Talk about counter intuitive, weight loss among marijuana users is at least that. After all, “everyone knows” marijuana gives you the “munchies”.
A study titled The Effect of Medical Marijuana Laws on Body Weight was published on November 25th, 2015 in the journal Health Economics. The title of the journal is a tip on the purpose of the study. They were focused on the health costs savings from reduced obesity and other healthy conditions among medical marijuana users in states where it has been legalized.
The researchers declared, “we estimate a back-of-the-envelope per-person reduction in MML [medical marijuana law] induced obesity related medical costs of $58 to $115 per year.”
As an epidemiological study using 20 years of personal data accumulated by the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), several healthy signs involving medical or recreational marijuana use were observed by the researchers from Cornell and San Diego State University joint effort that probed into the private lives of marijuana users.
Their focus on weight loss or obesity prevention motivated some outrageous theories based on some interesting facts gleaned from their analysis. From the study’s lead author Joseph Stabia:
“For younger individuals, we find some evidence that MMLs (medical marijuana laws) may induce substitution away from alcohol and toward a lower-caloric buzz, resulting in lower body weight. For older individuals, we find some evidence that MML-induced increases in marijuana use may result in effective treatment of medical conditions that impede mobility (such as fibromyalgia or other joint ailments), increasing exercise and reducing body weight.”
These theories appear to be reaching a bit too much for reducing obesity in my opinion. Could be an effort to get more funding for “additional studies” in order to become more conclusive.
They did discover that increased state MML tolerance does lead to reduced alcohol consumption and binge drinking as well as reducing dependence of addictive Oxycontin type pain killer drugs and over the counter pain killers are healthy improvements.
Alcohol contributes much more to road accidents and violent behavior than driving with marijuana’s THC in the blood. That’s pretty good for public health too.
The Real Reason for Cannabis Lowering Obesity Rates
But to claim less obesity and more weight loss, other factors need to be considered. After all, cannabis is highly recommended to cancer patients undergoing chemo to curb nausea and vomiting while stimulating appetites to avoid cachexia, extreme weakness and wasting away from malnutrition. Then there are the stereotypical munchies, food cravings induced by smoking pot.
A 2015 study by researchers at the Université Laval in Quebec, Canada, surveyed 786 Inuit adults, a Native American group in which over half of them openly use cannabis, and determined that smoking pot induced lower fat percentages and lower fasting insulin levels. Other studies have discovered almost identical results.
“The most important finding is that current users of marijuana appeared to have better carbohydrate metabolism than nonusers,” says Murray Mittleman, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “Their fasting insulin levels were lower, and they appeared to be less resistant to the insulin produced by their body to maintain a normal blood-sugar level.”
This of course reduces diabetes 2 risks. Even recreational use is medical compared to alcohol, which destroys livers and increases diabetes risks.
Then there are those wonderful state wide tax revenues in states that are permissive with cannabis use. Colorado, where both medical and recreational cannabis use is encouraged, has enjoyed such a windfall of tax revenue from cannabis sales that they had to find new ways to use that excess cash!
Paul Fassa is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. His pet peeves are the Medical Mafia’s control over health and the food industry and government regulatory agencies’ corruption. Paul’s contributions to the health movement and global paradigm shift are well received by truth seekers. Visit his blog by following this link and follow him on Twitter here
Sources:http://www.attn.com/stories/4590/how-marijuana-affects-weighthttp://www.attn.com/stories/2902/cannabis-effects-on-metabolismhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hec.3267/abstracthttps://www.washingtonpost.comhttp://www.attn.com/stories/4026/colorado-marijuana-revenue
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Image: Wikimedia Commons
