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Dude, pass the chips: Study finds why you get marijuana munchies

Study on marijuana and munchies

Study lead author Tamas Horvath of Yale Univ. said their research found that marijuana, that cannabinoid, binds itself to and activates an area of the brain that houses receptors. Normally when activated receptors spring into action and do their job – which is to suppress appetite.

When you’ve eaten your fill the receptors are triggered and promptly send a signal in the form of neurochemicals to your brain and you get the message that you’ve crammed enough sausage or donuts down your gullet. So you stop eating.

But if it’s marijuana you’ve consumed things get whacky – surprise, surprise – and when the cannabinoids hit your receptors they somehow convince them to do the exact opposite of what they do for a living. “No,” say the cannabinoids, “Don’t tell your brain to stop eating! It’s time to keep eating!! More and more and more!!!”

That’s what their study found: the cannabinoids convince the receptors to leave the neurochemicals where they are and to instead send endorphins to the brain, telling it you are hungry. Full or not, your brain starts screaming at you that you need food.

Pot promotes hunger

Further, your brain is told you need calorie-rich food, hence the salty, sugary stuff that is often the choice of pot users. After all, when’s the last time someone with the munchies had a hankering for some zucchini?

“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,” Professor Horvath said in a press release. “It’s like pressing a car’s brakes and accelerating instead.

“We were surprised to find that the 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.”

The study was published in the science journal Nature and used transgenic mice. Prof. Horvath said more work needs to be done.

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