Marijuana Could Help Treat Diabetes

In research dubbed "remarkable" by an accompanying editorialist, US doctors describe how current users of marijuana appear to have better blood glucose control than never or former users.

Existing cannabis smokers had lower levels of fasting insulin and were less likely to be insulin resistant than nonusers; this finding remained true even when patients with diabetes were excluded in this large sample from the National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) between 2005 and 2010.

Marijuana users also had smaller waist circumferences and higher levels of HDL cholesterol than never users, Elizabeth A. Penner, from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, Omaha, and colleagues report in their article published online May 16 in the American Journal of Medicine.

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