Cannabis to lose weight?

[DrGreenthumb]

This was in a different thread but it got me wondering what other interesting positive side effects people have experienced from their own pot use or that of others close to them. Haters get your own thread. I don't want made up stories and stereotypes. Just real experiences, and please comment on how you "feel" while you are "high". What kind of activities do you enjoy the most while feeling the effects of the cannabis?

QUOTE(blueblood @ Jan 27 2009, 09:59 PM)

As much as I hate to say it, one thing about pot use that I've witnessed is I haven't seen a fat pot head.

I have a couple of theories about why that is. It is my belief that using cannabis helps to break certain barriers in the mind/body connection. The cannabinoid receptors in our body when "turned on" help our body to regulate some of our higher functions like metabolism. I believe that is also why cannabis seems so effective at treating such a wide variety of disorders. It seems to help your body to heal itself and encourages your body/mind to find irregularities that are causing problems, and correct them. That is why cannabis is effective at killing cancer cells but leaves surrounding tissue unharmed, your mind/body realizes that the cells aren't supposed to be there, and a process called aptosis kills the cancer cells. (by cutting off the blood supply to the bad cells and starving them to death.)

This is why when chemo patients smoke weed, their mind is better able to hear their body telling them that they need nutrition. I never smoked pot until I was in my 20's. I always had weight problems as a teenager(at least in that I was unhappy with my appearance and had low self esteem). Within a year of using pot semi-regularly I lost a good deal of weight slowly and without really noticing it happening. I don't get the munchies when I smoke pot, I just realize that it is water my body is asking for , not food. I am still physically fit to this day and now quite comfortable with my body and how I look. You don't see too many fat, or depressed potheads. Pot encourages a person to sit and really deeply contemplate their problems, to look inside themselves for solutions.

I think that pot makes a person instrospective , and makes its users feel more accepting of themselves and by extention more accepting of others. I think that a lot of people would benefit from this natural medicine. I think for some people the effect pot has on feelings of self-acceptance can actually help compulsive eaters, sad eaters, etc, to love themselves enough to take better care of themselves.

Edited January 28, 2009 by DrGreenthumb

[Progressive Tory]

I only tried it in highschool so have no recent experience. To be honest, what I remember the most was the fact that the 'joint' was being passed around. The guy beside me was dirty with bad teeth. The thought of putting that thing in my mouth after it had been in his. Yuk. Maybe that's what 'cured' me.

My pro-marijuana stance is more about economics and practicality. We need to get our heads out the sand. Marijuana use goes back thousands of years, and I now equate it with social drinking.

When King James wrote his treatise on tobacco about 400 years ago, he is not talking about nicotine. He speaks of it's 'drunkeness' and heady feelings of those around the smoker. He also speaks of the medicinal benefits. However, he was smart enough to tax it by 4000% In fact, we may say that Sir Walter Raleigh was a drug dealer.

The funniest was Pierre Berton showing Canadians how to roll a joint. The man who once said that a Canadian is "somebody who knows how to make love in a canoe."

There's a great story after his death, from Rick Mercer.

"Rick Mercer recalled Mr. Berton rolling a marijuana joint on his show, Monday Report, in what would be one of the author's last appearances on the network after more than 40 years of contribution.

The comedian said Mr. Berton agreed to the idea, adding only: "Bring the pot."

Then, as the television crew packed up to leave, Mr. Mercer thanked the family for their hospitality. "Leave the pot," Mr. Berton said in parting."

We need to jump into the 17th century or at least listen to Berton.

[Hydraboss]

Heroin use goes back at least that far as well.

Peyote use goes back most likely goes back as far (or close).

Dr. Green, did you just say that pot "kills" cancer cells? My god...have you asked to have this fact published???? All the billions the world has spent on trying to find a cure for cancer, and all along you had it!

[85RZ500]

I tried it once and was unimpressed, rather sit back with a good shot of Goslings Black Seal. But hey, if it loses weight stops/cures cancer and makes you happy, what store sells the stuff?

Oh wait, its ingesting smoke and there are scads of people who say that's bad for you. They have groups and organizations that back them up.

They only mention tobacco however, mabye thats`cause they're all whacked on weed.

[Wild Bill]

I can only speak from my own experience and that was a LONG time ago! Back when we lusted after a Janis Joplin type of woman and would have considered a Paris Hilton type as just an airhead skank.

I knew lots of fat potheads! I never saw any connection between smoking pot and weight. We did get the munchies but that usually meant the late night snacking was compensated by sleeping through breakfast and often lunch as well.

I can accept the use of medical pot as a pain reliever but I can no more buy the idea of it helping our bodies to kill cancer cells than I can accept voodoo healing.

