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If cannabis causes the snack foods, how is it possible that pot smokers are thinner than nonsmokers?
a new study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology is an interesting connection between marijuana use and body weight, indicating that rates obesity are lower by about a third in people who smoke pot at least three times a week, compared to those who use marijuana at all.
The researchers analyzed data from two large national surveys of the US population, which together included some 52,000 participants. In the first survey, they found that 22% of those who do not smoke marijuana were obese, compared to only 14% of regular smokers of marijuana. The second survey found that 25% of non-smokers were obese, compared to 17% of regular users of cannabis.
The association between smoking pot and the lowest risk of obesity remained strong even after adjusting for other factors that might affect body fat and health, such as smoking , age and sex. But the correlation between the weeds and the weight does not mean that marijuana actually causes weight loss.
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Many other factors could explain the connection. For example, some research finds that highly religious people are less likely to take drugs, but more likely to be obese - perhaps because they are substituting compulsive behavior (overeating) to the other ( smoking marijuana). Thus, some obese people in national surveys can be religious people, who might otherwise be heavy marijuana smokers, but overeating instead. This could make it look like marijuana is slimming.
also consider that one of the most popular uses of medical marijuana to stimulate appetite in people with cancer, AIDS or other diseases. These patients are far less likely to be obese than the general population -. In this case, weight loss precede or require the use of marijuana
Whatever the explanation for the link between marijuana and less obesity, it is unlikely that cannabis could be used as an effective food aid. For one, pot smoking has been shown to increase appetite in several studies, at least in the short term, so it probably would not help dieters resist.
Second, a drug that has the opposite effect of THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, has itself been shown to help dieting. rimonabant called, at high doses the drug almost tripled the weight loss achieved by those taking a placebo. He also often caused severe depression and suicidal thoughts, though, so he was briefly approved by the European authorities, it was finally withdrawn.
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Of course, none of this explains why the marijuana smokers in the samples of the national survey did not get bigger? taking a drug that can clearly stimulate appetite. One factor may be the tolerance :. Many of the effects of marijuana are reduced in frequent users, as the body adjusts to it
Another may be the substitution - smokers could be looking for comfort by smoking more marijuana, rather than eating more. Or, perhaps other ingredients in cannabis such as cannabidiol (CBD) may reduce the effects of the growing appetite of THC in the same way they reduce his paranoia-inducing properties.
Whatever the case, looking for marijuana never fails to surprise
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Maia Szalavitz is a health writer at TIME.com. Find her on Twitter at @maiasz . You can also continue the discussion on TIME Healthland the Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIMEHealthland .
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