false claims and false hope. You might mean well in telling a cancer patient that a particular drug can cure or relieve them because another

person benefited from it, but you might in fact lead to a result that is not well at all.

If cannabis can achieve good health outcomes, then medicine and science will pursue its use, such as Professor Michael Farrell and the NDARC. The medical profession requires a high level of responsibility and understanding from its professionals, along with years or even decades of education and experience on the shoulders of years and years of science before them. Having said, this, not all within the profession will act in such a way, and can be biased and misleading towards what they want to be true. As such, getting second opinions rather than learning from the internet or tv when it comes to these matters may be safer; and it is advised to be careful with the information you might give in very unstable and emotional areas of medicine without fully understanding it yourself. As I stated in my introduction, we have only touched on the surface of the topic in this article, and we have only looked at the issue from a general medicinal aspect.

Marijuana’s THC properties were discovered over 50 years ago and the debate has remained the same more-orless since then.

Whilst marijuana itself doesn’t sound as promising, here are some aspects to be genuinely optimistic about: we have made more advancements within the past 50 years in medication and therapy than ever before. We have more advanced HIV and AIDS medications now, larger array of pain-management medications now and more effective chemotherapeutic agents now than we did 50 years ago. Scientists are working around the world and around the clock to continuously improve how treatment occurs and improve what we treat people with. Remember, as medicine evolves and progresses, and as science pioneers to discover novel therapeutic approaches, marijuana will still remain the same plant that it is. There may be other compounds within the plant that could have benefits in these conditions mentioned above, if not others; but in general, marijuana requires far more studies before we can lay claim to its benefits. Until then, we should be careful and responsible with information that we take in and give out, but still hopeful of the new medical discoveries to come that could revolutionize how to treat different conditions.

Aug 2014

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Aug 2014