Wednesday 14 September 2016

Stoners Are Thinner: Science Says Smoking Weed Is Linked to Lower BMI

For anyone who has had to fend off the inevitable or uncontrollable munchies, it is not easy to believe that regular pot smoking is actually linked to being thin.

How is this good news possible?

Researchers from the University of Miami, who published their findings in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, say they found pot smokers had a generally lower body mass index (BMI)—a measure of body fat based on height and weigh—than those who don’t.

With the help of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, the researchers found that females who smoke pot on a daily basis had a BMI approximately 3.1 percent lower than non-users. Males had a BMI of approximately 2.7 percent lower.

This University of Miami research is not the first to uncover positive elements of weed in regard to obesity and BMI.

Medical Daily published an infographic that came out of a 2013 study concluding that pot was not only associated with lower obesity rates but that it led to lower levels of fasting insulin and insulin resistance, which can cause hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia and other forms of diabetes.

So, based on those findings, the research team determined that marijuana helped improve insulin control and regulate body weight.

Back in 2011, Time magazine reported on a similar study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology that found the same connection between marijuana use and body weight. It also determined that obesity rates were lower by nearly a third in pot smokers compared to those who don’t partake.

While researchers from various studies seem to have reached similar conclusions on BMI and pot smoking, none of them suggested using it as a weight loss tool.

However, the studies concur that smoking weed on a regular basis helps improve insulin control and regulates body weight, which is a good thing in a country where obesity rates have hit record highs and continue to worsen.

Two recent reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 38 percent of U.S. adults and 17 percent of teenagers are obese and another third of the country is overweight.

Isn’t it time to light up and slim down? Lots of scientists are saying yes.

why-pot-smokers-tend-be-skinnier

Infographic Courtesy of Medical Daily



from
http://hightimes.com/medicinal/stoners-are-thinner-science-says-smoking-weed-is-linked-to-lower-bmi/

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