Bumpercrop Consulting

04/15/2019

Cannabis Consumers Reportedly Gain Less Weight Than Non-users

Article

Apr 05, 2019



Alexander Beadle
Science Writer


A new study from two researchers at Michigan State University suggests that adults who use ma*****na could be less likely to be obese compared to non-users.
In the paper published in the International Journal of Epidemiology last month, researchers looked at data sets from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a cross-sectional, nationally representative study sample of American adults, to study the relationship between ma*****na use and changes in body weight in respondents.

Adults who consumed cannabis gained less weight on average
The researchers identified relevant information from responses to the 2001-2002 iteration of the NESARC interviews, such as age, height, body weight, and cannabis use, as well as less obvious variables, such as ethnic self-identification, alcohol use, to***co use, and education attainment. Eligible participants for this study were respondents who answered all questions in both the original survey (dubbed ‘Wave 1’ or ‘W1’) and a follow-up done in 2004-2005 (‘W2’). In total, there were over 33,000 eligible respondents that were reviewed as a part of this new study.
Cannabis use was split into one of four categories: ‘persistent use’, for respondents who reported cannabis use within 12 months; ‘initiation’, for those who had not used cannabis prior to W1 but had before W2; ‘discontinuation or quitting’, for those who reported some extent of use at or before W1, but had not used cannabis for 12 months prior to W2; and ‘never use’, for respondents who said they had never used cannabis in their lifetime. The changes in body weight were studied by calculating the respondents’ body mass indexes (BMI).
After excluding participants over the age of 65 (as previous research suggests that weight loss and declining BMI is expected in older people due to natural loss of muscle mass), the researchers saw that while all of the subgroups gained weight from W1 to W2, people who reported using cannabis gained weight at a lower rate than the rest of the study population.
There was also an observed gradient looking across the subgroups of ‘quitting’, ‘initiation’, and ‘persistent use’, with those in the ‘persistent use’ group showing the most attenuated BMI gain. The ‘persistent’ and ‘initiate’ cannabis user groups were also under-represented in the group of people who reported being overweight (with a BMI of over 30 kg/m2) at the time of W2.

Explaining the lower weight gain
Two main suggestions were put forward to explain this effect on BMI in cannabis users.
The first, considers the possibility that cannabis interacting with the CB1R cannabinoid receptors could be having an effect on body weight. Previously a CB1R agonist, named rimonabant, was approved in Europe for treating obesity after it was proven in clinical trials to encourage weight loss through regulating appetite and metabolism. Chronic cannabis use has been previously linked to down-regulation of CB1R, and so it is thought that perhaps this reduction in density of CB1R expression might be promoting reduced BMI gain in persistent cannabis users through a similar mechanism to rimonabant’s action.
Alternatively, the researchers also pointed to the anti-inflammatory action of the CB2R cannabinoid receptors and the widely established link between inflammation and obesity as an explanation of the lower weight gain among cannabis users compared to the rest of the study population.

Conflicting studies emphasize need for further study
The paper does note that there were a number of limitations on the study, including that the NESARC survey does not account for any variations in terms of physical activity or caloric intake. This means that it cannot be ruled out that the trends seen in this study might be down to the lifestyle and behaviors of the average cannabis user versus the rest of the population, rather than an actual medical effect caused by cannabis consumption, though previous studies have indicated that people who consume cannabis have a higher caloric intake and lower physical activity levels than non-users.
Many cannabis users anecdotally report that cannabis consumption increases their appetite, and a recent analysis of junk food sales in states with legal cannabis would support this claim. But this finding that cannabis use might curb weight gain will be comfort to more than just recreational cannabis users — medical ma*****na is often touted as being a potential method of treating the weight loss that often comes with HIV and cancer treatments. If the underlying mechanism for cannabis’ effect on body weight can be properly characterized, it might lead to a more effective medical solution for these kinds of patients.

04/11/2019

Maybe it can't cure everything, but it sure works at alleviating symptoms of pain, anxiety, brain fog & additional symptoms I have experienced while healing from my concussion. Bless this plant.

04/05/2019

The beat goes on!

03/03/2019

Cannabis is medicine for a lot of people, for myriad aches, pains & illnesses.

02/17/2019

Trade-In Your Ibuprofen for Cannabis

Pain from inflammation can and will likely affect all adults at some point in their lives, and for some, become chronic conditions that interfere with a normal quality of life.

02/14/2019

Have a happy V-day!

02/14/2019

Parkinson’s Foundation Will Gather Experts to Study Cannabis as Disease Therapy

These days, people with Parkinson’s disease tend to ask their doctors more questions about cannabis than any other subject; yet, few physicians have adequate answers for them.

So says a new survey announced by the Parkinson’s Foundation, which plans a conference on that subject next month in Denver.

