The past few years have seen a lot of changes as far as how cannabis is consumed in America is concerned.
As more states move towards legalization for both medical and recreational purposes, researchers are in some cases scrambling to understand the wide-ranging impacts of this shift.
One of interesting discovery made so far is on the connection between consuming cannabis products and lower Body Mass Index (BMI).
The findings from a remarkable study done by Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research have completely changed our way of thinking about this correlation thereby creating new areas for further investigation.
The Evolution of Cannabis Use in The USA
From the years 2016 to 2022, which saw rapid changes in cannabis status across different states in America, was when Ray M. Merrill conducted this study.
In their research, Ray’s team examined data from Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) – which was an enormous telephone survey encompassing 735,921 people.
Crucial insights into patterns of cannabis usage and their possible effects on society are found within such large databases.
The results were surprising.
What they found was striking. Over the course of just six years, from 2016 to 2022, the prevalence of cannabis use among U.S. adults doubled, soaring from 7.48% to 14.91%. This dramatic increase underscores the rapidly changing landscape of cannabis use in America.
More alarming is that this increase does not occur in isolation; its trajectory is synchronous with the shifting legal status of cannabis across the US.
Such laws have seen nine percent more people use cannabis medicinally than those who do not have it legalized while recreational legalization had an eighty-one percent greater likelihood of being used for that purpose associated with it.
These figures clearly show that more people are turning to cannabis as barriers to its consumption crash down. But how does this affect public health particularly when considering one of America’s most serious health issues- obesity?
Revealing the Connection Between Cannabis Use and Obesity
The most shocking observation in Merrill’s article is the consistent converse relation between the two.
Current weed smokers who are already obese have a 35% lower prevalence as compared to their non-obese counterparts on average.
It’s neither a spurious correlation nor specific to a particular population segment.
Instead, obese people in general use cannabis less across diverse parameters ranging from demographic characteristics to employment statuses/Tobacco smoking history even when suffering from conditions such as asthma, arthritis as well as depression among others.
By the end of 2022 when they completed their last year research project but one can clearly see specifics discussing how cannabis and Body Mass Index (BMI) truly went hand-in-hand throughout the research life span.
When other variables were controlled for, rates of current use as well as daily use were significantly lower among obese individuals compared with non-obese ones.
The current use odds ratio was .68 while that of daily use was .69 hence showing approximately 30 percent chances of obese people using cannabis occasionally or daily when these two probabilities are multiplied.
What is even more interesting is that it has nothing to do with dosage. The probabilities for obese persons in relation to cannabis usage whether it is momentary or daily are greatly reduced by lower odds of this behaviour among them at any point in time.
This therefore challenges established stereotype that fat people eat more when they take cannabis in between food.
So, we are left wondering whether further liberalization on the consumption end could unconsciously enhance a decline in obesity prevalence or not yet realized?
Given that obesity is a major risk factor for numerous chronic diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers, even a modest reduction in obesity rates could have far-reaching implications for public health and healthcare costs.
Nonetheless, caution should be exercised when interpreting these results.
Although there is a definite link connecting cannabis consumption and low BMI, no cause-effect relationship is outlined by the research.
So it’s not correct to say that cannabis directly leads to losing weight or prevents people from gaining weight.
The correlation may be affected by other factors, which were not considered in this research such as; dissimilarities in lifestyle and diet among weed smokers or probable effects of marijuana on metabolism or appetite regulation.
Need for Further Research
This report opens up exciting possibilities for new investigations.
Although an evident connection exists between cannabis use and reduced BMI, many questions concerning it remain unanswered; What biological mechanisms explain it? Does certain ways of ingesting weed, such as smoking, vaping, or edibles, show stronger associations with reduced BMI than others?
Should the conquest method of THC to CBD affect cannabis potency play a part in the dieting equation?
Also, researchers could make longitudinal studies a priority because they are key to knowing the impact of cannabis on weight and general health over time.
For instance, does continued cannabis consumption correlate with low body mass index (BMI) indefinitely or does this effect wane after years?
At any given BMI level, what kind of health outcomes distinguish cannabis users from their non-using counterparts?
Lastly, there is a need for a closer examination of potential scientific confounders.
Why do obese people, who smoke more cigarettes than anyone else and drink less alcohol than their normal weight peers, also happen to consume fewer calories?
This will necessitate complicated study designs as well as analytical approaches in order to disconnect these intricate connections.
