"Study From Yale Explains Why Does Cannabis Stimulate Your Appetite"

Have you ever think, why do some cannabis consumers experience a heightened sense of appetite after the using of Cannabis??? 

Don't worry if you don't because a study from 'Yale School of Medicine'  has come up with a scientific answer exactly for this question...




The study was funded also by the National Institutes of Health, the American Diabetes Association, The Klarmann Family Foundation, the Helmholtz Society (ICEMED) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SFB.

The study...

The “munchies,” or that uncontrollable urge to eat after using marijuana, appear to be driven by neurons in the brain that are normally involved in suppressing appetite, according to the study.

Lead author Tamas Horvath and his colleagues set out to monitor the brain circuitry that promotes eating by selectively manipulating the cellular pathway that mediates marijuana’s action on the brain, using transgenic mice.

“By observing how the appetite center of the brain responds to marijuana, we were able to see what drives the hunger brought about by cannabis and how that same mechanism that normally turns off feeding becomes a driver of eating,” said Horvath.

In addition to helping explain why you become extremely hungry when you shouldn’t be, Horvath said : "The new findings could provide other benefits, like helping cancer patients who often lose their appetite during treatment".

-Researchers have long known that using cannabis is associated with increased appetite even when you are full.

-It is also well known that activating the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R) can contribute to overeating.

-A group of nerve cells called pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons are considered as key drivers of reducing eating when full.

“It’s like pressing a car’s brakes and accelerating instead,” he said. “We were surprised to find that the POMC neurons we thought were responsible for shutting down eating, were suddenly being activated and promoting hunger, even when you are full. It fools the brain’s central feeding system.”

“This event is key to cannabinoid-receptor-driven eating,” said Horvath, who points out that the feeding behavior driven by these neurons is just one mode of action that involves CB1R signaling. 

“More research is needed to validate the findings.” Whether this primitive mechanism is also key to getting “high” on cannabis is another question the Horvath lab is aiming to address.

Source: https://medicine.yale.edu