News » Pilot Study On Cannabis’ Effects on Appetite in HIV Patients Paves the Way

November 17, 2011 by Aaron Turpen

 32 shares

 9 reddits

 1 tweet

 0 stumbles

A new study shows that smoking cannabis increases production levels of known appetite hormones in HIV-infected adult men. The study, now an accepted manuscript to be published in the journal Brain Research, was pre-published online on November 7.

Headed by researchers at the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC), the Department of Pediatrics, and the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of California, San Diego, the pilot study was completed in July of this year. It was a placebo-controlled trial of smoked medical cannabis to see its direct relation to appetite hormone changes. It was conducted in concert with a THC study for pain reduction.

The double-blind cross-over study exposed subjects to active cannabis and a placebo. It showed that cannabis users had significant increase in plasma levels of ghrelin and leptin (appetite hormones) and decreases in Peptide YY but no change in insulin.

This shows that modeulation of appetite hormones through endogenous cannabinoid receptors is real and independent of glucose metabolism. In other words: when you smoke pot, you get hungry but don’t have the usual hunger trigger of lower insulin levels. Therefore, HIV and other patients with appetite problems may benefit from cannabis use.

The pilot study is a preliminary look at this interaction and paves the way for more in-depth studies along the same vein. One thing researchers would like to see is a measure of the amount of Delta-9 THC required to bring about changes in order to facilitate the possibility of controlled dosing.

Tags: appetite, hiv, marijuana, medical, MMJ, science, Study, THC