Have you ever smoked and then wanted to eat a bunch of food? You’re not alone. A lot of times in the cannabis world, people complain about the munchies, and how to avoid them. Why do they occur? Well, you’re about to find out.
Cannabis and Ghrelin
The main reason why cannabis makes you hungry is Ghrelin, which is basically the hormone that starts your appetite. It’s produced near our gut, released in the stomach, and then, they also get further released by the brain, pancreas, and the small intestine. It can also increase the intake of the food, and the fat storage that’s created too. Cannabinoid in cannabis products does cause you to improve the food and smell senses that you have, which also might be why you start to get hungry when you consume cannabis.
A lot of people who do have a bad appetite, or are underweight do struggle to eat a lot, and they can actually help eat more and feel better through the use of this. Both CBD and CBG can stimulate this, along with THC, so it’s good for a lot of people who are worried about this as well.
Some people, however, do worry about this because they may fear gaining weight, which is why some people shy away from strains that make them hungry.
Cannabinoids shut down the PMOCs
There is another reason for why you get hungry after consumption of cannabis. It was found that cannabinoids do shut down the proopiomelanocortin, or the PMOCs.
These are of course the neurons within the hypothalamus that do control how full you are, and when cannabis gets ahold of them, the messages from the pathway get turned off, and they will then eat more till they feel sated.
It was interesting for the researchers that discovered this to find out, as they exposed the mice to different cannabinoids, but when they did, the different effects happened. The PMOCs actually got turned on a whole lot more, and that caused the fullness to be there.
So it can cause different endorphins to get triggered, causing the cravings to be stimulated, and also boosts the appetite. The neurons that usually stop us from different food consumption get changed, and soon, we want to eat a whole lot more. This caused some researchers to be curious, to wonder if cannabis has the power to rewire our brains for a bit, and also, what other neurons get shut down when you expose cannabis to them.
They decided to further study this by artificially turning those PMOCs off when a mouse got full, and they wanted to see if they would overeat, and if that could play a part inhuman cannabis consumption. They exposed these mice to different cannabinoids, and they usually wouldn’t eat a lot. But when they did intensify the PMOCs within the body, they started to gorge themselves on different food, and this brought about the possible chance that there might be brain function changes when you flip these switches on the neurons, and the effects of this.
One thing of note that’s very interesting is that it’s not the first type of study that explores using the machines, and it’s also the first to investigate neuron impact as well, and the team continued to research the PMOCs, and how a person might feel stoned as well.
Another thing that was monitored as well is that cannabis does directly impact the olfactory senses, making foods and smells much more appetizing than usual in a lot of cases.
That means that the concept of the “munchies” is a lot more complicated than just a mere hunger response from different neurons, but also something deeper and more stimulating as well, and as more research comes out, we can uncover a whole lot more too.
Fluoridated Concepts 