I know that it gives you the munchies as its called but does that boost your metabolism? and if you dont eat alot could you lose weight??
Most people that ive noticed are skinny that use marijuana
some fat but most skinny..
The opposite is true! A number of drug companies are developing inhibitors (antagonists) of the main canabinoid receptor in the brain as a possible treatment for obesity.
Smoking Marijuana exposes you to a whole range of compounds not just THC (the compound that gives you the 'high'). At the moment I think there are more than 60 compounds that have been identified. These compunds effect you by acting on cannabinoid receptors in your body. The main cannabanoid receptor (CB1 receptor) is expressed in the nervous system (including the brain). The CB1 receptor effects movement, emotions, pain sensation, memory and apetitie (all things you may notice a difference in if you smoke cannabis!).
As David correctly said, there is a lot of research going on to understand the benefits of some of these compounds in cannabis as potential drugs for obesity treatments amongst a whole range of drugs for other diseases.
They are looking at these compounds individually, so as for the combined effect of these compounds if you were to smoke cannabis is hard to say. I don't think they would boost metabolism, but they would certainly effect appetite!
Last edited by Heather Doran (27th Apr 2010 14:07:27)
Further to Heather's comments, there have been some interesting studies on mice that have no CB1 receptors whereby there are differences in peripheral lipogenesis - or fatty acid synthesis in fat cells - between young and old animals. So cannabinoids appear to be affecting things in the brain as well as peripheral energy expenditure!
e.g. see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC166302/
Last edited by Steve Lolait (12th May 2010 08:21:05)
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