No, I think we have extremists on both sides of the argument. Pot is not a miracle cure for anything, nor is it some deadly 'reefer madness' that will suck your brain and get you to try to fly off a cliff.

It's simply an enjoyable intoxicant. Like any other, if you keep it a spice and not a vice it won't hurt you. If you overdo then you will get a problem, like going from a glass or two of wine at dinner to guzzling a whole bottle of Ripple at one sitting, as often as you can get it.

After all, according to some, is not alcohol a 'gateway' drug? I would imagine most heroin users have also drank beer!

[Progressive Tory]

Heroin use goes back at least that far as well.

Peyote use goes back most likely goes back as far (or close).

Dr. Green, did you just say that pot "kills" cancer cells? My god...have you asked to have this fact published???? All the billions the world has spent on trying to find a cure for cancer, and all along you had it!

We're not talking about heroin use or rat poison. We're talking about pot. I don't think it cures cancer but is a less addictive way to handle pain. If you think social drinking is OK, you can't condemn social pot smoking. The difference is use and abuse.

[Mr.Canada]

Pot is a gateway drug as it can many times lead to harder drug abuse. I don't see how trading one bad habit(eating like a pig) for another( being stoned on pot) as being a positive thing.

[Progressive Tory]

It's simply an enjoyable intoxicant. Like any other, if you keep it a spice and not a vice it won't hurt you. If you overdo then you will get a problem, like going from a glass or two of wine at dinner to guzzling a whole bottle of Ripple at one sitting, as often as you can get it. After all, according to some, is not alcohol a 'gateway' drug? I would imagine most heroin users have also drank beer!

Exactly. Now maybe studies say otherwise. I know it has some medicinal benefits, apparently glaucoma for one. As to weight reduction. Hmmm. Definitely more appealing than Jenny Craig. You might not lose weight but would no longer care. Don't worry...Be happy.

[Molly]

I don't use the stuff, and don't admire the general effect on casual smokers (drunk or stoned, neither is wise or charming)-- and I don't for one second believe that new-agey 'focussed mind over the action inside cells' bushwah either... and I do know some fat, stupid stoners... and I figure it is somewhat addictive, and generally none too good for a body when used recreationally...

... but relative to a LOT of other things out there, from cigarettes to Big Macs, booze to snowmobiles, it's pretty darned harmless.

It also has great medicinal potential (seen that in action).

I figure that chasing it around, suppressing it, obsessing over it, is a wicked waste of time, money, sweat, policing, moral outrage, etc. etc. etc. and gets in the way of exploring its potential usefulness.

[Mr.Canada]

I don't use the stuff, and don't admire the general effect on casual smokers (drunk or stoned, neither is wise or charming)-- and I don't for one second believe that new-agey 'focussed mind over the action inside cells' bushwah either... and I do know some fat, stupid stoners... and I figure it is somewhat addictive, and generally none too good for a body when used recreationally...

... but relative to a LOT of other things out there, from cigarettes to Big Macs, booze to snowmobiles, it's pretty darned harmless.

It also has great medicinal potential (seen that in action).

I figure that chasing it around, suppressing it, obsessing over it, is a wicked waste of time, money, sweat, policing, moral outrage, etc. etc. etc. and gets in the way of exploring its potential usefulness.

It's a gateway drug that leads to harder drugs. Oxycontin, Heroin, Cocaine, Alcohol Abuse. No pot is mostly bad.

[Moonbox]

Pot is about as much of a gateway drug as alcohol is. It's the 'taboo' that makes it even more of a gateway drug.

I don't think it should be illegal because already it's BARELY monitored by the police aside from large scale grow-ops. If the police and legislature cared about clamping down on marijuana they could patrol university neighborhoods and catch people by the dozens.

You might as well make it legal and tax it and regulate it like tobacco.

Personally, I couldn't care less, but I think it's easier to argue the pro-cannabis case than the opposite as far as intelligent reasoning is concerned.

[punked]

It's a gateway drug that leads to harder drugs. Oxycontin, Heroin, Cocaine, Alcohol Abuse. No pot is mostly bad.

Citation needed.

[Mr.Canada]

Citation needed.

Here you go.

[punked]

Here you go.

That is funny because Myers & Petty found alcohol has almost the same statistical significance as a "gateway drug" you think we should make that illegal too? Be constant Mr Canada.

[Molly]

In direct answer to your question, Dr. Greenthumb, my neighbour uses medicinal pot. (All paperwork in order.)

He's been through every nasty addictive pain-killer in the book, complete with all the side effects.... weaned himself off of LOTS of morphine/day and replaced it with carefully selected varieties of pot, used as necessary. It's not perfect- he has to change varieties from time to time, as he seems to build immunity- but his quality of life and day-to-day function is vastly improved.

