Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jul 2015
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Copyright: 2015 Alaska Dispatch Publishing
Contact:  http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14
Author: Yereth Rosen

STUDY FROM ARCTIC CANADA FINDS CANNABIS USERS LESS OBESE AND LESS AT 
RISK FOR DIABETES

Forget the Funyuns and drop the Doritos. New research out of Arctic 
Canada suggests that marijuana users, for some yet-to-be-understood 
reason, are slimmer and less at risk for diabetes than non-users.

A study by Quebec researchers found that among Inuit residents of 
Nunavik, the province's northernmost region, use of cannabis was 
correlated with lower body-mass-index measurements, lower body-fat 
percentages and less insulin resistance.

Body-mass index, or BMI, and body-fat percentages are used to 
determine obesity or overweight conditions; insulin resistance, a 
condition in which the body fails to respond properly to the hormone 
insulin, is a precursor of Type 2 diabetes and is associated with 
other poor health conditions.

The study was published in the journal Obesity; results were 
presented last month at a circumpolar health conference in Finland. 
The study analyzed health data for 786 adults collected in the 
Nunavik Inuit Health Survey of 2004, making it one of the rare 
examinations of the subject in a North American aboriginal 
population. It included statistical controls for age, gender and 
other factors. In all, 57.4 percent of the survey subjects identified 
themselves as cannabis users. Those saying they use cannabis had an 
average BMI of 26.8, compared to an index of 28.6 for non-users; 
cannabis users had an average 25 percent body-fat reading, compared 
to an average 28 percent for non-users, according to the study.

People with BMI readings of 25 to 30 are generally considered 
overweight, and BMI readings above 30 are indicative of obesity.

The study results were a little surprising, said co-author Michel 
Lucas, an epidemiologist at CHU de Quebec Research Center and 
Montreal's Laval University. CHU is the French acronym for Centre 
hospitalier de l'Universite.

"We expected some result on BMI or fat or insulin resistance," Lucas 
said. "We didn't know which one was going to be most important."

Past research, such as a recent French study of patients with HIV or 
hepatitis C infection, and a study published in 2013 in the American 
Journal of Medicine that evaluated health data collected from 2005 to 
2010, has found a correlation between cannabis use and lowered 
insulin-resistance rates. Those studies added to other emerging 
evidence that cannabis, or components of it, could prove useful for 
treating or preventing diabetes. A 2009 Italian study, for example, 
suggested that cannabis is effective at treating diabetes-related 
pain, and a 2006 study in Israel found that components of cannabis 
reduced the incidence of diabetes in mice.

The Nunavik study results were subtly different. The study found 
that, according to biomarker evidence, insulin resistance was only a 
secondary result of cannabis use. The use of cannabis itself did not 
change the way people's bodies responded to insulin, but the lower 
BMI in the cannabis-user group led to lower rates of insulin 
resistance in that group, the study found.

Overall, the findings of the Nunavik study run contrary to 
stereotypes about marijuana smokers binging on fattening junk food, 
Lucas acknowledged. The remoteness of the region in question might 
have something to do with that, he said.

"I don't know if the 'munchies' that people are having may be kind of 
different there in these types of populations," he said.

People in Nunavik, like those elsewhere in the Arctic, struggle with 
food insecurity, a subject he has studied, he said. It could be that 
marijuana is used as a "distraction" when preferred food is not 
available, he said.

What was not surprising, Lucas said, was the high rate of admitted 
cannabis use in the population. Consumer goods are expensive in 
Nunavik, largely because of the high costs of shipping items to such 
a remote place, and marijuana is lighter than alcohol or other 
consumables, he said.

Recreational use of marijuana is illegal in Canada - unlike in Alaska 
- -- but the Nunavik residents in the study were not reluctant to talk 
about it, he said.

"There's no shame in smoking marijuana because it's so prevalent," he 
said. That is especially the case among the younger residents, who 
are more likely to use marijuana, he said.

Lucas said he and his colleagues hope to continue examining the 
subject in finer detail, with more information about frequency of 
cannabis use and a more specialized biomarker to revisit findings 
about insulin resistance.

The study does not endorse marijuana smoking as a wellness-promoting 
practice, despite the apparent correlation with lower BMI and insulin 
resistance.

"Smoking substances has a detrimental effect on your health," Lucas said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom