Despite the fact that there is now research that suggests marijuana use may help to combat diabetes via better blood sugar level control that results from said use, some medical experts are still balking at the notion that cannabis could actually lead to skinnier waists for users.
This, regardless of the fact that a recent study involving those using marijuana over the past month has indeed resulted in the users losing weight. The users also ended up with lower insulin resistance levels (an early warning of diabetes) than those who are not users of cannabis.
According to a report in Reuters published on Thursday, May 23, though the month-long study involved nearly 5,000 U.S. adults, researchers from the American Journal of Medicine remain staunch in feeling there is still not enough viable evidence that marijuana use can lead to either skinnier waists or more resistance to diabetes.
"These are preliminary findings," Dr. Murray Mittleman, a researcher involved in the study through Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said."It looks like there may be some favorable effects on blood sugar control, however a lot more needs to be done to have definitive answers on the risks and potential benefits of marijuana usage."
Reuters further points out there has indeed been previous studies suggesting those who use marijuana tend to weigh less and have a tendency toward lower rates of diabetes than those who are not users thanks to possible metabolism influence via cannabis and cannabinoid receptors, as also "hinted" at in trials involving rats and mice.
Mittleman and his team feel that though evidence might point to marijuana users weighing less or having a lower instance of diabetes than non-users, it may not necessarily be the marijuana itself that has been taking such an effect. Hence the "preliminary" qualifier.
Marijuana users might possibly "have other characteristics that differ" from those who do not user marijuana, Mittleman suggested to Reuters Health, and thus it may be these contrasting lifestyle characteristics that might lead users to be healthier in this way than non-users.
An example of these "other characteristics" include the fact that marijuana smokers tend to be more likely to smoke cigarettes, which have been known to also lead people to weigh less.
"People who use tobacco oftentimes tend to be thinner," Kaiser Permanente Division of Research's Dr. Stephen Sidney said. "So I really wonder about that."
Although Sidney did not take part in the study, he does study the effects of marijuana use on weight loss.
Dr. Theodore Friedman has studied the possible link between lower instances of diabetes and marijuana use while at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, and he feels the link is "causal," despite that being "really hard to prove."
Friedman said that it may be the anti-inflammatory properties of marijuana that help to lower instances of diabetes in users, though he too believes more research needs to be done into the subject.
"I want to make it clear - I'm not advocating marijuana use to prevent diabetes," Friedman said. "It's only an association."
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