He can now walk more than the length of his driveway (so he actually is losing weight); he has about three times as many functional hours in a day as he did before- not retired to bed by 4 or 5 in the afternoon as he was before. I haven't seen him wince, or go white, or suffer hot flashes since he got off that morphine. It truly is a huge difference.... a Godsend.

[segnosaur]

This was in a different thread but it got me wondering what other interesting positive side effects people have experienced from their own pot use or that of others close to them. Haters get your own thread. I don't want made up stories and stereotypes. Just real experiences, and please comment on how you "feel" while you are "high". What kind of activities do you enjoy the most while feeling the effects of the cannabis?

If you were only interested in pro-marijuana "rah rah feel good" stories, why did you specifically mention "cannabis to lose weight?" in the thread title?

The thread title makes a specific claim (or a specific inquiry)... you should expect that to be challenged.

QUOTE(blueblood @ Jan 27 2009, 09:59 PM)

As much as I hate to say it, one thing about pot use that I've witnessed is I haven't seen a fat pot head.

I have a couple of theories about why that is. It is my belief that using cannabis helps to break certain barriers in the mind/body connection.

Either that, or pot makes you so lazy and useless that you can't actually get motivated enough to find a decent job.

Ummm... just out of curiosity, how exactly could you tell if someone was a 'fat pothead'? After all, Marijuana is a very common drug... there could be 600 lb people using it and unless they advertise that fact to the world you may never know. I've known several people who would be considered 'fat' who use (or have used) pot.

I believe that is also why cannabis seems so effective at treating such a wide variety of disorders.

Either that, or the narcotic effect simply makes you forget you had the problems.

That is why cannabis is effective at killing cancer cells but leaves surrounding tissue unharmed,\

Correction... one chemical (out of many) in pot has been observed (in proper studies) to affect cancer cells. Taken as a whole though, its possible that other chemicals may undo whatever curative effects that that one beneficial chemical has.

http://www.qmul.ac.uk/news/newsrelease.php?news_id=175

your mind/body realizes that the cells aren't supposed to be there, and a process called aptosis kills the cancer cells. (by cutting off the blood supply to the bad cells and starving them to death.)

This is why when chemo patients smoke weed, their mind is better able to hear their body telling them that they need nutrition.

You know, there may be legitimate reasons to legalize marijuana (for medicinal, economic, or social reasons). I myself would not be opposed to steps taken in that direction. But the reasons to do so must be sound.... Use of new age 'mumbo jumbo' arguments about what you imagine is happening to your body is actually counterproductive to someone who is a true skeptic.

You don't see too many fat, or depressed potheads. Pot encourages a person to sit and really deeply contemplate their problems, to look inside themselves for solutions.

Except that when the effect of the pot wears off, the problems will still be there. If a person is depressed, the the solution is to fix the problem, not try to mask the problem with drugs.

(Again, that doesn't necessarily mean I would oppose relaxing the laws on marijuana... just that your 'argument' for doing so is flawed.)

[punked]

Also Mr Canada I did the same search you did in google. The second link. The citation of a 12 year study which proves no linkage to pot being a gateway drug.

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/study-say-m...drug-12116.html

[Mr.Canada]

Also Mr Canada I did the same search you did in google. The second link. The citation of a 12 year study which proves no linkage to pot being a gateway drug.

http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/study-say-m...drug-12116.html

Ask the families who have a son or daughter who dies of drug overdose the first drug they tried. 100% say pot.

[punked]

Ask the families who have a son or daughter who dies of drug overdose the first drug they tried. 100% say pot.

The study says that isn't true. Did you read it? Also I bet 100% of them say alcohol because alcohol is in 90% of the cases used before pot. BE CONSISTENT.

[Wild Bill]

The study says that isn't true. Did you read it? Also I bet 100% of them say alcohol because alcohol is in 90% of the cases used before pot. BE CONSISTENT.

You're wasting your time! There are 'faith' people' and there are 'reason' people. You can't argue against faith with reason. Faith people will not accept any facts or reasoning that deny what they've already chosen to believe.

It's as simple as that.

I've had 'Mr. Canada' on my 'ignore' list practically since he first showed up, for that reason. You might as well argue with a Jehovah Witness at your door. You can predict his stand ahead of time and you won't ever, ever change it!

I'd rather watch paint dry.

[normanchateau]

There is no shortage of evidence to indicate that marijuana acts on the brain's cannabinoid receptors to stimulate appetite.

