Washington State University studied mice in order to see how cannabis affects the sperm in the male mice. In this study, researchers studies 30 adult male mice, exposing half of those mice to cannabis vapor three times a day for ten days, mimicking how frequent cannabis users intake daily. Researchers then compared these mice to the unexposed control group. They found that immediately right after the exposure period, the mice's sperm motility decreased and in one month, their sperm counts were found to have been lowered.
The researchers then went to breed several of the male mice to unexposed female mice to observe the outcome of the second generation of sons. The cannabis-exposed sons also showed evidence of DNA damage was related to sperm cell development. Kanako, one of the researchers said that the, "reduction in sperm count and motility of the off-sparing sons, is probably a direct effect of the cannabis exposure to the father."
In the third-generation, the grandsons of the exposed male mice did not show any DNA damage to that generation of sons. This suggests that the cannabis exposure only impacted the second-generation of mice.
https://www.sciencedaily.com
This is very interesting and something totally new I am learning about cannabis, I wonder how others who have been using cannabis for prolonged periods of time and if males who have been using for long periods of time will have trouble reproducing. I wonder if there is a similar effect on women and if there is a reduced chance of reproducing for females as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Nidaa, I am part of the Cannabis Studies program here at Stockton and we have discussed that rather than cannabis being an issue to fertility- it may be due to the associated chemicals that come with different methods of consumption. (i.e butane from a flame, tobacco leafs, bleached rolling papers etc.)
DeleteHi Linh,
ReplyDeleteI had no idea cannabis can have this kind of effect on males. I think since the study of cannabis is still a new subject to focus on there can be future research done to further support this as well as research done to see how it affect female reproduction. I wonder if daily intake of cannabis can simply cut the ability to reproduce all at once. I also wonder since the exposure impact the second generation of male mice would it also affect the second generation of female mice.