A recent study from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis discovered that smoking marijuana in early adulthood can increase by more than 40 percent the risk of developing prediabetes by middle adulthood.
The study concluded that current or former consumers are more likely to develop blood sugar deficit than those who never smoke the drug. The research was published in Diabetologia.
Other studies has prompted that large use of marijuana is linked with higher consumption of calories, but it’s also associated with having lower values for Body Mass Index (BMI), waist circumference, fasting insulin, and insulin resistance, said Mike Bancks, from University of Minnesota and lead author, on their research
Bancks along with his colleagues, investigated three possible scenarios: First, the probability of marijuana use is associated with the development of prediabetes or even type 2 diabetes. Second, overweight problems, based on Body Mass Index (BMI) are factors to consider when the connection between marijuana and diabetes is established. Third, there are race/gender and sex/race relations with prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, and those factors have to be consider.
“We tried to capture marijuana use in young adulthood, when you would assume it would be the highest. And then look for the development of prediabetes or diabetes” told Michael P. Banks to Medscape Medical News.
Finding Answers
The researchers based their analysis on populations data provided by the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study, a research that previously evaluated more than 3,000 individuals who were 32 to 50 years old, over an 18 years period. This research was published in September 13 in Diabetologia.
After the evaluation, the researchers found that most participants who said that were current marijuana smokers, had a 65 percent increased risk of developing prediabetes. While the ones who said that were lifetime users of marijuana but currently aren’t, showed a 49 percent increase.
Unclear Association
The Minnesota team couldn’t determinate if there’s a link between marijuana use and type two diabetes. Bancks empazhided that it is unclear how the drug use could place an individual at increased risk for prediabetes.
The researchers believe that the unclear results of the study could be associated with the fact that the people missing from the test could generally had higher levels of marijuana use and greater potential for development of diabetes “or that marijuana may have a greater effect on blood sugar control in the prediabetic range than for full-blown type two diabetes.” stated the researchers on a press release according to the International Business Times.
Further studies
Still, there are many questions that must be answered, so the researchers concluded that further studies should seek to objectively measure mode and quantity of marijuana use in relation to prospective metabolic health.
In addition, marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States, at 19.8 million past-month users, according to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
Source: Medscape