Furthermore, blocking cannabinoid receptors has been used as a treatment for obesity. Rimonabant is a cannabinoid blocker which has been used in clinical trials to reduce obesity:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/493901

Of course there are fat marijuana users.

[DrGreenthumb]

In direct answer to your question, Dr. Greenthumb, my neighbour uses medicinal pot. (All paperwork in order.)

He's been through every nasty addictive pain-killer in the book, complete with all the side effects.... weaned himself off of LOTS of morphine/day and replaced it with carefully selected varieties of pot, used as necessary. It's not perfect- he has to change varieties from time to time, as he seems to build immunity- but his quality of life and day-to-day function is vastly improved.

He can now walk more than the length of his driveway (so he actually is losing weight); he has about three times as many functional hours in a day as he did before- not retired to bed by 4 or 5 in the afternoon as he was before. I haven't seen him wince, or go white, or suffer hot flashes since he got off that morphine. It truly is a huge difference.... a Godsend.

It is almost universally reported by medical cannabis users that they use LESS prescription drugs after starting treatment with cannabis. I believe again that this is do to the mind/body connection helping your body to best use its resources. Cannabis is a gate closer for most people. People who use cannabis most often report less need for other drugs. Remember that legal /illegal is an imaginary line drawn in the sand that has no scientific bearing on how substances affect our bodies. I bet the fact that your neighbor's pain having less control over his life probably has an effect on his happiness, his ability to excercise, and a positive effect on his or her overall health.

Why do you assume that cannabis is only masking depression rather than treating it?(not directed at you Molly) Are prescription anti-depressants treating the problem because they are legal? If anything the introspection and self acceptance that cannabis promotes would be more of a treatment than pharma products designed to mess with your brains seratonin and dopamine levels.

Most people decide to use or not use cannabis regardless of what the law says, the law does not deter people. It just costs taxpayers a lot of money and limits a person's right to choose the medical treatment they think best suits their individual needs. I know that cannabis has a positive effect on my life. If you don't like it, don't use it- just don't think you have the right to make that choice for me.

[guyser]

The church doors are a gateway to bad priests and it can many times lead to even worse abuse from church officials. I don't see how trading one bad habit(going to church) for another( denying the truth to kids) as being a positive thing.

Hows that sound now?

[guyser]

Ask the families who have a son or daughter who dies of drug overdose the first drug they tried. 100% say pot.

So the families say the first drug they tried was pot.

So what? Apart from the fact that they are lying?

I asked before, which you were hysetrically and childishly upset about , since you have drugs in your house , and administer them to yourself and children, why are you so hypocritical?

By the way.....the report button is right there, follow the arrow.

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Edited January 28, 2009 by guyser

[segnosaur]

Why do you assume that cannabis is only masking depression rather than treating it?(not directed at you Molly)

It depends on the reason for the depression...

If the person is depressed because they have money problems, relationship problems, etc. then using ANY drug (be it marijuana, alcohol, or prescribed meds) is not going to make the underlying problem go away. When the high wears off, the underlying problem will still exist. People having those sorts of problems have to solve the underlying problems.

Smoking pot because your unhappy after getting fired or dumped by your girlfriend won't necessarily help you get your job/girlfriend back.

Are prescription anti-depressants treating the problem because they are legal? If anything the introspection and self acceptance that cannabis promotes would be more of a treatment than pharma products designed to mess with your brains seratonin and dopamine levels.

Ummmm... you DO realize that marijuana itself can affect the brain's chemistry (including affecting the dopamine levels)?

http://www.scienceclarified.com/Io-Ma/Marijuana.html

http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/i/i_03/i_0...r_cannabis.html

And you do understand that at least some of the causes of depression have biological origins that relate to the chemistry of the brain? (And in those cases drugs that affect Seratonin and dopamine levels may be the best solution.)

Most people decide to use or not use cannabis regardless of what the law says, the law does not deter people. It just costs taxpayers a lot of money...

Which is irrelevant when discussing the supposed health benefits of the use of Marijuana (such as weight loss).

... and limits a person's right to choose the medical treatment they think best suits their individual needs.

The danger is people may use marijuana in an attempt to 'self medicate' when they should be seeking real medical help. Your wild claims (e.g. on its effects on cancer, weight loss, etc.) is counterproductive and dangerous.

If we're going to accept marijuana as a real, actual 'treatment', lets do it right by actually doing proper scientific studies, not relying on anecdotes and childish stories about how the mind controls the body's health.

I know that cannabis has a positive effect on my life.

Then, I have to say it, your life must be really sad and pathetic.

Hey, it would probably be beneficial to liberalize our laws regarding marijuana. I just find it sad that people put so much emphasis on whatever chemicals they can dump into their bodies.