What is in marijuana that makes you hungry?

Answer 1

One peculiar phenomenon associated with smoking marijuana is increased hunger, often called the "munchies." Research shows that marijuana increases both food enjoyment as well as the number of times a person eats each day. Until recently, the cause of the munchies was a relative mystery. However, a recent studies suggest increase appetite in marijuana users results from molecules in marijuana called endocannabinoids bind with receptors in the brain and activate the hunger response.

This research indicates that endocannabinoids as they enter the hypothalamus of the human brain activate the specific cannabinoid receptors that are responsible for maintaining food intake.

This effect may to be NOT just a result of smoking marijuana — that is a side effect of the experience. Scientists have found that marijuana-like substances naturally produced in the brain stimulate appetite — a finding that not only offers clues to treating obesity but also explains why marijuana smokers get the "munchies."

A recent study suggests that the naturally produced endocannabinoids are part of the brain's complex system for controlling when and how much to eat. Scientists have known for several years about the existence of these brain substances, which are chemically similar to the active ingredient in marijuana but apparently do not make people high. However, their exact role in the brain was unclear. Recently, researchers found that mice that had been genetically altered so they could not respond to endocannabinoids ate less than normal mice did. The mice lacked "receptor" structures that endocannabinoids activate in the brain. When ordinary mice were given a substance that blocked endocannabinoids from acting at these receptors, they ate less than normal as well.

The findings help explain a critical part of why marijuana users get a ravenous hunger — the "munchies" — after smoking pot. Such results also suggest that endocannabinoids are part of the complex neural circuitry controlled by leptin, a hormone that tells the brain when it is time to lose weight. Already, leptin is known to reduce levels of several other appetite-enhancing substances.

It is unknown how endocannabinoids are created by the body, or precisely how they work. But they apparently can operate independently of the level of certain other appetite-triggering substances.

Answer 2

This is a good question - and no one really understands it completely, to be honest with you.

However, it does do this. So, a legal medication has been developed that takes advantage of this - it is called Dronabinol, or Marinol.

It can help stimulate appetite and help prevent nausea, and is often used to help cancer patients who are on chemotherapy.

Again, the mechanism of action is unknown. But there are some possible theories that suggest that marijuana (and the similar medicine) inhibits endorphins in the emetic center of the brain, suppress prostaglandin synthesis, and/or inhibition of medullary activity through some cortical action. (This from Lexi-Comp)

Probably more than you wanted, but suffice it to say that marijuana does something in the brain that stimulates appetite!

Well...there is your answer.

Hope it was helpful!

Answer 3

It's simpply because it has a caffeine! MArijuana is from the leaves of trees, wherein, in short, it's from a living component wherein, in a living component, there's always an oxygen present on it. And whenever life has taken up from a living component, (example, taking of leaves from the tree just like how marijuana is made of) Oxygen will be gone as time pass by and carbon will take place on it. And carbon as an element of our body, is a great decomposer, and one product of carbon are cigarettes, just like marijuna, a large deposit of caffeine is on it that whenever it has been on our body, its tendency is to break up the food we ate as it undergoes chemical reaction unto the body. That's the reason behind it! =)
-joana-

Answer 4

Marijuana is a stimulant

Answer 5

The operative molecules are called endocannabinoids, and they have receptors in the brain that, when activated, increase the appetite of the smoker.

Answer 6

Click on the link below or Ask Frank.!!!
I wouldn't entertain the stuff personally.!!!

Answer 7

I don't smoke or do drugs or drink alcohol.

Answer 8

dronabinol

Answer 9

really??I didn't know that!