7 Reasons To Smoke Marijuana Every Day
1. It Can Give You A Healthier Liver
That is, if you’re addicted to alcohol. A recent study found that alcoholics who smoked weed everyday had healthier livers.
A peer-reviewed paper accepted for publication in Liver International journal looked at inpatient discharge data for 320,000 adult patients with a history of alcohol abuse. When comparing the data, researchers found that the 10% of alcoholics who also used weed exhibited a lower rate of liver disease of any kind. Alcoholics who were habitual users exhibited an even lower incidence of liver disease than occasional users, strongly suggesting that yes, weed can help prevent liver damage from drinking.
2. It Can Help Your Brain
The chemical compounds inherent in cannabis, THC and CBD, help protect our brains. This is particularly true in relation to brain injury.
But, according to The Fresh Toast‘s Trey Reckling:
It’s not just about traumatic brain injury. The reputable Salk Institute has contributed to a growing body of research that shows that low doses of THC reduce the plaque forming proteins associated with Alzheimer’s Disease. It effectively reduces inflammation and helps prevent neural cell death, preserving the brain’s ability to be “plastic.”
In addition to holding promise for people suffering from traumatic brain injury and early onset dementia, this function of cannabis is also of great interest to people with post traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. Cannabis is believed to be effective for people with PTSD because neuroplasticity helps their brain to ‘forget’ the trauma more than before and allows the brain to rewire connections of learned fear, reducing hyper vigilance, nightmares and night terrors.
3. It Can Treat Migraines
A study from the University of Colorado, published in the January issue of Parmacotherapy, showed that the frequency of migraines in patients who used cannabis dropped from 10.4 per month to 4.6—a number that’s both statistically and clinically significant.
According to TFT‘s Richard Faulk, “Secondary findings showed that different cannabis delivery routes had different strengths: Smoked marijuana, which hits the bloodstream almost instantly, was best for treating acute migraines. On the other hand, edibles, which take much longer to metabolize, helped prevent headaches.”
4. It Can Aid In Weight Loss
Cannabis helps the body regulate insulin production more efficiently. The TFT‘s cannabis editor, Al Olson, credits marijuana with helping him shed 50 pounds in 2016.
Says Olson:
Essentially what may be happening is this: Marijuana will generally promote appetite and binge eating when first using marijuana. Eventually, it has the opposite effect and the cannabinoid receptors in your brain become desensitized or trained.
He says while marijuana assists in weight loss, it’s not going to help you lose weight on its own. “You seriously need to adopt a healthier lifestyle and be mindful of what you are putting in your body.”
5. Weed Helps Promote Creativity
People credit smoking weed with getting their creative juices flowing, and it’s not just talk. According to TFT’s Al Olson, the link between marijuana and creativity is legit. He points to a 2010 study that showed THC’s ability to increase “hyper-priming.”
Put simply, hyper-priming is what occurs when your brain makes a connection between two items that are seemingly unrelated. When under the influence of THC, most people are capable of making these connections faster than those not under the influence. In other words, cannabis produces psychotomimetic symptoms, which leads to connecting disparate concepts, the type of divergent thinking that is considered primary to creative thinking.
6. It Will Help You Sleep
Marijuana has been proven time and again as a sleep aid. But how does it work, exactly? As TFT‘s Al Olson reports, as more and more states move to legalize cannabis, more of us are looking at the herb as an alternative to pharmaceuticals. Studies have shown that cannabis can improve the duration and quality of sleep. A 1973 study suggests that THC reduces the amount of time it takes those with insomnia to fall asleep. Another study found that those that regularly used THC fell asleep faster.
7. Lighting Up Can Lower Your Risk Of Diabetes
A study from SUNY Buffalo, shows that adult marijuana users in the US consume on average more soda, more alcohol—particularly beer—more salt, pork, cheese, and salty snacks, and they eat less fruit than nonusers. And yet, they are skinnier.
For those of us who try to lead a healthy lifestyle, eat well, and limit the amount of substances we abuse, the cruel fact seems to be that habitual marijuana users take in more calories and yet are less inclined toward obesity and diabetes. Of course, this was not a controlled study, so the pot might be a deceptive correlation. Maybe some overlooked factor is actually key—like maybe all the cannabis users also do yoga or bike to work or have tapeworms.