There had been a cannabinoid antagonist under development several years back as a weight loss drug. IIRC studies showed it averaged causing 15 lbs weight loss, and significantly reduced rates of cigarette and alcohol consumption. But it had side effects - mainly psychiatric I think - sufficient that the FDA didn’t approve it. I don’t recall reading anything about diabetes rates and it. I wonder if there is any valid scientific data on the incidence of type I diabetes in pot smokers?
cannabidiol is anti-inflammatory
Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2012 Feb;219(4):1133-40. doi: 10.1007/s00213-011-2449-3. Epub 2011 Aug 26.
Memory-rescuing effects of cannabidiol in an animal model of cognitive impairment relevant to neurodegenerative disorders.
Fagherazzi EV, Garcia VA, Maurmann N, Bervanger T, Halmenschlager LH, Busato SB, Hallak JE, Zuardi AW, Crippa JA, Schröder N.
Source
Neurobiology and Developmental Biology Laboratory, Faculty of Biosciences, Pontifical Catholic University, 90619-900 Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Abstract
RATIONALE:
Cannabidiol, the main nonpsychotropic constituent of Cannabis sativa, possesses a large number of pharmacological effects including anticonvulsive, sedative, hypnotic, anxiolytic, antipsychotic, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective, as demonstrated in clinical and preclinical studies. Many neurodegenerative disorders involve cognitive deficits, and this has led to interest in whether cannabidiol could be useful in the treatment of memory impairment associated to these diseases.
OBJECTIVES:
We used an animal model of cognitive impairment induced by iron overload in order to test the effects of cannabidiol in memory-impaired rats.
METHODS:
Rats received vehicle or iron at postnatal days 12-14. At the age of 2 months, they received an acute intraperitoneal injection of vehicle or cannabidiol (5.0 or 10.0 mg/kg) immediately after the training session of the novel object recognition task. In order to investigate the effects of chronic cannabidiol, iron-treated rats received daily intraperitoneal injections of cannabidiol for 14 days. Twenty-four hours after the last injection, they were submitted to object recognition training. Retention tests were performed 24 h after training.
RESULTS:
A single acute injection of cannabidiol at the highest dose was able to recover memory in iron-treated rats. Chronic cannabidiol improved recognition memory in iron-treated rats. Acute or chronic cannabidiol does not affect memory in control rats.
CONCLUSIONS:
The present findings provide evidence suggesting the potential use of cannabidiol for the treatment of cognitive decline associated with neurodegenerative disorders. Further studies, including clinical trials, are warranted to determine the usefulness of cannabidiol in humans suffering from neurodegenerative disorders.
PMID:
21870037
Every drug has side effects, and sometimes they don’t show up for years. The body always reacts to what is done to it and tries to maintain the status quo. There may never be a satisfactory drug to treat type 2 diabetes. Just lowering the numbers does not address the underlying disease. It remains to be seen if the hypoglycemic drugs currently in use actually prevent the long term complications associated with the disease, or if they cured the cough but left the pneumonia. :-(
>> “I wonder if there is any valid scientific data on the incidence of type I diabetes in pot smokers?” <<
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Probably not, by observation anyway.
Heavy pot smokers tend to eat far more than the average person, yet are usually unable to put on weight. That would tend to indicate that they have no excess glucose in their bodies, since high glucose levels are the most comon cause of weight gain.