The March 6-7 meeting will bring together about 40 top scientists, clinicians, physicians and ma*****na industry executives, said James Beck, MD, the foundation’s chief scientific officer.

“There’s never been anything quite like this before,” Beck told Parkinson’s News Today by phone from his New York office. “Not a lot is known when it comes to Parkinson’s and medical ma*****na. Our goal is to outline what we know and what we don’t know, what might be useful for Parkinson’s and what might not be useful.”

Boxes of “Healer” CBD/THC cannabis drops await distribution at the Kind Therapeutics medical ma*****na cultivation facility in Hagerstown, Maryland. (Photo by Larry Luxner)

He added: “Medical ma*****na may have its utilities for treating some symptoms, but it isn’t a silver bullet.”

The survey, conducted jointly by the Parkinson’s Foundation and Chicago’s Northwestern University, found that 80% of Parkinson’s patients have used cannabis, and that 95% of neurologists have been asked to prescribe medical ma*****na. But only 23% of doctors have ever received formal education on the subject.

In addition, 52% of the 56 experts who responded to the 73-item online survey took a neutral position on cannabis use with their patients, 9% discouraged its use, and 39% encouraged it.

“Having worked as a clinician for the past decade in Colorado — a state at the forefront of medical ma*****na use — it is clear that people with Parkinson’s and their families are intensely interested in the potential of ma*****na and cannabinoids in helping manage symptoms and other aspects of the disease,” Benzi Kluger, MD, a professor at University of Colorado Hospital and co-chair of the upcoming conference, said in a press release. “To date, there is more hype than actual data to provide meaningful clinical information to patients with Parkinson’s.”

Kluger wrote a review, “The Therapeutic Potential of Cannabinoids for Movement Disorders,” that was published in early 2015 in Movement Disorders.

Also presenting at the conference is A. Jon Stoessl, MD, co-director of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

“In order to move the field forward, we need to determine which cannabinoids are likely to be beneficial or harmful, whether people with Parkinson’s are at risk from side effects, what we are hoping to treat, and how to conduct informative clinical trials,” Stoessl said.

Finding answers

The Parkinson’s Foundation, founded in 1957, now has 120 full-time staffers and an annual budget of $33 million. It represents the roughly one million Americans with Parkinson’s, which now ranks as the second most common neurogenerative disease after Alzheimer’s.

James Beck, MD

Beck said his nonprofit hopes to “develop a path to understanding formulations of cannabis and the pharmacology behind it” for the benefit of Parkinson’s patients everywhere. Scientists have isolated more than 60 cannabinoids, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychotropic compound, and cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive chemical with potential therapeutic properties.

“What one buys over the counter is not consistent from batch to batch. It’s not produced in a regulated way,” Beck told us. “The w**d that people may smoke today is 10 times more potent than what baby boomers were smoking in the ‘60s and ‘70s. It’s a natural product, and things like what ratios CBD and TCH should be are fundamental questions. We’ll have experts suggest what might be best.”

At the moment, 33 states and the District of Columbia have declared medical ma*****na legal; that’s up from 20 states only four years ago. In D.C. and 10 states — Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington — recreational use is also allowed.

Baby ma*****na plants thrive at the Kind Therapeutics cannabis cultivation facility in Hagerstown, Maryland. (Photo by Larry Luxner)

“The problem is that the federal government still considers it illegal, and that makes it difficult for researchers,” Beck said. “As we move forward to what’s likely to be a more permissive environment, we want to ensure that as legislation changes, we have a clear plan to move forward with research.”

Cannabis may be useful for several non-motor symptoms such as anxiety and weight loss associated with advanced Parkinson’s, he said, as well as for pain and stiffness.

“However, people with Parkinson’s can have cognitive impairment; some have psychosisand paranoia, and balance issues,” warned Beck, noting that falls constitute the leading cause of death for Parkinson’s patients. “Cannabis can lower blood pressure, which can lead to lightheadedness and falls, as well as hallucinations and paranoia, which may exacerbate the situation. It can also cause fuzzy thinking.”

A recent report, “Special Issue: Cannabis in Medicine,” that was published in the European Journal of Internal Medicine, concluded that cannabis reduces spasticity — muscular stiffness or involuntary spasms — in MS patients.

And data from two trials in Italy and the Czech Republic support the idea that Sativex, developed by Britain’s GW Pharmaceuticals, is effective in treating moderate-to-severe spasticity. The oromucosal spray is a formulated extract of the cannabis sativa plant and has earned approval in Australia, Canada, Israel and more than a dozen European countries.

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10/19/2018

Crib sheet.

10/06/2018

A little cannabis humor...

08/29/2018

No alternate facts here, just fact-facts!!