science

14890 readers

392 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

<--- rules currently under construction, see current pinned post.

2024-11-11

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

132

Cannabis activates specific hunger neurons in brain (news.wsu.edu)

submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave to c/science

27 comments fedilink hide all child comments

While it is well known that cannabis can cause the munchies, researchers have now revealed a mechanism in the brain that promotes appetite in a set of animal studies at Washington State University.

The discovery, detailed in the journal Scientific Reports, could pave the way for refined therapeutics to treat appetite disorders faced by cancer patients as well as anorexia and potentially obesity.

After exposing mice to vaporized cannabis sativa, researchers used calcium imaging technology, which is similar to a brain MRI, to determine how their brain cells responded. They observed that cannabis activated a set of cells in the hypothalamus when the rodents anticipated and consumed palatable food that were not activated in unexposed mice.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 31 points 10 months ago

A childhood friend of mine suffers from severe anorexia and was prescribed medical Marijuana for it. It did miracles for her. These types of medical discoveries can and will help many people. Let's keep studying it, and ideally fully legalize weed in the meantime.